A former Facebook exec wants candidates to negotiate their job offers

It’s impressive. Libby Leffler
pictured.
Steve
Maller

• Libby Leffler, a former Facebook executive and Google
  employee, is now the vice president of membership at
  SoFi.
• Leffler said she always expects job candidates to
  negotiate their job offer because it shows how they’ll behave
  once they get hired.
• She added that you can negotiate other pieces of the
  offer besides salary, like equity or vacation time.

Negotiating a job offer is a notoriously harrowing process,
especially if you’ve never done it before and assume the world
will explode if you request a dollar more.

But there are some good reasons to do it anyway — not least among
them that if you don’t negotiate your starting salary,
you could
lose out on $1 million over the course of your lifetime.

Plus, you might impress your prospective employer with your
initiative.

At least, that’s true if you’re going to work for Libby Leffler.
Leffler is the vice president of membership at personal finance
company SoFi;
she previously worked at Google and Facebook. Leffler told
Business Insider, “I am always expecting people that I hire on my
team to negotiate their job offer.”

The reason why is simple: It indicates how the candidate will
behave after they’ve been hired.

Leffler said, “I know when they’re in their roles for me, they’re
going to negotiate whatever it might be. They’re going to work
with a partner to get something done; they’re going to work with
the sales team to make something happen; they’re going to be able
to achieve a compromise with a cross-functional team so that we
can move a project forward.”

That said, no one will be impressed by someone who throws out a
ludicrously large number.

As Business Insider’s
Áine Cain reported, it’s crucial to do your research before
negotiating salary. You can use sites such as Glassdoor, PayScale, and Salary.com. to figure out the
standard salary for the role you’re interested in.

If this is your first job, you can also try asking people who
worked entry-level positions at the company what their starting
salary was, Cain reported.

Leffler noted that negotiating your salary doesn’t necessarily
mean asking for more cash. “It can be any component of
compensation that might be important to you,” she said, such as
flexible hours, vacation time, or equity in the company.

Ultimately, a candidate’s willingness to put themselves out there
and negotiate any piece of a job offer reveals a lot about their
potential work performance.

Leffler said, “I want to find the people that are motivated, that
are considering this to be a great career opportunity and really
want to find a way to make this work for them. Those people will
be the ones who feel most satisfied in their roles.”