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12You Must Negotiate

“There are only two situations in life where you can make $10,000 in 10 minutes simply by asking for it. One of them is when you're robbing a bank. The other is when you're negotiating a job offer. I know you hate negotiating because everybody is getting along and being nice, and you don't want to rock the boat. But trust me and be the bad guy for just a few minutes. It's the fastest $10,000 you'll ever make in your life without risking going to jail.”

—Recruiter who has definitely considered robbing a bank

Your Brain Is Stupid

Congratulations! You now have an offer in hand. Big decision time. How much are you willing to pay to avoid having a single conversation about salary before you start?

1. $5,000?
2. $7,500?
3. $15,000?
4. $20,000?

Does that seem like a silly question? Do the numbers in options A through D seem ludicrous?

Well, they're not. In a 2019 survey of more than 50,000 job seekers on ZipRecruiter, 64% reported accepting the first offer they received, which means they chose one of the preceding answers.

The median salary in America is $56,000, and the average person holds a job for four years.¹ Negotiating for just 5% more during the initial offer is an additional $2,800 per year. That’s almost $11,000 more over the lifetime of the job and that’s without assuming you get annual raises!²

I get it. For most people, negotiating is painful. It's not your fault. It's how your brain is wired. We all suffer from what's known in behavioral economics ...