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I am working as a engineer for a few years at a small business, the business was recently sold to a large corporation. This corporation made it clear from the beginning that they only had plans to keep key employees, these employees would be made an offer.

From the team I worked on, I was the only one selected along with one other engineer from another team. We were told in the offer letters, that there will be no sign on bonus, no raise for the first year, and our salary's are going to stay the same from as they were from the previous company.

I have not received a raise in the past two years, although this is no fault of the new company, this would now make it 3 years in total.

Knowing how the job market is for engineers recently, makes me want to accept the offer for security, yet knowing that I am underpaid in the market, I know I can achieve more pay and makes me feel I should counter the current offer to ask for more compensation, although I do know by doing so can cause HR to rescind the offer altogether.

Just feel that since this companies engineering team is a lot busier than my current situation, makes me feel I should get compensated.

Any HR / Recruiters can give there ideas on how to go about this, possible turn outs?

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  • Is it considered a raise? when I am considered a new employee when accepting their offer? sounds more as just pre employment negotiation. it helps to have basic reading comprehension.
    – user99010
    Commented May 18, 2023 at 15:32
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    Think hard about why only ONE person from each team is selected. They're there for knowledge transfer, not for retention.
    – Nelson
    Commented May 19, 2023 at 1:17
  • You've edited this down to the point where it isn't at all clear what you are proposing to counter. Some of the existing answers still provide context, but as it stands I have to vote to close
    – keshlam
    Commented Dec 21, 2023 at 19:24
  • What do you lose if you accept the offer? A redundancy payment? Would you be committed for a minimum term?
    – thelem
    Commented Dec 23, 2023 at 10:41
  • Being completely upfront about no bonuses, no raises, says one of two things - that they have no desire to keep you, but they need enough people to stay on while they absorb your business, OR their pay structure is significantly worse than your current one and want to keep your salary on hold until you fit into the relevant pay band. Do you have any more context eg. similar tech stack, complementary or competing products...?
    – Fiora the Ferret
    Commented Dec 23, 2023 at 16:56

3 Answers 3

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Most of the people you know aren't getting a job in the acquiring company.

In my experience a significant number of people that join the new company are gone within a year. They leave as soon as they get a good offer. They used the acquiring company as a bridge that keeps their income stream going until they find a better job. In situation I saw recently 25% of the employees left within a month of joining the acquiring company.

The acquiring company should know this. They might even plan for this. They want to get as much knowledge from you until you quit.

In these situations I see the employee with the offer not wanting to anything to jeopardize the offer. This is true even when the offer represents a pay cut.

I would start looking even knowing there isn't a short deadline. I would continue to look even after joining the acquiring company.

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  • Yes brush up the resume today, have it online by tomorrow and your goal should be to leave prior to your first paycheck with the new company for a raise.
    – Pete B.
    Commented May 22, 2023 at 12:57
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Countering here seems dangerous to me - yes they chose you instead of others on your team, but it would be very easy to rescind your offer and give it to someone else on your team instead. I would recommend taking the job for job security's sake, and start looking for another opportunity that will compensate you fairly. If you absolutely love this job and want to stay, consider talking to HR about the planned roadmap for you there. Stuff like if there will be yearly raises after the first, if the median salary for your position at this company matches your current salary, and what kind of training/education they provide can tell you if this new job will end up as a just compensation for you or if you will be strung along and underpaid until you leave.

You did ask for HR/recruiters opinion so FYI I am neither of those.

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  • 5
    HR is NOT your friend, especially in a case like this ...
    – Sharpenologist
    Commented May 18, 2023 at 18:53
  • I know that, HR is never a friend.
    – user99010
    Commented May 18, 2023 at 23:54
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They have other things to worry about.

Countering their offer will place you in the "problem employee" category and there is a good chance they would retract the offer. They are worried about bigger things than retention, they have made this clear. Their statement about wages are to minimize the trouble of managing new employees.

Keep your head down and look for other work if you think you are being underpaid.

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