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I received an offer last Friday, but I found out that they wanted a response three days later (today).

After speaking to the HR person, I was able to push it to the end of the week. It's not as long as I'd hoped, since I'm wrapping up interviews with another company, but it's better than nothing.

Although the offered salary is decent, I'd planned on negotiating for a bit more---but due me pushing the response date, I'm not sure if I'd still be able to without coming across as being too "demanding". As in, I'm concerned that if I request this second thing (the first thing being the date), they'd think I was asking for too much. This might seem like a weird mindset, but I've never negotiated salary before nor do I want this offer to slip through my fingers because of something that I do or say.

Any thoughts on this one?

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    Would you please clarify "the exploding offer issue" ? Please elaborate on what that means.
    – Job_September_2020
    Jun 21, 2021 at 21:21
  • Long story short, an exploding offer means that you have a very short window (usually days) in which to accept a job offer, or else they'll ask the next candidate.
    – Leopold
    Jun 21, 2021 at 21:23
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    @Leopold, An offer letter doesn't count. Ask to see the final contract before you accept anything. They'll probably overnight it to you, but still, you don't want to accept just an "offer". and if the contract refers to the employee manual, ask to see that as well. Anyway, what kind of job is this?
    – Stephan Branczyk
    Jun 21, 2021 at 22:27
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    @Leopold, It's kind of late now, but the next time you get an exploding offer. This is the way you should handle it. freecodecamp.org/news/…
    – Stephan Branczyk
    Jun 21, 2021 at 22:31
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    My anecdotal experience says: the shorter the decision time the worse the company is. In retrospective I'm sad that there was nobody telling me to not accept it when I was a beginner. Either the offer is good enough that you accept it immediately or they are faking it.
    – Chris
    Jun 22, 2021 at 6:41

3 Answers 3

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How is asking for the salary you want being "too demanding"? How is asking for a reasonable timeframe to consider their offer "too demanding"?

Are they friends of yours that you're afraid to inconvenience? Do you owe them a favor of some kind? Are you otherwise obligated to them in some manner?

The working world isn't for the meek nor the shy. Ask for what you want. Negotiate for the salary you want. Tell them you need a reasonable amount of time to consider their offer. If they balk, then walk away.

You don't owe any potential employer anything other than your professional courtesy. You are not obligated or beholden to them. They hold no power nor authority over you. You are in control of your career choices. If you want it, ask for it. There's no such thing as "too demanding". Nothing you've stated is unreasonable on your part.

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    But at the same time, the employer has no obligation to bend to the wishes of one candidate. If they decide that the candidate is too slow in making a decision, or is asking for too much money, they can always offer the job to the next candidate on their list.
    – Simon B
    Jun 22, 2021 at 13:48
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The simple answer is "go ahead."

Just reply with the eight words "thanks, I'm looking for a salary of $abc,000."

The people you're dealing with are professional negotiators. The only thing they do all day is negotiate salaries. They're waiting for you to state a figure.

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the time issue isn't really significant. A lot of recruiters do this to try and push you into accepting something quick, but if you need 3,4,5 days etc, it should be fine.

At many corporations, jobs sit empty for MONTHS. A good candidate is worth waiting for the accept, especially if they made you an offer.

On the salary bit - This happens a lot. What you should know, is that when you go back with the salary bit, the recruiter you're talking to will tell you if what you're asking for is not possible.

If it's a 3rd party recruiter doing the hiring and communication, they may also lie and say that it's not possible, when they just want to close a deal quickly.

You can see an example of this when you talk to some recruiters, you throw out a salary expectation and they seem to always magically push back to about $5/hr short of it, no matter what the amount is ;) (in the US, anecdotally, that's been my experience with recruiters with a certain accent, but i don't know why)

I would say, hey I was looking for closer to this number. Can you ask the hiring manager if they can come up to this?

The recruiter isn't going to want to blow a deal, especially if it's not a huge sum of money. In the end, 5k-10k is a rounding error in a departments budget; there are some corps that have set caps on pay, or that won't negotiate as a way of keeping 'equality' and ensuring people in a given role are near the same paygrades, but if it's an amount that's commonly achieved for your role or industry you should ask.

Just try to get everything you are asking for, together in one lump sum push, you don't want to go changing the requirements you have after you've stated them.

If you're asking for too much, they will tell you they can't come that far up.

Don't phrase it too strongly - if you say "I can't do this unless I get $10k more", it will sound weird as if you're saying no, when they realise they can't do it. So maybe "I was hoping / expecting to receive an offer closer to X".

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