I've found that if you are transparent as recruiters and treat them as partners , sharing the offers you've gotten at other companies, they will reciprocate. At one of the Big Tech companies where I interviewed and they ultimately decided not to give me an offer (it was a near thing and I had other offers), the recruiter gave me tips about what other companies she was aware of that were paying well in my area (that I wasn't aware of).
Your relationship with recruiters is more complicated and nuanced than the game-theory relationship would lead you to be believe. Maybe I could have gotten slightly better offers if I had used classic hardball negotiating tactics, but from colleagues, other recruiters, and other data sources, it looks like being transparent resulted in me getting top-of-market offers for my job role at the companies where I was interviewing and got offers.
My philosophy is to interact with everyone as if I'm planning to join their team from the beginning, almost as if I'm already a team member. That entails among other things that if you're going to join someone's team then you'll interact with them with transparency and vice versa.
During my recent round of interviews, I shared the ballpark details about all the offers I got and all the companies I was interviewing with with every company I was working with, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Recruiters would give me tips like "Competitor X's offer is likely to offer the highest compensation, but here are some reasons you should consider us", or "Offer Y from <other company> is a very good offer", all from recruiters at other companies. If I had been cagey I don't think I would have built relationships with recruiters where they'd share tips like that with me.
I think a no-bullshit approach is refreshing and worth considering. The trick is being high demand as talent -- having multiple offers and being a desirable candidate for employers to hire.
The recruiters that I recently worked with at all the big tech companies, pre-IPO tech companies, and startups were all very professional and I think I only benefited from treating them as partners in the profess of finding the best next job -- because the company and employee are looking for a mutual fit, after all. This resulted in me having a number of great offers (a few where I don't have details yet) that I'm currently in the process of deciding between.
There might be really good negotiators who could do even better, but simply showing that you're high demand in the market was enough for me to get good offers from the companies I was working with who made them.
I've had it happen multiple times where I tell a recruiter I'm looking for X but will go as low as Y, they simply told the company Y so it'd be easier to close the deal. Even if I specifically ask them not to say Y.
Your relationship with recruiters is more complicated and nuanced than the game-theory relationship would lead you to be believe. Maybe I could have gotten slightly better offers if I had used classic hardball negotiating tactics, but from colleagues, other recruiters, and other data sources, it looks like being transparent resulted in me getting top-of-market offers for my job role at the companies where I was interviewing and got offers.
My philosophy is to interact with everyone as if I'm planning to join their team from the beginning, almost as if I'm already a team member. That entails among other things that if you're going to join someone's team then you'll interact with them with transparency and vice versa.
During my recent round of interviews, I shared the ballpark details about all the offers I got and all the companies I was interviewing with with every company I was working with, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Recruiters would give me tips like "Competitor X's offer is likely to offer the highest compensation, but here are some reasons you should consider us", or "Offer Y from <other company> is a very good offer", all from recruiters at other companies. If I had been cagey I don't think I would have built relationships with recruiters where they'd share tips like that with me.
I think a no-bullshit approach is refreshing and worth considering. The trick is being high demand as talent -- having multiple offers and being a desirable candidate for employers to hire.
The recruiters that I recently worked with at all the big tech companies, pre-IPO tech companies, and startups were all very professional and I think I only benefited from treating them as partners in the profess of finding the best next job -- because the company and employee are looking for a mutual fit, after all. This resulted in me having a number of great offers (a few where I don't have details yet) that I'm currently in the process of deciding between.
There might be really good negotiators who could do even better, but simply showing that you're high demand in the market was enough for me to get good offers from the companies I was working with who made them.