I am the 12887 too. Luckily applied at the place in emergency mode and was perfect fit. Negotiated +6%. Yeah! In the second year it was reduced by 3% coupling my bonus to unachievable goals. As someone wrote on HN: it is not their first rodeo. HR knows how to attract and get to the right salary level afterwards. What can I do? Swallowing is the only way. There are no job ads in my area.
> HR knows how to attract and get to the right salary level afterwards.
This has to be the key point. They do this all the time as part of their job. You do it every few years, or maybe every decade. Of course they are better at it.
Yes. I was actually offered more vacation time because the company had to pay the recruiter a percentage of my first-year salary, but they didn't have to pay anything if they made increased PTO part of my compensation package. So, we ended up with the salary increase I asked for, with 3 weeks of it paid for by extra vacation.
I expect this is one where if you're coming from an Etsy or Google that gives 5 weeks after 5 years of tenure you could negotiate for preservation of that perk, but it seems like it could be challenging depending on your batna (see definition elsewhere in comments)
