Roundtable Video
Should Job Seekers Reduce Compensation Expectations?
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Transcript
Krissy Manzano: Hello and welcome to the Blueprint Round Table. I’m your host today, Krissy Manzano. And I have Emily Bell and Matt Lewers with me. And today’s topic is kind of centered around the economy and things going on, and brings a question that we hear a lot from our candidates of, should I lower my comp expectations in a challenging economic market?
Krissy Manzano: So Emily, I know this is something that you brought up, but curious to hear your thoughts on this.
Emily Bell: Yeah. So overall I think it’s important for candidates to consider very carefully if they are willing to accept a lower than their current kind of comp expectations. The reason being is that it could have financial implications, right? It could have long term career implications. I think right now with last year being such a kind of record setting uptick and comp based off of kind of what we were seeing.
Emily Bell: I think that the instinct right now with the slower economy is to right size that, but I think that employers and candidates should be weary to do that, or at least, you know, pause because of the financial implications, the long-term career implications. And then also the fact that over the course of the last year and a half, two years, individuals have built livelihoods around their existing comp expectations.
Emily Bell: So I think that it’s beyond just what someone thinks that they’re worth. I mean, that’s a very important factor in the overall equation. But you have to realize. From a, it’s a balance, right? An employer has to be competitive with the market. If an employer is going to try to lead right-sizing what they think is an over-inflated market, they run the risk of not attracting top talent.
Emily Bell: And it’s not as simple as top talent, you know, wanting to find a job. A lot of people who are laid off were given severance packages, so they’re not in a huge rush to shift to the next move as they shouldn’t be, right? They should be really careful on how they select their next company. So I think that employers really need to be mindful of just the overall perception of, you know, what they’re willing to pay for top talent.
Emily Bell: It should be the very same as it was this time last year. It’s more important than ever to make sure that you’re paying people what they’re worth to come in and do the job because you want the top of the market talent and those people are worth, those wages. And I think on the flip side, from the candidate perspective, know your worth.
Emily Bell: You know, outside of building a livelihood around what you were making you know, making sure that you’re strategically aligning and balancing, right. You don’t wanna over index on a base that’s like maybe five, 10 K off from your current when your OTE could round out, right? Like that’s kind of, you know, within range.
Emily Bell: But if it’s like 20, 30 K off and you know that it’s not fair for what is the current rate in the market, I think it’s something to consider, you know, so my short answer to a very long-winded initial review would be, no, I don’t think that people should lower their expectations. I think that it drives more than just individual financial security.
Emily Bell: It will re drive and kickstart the economy so long as we all still have this income to keep funneling back into it.
Emily Bell: Matt, curious for what your thoughts are.
Matt Lewers: Yeah, I agree. Short answer, no, I don’t think candidates should be reducing their comp expectations. I align with your assessment on we’re not gonna see comp continue to creep up as quickly as we did the last couple years. I think what we’re seeing is ranges or narrowing a little bit where it used to be maybe 180 to 240 for a low end enterprise AE roll.
Matt Lewers: It’s probably closer to 180 to 210. Right. So they’re bringing those in slightly from what we’re seeing. And then the other thing is, I think there’s a lot of organizations that are much more inclined today to stick to their budget, which means you’re not gonna be able to negotiate or hassle your comp up higher than what is advertised or what’s offered. Even if your offer is on the low end of a range that was advertised, where in the past it was, well, hey, you’re offering 200, I’ll move 220 and they say, yeah, sure, let’s, if it’s the guy or the gal, let’s bring him in. Let’s go. Now many clients and many organizations out there are saying no.
Matt Lewers: The high end is all that we can afford from a budget standpoint. If we go over it here, it’s really gonna reduce from something else. So we’re seeing a, I might we’re seeing less fluctuation there to go over, over ranges. I, you know, that doesn’t change the fact that candidates should also be considering the holistic comp package.
Matt Lewers: What we have not seen, at least from our limited scope, right, is we’re not seeing clients reduce the equity offering. We’re not seeing clients pair back their health benefits or unrolled 401k matches, all of those things, for the most part seem to be in place and remain consistent. So it’s always important to take those into consideration when you’re looking at comp.
Matt Lewers: You may be a little disappointed by some OTE here, but if you’re even looking at the job, there’s gotta be a reason why you must be interested. Right. So just go with the expectation that whatever is told to your advertised is where you would likely end up and can’t lose.
Emily Bell: Yeah, one, one thing I’ll add to that just before, and I’ll kick it to you, Christy, I’m curious to get your thoughts, would be outside of, you know, what we’ve touched on currently it, it does potentially open up. You know, perpetuating wage gaps, right? So I think the individuals that are impacted by it the most would be those that are typically impacted naturally by the existing wage disparity that is in current circulation within the market.
Emily Bell: So I think it’s just being extremely cognizant of that. As an individual, especially if you kind of fall within that category of, you know, definitely looking at it from a long-term play perspective of not wanting to perpetuate kind of that underlying challenge that’s present in the market, whether it’s a up or down economy.
Emily Bell: Krissy, what do you think?
Krissy Manzano: So I agree for the most part, and maybe my area that’s different isn’t necessarily where I disagree, but might be a different point of view. So I think that. As you know, for business in general as a whole, regardless of industry, whether you’re in consulting or tech or whatever, right? There is an element to where, you know, your comp expectations shouldn’t necessarily change because of the market.
Krissy Manzano: ‘Cause one companies are still hiring like it,
Emily Bell: Yeah.
Krissy Manzano: we know this. Just being, so, not necessarily from our clients, but just from being so involved in the recruiting side and working with other recruiting firms and having these conversations where a lot of companies that have done layoffs are also still hiring.
Krissy Manzano: It’s just not as obvious. Right. And so, the layoff doesn’t mean that all of a sudden, you know, now they just can only afford, you know, pennies and they were paying dollars. So it’s a different, you know, way to kind of look at that. Right. But when it comes to SaaS. In the SaaS industry in particular, things are changing.
Krissy Manzano: And I don’t think, I think for the better, but it was an industry fueled by millions and billions of dollars of cash that was just spent irresponsibly. And so in 2022, and even in 2021 we never saw this, because I think we encourage our clients not to do this, but you saw all these stories.
Krissy Manzano: Like I saw an AE who got a hundred K over ask. Right? And that’s an example of just really irresponsible spend, right? And so I think if candidates experience that and they have that, I would say your expectations are out of line because that was never realistic to begin with. That’s awesome that you got that.
Krissy Manzano: But that’s not like, that’s great if you got a $500,000 salary as an AE, that’s not realistic. It is not anymore, and it wasn’t realistic before. It just was, you know, during a heightened time. So making sure that you’re going into what the market really is, you know, fairly before that peak and after that peak.
Krissy Manzano: But I think SaaS is gonna stop spending that way. That I think we’ve all kind of grown up in. There’s still a lot of money to be had. But I think folks that are in the SaaaS industry in particular, like it just pays so much more than a lot of industries, right? Because of the VC money that was in it in backing.
Krissy Manzano: So I think that’s an element that will change a little bit, where they’re being more stringent on how they hire. And you know what? They pay for those hires and that’s a good thing for responsible growth. But responsible growth is actually not just a saying anymore.
Krissy Manzano: It’s something that’s being accounted for, for now. And then I think on the company side, you know, kind of going into that outside of just the candidate they have.. If you are creating comp that because you think you have the upper hand, you’re just making that more difficult. It should always be aligned to what the market is in great economic situations and bad.
Krissy Manzano: And I think we saw that where, you know, no one on, when we were working with clients ever had to go above market average because of the whole package. To your point, Lewers, right? Like
Emily Bell: Yeah.
Krissy Manzano: is one data point. It shouldn’t be the only data point. There is a. A lot of different things that can affect your financial income and your longevity at a company.
Krissy Manzano: Right. And, you know, getting a huge salary and only being able to be there for six months and then having to start over somewhere else is actually, could put you further in the hole than if you went somewhere that had that fair equal salary and going through that. So that was just kind of my, a little bit of a different take in the sense of just kind of where the industries are changing.
Krissy Manzano: But I do think that companies need to be mindful that. There’s it’s still really hard to hire, like the labor market is still strong, which I think is where it’s so confusing for a lot of companies in this time of, I’m seeing all these layoffs I’m hearing and feeling like the economy. It isn’t great with inflation, but why is it so hard to hire?
Krissy Manzano: Which you know, we just talked about it in another round table, right? And can go on for maybe another topic. But anyways, that’s my take on it. So,
Emily Bell: No, it’s good. I mean, I think that my biggest thing is. And it’s not always the strategy, right? It’s not every company, but there are those out there, right? That are using this as an opportunity to get top talent for a discount, really. And that I think is the wrong way to look at it, right?
Emily Bell: Like if you really did have over-inflated comp bands strategically makes sense to mitigate that capital spend when you don’t need to, right? Like why throw the cash out the door? But if it was already fair and it’s already competitive, even if it was increased, I would encourage companies to maintain that line, hold that line, candidates hold that expectation.
Emily Bell: The economy will recover and it will recover quicker when you have more working professionals that are able to spend that livable wage within the market. So high level, even outside of tech, I think it’s really important for people to just, how to hold the existing standard and kind of wait for the storm to pass.
Krissy Manzano: I totally agree. It was shortsighted in 2022 to overpay and it’s shortsighted in 2023 to underpay. Don’t be shortsighted, be
Emily Bell: Very well put.
Krissy Manzano: All right, you all. That’s all the time we have today. Until next time, we’ll see you later. Bye.
Emily Bell: Bye guys.
Show Summary
In this episode, we delve into the intricacies of compensation negotiation, exploring the factors that shape job seekers’ outlooks.
Through candid discussions, expert insights, and real-world examples, we unravel the ever-changing job market landscape. From economic trends to global events, join us as we analyze the forces at play and provide practical strategies to help job seekers confidently navigate compensation negotiations.
Your Title Goes Here
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.
Transcript
Krissy Manzano: Hello and welcome to the Blueprint Round Table. I’m your host today, Krissy Manzano. And I have Emily Bell and Matt Lewers with me. And today’s topic is kind of centered around the economy and things going on, and brings a question that we hear a lot from our candidates of, should I lower my comp expectations in a challenging economic market?
Krissy Manzano: So Emily, I know this is something that you brought up, but curious to hear your thoughts on this.
Emily Bell: Yeah. So overall I think it’s important for candidates to consider very carefully if they are willing to accept a lower than their current kind of comp expectations. The reason being is that it could have financial implications, right? It could have long term career implications. I think right now with last year being such a kind of record setting uptick and comp based off of kind of what we were seeing.
Emily Bell: I think that the instinct right now with the slower economy is to right size that, but I think that employers and candidates should be weary to do that, or at least, you know, pause because of the financial implications, the long-term career implications. And then also the fact that over the course of the last year and a half, two years, individuals have built livelihoods around their existing comp expectations.
Emily Bell: So I think that it’s beyond just what someone thinks that they’re worth. I mean, that’s a very important factor in the overall equation. But you have to realize. From a, it’s a balance, right? An employer has to be competitive with the market. If an employer is going to try to lead right-sizing what they think is an over-inflated market, they run the risk of not attracting top talent.
Emily Bell: And it’s not as simple as top talent, you know, wanting to find a job. A lot of people who are laid off were given severance packages, so they’re not in a huge rush to shift to the next move as they shouldn’t be, right? They should be really careful on how they select their next company. So I think that employers really need to be mindful of just the overall perception of, you know, what they’re willing to pay for top talent.
Emily Bell: It should be the very same as it was this time last year. It’s more important than ever to make sure that you’re paying people what they’re worth to come in and do the job because you want the top of the market talent and those people are worth, those wages. And I think on the flip side, from the candidate perspective, know your worth.
Emily Bell: You know, outside of building a livelihood around what you were making you know, making sure that you’re strategically aligning and balancing, right. You don’t wanna over index on a base that’s like maybe five, 10 K off from your current when your OTE could round out, right? Like that’s kind of, you know, within range.
Emily Bell: But if it’s like 20, 30 K off and you know that it’s not fair for what is the current rate in the market, I think it’s something to consider, you know, so my short answer to a very long-winded initial review would be, no, I don’t think that people should lower their expectations. I think that it drives more than just individual financial security.
Emily Bell: It will re drive and kickstart the economy so long as we all still have this income to keep funneling back into it.
Emily Bell: Matt, curious for what your thoughts are.
Matt Lewers: Yeah, I agree. Short answer, no, I don’t think candidates should be reducing their comp expectations. I align with your assessment on we’re not gonna see comp continue to creep up as quickly as we did the last couple years. I think what we’re seeing is ranges or narrowing a little bit where it used to be maybe 180 to 240 for a low end enterprise AE roll.
Matt Lewers: It’s probably closer to 180 to 210. Right. So they’re bringing those in slightly from what we’re seeing. And then the other thing is, I think there’s a lot of organizations that are much more inclined today to stick to their budget, which means you’re not gonna be able to negotiate or hassle your comp up higher than what is advertised or what’s offered. Even if your offer is on the low end of a range that was advertised, where in the past it was, well, hey, you’re offering 200, I’ll move 220 and they say, yeah, sure, let’s, if it’s the guy or the gal, let’s bring him in. Let’s go. Now many clients and many organizations out there are saying no.
Matt Lewers: The high end is all that we can afford from a budget standpoint. If we go over it here, it’s really gonna reduce from something else. So we’re seeing a, I might we’re seeing less fluctuation there to go over, over ranges. I, you know, that doesn’t change the fact that candidates should also be considering the holistic comp package.
Matt Lewers: What we have not seen, at least from our limited scope, right, is we’re not seeing clients reduce the equity offering. We’re not seeing clients pair back their health benefits or unrolled 401k matches, all of those things, for the most part seem to be in place and remain consistent. So it’s always important to take those into consideration when you’re looking at comp.
Matt Lewers: You may be a little disappointed by some OTE here, but if you’re even looking at the job, there’s gotta be a reason why you must be interested. Right. So just go with the expectation that whatever is told to your advertised is where you would likely end up and can’t lose.
Emily Bell: Yeah, one, one thing I’ll add to that just before, and I’ll kick it to you, Christy, I’m curious to get your thoughts, would be outside of, you know, what we’ve touched on currently it, it does potentially open up. You know, perpetuating wage gaps, right? So I think the individuals that are impacted by it the most would be those that are typically impacted naturally by the existing wage disparity that is in current circulation within the market.
Emily Bell: So I think it’s just being extremely cognizant of that. As an individual, especially if you kind of fall within that category of, you know, definitely looking at it from a long-term play perspective of not wanting to perpetuate kind of that underlying challenge that’s present in the market, whether it’s a up or down economy.
Emily Bell: Krissy, what do you think?
Krissy Manzano: So I agree for the most part, and maybe my area that’s different isn’t necessarily where I disagree, but might be a different point of view. So I think that. As you know, for business in general as a whole, regardless of industry, whether you’re in consulting or tech or whatever, right? There is an element to where, you know, your comp expectations shouldn’t necessarily change because of the market.
Krissy Manzano: ‘Cause one companies are still hiring like it,
Emily Bell: Yeah.
Krissy Manzano: we know this. Just being, so, not necessarily from our clients, but just from being so involved in the recruiting side and working with other recruiting firms and having these conversations where a lot of companies that have done layoffs are also still hiring.
Krissy Manzano: It’s just not as obvious. Right. And so, the layoff doesn’t mean that all of a sudden, you know, now they just can only afford, you know, pennies and they were paying dollars. So it’s a different, you know, way to kind of look at that. Right. But when it comes to SaaS. In the SaaS industry in particular, things are changing.
Krissy Manzano: And I don’t think, I think for the better, but it was an industry fueled by millions and billions of dollars of cash that was just spent irresponsibly. And so in 2022, and even in 2021 we never saw this, because I think we encourage our clients not to do this, but you saw all these stories.
Krissy Manzano: Like I saw an AE who got a hundred K over ask. Right? And that’s an example of just really irresponsible spend, right? And so I think if candidates experience that and they have that, I would say your expectations are out of line because that was never realistic to begin with. That’s awesome that you got that.
Krissy Manzano: But that’s not like, that’s great if you got a $500,000 salary as an AE, that’s not realistic. It is not anymore, and it wasn’t realistic before. It just was, you know, during a heightened time. So making sure that you’re going into what the market really is, you know, fairly before that peak and after that peak.
Krissy Manzano: But I think SaaS is gonna stop spending that way. That I think we’ve all kind of grown up in. There’s still a lot of money to be had. But I think folks that are in the SaaaS industry in particular, like it just pays so much more than a lot of industries, right? Because of the VC money that was in it in backing.
Krissy Manzano: So I think that’s an element that will change a little bit, where they’re being more stringent on how they hire. And you know what? They pay for those hires and that’s a good thing for responsible growth. But responsible growth is actually not just a saying anymore.
Krissy Manzano: It’s something that’s being accounted for, for now. And then I think on the company side, you know, kind of going into that outside of just the candidate they have.. If you are creating comp that because you think you have the upper hand, you’re just making that more difficult. It should always be aligned to what the market is in great economic situations and bad.
Krissy Manzano: And I think we saw that where, you know, no one on, when we were working with clients ever had to go above market average because of the whole package. To your point, Lewers, right? Like
Emily Bell: Yeah.
Krissy Manzano: is one data point. It shouldn’t be the only data point. There is a. A lot of different things that can affect your financial income and your longevity at a company.
Krissy Manzano: Right. And, you know, getting a huge salary and only being able to be there for six months and then having to start over somewhere else is actually, could put you further in the hole than if you went somewhere that had that fair equal salary and going through that. So that was just kind of my, a little bit of a different take in the sense of just kind of where the industries are changing.
Krissy Manzano: But I do think that companies need to be mindful that. There’s it’s still really hard to hire, like the labor market is still strong, which I think is where it’s so confusing for a lot of companies in this time of, I’m seeing all these layoffs I’m hearing and feeling like the economy. It isn’t great with inflation, but why is it so hard to hire?
Krissy Manzano: Which you know, we just talked about it in another round table, right? And can go on for maybe another topic. But anyways, that’s my take on it. So,
Emily Bell: No, it’s good. I mean, I think that my biggest thing is. And it’s not always the strategy, right? It’s not every company, but there are those out there, right? That are using this as an opportunity to get top talent for a discount, really. And that I think is the wrong way to look at it, right?
Emily Bell: Like if you really did have over-inflated comp bands strategically makes sense to mitigate that capital spend when you don’t need to, right? Like why throw the cash out the door? But if it was already fair and it’s already competitive, even if it was increased, I would encourage companies to maintain that line, hold that line, candidates hold that expectation.
Emily Bell: The economy will recover and it will recover quicker when you have more working professionals that are able to spend that livable wage within the market. So high level, even outside of tech, I think it’s really important for people to just, how to hold the existing standard and kind of wait for the storm to pass.
Krissy Manzano: I totally agree. It was shortsighted in 2022 to overpay and it’s shortsighted in 2023 to underpay. Don’t be shortsighted, be
Emily Bell: Very well put.
Krissy Manzano: All right, you all. That’s all the time we have today. Until next time, we’ll see you later. Bye.
Emily Bell: Bye guys.
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We have multiple services packages, depending on the needs of our clients. Please reach out to us for more information, and see our sales recruitment services page for a breakdown of our packages.
Do you recruit outside of the US and Canada?
What roles do you recruit?
- Customer Success: Standard, Senior, and Principal Customer Success Managers, Onboarding Specialists, Implementation Managers, Community, Customer Support, & Solutions Architects
- Marketing: Growth & Demand Generation Marketing, ABM, Events, and Content / SEO Marketing
- Sales: Sales Development, SMB, Commercial, Mid-Market, Enterprise, and Strategic Account Executives
- Account Management
- Revenue Operations and Enablement: Marketing, CS, and Sales Operations
- Solutions Engineering and Post-Sales Solutions Architects
- GTM Leadership: Front-line, second-line, VP, and SVP / C Level placements (CRO, CMO, COO)
I've worked with so many headhunters and recruiting firms. What makes you different?
Put simply, we aspire to be as proficient in articulating your business value prop as your internal employees. Exceptional talent does not want to speak with “head-hunters;” instead, they want to connect with educated ambassadors of your business and your brand about meaningful career opportunities.
We go deep on your business and into talent markets to foster connections that other recruiting firms tend to miss. And we work with our hiring clients to ensure excellence in their hiring process. Please reach out to us for more information!
Is SaaS experience important when hiring?
Hmm, what does this mean anyhow?! We recommend defining the skills and behaviors sought before running a search rather than using buzzwords or phrases from other people’s job descriptions. We help employees go beyond acronyms to ensure they develop robust job descriptions that tie to specific candidate profiles for targeting in the market. Need help? Let us know!