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Comment by FooBarBizBazz | Hacker News Reader

Whenever you have more than one offer, there is room for negotiation.

In the past I would have said "this" but I've seen a lot of people declining good offers for better ones that never materialized. Be careful playing chicken if you can't afford to.

With the amount of scatterbrained recruiters out there these days, what kind of magic does one pull to get multiple offers to appear so close together?

I've never managed that, but everyone I know who has had some combination of the following:

- brilliant

- lucky

- juggled like 50 interview processes at once

Only one you can do anything about.

I got three FAANG offers at once 3 years ago. I stalled the first one and used it as leverage to speed up the laggards.

College recruiting can make this happen. Granted really only for new grads but it is totally normal in that setting to get multiple offers within a week or two of each other.

Feels intentional by recruiters as a part of the hiring meta-game tbh

I hate negotiation with a passion. However, IME, just being semi transparent about your max offer lets anyone else come back with new numbers without having to ask for a specific number.

Another is to ask for additional benefits in monetary value. IE if one company that provides parking/commuter/better health coverage benefits, ask for an additional $X per year to the companies that don't.

That also make it like you're trying to equalize total comp instead of asking for an arbitrary higher number.

Even if you have one offer there is room for negotiation if you’re willing to accept that you might end up with 0 offers.

Not even. You have to handle the negotiation like a complete asshole before your counterparty will withdraw their offer entirely. For the most part, asking (respectfully and politely) for the moon will just result in a "no, we can't accommodate that". Then you decide if you're ok with that, and accept or decline.

I agree that withdrawing an offer is rare but you have to be OK with some non-zero chance of withdrawal if you’re going to negotiate with only a single offer in hand.

You’re making the negotiating mistake of projecting onto counterparties. “I wouldn’t pull an offer except to an asshole” becomes, “My counterparty won’t withdraw the offer unless I’m an asshole.”

If you absolutely 100% need a job and can leave nothing to chance then you should probably not negotiate with only a single offer in hand.

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