Ask HN: Negotiating Intern Pay | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Negotiating Intern Pay

3 pointslemonlime2275 comments

Hi HN. I signed an internship offer with an MBB firm for ~60$/hr + a sizable signing bonus (for the internship).

A friend of mine at a unicorn startup got them to open up an internship role last minute and had me fast tracked through the process. An SVP is directly hiring me onto their team for a summer internship. However, pay would be around ~40$/hr with no bonus.

Is it possible to negotiate pay to match my existing offer? Wisdom for internship pay is that interns don't have leverage, and normally I wouldn't: I'm getting an objectively massive bump in terms of experience (nontechnical MBB to technical unicorn). However, the pay over the summer is significant (net ~40% paycut) and I feel like I have some leverage with how the hiring team has been prioritizing signing me this late into the game.

I'd be jumping for joy to get this technical internship normally, but I haven't showed my hand so far to the recruiting team and have been playing it slow.

No right answer here. Usually depends on the situation, people, etc..

Being transparent and sharing your concerns with people, usually, is the best option. At least I am always opened for this approach. Something like: "I like you, looks good, but they offer me more. Here I will learn more, but I need the money for my education, and new macbook, so basically, I will invest in myself. Can we discuss the options. I don't know what to do".

This is honest, true, correct. If the people in front of you are good, respectful, in a nice team, they will answer you in the same honest way. They can say yes, they can say no, we can't afford more now, but if you do your job good, we can increase the payment. What really matters is that the situation is known and clear.

If they reject you, and make you feel bad, than this is a toxic environment, and it is good for you that you not staying there.

Being honest, direct, with the needed respect and humbleness is always the right choice, in my opinion.

It sounds like they are already doing you a favor so I wouldn't ask for higher pay on top of that.

This has been my intuition so far as well, I feel like I should just reserve negotiating for full time offers.

Why don't you pick the MBB job?

Consulting isn't a career I see for myself long term, and I much prefer SWE over it. MBB was my backup.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com