AWS SDE2 Offer Negotiation

Question

Hi everyone,

I received an offer from AWS for a SDE 2 role. I was planning on asking for an additional 50k sign on bonus for year 1. I would justify this ask with evidence of past work (saving on infrastructure costs, mentoring multiple engineers) and being willing to cancel other interviews (mix of onsites and first rounds).

I'm a boomerang and the offer is the same as my TC before I got laid off. I also read some Taro Q&A and negotiation videos but couldn't find a situation similar to mine. The email states:

This will be the highest offer we are able to put forward at this time.

Is this a trick to try to get me not to negotiate?

Rahul Pandey · Accepted Answer

It's not a trick, per se, but just because they say that doesn't mean they always follow it. It could genuinely be true that companies are less willing to negotiate now. This is backed up by conversations I've had with others on Taro.

If you're comfortable (and not desperate for this job), here's how you can argue they should make an exception for you:

You're willing to leave the interview process at other companies
You have clearly applicable past work since you're a boomerang
You are willing to sign the offer immediately if they offer you an additional $20K sign-on bonus.

You want to give the recruiter enough assurance that you will sign the offer, and you want to make the ask small enough that it's easy for them to get done. This is hard to gauge, but $20K is obviously easier than $50K.

A few other resources which will be helpful:

AWS SDE2 Offer Negotiation

Discussion