Very Disappointed
The result: the company I interviewed with refused to budge on any aspect of the offer, including the base salary, bonus, equities, and benefits, all of which were exactly as they had originally proposed. Therefore, all the negotiation effort that had gone back and forth for two weeks was for naught. “Fortunately”, I managed to receive a full refund from Levels due to this outcome. During the process, I was matched with a specialist who had high reviews in the Levels system. However, all I received were extremely generic talking points and templates with no tailored suggestions based on my strengths and weaknesses, the company's profile, the industry in general, and so on. Simple Google searches would have resulted in more productive and personalized negotiation strategies. Ultimately, I ended up spending hours researching and writing 90% of the emails myself, as the templates sent were very basic and not even polite. After the company made a good-faith initial offer, the Levels specialist advised me to make an unfounded counter-offer that focused only on the numbers, even after I specifically expressed my preference for better benefits over a small increase in salary. The counter-offer was significantly higher than the original offer without offering any good reasons for doing so. When I asked the specialist what the basis was for the asking numbers, he never got back to me. He did not seem interested in what I wanted to get out of this negotiation at all. Looking back now, if I were the company, I would have refused to negotiate further as well, as I, the candidate, did not seem to act in good faith. If you are searching for professional, personalized advice from a trustworthy negotiation wingman, save yourself time and money and find a true expert elsewhere.
By CharlieG