Today’s post is a Special Request post for Ally and Katy and several other clients and readers who wrote asking for help on negotiating their contract after receiving an offer. I’m happy to oblige, but keep in mind that this particular matter, more than any other, is U.S.-specific. I’ve been told in no uncertain terms that in the U.K., negotiating is out of the question and the attempt alone may cost you the job. Other countries, I can’t say. But in the U.S., negotiating is absolutely de rigeur. And women, in particular, suck at it, as this recent Chronicle piece points out.
So what follows are my recommendations for how to proceed when (gasp!) you are the recipient of the coveted offer of a job.
Do not, under any circumstances, accept the offer the same day they make it. When they call or email, answer pleasantly and politely, “Oh thank you. That is good news. I’m so pleased.” And then say, “I’d like to know more about the offer. When can we discuss the details, and when can I expect a written contract?” If the Department Head tries to push you for a commitment, simply repeat, “I am very happy for the offer, but I will need to discuss the terms and see the contract before I can make a final commitment. I very much look forward to discussing this further. I hope we can begin soon.”
Now, there are several things you need to know. Once an offer has been made to you, the institution cannot legally offer the job to anyone else for a certain amount of time. While that amount of time may vary by institution, be assured that you have at least one week to contemplate your response, and possibly as much as two or three. During that time you are in the driver’s seat. While unscrupulous or panicky or pushy Department Heads may try to hustle you, do not allow yourself to be hustled. You are now the one in charge. Bask in that.
[Addendum: As noted in comments below, more and more frequently candidates are finding offers being rescinded, either for budgetary reasons, or administrative foul-ups, or most appallingly, sheer institutional malfeasance. Check out the Job Wiki page "Universities to Fear" for more stories of this nature. I am unable to say with any certainty how common this is, and how much it should influence your actions vis-a-vis the offer. My sense is that it is still uncommon enough that you should treat all offers as open to negotiation. The most important thing is to be guided by a trusted senior mentor from the moment the offer is made. In the meantime, I am soliciting a guest post from someone with more direct experience with the rescinded offer. (The guest post is up)]
All offers have room for negotiation. You should first see what the formal offer is in terms of salary, summer salary, teaching load, leave time, research support, expectations for tenure, graduate student funding, service expectations (particularly if it is a joint appointment), support for a spousal hire, and other matters. Until you have these in writing you cannot make an informed response.
Once you receive these, decide what you’re going to come back with in negotiation. Because, you ALWAYS come back asking for more. You are entitled. It is expected. Do not miss this one-time-only opportunity to negotiate greater gain for yourself and your family. [Please read comment stream for more elements of an offer that should be up for negotiation].
What you ask for will depend on you and your goals. A single person with no children might decide to prioritize research support —ie, additional leave time and a larger research budget to pay for overseas research. A person supporting a family might forgo additional research funding to prioritize a higher salary. A person seeking a position for their spouse might forgo both research support and salary in order to prioritize a spousal appointment. The point is, in all cases, this is the one AND ONLY time in your early years in the department that you can attempt to turn circumstances in your favor. So do it.
Always proceed courteously and professionally. Respond quickly to emails and calls, and never leave them hanging, even if just to say, “I received your latest email; thank you. I will study it and respond by tomorrow.” Ideally you should have a trusted senior colleague assist you in these negotiations. It is critical that you maintain positive relations with your likely future colleagues. But although they might grumble a bit as the negotiations carry on for a week or two, they will respect you. This is how the game is played.
Now, one aspect to consider is if you have another competing offer or possible offer. If you do, first off, lucky you—you have rocked the system. This is the absolute best position to negotiate from. If you are waiting on an offer from a second school, you may contact that second school and inform them of the offer you received from school one. You will write something to this effect, “Dear Steve, Thank you again for having me out to visit your department at XXX U. I enjoyed the visit immensely. I am writing to let you know that I have received an offer from another institution. My timeline for accepting this offer is approximately one week. I wonder if I could receive a response regarding your search within that time frame. I want to reiterate my interest in your position. I hope to hear from you soon. Sincerely, XXX”
You can be assured that this email will send a jolt of terror through the spine of Steve, if you are his department’s first choice. The greatest fear of departments once an offer is made is that the offerree will reject it and accept an offer elsewhere. The department may have a solid alternate candidate available, but often they do not. Departments often end up voting all but the top candidate as “unacceptable,” so failure to get the top candidate means a failed search, and the risk of losing authorization to hire that year. So all their eggs are in one basket, and that basket is you.
If you are their top candidate, and they just haven’t told you yet because they haven’t had a chance to complete their voting and offer process (offers may have to be vetted by the Dean before they can be made to the candidate), this small, courteous email will send the department into a panic. And a panicked department is what you want. Because a panicked department, sensing that they might lose you to institution one, will be more likely to agree to your demands for salary, leave time, research support, and spousal positions.
Now all departments have financial and logistical limitations. You cannot negotiate above those. If you try, you will quickly alienate them. They will not withdraw the offer, but they will resent you, and those feelings of resentment are dangerous for a soon-to-be junior faculty member. The key to negotiating is to always maintain good faith and honesty, and always have a highly delicate sense for when you are hitting a true wall of “we can’t do that.” Because when you hit that, that’s when you stop.
In terms of salary upper limits, this is particularly serious. Be aware that many public institutions suffer from salary compression problems. That means that associate and full professors’ salaries have not kept pace with the national market, and consequently new assistant professors are offered salaries nearly as high as those of the tenured faculty who have been on campus for years. Salary compression creates terrible feelings of resentment and low morale in departments suffering from it. The Head will be all too well aware of these feelings. When the Head tells you, “we cannot go higher than $68,000 for your starting salary, or we will offend some faculty,” take that as a hard no, because it most likely reflects the Associate level salary scale in the department. This doesn’t mean no additional money is possible—it just needs to be one-time-only, or short-term money instead of a recurring commitment. So, turn your efforts to summer salary for one to three years, one-time research support, a guaranteed graduate research assistant, and other shorter-term forms of compensation that don’t put pressure on an already overburdened salary structure.
In terms of the dreaded spousal issue…this is the hardest negotiation of all. In general, wait until you have a firm offer before you bring up the spouse. Any mention earlier than that could well work against you in the minds of the faculty, consciously or unconsciously. Once the offer is in hand, mention your spouse to the Department Head. Be aware that this is the one and only chance that you will have to negotiate for a spousal hire, so DO NOT WASTE IT! Push as firmly as you can for the actual tenure-track offer, and don’t be put off with the range of one-year, two-year, three- year, instructor, adjunct, and visiting positions that they will try to pawn off on you.
They may say something like “oh we can revisit your husband’s tenure case later, when this contract is up,” but DON’T BELIEVE IT. It is never, ever revisited after you lose the leverage of the initial offer (that is, until you gain the leverage of an external offer, and that’s a pain and time-consuming to manage).
Accept nothing in negotiations, but absolutely nothing in the case of spousal negotiations, that is not in writing. Any “informal” agreements or understandings that you may have with the current Head or Dean are meaningless if not in writing, because Heads and Deans change, and with no written agreement, all arrangements are void.
Make sure that your spouse is debut-ready. His or her cv should be spit-shined, the dissertation finished, and a polished research and teaching statement prepared. Be clear what departments the spouse would be eligible for an appointment in, and the full range of positions for which he/she is qualified.
Be flexible about any offered position that is tenure-track. There are many painful and difficult negotiations that have to take place to line up a spousal hire, and some departments and department heads will play ball more than others. Some Heads are incompetent while others are savvy. To some extent you are at the Head’s mercy.
Be aware of how spousal hires are paid for. Generally, the original department will pay one third of the spousal hire’s salary, the Dean’s office will pay one third, and then the spouse receiving department will pay one third. This obviously has a great deal of appeal for the receiving department as they are getting one full line for 1/3 cost. However, they may resent being forced to accept a faculty member whom they did not go out and recruit on their own, and they may fear that the spouse hire will derail the actual hiring goals they have in place (ie, that the Dean will say, “well you got a full line hire this year, so we won’t approve your other, original search requests”). Thus the interested parties may have to knock on several doors to find a department willing to take this “free gift,” and may well find it impossible, in the end, to accomplish.
The important thing, once again, is to hold firm and politely repeat, “My biggest priority is a position for my spouse,” without any escalation or emotionalism or drama, day after day, to person after person, until you either get the spousal offer, or get a flat-out NO that you read as unmistakable. As long as they are still talking to you about it, don’t waver.
Once you make your decision, call or email both departments immediately, and courteously and professionally express your gratitude for their offers, and accept one with warmth and enthusiasm, and turn down the other with kindness and respect. Remember that the colleagues in the rejected department will continue to play a role in your professional life for many years to come. You will see them at conferences, they might be external reviewers for your journal article or book mss., and who knows, one of them might end up one of your tenure writers one day. So preserve your good relations with these people at all costs. They will not be angry that you rejected their offer. They will just be disappointed. Be very friendly when you next run into them at a conference.
What about post-docs? Is any of these negotiable for post-doc positions?
I would like to know this too. I just received an offer for a post-doc and I’d like to know what, in addition to salary, can be negotiated.
Sorry for the delay in responding to these questions. Generally speaking postdocs are not very negotiable, when they’re in the humanities and social sciences. The salary definitely isn’t. You may find a little give on things like moving expenses, if you have particular circumstances that warrant it. But the terms of postdocs in terms of salary and res. support are firmly set, particularly when the postdoc itself is funded by an external funder such as Mellon. Hard sciences postdocs are likely different, as they are often stand-ins for first jobs in those fields, so please check with an expert/mentor if you’re in those fields.
For posterity: STEM postdoc salaries are negotiable. I negotiated mine and received 10% over the initial amount. The final value is comfortably above the recommended NIH payscale, which is nearly impossible to survive on in high cost-of-living areas. I’ve also received topoff funding after receiving a fellowship that paid less than the initial salary. Be prepared to justify. I’m preparing my startup as an assistant professor right now, and I’ve included wiggle room to pay extra for good postdocs.
good to know! thanks.
After having your website recommended to me by several people, I’ve just started reading–and–greatly enjoying–your posts. I do feel the need to comment on the above, however, in respect to one minor detail. I recieved several (3) offers for TT jobs when I was on the market this past year, and in consulting many senior faculty in my field about how to proceed before and after the negotiations, I was repeatedly told the same thing: after you have the offer, you are in the driver’s seat. They can’t rescind the offer until you have rejected it. However, I had a variation on this experience. I received a TT offer from a major research public university. The offer was made on a Monday, verbally, by the Chair, with verbal support of the Dean (I never had a Dean extend an offer to me, only a Dept. Chair) with the understanding that an in print offer would be received in print within 5 business days. On the 4th day, I was notified that the Dean had re-reviewed the applications of the other candidates and had decided that I was, in comparison, not the most qaulified candidate (I was one year out of grad school), and retracted the offer, via the Chair. It wasn’t in writing yet…but the Chair had been authorized to make the offer by the Dean and I was congratulated on it by faculty members throughout the Department. This–and a few other experiences–completely shattered my faith and confidence in the negotiating process (another program lied, in writing, about the teaching load during post-offer negotiations, for example), even though the Dept/ University that gave me my third offer–and now current position–could not have been more honest and gracious (and there, I mentioned the need for a spousal hire before the on-campus interview had even been scheduled and received a full spousal hire, all requested specs met….). So maybe these things aren’t universals?
And, based on comments on the Academic Jobs Wiki, my experience might not be too, too rare: http://academicjobs.wikia.com/wiki/Universities_to_fear
Thanks for the great advice on your site!
Thanks for this, Jasprann. I had an unaccustomed pang of doubt, actually, while writing that part of the post, and even took it out temporarily, before putting it back in. the fact is, in the tumult of the current job market, the kinds of things you describe ARE becoming more common. I don’t think they’re anywhere near the norm, which is why I decided ultimately to leave my advice as is, but reading your account, I think I will go back and add some caveats. I’ll also check more deeply into the Wiki and try to gather some stories. Actually, now that I think of it, I’ll also devote a blog post to this. Would you be interested in writing or contributing to it? Since it’s entirely out of my own experience, for myself or people I’ve worked with directly, I’d appreciate some knowledgable input.
Karen, I would be happy to provide what ever inisght I may have into this. I think it may be a problem specific to certain Universities/ Colleges, butI think that given the buyer’s market we are faced with, there is no reason practices like this wouldn’t pop up more often. My hidden e-mail is the best one to correspond with.
I also had an experience that ran counter to the advice above, although no bad faith was involved. I received a verbal offer from the dean, and I was given a week to accept the position. Paperwork from HR didn’t arrive within the week and I verbally accepted the position after being reassured by the dean and deptartment chair that the position was secure. About a month later the paperwork finally arrived, and indicated that I would forfeit the position if I didn’t respond by a date that was earlier than the postmark on the envelope the paperwork came in. I quickly called the Dean and Dept. Chair and was assured that I still had the position and that I should just fill out the paperwork and everything would be fine. And everything was fine. The problem was that our HR department is not very reliable about this sort of thing and the Dean has no control over HR. So, in the end, I got the position and got what I was promised. But if I had refused to accept the job without getting the paperwork in hand, I would not have the job today, through no fault of the Dean or Dept. Chair, but rather due to the bureaucracy that is probably not uncommon at regional state schools.
This is good advice. I’d also add this: immediately call your diss advisor or whoever you most trust who already has a t-t job and ask them what to negotiate. Salary and partner hires are the two big issues, but don’t forget other smaller things (and they will slip your mind because you’ll be so relieved you’re not going to debtor’s prison next year). Computer support. Course reduction. Leave time. Summer salary. Pre-tenure leave. Preferred teaching schedules and courses in your first year. You won’t get everything but you’ll get something. I should also add that Karen’s right: women feel awkward about negotiating. And believe me, male administrators know this, and they will take advantage of it. It’s in their best interests in the longterm, even if they really, really like you. I tell all of my women advisees that if they are suddenly overcome with shame as they are negotiating they should say this: “Oh, and my advisor also wanted to know if you will……”. You can only use that once or twice in a negotiation, but it will at least get you to put your cards on the table.
Thanks, Stephanie. These are great additions that you mention: computer support, course reduction, leave time, summer salary, pre-tenure leave, and preferred teaching schedules and courses. All of these are legitimate items for discussion, and ALL should be mentioned before agreeing to a final contract either verbally or in writing. Women! this is your time to be firm and selfish! do it!
Can someone explain what “summer salary” is? Does this mean that TT jobs in the US do not pay over the summer or is this extra salary to compensate for research trips/expenses during the months when you are not teaching?
lol. Generally in the U.S. academics get paid on a 9-month basis. That is, the full year salary is compressed into 9 months. Some campuses allow you to choose the 12 month option instead, but generally 9 month is the default. (which means that faculty have to proactively budget to set money aside during the year to cover their summer expenses–not always an easy thing to do). So “summer salary” is 1-3 months of your monthly pay tacked on to your regular pay. Basically a “bonus.” For some it will just allow them to keep the budgetary ship afloat during the summer, while for others, who are less financially precarious, it could allow for research trips, etc. But “summer salary” is just that: salary, to be used as you see fit. “Summer research funding,” by contrast, is a sum of money set aside for you to use strictly for research. It will mostly likely NOT be paid out in advance, but will be available to reimburse legitimate research and travel expenses upon submission of receipts.
This is excellent advice; thanks for setting it all out. I want to add one thing about salaries. Even in public universities and even in unionized universities it is often the case that the public salary scale can be supplemented by some kind of fund–the pursestrings typically being held by central administration. At my (public/doctoral-professional) university, it’s called a “market supplement” to salary, and the fund is typically used to increase the salaries of hires in Business and Engineering beyond the rates specified in our collective agreement. It’s not a secret but it’s certainly not advertised to prospective hires, who are ALWAYS told, “we can’t go any higher than step x on the salary scale.” That’s technically true for base salary, but the market supplement is considered external to the salary scale. I was also told that these supplements never go to us useless (“unmarketable”?!) types in the humanities, but, while that’s the case most of the time, it is not always true.
In these financially troubled times I don’t know how many institutions have retained such funds, and I imagine it’s rare that an Assistant Professor outside the professional disciplines would get a bump external to scale. But I guess I find it psychologically useful information to have: you never actually know what the budget is, and they always lowball what they can give you. And if you’re in Comp Lit, be assured that they are paying your counterpart in Mech Eng a LOT more than you, and the university has not yet gone bankrupt. (Yet.)
One more addition to this already excellent post: if you are offered start-up funds, ask about those funds carefully. I have seen people wrecked on this shoal.
Do you have to use the start-up within a certain amount of time (does it disappear after 1 year? 3 years?).
Do you pay for your moving expenses out of the start-up, or is moving separate?
Do you pay for your computer out of the start-up, or is this separate?
YEESSSS!!!!! I too have seen people burnt on these.
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Another issue I faced was that my current dept gave me an amazing run-around and had me deal with a number of different people. The chair made promises, the Dean made promises, I dealt with staff who are in charge of organizing space and some of the equipment requests to cover other issues, and finally the schedule of release time was arranged with another person. I got paper trails of everything and kept up a cc daisy-chain that was boggling so that no one could argue that they hadn’t been informed of a decision but this left people able to say “oh well so and so may have promised you this but I didn’t really agree to that”. This was a problem for those things that I was told didn’t need to be in the contract and at the time I felt silly insisting would be in the official offer (e.g. That I get the fridge left behind by a retired faculty which would save me some money from my start-up – I was told that sort of thing ‘couldn’t’ be in the contract and really why was I asking for something so small). Well basically the screwed me over with that stuff. So I don’t know what to say – do you ask for the level of specificity of the dept will provide a refrigerator, a desk less than 50 years old, 12 shelving units of type X, …? I was promised things like this that now I have to live without or buy on start-up because no one feels that the e-mails exchanged and agreed to applies to them. I think asking me to deal with so many people was strategy on their part so avoid that but what’s the solution to be sure you get what’s promised?
This is an interesting angle on the negotiating process—I haven’t had experience with the “talk to 5 different people” method. I *would* however say that….. in reality….. you kind of….can’t really …… negotiate for refrigerators and shelving. I would say that yes, that would be viewed as “too small.” And also, things that when you get on campus AND MAKE FRIENDS WITH THE SECRETARY you can take care of bit by bit, informally, over the first semester or year.
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I’ve heard that you can sometimes negotiate for summer salary for the summer before you start? Given the fact that contracts don’t generally start until the beginning of the semester, I’m curious how that’s possible. Or, is this part of “start-up money”?
tt Fischer. The elder Fischer directed the desegregation of Baltimore’s public schools in the mid-1950s and was subsequently dean and president of T
I’d like to negotiate for a couple things- higher salary, earlier start date, and higher moving cost assistance. Is it reasonable to ask for multiple things? If yes, should I ask for all these at once? Or one by one?
p.s. Edits I made after reading your blog helped me get this offer!!! Thank you!!
All at once.
Sorry for the anon.
I received an offer for a tt position over the phone. I then asked to confirm the terms and to see the contract by email. I was confirmed the terms, but told that the contract could not be sent until the offer was accepted (Is this right?). I replied that my acceptance was contingent to the deferment of the starting date, and I have been replied that they will look into it, but since then I haven’t heard back for two days.
Should I be worried? Is there anything I should do, or just patiently wait?
I was just offered a two-year tenure track position, with a high salary and computer support. First, what is a “two-year” tenure track position? Second, in light that the salary is higher than other universities in the area, is it worth negotiating?
I confess I have no idea. Never heard of this. If it’s tenure track you have to have a tenure probationary period, and those are 5-6 years….so this makes no sense. I’d be interested to hear what you learn–email me if you’re willing, at gettenure@gmail.com
Thanks for the article and subsequent posts, this information is extremely helpful to me!
I just received an email from the HoD stating that I was selected as the top candidate in their search, and that I should now provide within 3 days a detailed list of my startup needs before the official offer letter can be made. Apparently, the department is in the process of getting final approval for the official offer from the Provost, and they have to know my startup needs first, because the offer letter can’t be drafted and vetted until the startup information is included. Apparently, the HoD has to work with the Associate Dean and the Vice Provost to “define the startup needs”.
Of course my questions now are:
1. Since the list I will send them will apparently be included in their official offer letter, will I forfeit the opportunity to add items to this list at a later date?
2. Will my needs remain negotiable once I have the official offer letter?
3. Should I understate these needs at this point in time, given that (i) I do not have an official offer letter in my hand and therefore (ii) I want to avoid to trigger a potential withdrawal of the promised offer, which might happen if I ask for what in their mind may be too much?
Thanks very much for your advice!
I confess that I’m not an expert in the kind of advance start up request model common in the hard sciences. However, I am working with several clients currently who have been invited to do so, and who are submitting ENORMOUS (but totally legit for their research) start-ups. They are being advised by their advisors while also working with me, and overall, it seems that you ask for exactly what you actually want and need; don’t skimp here. This is a kind of advance negotiation.
I see. Thanks for the quick reply, Karen!
I’ve recently had what seemed like a successful on campus interview at an R1 University for a newly-created position. I am a candidate with little teaching experience and 15 years professional experience in my field (design). I demonstrated a high potential for teaching and creative scholarship, which the chair has asked me to define further. They have also asked me for a “budget” for a shop facility for students. I have no offer yet. They expect to make a decision in a week from now. I am mainly clueless of academic job hiring and contract negotiation. Any advice about what I should be asking for if offered a position is helpful, and should I submit that to the department head before the offer is made or after? Thanks!
-Clueless and Excited
First off: thank you for all your excellent advice! I am one of the lucky ones with supportive advisors, but your advice is wonderfully specific.
I just received a TT offer in psychology at a university of moderate means, and I’m wondering about negotiating startup. Some people I know have adopted the strategy of having a “dream list” and a “must have” list. To me, it seems like sending the “must have” list might be an example of negotiating like a girl: it just gives them an excuse to give you less money (“well, if you only really need $XX….”). What do you think?
You know, negotiating is a bit of an art. We have to know various things like what others were offered before you, how much they want you, what messages you got directly and indirectly from the chair and or dean…. this is why people pay money to work with me. I can’t really answer this without knowing the *specific* circumstances!
Thanks for such wonderful tips!
I just want to clarify. When I receive a call from the Head offering me a position, do I normally start the negotiation immediately? or should I first ask him/her to send a written contract, and after that all negotiations begin?
Thanks in advance!
the latter.
Thank you for your prompt clarification!
First of all I would like to thank you for this wonderful advices.
I had couple of e-mail exchanges with dept. chair regarding my start-up requests. Finally, we had agreed upon some numbers on this. Now, dept. chair is asking me to express my acceptance by e-mail, so that they can proceed further to send me an “official offer letter”. But, I am not sure of terms and conditions that they will put on the official offer letter.
Looks like I should express my acceptance by e-mail in order to get official offer letter.
Kindly advice me whether will I have any room to negotiate after “accepting” it on e-mail?
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Thank you for this useful post and also thank you to everyone for the helpful comments. I just received an offer for a very interesting temporary position that might turn into a tenure-track job. I am aware that the school and the state set certain limits and that this is a temporary gig, but would it be acceptable to ask for 10% more in terms of the salary, or even 15% more? I was asked to provide a specific number.
I, too, am wondering if non-tt offers are negotiable. If they didn’t mention moving expenses or any benefits at all, can I bring them up? If they told me the dean found an extra $2000 over what they originally meant to pay, can I still ask for more as the salary is a bit low for the area?