Ask a Career Consultant
Hi there! Every week, the Career Development Team for Researchers at the Office of Career and Professional Development answers an anonymized career development question from the UCSF community. You can also visit the archive of all of our past columns. To submit your own question, email it to [email protected] with the subject line 'ASKOCPD.'
A postdoc asks—
I received an unofficial offer from a company saying that they decided to extend me an offer but will need to finalize the details before sending the official offer letter. (I had emailed the HR for a follow up since it has been a while since my last interview). In anticipation, I was hoping I could get your input on some negotiation tactics. My main concern is the title. I am a postdoc with 3+ years of experience, but the job opening I applied for is a Scientist I position. During negotiations I was hoping to ask to bump the title to Scientist II. I was hoping to get your input on how to approach this. Also, I’ve heard that if they do not agree to change the title, sometimes you can ask to be considered for a promotion in 6+ months and ask that to be part of the official offer letter. Is that a common ask?
When asking for the higher title during negotiations, I would recommend starting by just asking how their organization differentiates between Scientist I and Scientist II. Then, depending on the specifics of their answer—
- if you already meet the description, you can point out the ways that you seem to already meet their description and requirements for a Scientist II title, and ask that you be hired under that title, or
- if you don’t quite meet the description (or if they are unsure if you meet the description), you can ask that they commit to a 6-month performance review to assess you for a promotion.
I think the most common thing to negotiate, after salary and start date, is job title. So, I’d say you are on very solid ground to ask about it. It is also quite common to ask for a review after a certain amount of time. I’d say that 6 months is the minimum (it would look a little out of touch to ask for something like a 3-month review, when you are presumably still onboarding), but asking for a review at 6-months or a year is typical. As always, there is a ton of variation in the individual personality of any hiring manager. If they have a strongly negative reaction to this kind of ordinary request, I would personally consider it a pretty big red flag.
-David Blancha, Assistant Director, Career Development Team for Researchers