There are no two ways about it: when you’re moving jobs within the fintech industry, one of the biggest factors is to improve upon your salary and benefits. Sure, you’ll want a great job at a good company which will add new skills to your CV to further your career, but we all want to be paid well.
Getting the best rate is another matter: salary negotiations can often feel opaque at best, incomprehensible at worst. Emotion is tied up in these conversations as well as fear – if you ask for too much, will you be rejected? On the other hand, you’re great at what you do, so you deserve to be compensated for it.
So how do you make sure you’re getting the best offer you can? Here’s three tips that should help you on your way.
1. Sidestep ‘how much do you want’
Often a question asked at the initial recruiter call stage, this is used to establish how much money you’re looking for and can place you in a bracket you may later find it hard to get back out of. Instead of giving a fixed figure, you can offer a salary range – “I’m looking for a salary between £79,000 and £89,000 based on the role’s expectations” – and you can benchmark this on a site, such as Glassdoor. You can also sidestep this question in two other ways: by asking the recruiter what the company is offering for the job, or by saying you’d prefer to talk money when you’ve heard a little more about what the job actually entails.
2. Raise a lowball offer
You’ve been given an offer: great news. Oh, maybe it’s not such great news – it’s lower than you’d like. So, is there any way to get the company to improve it? Possibly: your best chance of this is to be fast, concise and factual, because no one enjoys long drawn out negotiations. Firstly, check if your request is within the general payscale for the industry. Then, go back to the recruiter or hiring manager with concrete reasons why you deserve more – you’re highly skilled in particular areas, experienced and have particular certifications, for example. You may feel you should be paid more, but you also need to prove it.
3. Ask to add value elsewhere
A complete package is about more than just base pay. If there is no more wiggle room on the salary – hiring managers have budgets too – take a holistic look at everything else that is on offer. Perhaps the company can offer value elsewhere which will add up to a better overall deal for you. For example, a great percentage on a pension contribution, shares or LTI (long-term incentive) scheme, or health insurance. Is there an annual bonus scheme and can you negotiate that too?
If you’re ready to flex your negotiating muscles, we have three roles to check out below, as well as plenty more to browse on the Job Board.
Data & Analytics Manager, Borrowing, Monzo
The job: The data team’s mission is to enable Monzo to make better decisions, faster. The Data & Analytics Manager will oversee and manage a data team within the borrowing area, reporting to the Borrowing Data Director and the Senior Manager for FinHealth Credit Strategy.
You’ll do: You’ll own the priorities and roadmap for data in the team and use your knowledge of the data and emerging trends to feed back into the strategy and overall goal setting for finhealth in particular and borrowing as a whole.
You’ll need: Experience in financial services, particularly retail lending in the UK and experience in collections, recoveries or debt sale/purchase is required.
Apply for the Data & Analytics Manager role or find more openings at Monzo.
Technical Architect, British Business Bank
The job: The Technical Architect will be responsible for producing technical designs, supporting the development and implementation of solutions through all project stages in line with enterprise architecture guidelines, and will act as a bridge between the technical and non-technical teams.
You’ll do: You will contribute to the research, evaluation, and selection of hardware and software technology and product standards, as well as the design of standard configurations, and you’ll work with the enterprise architect(s) to ensure alignment with IT strategy, principles, enterprise architecture and domain architectures.
You’ll need: You’ll need technical skills across all tiers of infrastructure and cloud technologies, including but not limited to Azure cloud, VMware, storage and server hardware.
Find out more about the Technical Architect job and apply for other roles at British Business Bank.
Android Engineer, Blockchain.com
The job: Blockchain.com is looking for an Android Engineer to join its growing engineering team, to rapidly create, iterate and launch high-quality software that empowers users all over the world. You should be able to adapt easily to meet the needs of the company’s fast growth and the rapidly evolving crypto ecosystem.
You’ll do: You’ll be building industry-leading bitcoin wallets for users around the globe and will write well-tested, reliable code for use by millions of users who use Blockchain.com’s wallet.
You’ll need: At least two years of experience working with Java/Kotlin and the Android SDK is required and you will have at least one or two apps in the store. Experience with reactive programming (RxJava or otherwise) is a bonus.
More info on the Android Engineer role is available as are other opportunities at Blockchain.com.
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