Don't trust the recruiter's math
An 11% raise that would have left our client $32,000 behind in year one alone
The recruiter delivered. Or so it seemed.
A pharma executive was exploring a move to a new company. They told their recruiter what they were looking for: a 10% increase in base salary over their current $200,000. The recruiter came back with an offer at $222,000 and considered the job done.
Before signing, the executive sent us the full offer package. When we ran it through our compensation evaluation, what we found stopped the process entirely.
Specific numbers in this case study have been adjusted to protect client privacy. For illustrative purposes only.
The headline number hid the real story
6% match + 7% profit share
$75,000 yr 2
"The recruiter was chest puffed out, expecting a pat on the back. He got 11% instead of 10. What he missed was everything else."
We didn't send it back. We got on the phone.
The recruiter was embarrassed and initially resistant. He felt he couldn't go back to the company after we raised the issue. So we offered to step in directly. With the client's permission to disclose their full current compensation, we joined a call with the hiring manager and walked through every line item.
- 1 Showed the hiring manager the full picture. We laid out what the client was walking away from, $316,000 in total year-one comp, against what was being offered. Not to be adversarial. To make the gap impossible to ignore.
- 2 Pushed base, because everything else flows from it. A higher base salary lifted the bonus target, the LTI grant, and the retirement match tied to it, creating a multiplier effect across the entire package.
- 3 Negotiated a two-year sign-on bridge. To make the client whole during the transition before new LTI grants vested, we secured $150,000 in combined cash and stock, $75,000 paid in year one and $75,000 paid at the start of year two, each split evenly between cash and stock. A portion of this sign-on was specifically structured to offset the reduction in 401(k) employer match the client was leaving behind, helping bridge the retirement contribution gap in the early years at the new company.
- 4 Built the long-term runway. With a stronger base now on record, the client entered the role positioned for title and salary progression within three to four years, meaning every future raise would compound off a foundation $30,000 higher than where they started.
The client took the job, on terms that actually made sense.
The hiring manager came around quickly once the numbers were on the table. The revised offer made the client whole for years one through four, with the trajectory pointing meaningfully ahead of where they started.
"Had we not asked the question, the client would have taken the job blind to all of these downstream impacts, and spent years behind where they had been."
The recruiter's job is to close the deal. Ours is different.
Recruiters are skilled professionals, but their incentive is placement, not optimization. When a recruiter negotiates on your behalf, they are focused on the number you told them to chase. Everything else is secondary.
Total compensation is a multi-dimensional picture: base, bonus structure, retirement contributions, long-term incentives, vesting schedules, and the compounding effect of every future raise tied to where your base lands today. Missing any one of those dimensions can cost far more than the raise was worth.
This is the kind of analysis we run before any offer is accepted, not after.
Know the full value of what you're being offered, and what to ask for
We can help you model your potential total compensation ranges across multiple scenarios and time horizons, so you can see exactly what an offer is worth, where it falls short, and what a stronger package aligned to your personal financial priorities actually looks like, before you negotiate, and before you sign.
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