Am I being lowballed? should I accept or take my chance at a higher salary?

I had an interview for a graduate software engineering role through a recruiter, I was told the starting offer is £30k which is 5k lower than my previous salary, which I settled for and fully remote which I am not a big fan of, I successfully passed the interview but was told they would initially offer me 27k and it would increase to 30k after 6 months because they feel like they need to train me a little more, but this role also has a steep learning curve and is very fast paced, and was told I need to withdraw from any other application processes I'm currently in and have 24 hours to review and accept the offer,

Today a recruiter reviewed my CV and linked in which I was directly referred to by an employee at the company, and told me they'd see if theres any roles and interview process takes 1 week with starting salary of 40k for interns, should I accept the job offer, and wait to sign the contract or should I decline the offer and do the interview with the other company? and how do I know that it will for sure be 30k after 6 months especially when the recruiter told me it was a 30k starting salary but was decreased to 27k?

Reply 1

Zarek

21

While an offer is worth a lot more than an interview, a job thats paid a lot less than previously paid doesn’t seem awfully attractive. Not to mention the sneaky reduction. While they can impose the deadline to accept I don’t think they can force you to withdraw from other processes. However it’s a bit messy and bad form job hunting when you’ve just accepted an offer. I would either accept the offer conditional on it being £30k as advertised or decline and take your chances

Reply 2

HanimalGurl

OP

16

Original post by Zarek

While an offer is worth a lot more than an interview, a job thats paid a lot less than previously paid doesn’t seem awfully attractive. Not to mention the sneaky reduction. While they can impose the deadline to accept I don’t think they can force you to withdraw from other processes. However it’s a bit messy and bad form job hunting when you’ve just accepted an offer. I would either accept the offer conditional on it being £30k as advertised or decline and take your chances

Thats literally the first thing I said, I explained that my previous salary was 35k in another graduate role, and 30k was already pushing it but the recruiter came back and insisted that the reduction is for cost of training, especially for training on the first project I'll be working on, the thing that is freaking me out is low pay for high chance of extreme burn out within first 3 months, which I was told would be a really steep learning curve anyways.

(edited 10 months ago)

Reply 3

Zarek

21

Original post by HanimalGurl

Thats literally the first thing I said, I explained that my previous salary was 35k in another graduate role, and 30k was already pushing it but the recruiter came back and insisted that the reduction is for cost of training, especially for training on the first project I'll be working on, the thing that is freaking me out is low pay for high chance of extreme burn out within first 3 months, which I was told would be a really steep learning curve anyways.

Follow your instincts. If you’re not so keen on the role and reckon you can do better take a risk

Original post by HanimalGurl

I had an interview for a graduate software engineering role through a recruiter, I was told the starting offer is £30k which is 5k lower than my previous salary, which I settled for and fully remote which I am not a big fan of, I successfully passed the interview but was told they would initially offer me 27k and it would increase to 30k after 6 months because they feel like they need to train me a little more, but this role also has a steep learning curve and is very fast paced, and was told I need to withdraw from any other application processes I'm currently in and have 24 hours to review and accept the offer,

Today a recruiter reviewed my CV and linked in which I was directly referred to by an employee at the company, and told me they'd see if theres any roles and interview process takes 1 week with starting salary of 40k for interns, should I accept the job offer, and wait to sign the contract or should I decline the offer and do the interview with the other company? and how do I know that it will for sure be 30k after 6 months especially when the recruiter told me it was a 30k starting salary but was decreased to 27k?

A new role does not necessarily have to meet the salary of your previous role, however they may well be lowballing you (I'm not sure of the value of your specific skills in the market, but software is well paying and in demand overall).

However, potentially more concerning is that they (the recruiters) have done a classic bait and switch. £30k is now apparently £27k for the first 6 months. It seems a bit odd that they'd need to pay you a little bit less initially due to training requirements. Will there be any written guarantee that it'll go up to £30k in that timeframe? If not, proceed with caution.

Also, you don't have to withdraw your other applications. It is none of the recruiter's business whether you have submitted or are going through the application process with other organisations.

Reply 5

Quady

20

You've not really explained why you'd wanted to leave the £35k role for a £30k one.

I'd likely accept the role offered, interview for the new role, taking that if offered withdrawing from the £27k role.

Reply 6

SomeonesDad

14

Dear Potential Employer:
If I understand the position correctly, what you are saying is that as well as paying me less than my previous role, you now want me to make a further sacrifice while you train me in the ways you want with absolutely no guarantee that my salary will increase after this period / revert to the initially offered level.
While I understand the commercial benefits to the firm of reducing your salary overheads, by offering me the role to begin with you recognised that I bring with me not only a skillset that will be useful to you, but experiences of different working practices that will be complementary and, maybe, better than the ones you have in place. On this basis, I struggle to comprehend why you would believe that the saving of £1500 gross salary over the initial 6 months was justified and am minded, regrettably, to reject the offer.

If you feel able to revert to the initially agreed £30000 then I would, of course, still be happy to proceed on that basis. Perhaps you would let me know within the next 72 hours as I have other career options to consider.

Yours etc .....

Am I being lowballed? should I accept or take my chance at a higher salary?

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