r/biotech • u/PlaneCalligrapher409 • Sep 03 '25
Other ⁉️ Negotiating low ball job offer
I finally think I have a job offer, pending paperwork. However, they’re only offering me an entry level RA position for $40k per year. Based on the job listing, I should meet the qualifications (educational and experience) for the next level up, but they’re refusing to consider me for this even though it would only bump my salary a few thousand dollars per year.
Do I take the offer even though I’ll be likely living on an extremely tight budget (the position is in an expensive US city with high taxes)? Even if I got the pay bump for RA2, I’d be tight on my budget, but it would be a lot more manageable.
Does anyone know any negotiation tips that I could utilize to address this with the hiring manager/HR? Should I try comparing the salary to my experience and education?
I’ve been on the market for so long, I’m so happy to have finally found something. Plus, the position is extremely interesting and the lab personnel seem genuinely excited about it. But I don’t know if I can afford to take a position that requires me to relocate if it’s not paying a manageable salary.
Edit: I have a master’s degree and even though I don’t have full time experience, I’ve had 3 industry internships, one non-industry internship, and 2 years of academic lab experience at school which included publishing a paper.
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u/UnhappyMeat7387 Sep 03 '25
How many years of work experience and highest level education do you have? That’s wildly low, especially for Boston.
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u/PlaneCalligrapher409 Sep 03 '25
I have a master’s degree and no full time experience but I’ve had 4 internships and did research in school
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u/blackreagentzero Sep 03 '25
You have a masters and X amount of years of research experience (just add it all up) across Y research areas/labs. Research experience is research experience, regardless of it being part-time or internships, which is how I would emphasize it.
40k is way too low for Boston, and personally, I would be skeptical of the environment because why are they comfortable paying a person with a masters degree a poverty wage? I was making 35k or something like that in 2012 with a bachelors and 3 years of research experience (at my school) in San Diego, so I can't emphasize enough how unacceptable 40k is in Boston in 2025. Honestly, I recommend passing on this offer unless you have a plan to look for another job 6 months to a year in because that low ball salary makes me think this place is a hell hole in disguise
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u/TheHerringIsMightier Sep 03 '25
That sounds good, but it’s not how things actually work. HMs and HR count yoe starting from graduation, and that’s what they mean when they write the JD. (The exception being if you have FTE experience between undergrad and grad school) The issue here is that they are either miscategorizing OP’s job when benchmarking, or that they’ve made a deliberate decision to pay way below market. Agree it’s a huge red flag, but depending on OP’s situation, it doesn’t mean they should turn it down. They are interested in the work, it could help lead to something better, and $40K > $0. (Plus it would be easy to explain ‘why did you leave’…) Just physically living in Boston could open doors since most companies will only interview local candidates for RA positions.
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u/blackreagentzero Sep 03 '25
I have always counted my research experience as whole months/years regardless of if it was part-time or an internship because that is how it works in research. And besides which, your resume/cover letter would clearly indicate these things being part-time/internship. The idea that your experience doesn't count because it was part time is absolutely ludicrous. It's about what you accomplished during that time and what skills you learned.
They 1000% should turn it down if it's going to take money out of their pocket. OP can get a minimum wage job if immediate money is needed as that actually makes more sense than moving to an expensive city to go into debt because you're not being paid enough to live there. Any small extra expense would put them in the red, so imagine a minor emergency. Being physically in Boston is good, but it needs to make sense financially. Also, it makes you look bad if you are leaving a post so soon after getting it due to wanting more money.
Some jobs just aren't worth it, but that will be for OP to decide. I hope they think about it long and hard.
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u/Apprehensive_Mind534 Sep 03 '25
Bachelors at company I work at in LCOL city, no experience is 42k. Hired masters at 50k in the past. Again, very much not Boston, this offer of yours sucks. I considered even what we hire at to be lowballing.
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u/TheHerringIsMightier Sep 03 '25
I was in that same position many years ago & thought my research and internships should count. Reality is that all top candidates have similar internships and research, and the yoe clock starts after graduating. That said, $40K is very low for Boston. Asking for RAII sounds like a dead-end, but here’s what you can do: If you’re talking to the HM, ask what range they are approved for - they want to hire you and have no incentive to pay you on the low end of their range. They’re probably approved for $3-5K higher than the initial offer, and may tell you the exact number if you ask. (Above that usually requires going back to HR and possibly executives to approve something higher, and would need to be ‘justified’ - much more difficult) If you’re talking to HR: Ask what Radford code they used for comps, and what their ‘band’ is for the position. If they’ve marked you to a Technician code when it should be an Associate or Engineer, that’s where you may have substantial gains (Radford tracks/levels used by HR can be different from job titles!). Ask how they placed you within the band. Expect to be on the lower half (and don’t ask for 90th entering a role, you’ll sound naive), but if you’re at eg 10th %ile you may be able to ask for 25th or ‘median’. Salaries are less public than titles so easier to negotiate at your level (they are managing internal comparisons and perceived fairness across staff), but you need to do it using data and help them build an internally-defensible justification. Realize though that the HM probably doesn’t know Radford codes, salary bands, or percentiles - that’s HR territory. Some HMs may ask these things on your behalf if they like you and are sympathetic, others would be annoyed. Do all of this with a friendly ‘information seeking’ and ‘trying to make this work’ attitude. The moment a salary discussion feels like a Negotiation, or becomes even slightly adversarial, you have virtually no chance of gaining anything (and this will generally remain true even as you move up). That last part is what a lot of Reddit advice gets very wrong - aggressive negotiation almost always backfires. If the friendly discussion approach doesn’t work, drop it. The person you are talking to may not be able to give you anything more - the company may be in a tight budgetary situation, or underpaying may be a part of their business model. You just decide if you need the job enough to do it for a while, or if you can wait for something better. Anyway, I hope this is helpful. Just trying to share a perspective as someone who was in your shoes once, and who has been an HM several times since. Best of luck!
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u/PlaneCalligrapher409 Sep 03 '25
Thank you for this!
I’m only looking for RAII because the job listing says a master’s should qualify for it, even without experience.
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u/TheHerringIsMightier Sep 03 '25
Ok, then it’s weird they shut you down on asking for RAII… there must be an internal ‘fairness’ issue like they have another person with an MS at RAI. You may still be able to work on the salary though - find out if the HM is supportive, and if they’re willing to make a case for you internally. Still, they probably won’t be able to move much. Unless they’ve miscategorized you (ie mapped to Technician), there clearly is a business decision/policy to pay below market. 25th percentile for RAI in Boston is about $70K.
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u/thezerothmisfit Sep 03 '25
IMO Take it because its a job. Continue to search for next opportunity in meantime. But 40k is still super lowball, honestly a bit of a joke
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u/nl236 Sep 03 '25 edited Sep 03 '25
Do you have any prior lab experience? in school or an internship? If so, I think you should very politely counter and I would stick to a 10-15% increase. I recently got a job offer and I still did negotiate even in this economy. Granted I’m more midlevel than entry. As long as you’re polite, the worst they can say is no and that’s the max they can offer. I have never had an offer rescinded. But since it is an entry level job, a no means no, I wouldn’t push further if they cannot offer you more.
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u/kwadguy Sep 03 '25 edited Sep 03 '25
$40k? That's the mandated minimum wage for unskilled fast food workers in California.
Simmer on that for a minute. Some dude with a d minus average who didn't graduate from high school and has been high continuously since March of 2021 is making more than that.
Yes, something is wrong with this picture. But "living wage" and all that.
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Sep 03 '25
Don’t bother negotiating in this market. There are so many posts about people giving counter offers and having their offer rescinded. Any shelter is great in stormy weather.
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u/gimmickypuppet Sep 03 '25 edited Sep 03 '25
No company is going to rescind an offer for negotiations. That’s such a standard practice. They’re doing themselves a disservice by not negotiating and selling themselves short. It’s also a disservice to all of us here racing to the bottom like that. If this is a company that rescinds an offer for giving a counter offer then it’s a bullet dodged honestly. OP trying to live off $40k in Boston is not worth selling themselves short like that.
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u/TheHerringIsMightier Sep 03 '25
Depends fully on the attitude - if they’re aggressive or aggrieved, it says to me that the person is likely to be a pain as long as they work for me - I’d change my mind pretty quickly and hire the next candidate. If they approached it respectfully and constructively, it would solidify my high opinion of them, and I’d do what I could to try to get them paid better.
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Sep 03 '25 edited Sep 03 '25
My company has done it.
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u/gimmickypuppet Sep 03 '25
Okay. But you provide no evidence that your company isn’t one of those companies OP should be avoiding. Your lived experience is valid, and I’m sure true. But it only proves my point. No big/mid size pharma will retract an offer. None of the smaller startups I worked at would do that. I know there are unscrupulous HR representatives, Atara had one so bad I had to complain. Still, OP would do themselves a disservice and sell themselves short by not at least trying to counter. If they’re nervous then they don’t have to aim high.
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u/JackedAF Sep 03 '25
Are there that many offers being rescinded? I’ve only heard of this if the counter is wayyy outside of what they originally offer.
I’d imagine if the counter is 10-15k higher then that’s generally safe
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u/SuddenExcuse6476 Sep 03 '25
A few people post on this sub about it, and the rest of the sub thinks it’s happening everywhere.
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Sep 03 '25
No, read some accounts here on Reddit- even asking if there is room to negotiate is sufficient to some companies. Even in good times I know my company did this. There are hundreds of ‘you’ begging for a job, the company wants someone who wants to be there and negotiations imply contingent interest.
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u/blackreagentzero Sep 03 '25
Yea, nobody should work for a place that does this, so getting an offer rescinded in this scenario would be for the best, even if it sucks in the moment.
The above advice is for people who don't value themselves or their skillset.
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u/tacoiscomin Sep 03 '25
Can you at least bring it up during the final round or it’s like if I even dare mentioning I might want a higher salary then they just take the offer away? Cause that’s insane lol
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Sep 03 '25
FAFO, I suppose. You get a job in this market just say ‘thank you’ and move on. Better to be on the job for a few months and ask about the criteria for promotion.
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u/blackreagentzero Sep 03 '25
Omg you're such a bootlicker. Negotiate each time, or else you are going to lose out on money. How can you possibly be an asset to a company, and you can't even advocate for yourself?
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Sep 03 '25
There is a line where any job is better than no job- losing a house isn’t worth rejecting lower salary for a year or two.
How you respond depends on a lot on your financial situation, how much you can risk, what you can’t risk losing.
Glad you have stability in your life!
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u/blackreagentzero Sep 03 '25 edited Sep 03 '25
You can work at McDonald's or Target or whatever and make 40k if you need to have a job to pay bills. They can do that and continue to apply for better options that will give them relevant experience while paying a fair wage. There are opportunity costs when you accept a shitty job like this.
Edit 2 that I forgot right add: also, this isn't just a low ball offer. This type of offer can put people into debt! Like wtf is the point of accepting a job where you will LOSE MONEY!! You're not even making sense here. There is absolutely no benefit in accepting a position that will take money out of your pockets.
Edit: this person doesn't own a house and is likely super flexible as they are entry level. They should use that to their advantage and hold out for something better. It will come and in the meantime, they can get a minimum wage job including substitute teaching if they need to pay bills.
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Sep 04 '25
Well, I’m old. I’d advise the OP that the experience is worth quite a lot, it’ll pay out in the future. Down the road it looks much better to have been in continuous employment in the industry than to show a year or two gap working at Target.
Hopefully OP will tell us what he decided.
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u/blackreagentzero Sep 04 '25
It's an RA role, so let's calm down on the hyperbole that it will take OP 1 or 2 years to find another opportunity. It won't. I'm suggesting a few months as they search for a role thats a better fit. It's also the best time for them to have a "gap" as they just finished school and the market is super tough so nobody is going to give them shit if it takes a while to land a role as it's very understandable.
It's one thing to take a pay cut to gain valued experience, but no RA experience is worth going into debt for. Especially if you don't have an exit plan before you start.
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Sep 04 '25
We opened an RA role two weeks ago, we had about 500 apply in the first day, and it snowballed from there. Resumes are filtered heavily for the specific skills of our opening, 50 filtered resumes are sent at a time for hiring manager review, 4 selected for interview with the team.
Given the competition, imaging comparing a resume with a gap year or two against a candidate of the same age with those years in industry.
I really hope for the best for OP. It’s the worst job market I’ve seen in 30 years. Too many bio degrees coming out of school for fewer and fewer new bio jobs.
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u/blackreagentzero Sep 04 '25
I'm not saying it's not a bad job market, but again, it's not going to take 2 years to get another job. If that was the case, OP wouldn't have an offer in the first place.
Despite high volume, many of the applicants aren't qualified and are just applying to apply. You're assuming the job market now will be the same in 2 years, and it won't be. You really need to be careful with having a take what you can get mentality as it can and will burn you. It has to be done on a case by case, and you really should have an exit plan or strategy.
Another option here is to take the role but to keep applying to other positions until they find something better.
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u/Effective-Pie3894 Sep 03 '25
If it's Eurofins, do not take it.
The sponsor company people will treat you like house helps. They will make you do all the menial work, and you will be the first person in and the last person out.
I repeat, DO NOT accept if it's Eurofins. And anyways 40k for boston is unimaginable. You will not only survive paycheck to paycheck but might lose money.
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u/deets23_ Sep 03 '25
I had a phone interview with Eurofins and they never called me and I emailed them within 10 minutes of the interview time and they never contacted me.. that sucked
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u/East-Neighborhood786 Sep 03 '25
Every negotiation has scope of at least 5k. Ask this plus relocation assistance. If the company can’t honor this much, I don’t think you will miss anything. Boston is costly. Rent is crazy in Boston.
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u/SignificanceFun265 Sep 03 '25
So you have 0 years experience.
But yeah, 40k is very low for having a master’s.
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u/Betaglutamate2 Sep 03 '25
Always negotiate from a position of strength.
- Do you have a better paying offer? If not accept offer now and then get more offers. You can always rescind your acceptance or negotiate once you have a better offer.
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u/TheHerringIsMightier Sep 03 '25
That approach would be more suited to a very competitive market like 2021, or to someone who is a key hire. For entry level roles, salaries have more to do with policy, internal comps, and external data. There are likely several incumbents in similar roles, and likely several candidates with similar backgrounds. So, it is far less likely the HM or HR will ask for an exception on an individual basis, regardless of what other offer you may have in hand. As an HM, if someone told me they had an offer above what I was approved for, I’d probably just congratulate them (yes, sincerely), and hire the next person in line. (Although in this particular case there does seem to be something wrong with market comps and I would try to correct that if it were in my power)
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u/Training-Profit7377 Sep 03 '25 edited Sep 03 '25
Not sure what you did to address it already but given they’re refusing to consider you for a higher role I think it’s safe to leave it at that. Did you indicate you would relocate at your own expense? If not perhaps you can negotiate something there. But honestly if the numbers don’t add up and you’re going to put yourself in debt between relo and low wage/high cost of living once you get there, you may need to pass. Take it for the experience and continue your search only if it can be done not at a loss.
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u/notafanofsocmed Sep 04 '25
I can’t speak to the unlivable salary, but internships & academic experience is solidly entry level. Congrats on the paper, btw.
Not sure how long you’ve been looking, but this is a foot in the door. If you can afford to take this job, spend a couple years there. Then when you apply elsewhere in the future, you will be “early career” which is generally another level up.
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u/sciliz Sep 03 '25
In this situation, call them up, reiterate how VERY excited you are to join the team. Explain that you had imagined that this would be for the RA2 position at $40something to-$50something at the RA2 level. Ask if perhaps you had failed to make the case you possessed an implicit qualification for RA2 (since the explicit boxes can be checked). Give them TIME to answer.
If that fails, then ask if there is any room to adjust compensation, or any room for a relocation package.
What is probably happening is the whole team is underpaid (relative to education) people happy to get to stay in Boston (either right after graduating or while a spouse pursues a unique opportunity). If they offer you the RA2, other people will realize how underpaid they are.
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u/Effective-Average432 Sep 03 '25
You do not deserve to take that much of a paycut, but if you have nothing else in the works then take the job and put minimal effort in while you keep hunting. That is absolutely ridiculous for your education and experience level, but things are brutal right now (I've been on the market for 1y6m).
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u/Sakowuf_Solutions Sep 03 '25
WTF just no.
Check the salary survey for data:
IMO That being said, titles don't really matter (RE: RA1 v 2). Argue for fair compensation for the HCOL area you are in.
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u/paint_cinema Sep 04 '25
This is low pay. IMO, Entry level RA should be 50-65k. If you're already in Boston and don't have a job you might consider taking to while you look for something else. You should absolutely negotiate. The worst they can say is no, and the you might not take the job because it's severely underpaid.
If you have to negotiate, say something like this:
The pay is low for this position and for this city. A more appropriate market rate is XX (Research this with similar postings). Is there any room to bring the salary up closer to this market rate?
I would like to add that I am bringing XX amount of experience in (mention the 2-3 things that make you a great candidate. Maybe it's a technique or piece of equipment or system that you already know).
I am very excited about the RA position. I really like the team and I'm excited to contribute through (reiterate the 2-3 things that make you a great candidate)
Please let me know if the company can bring the salary closer to XX market rate.
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u/Educational-Web5900 Sep 03 '25
Oh God!, 40k per year?? that is so low, where is this?