I've been applying to game dev jobs as a new graduate, and it would be my first real, salaried, full-time job. I feel very out of my depth in the whole process, especially regarding things like contracts and salary negotiation. Since I'm a junior hire I feel like I shouldn't be asking for more money, but I don't know how to tell if I'm being offered a fair salary or not, especially in the case of relocation to an area with a different cost of living than I'm used to. Can you help?
If you want to be informed when it comes to your salary, I suggest approaching it from both a bottom-up and top-down perspective. Then, based on the information you gather, you can make an informed decision on whether the offer is worthwhile and possibly negotiate with the studio for compensation. So let’s get into that.
When I say bottom-up, I mean you need to calculate for yourself how much you need to live (reasonably) in that area. Look up the rents for apartments or houses in the area, figure out what your total monthly expenditures are (car payment, student loans, insurance, utilities, food, entertainment, gas, health care, etc.), and so on in order to calculate your expected monthly burn rate. Don’t forget to consider additional costs for work either - e.g. eating out for lunch. Add a little more for retirement savings and safety cushion in case of emergency and you have how much you need per month in take-home pay. Now multiply that by 1.3x because you’re going to have to pay income tax. Multiply this new monthly number by twelve and that’ll be your minimum annual salary target. You need to keep this number in mind, because going below it would really affect your ability to live. Taking a job should not put you further into debt. That’s unsustainable.
As a contractor, you’ll probably be paid hourly. To figure out your hourly rate, take that monthly amount (including the buffer for income tax) and divide it by four to get a weekly rate, then divide again by forty to get an hourly rate. Remember that most contractors don’t get health benefits included, so you should calculate that as an additional expense in your monthly necessities. The good news about contracting (in the States, at least) is that, as an hourly employee, you earn overtime pay (1.5x) after working your base eight for the day. Look up the local labor laws for hourly employees to get informed. The studio has to comply with the law, and that includes overtime and double time pay.
Then, consider the top-down perspective. Given your job title, what can you expect to make as an industry average? You can take a look at sites like ziprecruiter and glassdoor to see reported salaries for others with the same job title you’d be taking on. Pay attention to the distribution as well as the average. If you can, take a look at the studio itself on those sites to see if you can glean some information about the studio itself and the employees there including reported salary data. Look for other studios in the same city as well and take a look at their salary numbers for your job title too. That should establish a baseline for comparison. If they are offering on the low end, it doesn’t hurt to ask for more.
Finally, let’s talk about salary negotiation. Most people are awfully afraid of confrontation. That’s just part of being human. You’re probably terrified of jeopardizing your opportunity by asking for more. I get that. However, you have to realize that they do not hold all of the cards. You can ask for more, and it doesn’t hurt to ask. However, you need to be intelligent about what it is you ask for. The old adage holds true - “pigs get fat but hogs get slaughtered.” If you ask for a reasonable increase to the offer (5-15%), you’re probably fine. You are not without leverage, and you can use it to try for a better result.
If the studio rescinds the job offer because you asked to negotiate pay, that’s a huge red flag for that studio. It either means their budget is stretched so tightly that they’re probably in huge trouble already, or that they dislike intelligent devs who look out for themselves. Either situation is really bad and you do not want to work there. Walk away and don’t look back. It isn’t worth it. Your goal should be a sustainable career.
Remember, the studio has chosen you out of all of the applicants because they think you are the best choice. They have already invested a bunch of time, resources, and money into searching for a person to fill the position and they have chosen you for it. They wouldn’t be offering you the job unless they think that you’ve got what it takes. They’ve already established that they want you. They won’t be so quick to throw you back if you ask for slightly higher pay, especially when they’ll probably spend that much continuing the candidate search. At the very least, they’ll respond with “We can’t pay more than this offer”, in which case the decision is still yours and not theirs.
This isn’t even necessarily the end of the negotiation! You can, for example, say that you would like to take the offer, but you feel like you can contribute more than that. You would like to work together with your manager on a plan with specific, achievable goals that will prove your value and secure a pay raise within the first year of employment. Then, once you start, you can work your ass off to hit those goals and secure your pay raise. This pushes the pay raise out for a year, but it also demonstrates that you want to reach this goal and want to do well at the studio to prove it.
Overall, salary negotiation seems really scary but the best thing you can do is be informed. Know what you need to live, know what others in your field are paid, and don’t be afraid of asking for more (especially if you need it). The important thing is to be informed and smart about it.
The FANTa Project is currently on hiatus while I am crunching at work too busy.
[What is the FANTa project?] [Git the FANTa Project]
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