How to Negotiate Salary Without Losing the Job Offer

Welcome, John.

Thanks so much, Divya.

It is so great to be here with you today.

Oh, excited for our conversation, John.

So, John, do you recall a moment in your youth that may have shaped the rest of your life when it was a moment or a person that left a positive mark on you?

Yeah, yeah, actually, yeah.

The thing that strikes me the most is probably a story when I was early in my career and I was moving from Portland, Oregon, all the way to Richmond, Virginia, which is about as far away from Oregon as you can be and still be in the United States.

That was a huge move.

And I'd always lived in Oregon for my whole lifetime, was born, raised here, and eventually just leapt into the Fortune 500.

But this was a pivotal experience because I was interviewing with Capital One Financial, and they had the most difficult and challenging pay negotiation process and interview and selection process that I'd ever seen anywhere.

And it was exciting for me.

I was a young recruiter.

I'd been maybe five, six years of experience, got a chance to go work for them.

Their selection process was designed to kill 9 out of 10 applicants.

That's 9 out of 10 people that are interviewing are not getting an offer there.

It was just so difficult.

I had to pass 24 different behavioral interview screens, a business case interview, and three tests.

Three big, long brain assessments.

And so...

At the end of that process, this guy named Chip, who was my recruiter through the process, a Capital One recruiter, and he and I are still friends today.

This was 1998, so a long time ago.

He came into the room and I'm like mopping the blood off myself because it was just such a harrowing experience.

I couldn't believe I'd just been through this.

He pulled up this chair and sat down next to me and he said, John, I'm going to give it to you straight here.

We have interviewed over 20 people for this.