This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rebecca Cavallo, a senior data scientist from Melbourne, Australia. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I'm a senior data scientist with eight years of experience, specializing in AI. I started looking for new career opportunities in November 2021. I was in a government-based data science role I'd held for the past four years, and I wanted to explore commercial data science roles. I was at a point in my career where I was really looking at what would set me up for the long term in the direction I wanted to go.
After about six months of job hunting, I started talking to hiring teams in March 2022 and interviewing in April 2022, before or after work. Some of them didn't work out, including a machine learning role at a well-known Big Tech company. After my first interview, I knew that it wasn't a good fit, and they didn't extend an offer.
I cast a wider net to some tier-two tech companies. I ended up having to choose between two offers.
I received two tech offers for data science roles at the same time
The first offer from Company A was mid-six figures — a step up from the job I held — plus an unguaranteed 20% bonus, with two to three days in the office. The second offer from Company B was $5,000 less than the first, fully remote, but with no bonus. I negotiated with Company A, requesting a $10,000 a year salary increase. In the end, I was offered a $5,000 bump.
The benefits, including leave, superannuation, and training budget, were about equal across both companies.
Here are the strategies I used to negotiate and decide between the offers.
1. I did a career audit of what I wanted from my next role
Before I started applying for jobs, I sat down and conducted a career audit to determine what I wanted from my next role. I did this because I wanted to become a senior data scientist. I needed to gain more stakeholder experience in whatever position I took to help me move into the next senior role.
I wrote down my dream conditions, then my non-negotiables, and rated them from zero to 10 to see which were most important to me. My dream role would be at a mature company where I could gain this experience, because when I looked at job descriptions for senior data scientists, I needed to demonstrate the ability to put models into real-world use. That factor was a 10.
Joining a large team because I wanted to learn from people was a seven or an eight. Being able to guide my own projects was a seven. Interest in the company was about a five, and how I got along with the managers and the hiring team was also a five.
I had the same number of interviews at each company. At the end of each one, I scored it, focusing on three main things:
Growth and learning opportunities. Would this role help me fill gaps in experience I haven't yet gained that would be important in the long term?
Team culture. Was I going to join a team of people I could learn from? Did I get a good vibe from the colleagues and managers I met? Did they enjoy their work? How much autonomy to learn was there in the role?
The company. Was I interested in the industry? Was the company technologically mature?
2. I let Company B know that I already had another offer
The final interviews for both companies happened within days of each other. I had an offer from Company B, and after my final interview with Company A, they called me back, immediately offered me the role, and outlined the benefits.
I was upfront during the interview with Company B's hiring manager and HR that I was in the process with another company. I told them, "I'm going to be candid that I'm interviewing with another company at the moment. I'm really interested in this role still."
Later, I also told Company A in the final interview that I had an offer from another company and needed to give a final answer in a few days, either way. I think being candid helped create a sense of urgency because of Company B's offer. It probably sped up Company A's response to me and helped Company A come back with the extra money a few days later. It's hard to say if that would've happened otherwise.
3. I leveraged my Company B offer to get more money from Company A
After receiving a verbal offer from Company B, I negotiated for a higher salary at Company A.
I knew the going market rate for my position. I told Company A that I was excited about the opportunity but was looking for an additional $10,000 in annual salary.
Three days later, they countered with $5,000. It wasn't a one-for-one match, but I was happy with the offer.
4. I used my career audit data from my interviews to help make my decision
After the final interviews, I added up all the scores. I decided to take the slightly lower-paying offer from Company B because I knew the tech maturity, skill development, and larger, well-established teams would make me a better data scientist and set me up for more opportunities.
The fact that the first offer was remote wasn't a factor in my decision since I was very open to hybrid — I didn't want to do five days a week in the office, but two to three days would've been fine.
The scores were pretty close — they were within about 20 points of each other. That helped because I knew I was already leaning toward Company B. Having that in a numerical form made it less emotional and more objective.
It didn't bother me that I was getting paid less, because I knew from the factors I'd identified in my audit that it was setting me up for what was to come. I wasn't that concerned about giving up the potential bonus from Company A since it wasn't fully guaranteed.
In the end, besides key factors like tech maturity driving growth in my skills, my interest in the company, and the hiring manager's personality, my decision was also influenced by personal factors like flexibility, the number of team members, and the level of autonomy in the role.
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I feel I made the right decision in taking Company B's offer
I don't regret it at all — it ticked all the boxes for what I wanted. I wouldn't be the practitioner I am now without the skills and knowledge I gained by taking the lower-paying job. I joined a team that was very experienced, and from a technical standpoint, they made me a better coder and problem-solver.
My career audit also helped ensure that I joined a company with a lot of opportunities to demonstrate the experience that I'd need to get to the next level, which I did pretty quickly. A year after starting at Company B, I was promoted to the senior data scientist position that had been my long-term goal.
If I find myself negotiating multiple offers again, I'd definitely use the same approach, but I'm really enjoying the role that I'm in at the moment. What the pro says
We consulted Andrea Wasserman, a career coach, to weigh in on whether Rebecca made the right decision.
Rebecca made her strongest move before the offers arrived: She established clear goals for what a new job would need to do for her career. That kept her from using compensation as the only scorecard. Since her goal was to move from government to commercial data science and build a stronger AI experience, the better offer wasn't necessarily the higher-paying one — it was the one that provided a stronger technical environment, the right scope and team, and more credible mentorship.
When the time came, she negotiated thoughtfully. She was transparent about having competing processes, using one offer to improve another, and didn't let the improved offer seduce her into taking the wrong role. Many candidates conclude that if a negotiation is successful, they should accept the offer. Rebecca separated the tactical win from the strategic decision, which reflects the discipline candidates should have.
However, the lesson isn't that candidates should always accept less compensation in exchange for career growth. Where Rebecca may have left something on the table was with the offer from Company B. If that was the role she wanted, she still could've asked the company to close part of the $10,000 gap, offer a sign-on or retention bonus, commit to an early compensation review, or articulate the promotion path.
Job seekers should be cautious when companies sell "growth" because they don't want to pay the market rate. Before settling for less money, candidates should study the organization to understand who will teach them, what they'll be exposed to, how performance is evaluated, and what the next level actually requires.