Hardware+firmware job salary negociation advices - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: AloyseTech
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 02, 2020, 11:32:13 am
content: Hi,I'm currently an electronic engineer in a small startup. I do both hardware design from scratch to production and full firmware development for internal products and external client/company. It's my first job after graduating an electronic and computer science engineering degree. I had 4 years of apprenticeship in a "AAA" company before graduating (the engineering degree itself was a company/school apprenticeship program). I also had an important side project (involving creating a business and selling an electronic device [HW+FW] I designed myself) which plays a role in my experience.When I graduated I wanted to have more responsibilities and impact. Also I was attracted by entrepreneurship and startup environment. So I decided to move from my AAA company to a small startup. Since the environment was exactly what I was looking for, I accepted a low salary (30K€/y raw). It was 3 year ago.Now I would like to find a new job in a similar environment but focusing myself on a single, good quality product (not on multiple internal projects + external products which I do not fully endorse myself). I found a position in a startup where I would be responsible of the hardware and firmware aspect on a single product that I really like and believe in.I think I need some advice on how to negotiate a better salary, knowing that the CEO (who has no real background in HW/FW) will probably offer a variable monthly part based on objectives (to be defined). The company has secured something between 1-10 millions in funds. I would have to report to a CTO (with whom I already have an interview), but the final interview/negotiation is with the CEO.My initial expectation were 40k€ raw annual salary without variable part. So the gap between my current salary is quite big (bigger than usual I guess).Does anyone here have a fixed+variable part remuneration? How is it calculated? What is the ratio between the fixed and variable part? Does your job involve both full hardware and full firmware design? How would you define good monthly objectives that could be used for monthly variable salary calculation?I'm afraid I'm not a really good negotiator, but I would like to begin the final negotiation round serene and confident.Advice and examples from other engineers would really be welcome

author: rej
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 03, 2020, 10:31:08 am
content: Hi AloyseTech,I have a similar biography, except I'm more on the hardware side and I live in Germany. So I don know the numbers from France, but 40k + variable part with 3 years working experience seems really low for me. I wrote my thesis in an startup and got an offer with zero experience, which was higher than that. Like you I wanted to have more responsibilities and impact over the whole product. My solution was to work in a company which is small (<50 employees), but already left the startup-phase. There you get a reasonable salary and you can work together with skilled people, who have 10+ years working experience. For me I see no reason to work in a startup, if it is not my own.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 03, 2020, 10:59:02 am
content: Small Startup with a CEO that has no hardware/firmware experience, and a CTORun for something else. sounds like the type of a 'make money fast while squeezing the lemons that do the work'. You want a startup that is run by people that can do the work as well.