Got a job offer, negotiated salary, got rejected. Was I wrong?
Hi fellow designers! I recently went through a hiring process that left me with a lot of questions, and I'd genuinely appreciate some outside perspective.
I applied for a Graphic Designer position at a company here in our city. The process went smoothly — I got through all the interviews including a final one with the President. They extended a job offer with ₱20,000 basic salary, Monday to Saturday, 8 hours a day (onsite).
After receiving the official job description, I took time to carefully review the full scope of the role which included:
- Graphic design across 8 different businesses (finance, hospitality, food, property, retail, and more)
- Managing 9 platforms — 6 Facebook pages, 1 Instagram, 1 TikTok, 1 YouTube
- Daily social media posts across all platforms
- Video editing and video shooting
- Marketing planning and strategy
- Occasional UI/UX and frontend development
- 6 days a week, 48 hours a week
- Using personal equipment
For context, I graduated last year with a BS in Computer Science, completed internships in UI/UX, and built a portfolio of real projects with measurable results. I also created sample graphic designs tailored to their company during the application process to demonstrate my skills, they seemed to appreciate it, which I believe contributed to getting the offer in the first place.
I sent a polite email to HR expressing continued interest in the role, while respectfully asking if there was room to discuss the compensation given the scope, proposing ₱25,000+.
They responded by withdrawing the offer, citing a mismatch between salary expectations and experience level.
I'm not here to vent or blame anyone, I understand that companies have budgets and constraints. I'm genuinely asking: was my negotiation approach wrong? Was ₱25,000+ too much to ask given the scope and my background? Should I have handled it differently?
Would love to hear from people who've been in similar situations. What would you have done?