26F have been offered a very high salary and am not sure how to proceed with negotiations
Hi all, hope this is an ok question for the sub!
Without doxing my linkedin, I work for a business that contracts for defence in a fairly niche role. I started on a 12m contract after leaving the army to do some face to face work, handling personal engagement with defence personnel.
I have been very successful in the role and received stronger survey feedback than many/most of the other people in my role, even ones who are far more qualified and experienced than me. I THINK I've been responsible for drumming up more business, but it's very hard to prove that the extra work is traceable back to me.
I was planning on leaving the role in December to pursue some of my personal interests and travel. My boss and our CEO sat down with me about a month ago to ask me to stay on, and I said no thanks. However today they've just offered me $190,000 with a potential $30,000 bonus. This is basically doubling my salary and I've decided to cave and stay on for another year or two, because this is pretty close to life changing money for me.
Having talked to some friends, they've told me that I should treat this as an opening offer and ask for more. While I agree that I think I've probably been the reason we've been contracted for a lot more work in the last 12m, I just feel really awkward about asking for more. And since this is the first time I've ever really been able to negotiate, I'm not sure how much I should even ask for.
So I guess two questions. Is it common in corporate culture to come back with a counter offer, even when their first offer was this generous? And what would I even negotiate based off, it seems like asking for more could sour the whole thing and if I ask for extra after a single year in the role. I almost feel like the risk to the relationship for another $10,000 or whatever isn't worth it. This is so much money to me that I'm afraid of it being taken away.
Thanks all!
Update: I'll be taking the offer when I meet with the CEO this morning! Thanks all for the advice and perspective, something felt off about the idea of negotiating and I don't think it's the right time to do that.
And thanks to the dudes who guessed who I am and have kept it classy.