HR & the number

Modelled on a standard Bangalore structure: 10% variable, basic at 40% of fixed, employer and employee PF at 12% of basic, gratuity accrual, new tax regime with the ₹75,000 standard deduction. If an offer is fully fixed with no variable, treat it as roughly one band higher — a fully fixed ₹22 lakh behaves like ₹24 lakh here. The middle column is the one to reuse: it does not depend on the example at all. Divide it by your own monthly in-hand and you have your version of the third column. Indicative, not exact; your real number depends on the specific structure.

Those three are the example's numbers, not yours. Derive your own the same way and you will not have to think about it in the room: walk away at about twenty percent more monthly in-hand, target forty, open at fifty. The percentages are the part that travels.

Swap in your own two numbers — what you actually take home, and the target you derived from the table above — and then stop talking. The silence after a number is uncomfortable and the person who fills it loses. Practise this literally: say the number, close your mouth, and count to ten if you have to.

Never answer this with a number. It converts your floor into their ceiling in one sentence.

That last clause matters. Offering to disqualify yourself early is credible and generous, and it makes the refusal to name a floor read as efficiency rather than gamesmanship.

This works because it moves the conversation from "what you want" to "arithmetic we can both check". It is very hard to argue with, and it does not require them to agree you are worth more — only that the maths is the maths.

Never accept in the room, even when the number is good — especially when the number is good, because that is when they expect you to be too pleased to negotiate.

Then use those forty-eight hours: email every other live process saying you have an offer in hand with a deadline. That single email is the highest-return action in your entire job search. It is the difference between negotiating with words and negotiating with alternatives.

1. Fixed versus variable, in writing. "₹24 lakh" with ₹6 lakh variable is an ₹18 lakh job with a bonus you might get.
2. Was the variable actually paid last year, and at what percentage? Ask directly. A straight answer tells you a lot about the company; an evasive one tells you more.
3. Joining bonus and its clawback period. Usually one year. It is real money but it is not salary — never let it be used to close a gap in fixed pay, because year two you are back to the lower number.
4. Notice buyout. Ask them to reimburse it. Many will, it costs them almost nothing structurally, and it is the easiest concession in the whole negotiation.
5. Equity, if a startup. Ask for three things: the strike price, the total outstanding shares (not just your count), and the last round's valuation. Without all three the number of options is meaningless. If they will not give you all three, value the equity at zero and negotiate on cash. Also ask about the cliff, the vesting schedule, and the exercise window after leaving.

Yes, and less than people think. The band follows the company, not the city — a Series B product company pays close to its own band wherever its office is. What moves is the floor: the same title at the same size of company sits a little lower outside Bangalore, and the number of companies bidding for you drops a lot.

Rough multipliers on a ₹26 lakh ask in Bangalore, for the same kind of company:

Two things that matter more than the multiplier. First, ask what a company\'s band is rather than what the city pays — the spread between two companies in one city is far wider than the spread between two cities. Second, if you are being hired remotely by a Bangalore company while living elsewhere, some will try to pay a location-adjusted number. That is negotiable and often just an opening position; the work is the same work.

It usually arrives within a day of your resignation, it is usually 20–40% up, and it usually comes with a sentence about how much they value you. Take it seriously enough to think for a night, and then know what you are looking at.

• Ask why the number was available yesterday and was not offered. Not out loud, necessarily. But if they could pay it all along and did not, that is the answer to your original question about whether to leave.
• The structural reason you are leaving does not change. If it is that a client studio ends in handover and you want to own a product for years, a raise does not turn a studio into a product company. Write your own version of that sentence down before the counter arrives, because it is much harder to find under pressure.
• You are now a flight risk on record. In a lot of places the counter buys them the time to plan around you, and the next cycle is quieter than it should be.
• Consider it seriously only if what changes is the work — a different team, a product they are actually keeping, a scope they will put in writing. Money alone puts you here again in eight months, and you will have burned a process to get it.

They will ask:

• Confirm current CTC with payslips or Form 16.
• Notice period, last working day, earliest joining date.
• Are you holding other offers, and at what number? (You may decline to name the company; a range is fine.)
• Background verification consent — employment, education, sometimes address.
• Any gaps to explain?
• Comfortable with the location and the five-day model?
• What would make you turn this down?

Have on your phone before you walk in:

• Last three payslips and your most recent Form 16.
• Offer letters and relieving letters from previous employers.
• Degree and diploma certificates as PDFs.
• PAN and Aadhaar.
• Six printed copies of your resume. Walk-ins run on paper and you will be asked for it three times in one building.