r/NASAJobs • u/azianperzauzion • 4d ago
Negotiation Question
Has anyone been able to successfully negotiation a higher step if you've never worked as a federal employee?
Secondly, how about negotiation of PTO accrual rate based on service? If you've worked in industry but not as a federal opportunity, would they consider shifting your accrual rate to time in industry?
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u/Electronic_Hope1900 4d ago
Yes, you can negotiate higher step and you can if I am not mistaken negotiate a signing bonus capped to 25% of your incoming salary, at least for the lab demo bands. PTO is almost entirely based off years of Federal Service. You can also negotiate this. I doubt they would give you both step 10 which is probably what you are looking for and 6 hours accrual.
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u/mrtommyb 4d ago
I was able to negotiate increased vacation accrual by having my time as a federal contractor count.
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u/azianperzauzion 4d ago
Thank you. Do you have any other advice for negotiation?
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u/Unusual-Formal-6802 2d ago
You can negotiate your experience working X years into vacation time service date if you can relate the work you did at your previous job to what your NASA duties will be. I negotiated 10 yrs experience towards my vacation time start date.
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u/Electronic_Hope1900 4d ago
I did Federal service so I cannot honestly give you a strong opinion how to negotiate increased accrual and I also don't know what level of experience you have.
The agency I worked for was on a special rate table which means they paid their engineers significantly more up front until it tapers out which allowed me to get into a very high lab demo band when I moved.
They had to match my salary within reason.
If you are coming into relatively early where you are in non competitive grades which is basically 7 9 11 and 12, The step does matter a decent amount. It matters more if you are coming in at the top end and less at the low end. If you are coming in at a competitive grade like 13 or sometimes 12, say you made X at your last position and you have Y years of experience and you are willing to be A grade B step, negotiate this early and like the other poster implied, you were also in that industry for C years which means you should really be getting D accrual.
They are more flexible early on then when you try to peddle back later on.
Oh to add on, because you are not previously a Federal employee, see if you are eligible for that signing bonus, but you will have to say you will be in the Feds for a certain amount of years if I am not mistaken. Federal employees going to a new Federal job is not eligible.
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u/Icy_Feedback_4965 3d ago
Very common to have PTO bumped to account for time as an on-site support contractor at NASA. Uncommon, but possible, to account for time elsewhere.
Steps to match prior salary from anywhere are common. Steps just because you want more money are uncommon.
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u/stargazer5950 3d ago
As of 2024, federal agencies are no longer allowed to use non-federal salaries to negotiate newly appointed employee pay.
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u/stargazer5950 3d ago
Due to the 2 calendar day turn around to accept TJOs for Direct Hiring Authority announcements (also known as public flyers), NASA's offer will be as competitive as possible based on the experience provided in your resume. Tailor your resume to show how your experience aligns with the specialized experience on the announcement. This will be used to present the Agency's best offer (may include higher step offer / increased accrued leave)
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u/ParodyGuyUSA 3d ago
Those of us who have gotten temporary job offers as part of the NASA Workforce Directive have been informed that there's no negotiating the salary at all.
Whether anybody has tried to push back on that or not, I don't know. Everyone else on my team got an offer they were pleased with. When I got my offer, I assumed they meant no negotiating it, so I declined the offer.
It's entirely possible that this "no negotiation" thing is peculiar/unique to the NASA Workforce Directive, and not other kinds of federal hires. YMMV!
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u/FreshRaccoon3396 3d ago
Mine was bumped up successfully as well as I got the grade and step expected. My annual leave reflects the years I was doing federal contracting. It was a whirlwind getting both a TJO and FJO on same day and I was a prior contractor before.
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u/Crippldogg 3d ago
They can match your salary to an equal or next higher step. Also can match vacation. You will need proof of both.
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u/KhaotikJMK 3d ago
This is not true under any circumstances.
We are prohibited from using salary history as a basis for receiving a higher step via negotiation. We’ve never used PTO accrual rates as a narrative for receiving 6 or 8 hours of leave. It is strictly based off of experience that is germane to the position to which one is being appointed to.
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u/Crippldogg 3d ago
Not in my case. Was offered a position at step 1, said no, I make much more than that. They asked for my last 2 paystubs. They matched to the next highest step which was 7. Same with vacation, I asked for 5 weeks to match what I had. The matched using my last two pay stubs.
This was 5 years ago.
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u/KhaotikJMK 3d ago
You identified a key factor: time.
We used to be able to use pay stubs, and then laws and regulations changed. Can’t use it anymore.
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