The conventional advice is "just get a competing offer." Great. Thanks. Very helpful when you're interviewing at one place because you're employed, stealth searching on your lunch break, and barely have bandwidth to run one process.
I've done this twice now without a competing offer. Once it worked, once it didn't. Here's what I actually learned.
What doesn't work: Saying you have "other options" when you don't. Recruiters at companies that make a lot of offers hear ambiguous leverage all day. It doesn't move them. Worse, if they call your bluff and you fold, you've weakened every other ask you might make.
What works better than a competing offer: Specific market data, sourced. Not "I've seen higher ranges" but "for senior SWE in Austin, Levels.fyi shows the 75th percentile is $X for similar companies." Pull the PDF if you can. This reframes the conversation from your desire to their market position. The cost of starting under market. If base is the anchor for future raises, a $10k gap now compounds. I've literally said that to a recruiter: "I know raises are percentage-based here, so I'd rather close the gap now than spend two years recovering it." Got a modest bump, not a large one. One-time asks instead of base. Signing bonus. Extra PTO. Remote equipment stipend. Accelerated first review. These come out of a different budget and often face less resistance than a base change. I once got a $8k signing added when they couldn't move base. Not as good as $8k more in base annually, but real money. Timeline as leverage. If you're being asked to decide fast, you can push back on the deadline. "I want to give this serious consideration -- can I have until [date 5 days out]." More time is sometimes enough to get another recruiter moving faster on a different pipeline.
The one that didn't work: I held out for more on a role I really wanted, had no competing offer, and they didn't budge. I took it anyway. The lesson there was that my floor was actually their ceiling and I should have assessed that earlier.