re: Looking for salary negotiation advice

Challenging to negotiate promotions in your current company. There is a lot of relationship risks at play that are non-monetary considerations. HR at big companies make this a pretty narrow discussion.

Now, you should never underestimate the leverage you have if being recruited by a new company. Finding good people is terribly hard and someone that is happy in a current position has all of the power in that negotiation. Being able to walk away and leave the company right where they started looking for someone puts that company in a tough spot (assuming finding someone with your skills is a challenge). There is less relationship risk when you are just getting started and at worst they will respect you for playing hard ball. You just have to be willing to accept that the negotiation may come to an empasse and you are good with passing on the opportunity.