If you weren't a recent grad, you'd be able to negotiate easily. In other words, your value has hit the wall of an inflexible policy. It happens.
Long term, this means that your compensation is anchored to this starting package while you remain at this company.
None of this makes things "Bad" but it might change how long it'll be before you doubt or regret accepting the offer.
If you take the offer decide how long you want to give it a fair chance. After that, you'll have more experience on your resume and you can interview again if you want.
If you don't take the offer, you will be able to negotiate with a different company, but you can't predict what offer they'll start with.
For me, when I look at this I look at it from the lens of what I want next in life, then figure out which option might give the best "Step" to it. Then I set a kind of timebox to it.
So for example, if I want to get back to feel that high-impact again... maybe I'd be willing to try a startup for lets say 6 months. I'd re-evaluate after that.
I think the timebox helps because it helps folks remember it isn't a permanent choice and re-evaluate what opportunities really exist where you are and elsewhere.
If you weren't a recent grad, you'd be able to negotiate easily. In other words, your value has hit the wall of an inflexible policy. It happens.
Long term, this means that your compensation is anchored to this starting package while you remain at this company.
None of this makes things "Bad" but it might change how long it'll be before you doubt or regret accepting the offer.
If you take the offer decide how long you want to give it a fair chance. After that, you'll have more experience on your resume and you can interview again if you want.
If you don't take the offer, you will be able to negotiate with a different company, but you can't predict what offer they'll start with.