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Comment by webwright | Hacker News Reader

While I hope to never be negotiating for a salary again, here's what I'd say when asked about a salary in a hypothetical job interview (to have my cake and eat it too):

"What kind of salary do I want? That's a hard question, especially in light of the fact that working with you guys is the most interesting opportunity I'm evaluating. I'd expect offers around [insert aggressive number], but again- let me stress that I'm really excited about the idea of working with you. So if you guys can't afford that, I'd still really be interested in hearing your best offer."

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I don't know if you'd want to make it extremely clear that the employer is your first choice and you would like to negotiate your salary to a lower point. It seems like you'd want the exact opposite of that.

I think it depends on how aggressive your aggressive offer is. It seems if you make a very aggressive number, you definitely want to signal strongly that you are willing to come down so they don't just move on to someone who starts with a lower number. And according to the article making that first offer very aggressive indeed seems to be taking advantage of the anchoring effect.

Yeah, if I thought I was worth $100k (and that they were going to offer me that), my aggressive # might be $150k or $200k. It's unlikely that they'd say, "Well gosh-- he really likes us, so let's offer him $80k".

There's also a lot of powerful psychology about saying that you really want to work with them rather than playing hard to get. By saying, "you're my favorite!" (truth or not), you're establishing with them (in their minds) that you're an exceptional judge of character. :-)

It's unlikely that they'd say, "Well gosh-- he really likes us, so let's offer him $80k".

But that is exactly what Google does actually do. Not on an individual basis mind, but as a general HR policy.

That's kind of what I did for my first fulltime job, starting in a few weeks. I'm being paid about half what I would be at BigCo (and what I was, even, during my various internships), but the quality of the work and people make up for it. Oh, and the stock options, too.

Yikes -- I don't know the specifics of your situation, but it's awfully risky to give up 50% of your potential salary if you're not a founder. If you're getting a very significant equity stake maybe, but would have to be a pretty incredible opportunity for the risk/reward ratio to make sense.

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