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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.

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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.

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