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Comment by leesec | Hacker News Reader

I like your advice except for the "you're looking to make $xx,000'. NEVER say the first number IMO. The reason being is that it limits you to X% (prolly 5-10) range around that number. If you say I'm looking to make 80k, and they were going to offer you 120k, what do you think they're going to offer you now? Deflect until they say a number and then think carefully about making your counter.

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You should be picking a large enough number you'd be happy with. If you think there's a chance they'd offer $120k to start with, go for that figure. If you join on $80k and they say "Guess what?!? We'd have paid you double!!!", start looking for other jobs immediately on that higher rate and don't even put the $80k one on your resume (I actually did something similar and doubled my previous salary in 4 weeks).

Suggesting the first figure is all about anchoring [1]. Once that first figure is out there it sets the tone for the negotiation. Many employers will try to offer you $current_salary + $small_delta. This advice is all about anchoring at a higher figure, breaking away from any relationship to your previous figure. So it's important you do say the first figure.

Also, the deflection is there to make the figure you want seem normal to you. It's no big deal you're asking for a whopping salary - that's just what you expect. The last thing you want to do is take a sharp intake of breath and make it seem like you're overplaying your hand. Just casually drop in $top_end_figure and move on with the conversation.

A great book on negotiation skills is "Everything is Negotiable" [2]. That book has literally made me thousands.

[1] https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/negotiation-skills-daily/w...

[2] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Everything-Negotiable-4th-Gavin-Ken...

What are your strategies for tactfully deflecting this question?

Personally I try to start a discussion about how important benefits are to me, and the fact that they can make comparing salaries between companies meaningless, so I can't really talk about pay expectations until I have a good understanding of the full compensation package.

But I'd love to hear some other approaches to go to.

Are benefits that important? You can't spend Nespressos and table football. It's different if you mean equity/pay/overtime, etc. that sort of financial bundle. The other stuff is just window dressing that the company keeps after you move on. I'd put it firmly in the nice-to-have category.

I mean health benefits specifically. I have a child with special needs. The difference between his therapy covered with or without coinsurance can be 20k per year out of my pocket.

*Edit: Of course this isn't something I want to let a prospective employer know, so I try to keep it generic by referencing benefits.

Yeah usually something along these lines, if they press on first number I'd say something like, "I'm open to considering a variety of offers, but I'd have to see what the whole package looks like, and I'd really be interested in hearing more about the company first."

https://haseebq.com/my-ten-rules-for-negotiating-a-job-offer...

I don't know if this is the specific article addressing that question, but this guys writing on negotiations was very helpful to me.

Thank you for this. This was very helpful.

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