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Comment by clinta | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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.

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