Compensation is the first thing I bring up now. "I currently make X salary, Y annual bonus, and Z equity. This position will need to exceed all 3 by at least 20% before I even consider it. Does that sound doable? If not, let's not waste any more of each other's time."
Way too many lowballers out there.
Good Engineers are at the value of gold. Can save you a lot of money down the road.
I have like 8y of experience and salary requirement is the first thing I negotiate. Easy 30-50% jump each time in past few years.
I disagree: the first one who gives a number is able to anchor the negotiation around their preferred outcome; it's much harder to negotiate up from a lowball number than the other way around.
There is no situation where you will say a high number and they will move up to meet you if that number was greater than their max budget to begin with.
Yes, and since it's quite common to have companies where their max budget is not acceptable (probably because they are the ones who can't fill their vacancies and thus have recruiters spam everyone all the time), it's important to filter them out by saying the high number before you've wasted many hours on worthless interviews.
Or you can ask for their expected compensation range instead as well.
Interviewee: I want X.
Company: Sorry but that's above our max budget.
Interviewee: What can you offer me?
Company: Y, Y<X that's our max budget.
Interviewee: OK, I can consider it if you promise me a reasonable revision in a year.
2:
Interviewee: Whats your offer?
Company: Z, Z<Y
Interviewee: That's too low. I want X.
Company: You're asking for X when we offered Z. That's too much of a difference and it doesn't sound reasonable to us. We find it insulting. Let's end it here.
The hiring manager is a person representing a company, which is exactly why they would find their downplaying the offer (because they were hoping to increase it somewhat to meet the candidate in the middle, so they had to start low because they want to keep some gap there) embarassing and feel insulted.
They may not be spending out of their pocket but they are spending out of their budget.
But really you shouldn't start with giving a number. They already have a huge advantage because they negotiate salary all day and you do it once every few years. Just ask them for the range and make sure the minimum is above your X+20% number. If it's not, let them know that their range is too low, and if they won't tell you, say, "thank you, next".
If they don’t know what you’re making now, they will think the minimum might be too little and if they really like you they will go higher than the 1.2x.
That's the risk of going first.
a) "I make $100k today and I want at least 20% more which is $120k"
vs
b) "I want at least $120k"
The difference there is a lot less obvious. Of course, in the second you might have a minuscule chance of them offering way over $120k whereas in a you would not.
Startups are a bit more hit or miss though, and if they are small enough they probably won’t even have pay bands. You need to do more due diligence there
If you talk comp early, you'll potentially (almost certainly) lowball yourself. If you don't, you'll spend a full time job's worth of time with hopeless positions.
What if they are willing to offer 50% more, but you ask for 20% more and end up with it?
If they go first, and they lowball you, you can always ask for more. If you go first and say "I want $X", and they say "OK!" you probably left money on the table.
You have a lot of experience, so you probably know what you are worth. But a lot of people a few years into their careers would undervalue themselves in this kind of negotiation if they went first, especially if they are transitioning from startups to big tech.
20 years into your careers, you may be worth 10x or 1/10 of that same person.
Why waste people's time? It's a waste of time interviewing for a place if you know they aren't offering anything close to what you'll be asking. And if you're making 2-3x the median salary for that job title, you should probably get a comp range up front.
I've been burned by this a lot. Don't talk comp, go through hours of interviews, taking afternoons off for in person interviews (in the before times), all to find out that their maximum for for the position is a 25% pay cut.
When starting out, you are usually not going to be low balled as you are cheap. Your time is not worth as much either and you are trying to climb the ladder.
Once you get to proper level of compensation, your time becomes much more valuable and the number of offers that meet that level of compensation become much lower. This means your best call is probably to move to talking money first.
Of course, you might miss out on some opportunities but you'll save a lot of time.
Sets expectations and avoid wasted time, which everyone prefers.