> Hi HN! You really like if-else statements, right? Let me frame a humane conversation like salary negotiation as a bunch of conditionals so that it is within your comfort zone. If they say X, then repeat after me: "..."
Then HN follows the advice and comes back and complains about being stuck in a soulless job that they just learned to "remove their feelings from it". Just look at these comments as a tiny example.
About me: I have the final say in all of our hirings at a stable startup that many people have told me would be their dream job.
I will not hire a person who follows this process. Sure, against a recruiter you may be able to negotiate to push the number up. That's because they are looking for their bonus and only care if you finish your probation. Against me, you are trading off your image, because I try to see your role 2 to 5 years down the road. That's when a position truly pays off for us.
Basically, I am trying to understand if I can make you happy now, and keep you happy in the coming years. For that, you have to help me see you as a person WHO KNOWS WHAT YOU WANT.
Now, let's follow this article's advice on salary negotiation, and see where that lands us:
1. I ask you for your salary expectation. 2. You return the question back to me. (“Yeah, I have some thoughts around it but I was actually wondering what the salary range for the position is?”) 3. I either answer you or re-return the question back to you. 4. You give me the answer to question #1 anyways.
You are not negotiating. You are running a subroutine. You are also telling me that you are not an open nor a direct person. There is no "money on the table" that you can get from me by just asking the right order of questions. I want to know what satisfies you based on your lifestyle, what you heard from your friends, and what you saw online. I don't want to play mind tricks or be played. In the era of ChatGPT, I have seen it all. You hiding behind intricate words does no favor.
Same goes with what the article suggesting about leverage. In our previous posting, we got 500+ applicants. If I give you an offer, it is not for bargaining. I think I am a fair person and I try my best to meet your need. If you come back to me and ask for more because Adobe is offering you something interesting, I realize you don't really care about us vs Adobe, you are going for the best bid. Again, I want you to think about that 2-5 year timeframe, would I be in the right mind to count on you? Probably not. So I suggest that you take Adobe's offer and we move on to a candidate that we feel sees something special in us.
That being said, I get why people may try these tactics. people are worried that they are giving too low of a number and if they had said something higher, it would have been fine anyways. Well, you can ask me how do I ensure that people get their fair share and what policies we have to keep salaries competitive through promotion.
Trust me, it will be clear.