Ask HN: What's your salary expectation?
How do you respond this question when on a job interview?
How do you negotiate a good salary?
How do you negotiate a good salary?
There was a very similar question on Metafilter just yesterday[1], and this answer summed it up:
"Whenever I hear a candidate dither about specifying pay, I know they are either extremely flexible about pay, don't know the market very well, or don't value themselves very well. I know they will be willing to accept a lower amount than I would otherwise be able to offer.
In other words, if you don't specify a number, I'll specify one for you - and it'll be at the low end of what I can offer, not the high end. The highest paid candidates are the ones that know their value and refuse to work for less than their value. Most of those highest paid candidates are the ones that don't even bother giving a range of pay and simply say, 'I will work for $x'."
And, if it turns out your number doesn't result in an interview, then you've both saved a lot of time and a potentially huge dent to your salary curve.
So, as the above says, know your market and know your worth.
Let's assume you want a market salary -- you can still know your market and know your worth but let them name a number first.
The assumption is generally if an employer names a number first it's going to be on the low end of their scale. Therefore, there is room up to negotiate to get to your actual value.
Suppose hypothetically you know your worth to be $120K. You don't say anything, and the employer comes out with $100K. You can negotiate for that other $20K since you know what your worth is. If money isn't a factor ("extremely flexible about pay") or if they really can't pay you that much, you can negotiate on secondary benefits like vacation time, reimbursements, and travel/training budgets. Would you take $110K and $15K of benefits instead of a $120K salary and $2K of benefits? Some people might.
Suppose you did say $120K, they can still try to price you down by price anchoring you to their initial offer of $100K. They'll go into the benefits, the intangibles, and the value of their benefits relative to the compensation -- how the "catered daily lunch" is actually like $X of salary for example. Maybe you go back and forth on negotiations and end somewhere around the first scenario.
Another way this could go is you state your salary, and their lowest offer was above yours. While it could be attributed to not knowing the market or valuing yourselves, it could be because you don't know their salary bands. This company either really wants you or just plain pays more than "market". If they're thinking $130K and you say $120K, you'll lose out on $10K/year.
The hiring managers for most jobs are not business owners. They are middle managers with multiple bosses. Most see the hiring process as an opportunity to show they are management material. If you give them a number that they know you will accept, they can pull whatever levels need to be pulled in the organization to get approval. What they don't want to happen is that they overbid for a candidate who then still rejects the offer. That makes them look incompetent in front of HR and upper management. Most managers would rather just give you a safe offer that you are more likely to reject than a politically risky one that might still get rejected.
Naturally, defer salary negotiation until after they've decided they're going to hire you. But then don't feel like you absolutely can't give a number. If you do, give a nice high one.
"I expect my total compensation to be in the neighborhood of $250,000 a year."
Now you've framed the discussion in terms of why maybe you're not worth quite that much, why the market rate for the position doesn't warrant paying that much, and why the company doesn't really have that sort of budget for an engineer. That's a much nicer conversation to be having than the one where you're trying to explain why $70,000 isn't really the sort of bump you were expecting from the $65,000 you were making at that entry level job your first few years out of school.
* If time permits and this position is not on my 'do whatever it takes list' then I go bold and ask for more. If they accept - good, if not - not a problem. It worked for me quite well, and I managed to go above even the upper level of the official salary range.
* If I'm interested in the company then I don't ask myself and try to make them move first. A big advantage if there are other companies who are interested in you at the same time. Then just tell the upper figure in the job advert or try to find out how much the company is paying for similar positions. Hope they offer you the most they can, and then just accept.
The best case is that they just don't want to waste time by interviewing people that are way out of their price range. If you think that may be the case (you are way more expensive than they were thinking) then maybe signal a price so you can save time.