
Show HN: This guide is all you need to know about salary negotiation - JoshDoody
https://fearlesssalarynegotiation.com/book/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=hackernews.com&utm_content=online+book+announcement
======
dharmon
"Don’t give the first number in your salary negotiation."

Ugh, I get so tired of seeing this. I only see a few situations where this is
true:

1) You really have no idea what someone in your position in your area makes.

2) You have no "best alternative", i.e., you really need this job and must
take any number they give you.

For everybody else, anchor, and anchor high. You can both prepare the
recruiter in advance that you will be expensive and couch the actual number in
terms where it's clear you aren't threatening to walk if you don't get it.
Research has shown that anchors don't depend on any context to the actual
issue at hand, so you just want to state an incredibly large number in some
way, doesn't have to as direct as, "I want $2.5M / year in total comp from
your company." Hell, you should _want_ them to chuckle a little at your
number.

If they anchor low on you, your only option is to reset hard. You have to make
it abundantly clear that the number is unacceptable. The less desperate you
are for the job, the harder you should rebuff a low number, ideally with a "I
wish I had known that's where you were thinking, we could have saved everyone
a lot of time."

Negotiating is a game. Have fun with it.

~~~
chc
The point is that if you give a number first, there is now an upper bound on
your final salary but no established lower bound. If they give a number first,
there is now a lower bound on your salary but no established upper bound. A
situation where your compensation can only go up is seen as more advantageous
than one where your compensation can only go down.

~~~
whamlastxmas
It's a trade off. If you anchor high you're saving yourself time from the
majority of companies that try to underpay you. If you don't anchor, you risk
getting your time wasted but eliminate the risk not knowing what you're worth.

If you are a highly in-demand, already highly-paid developer, it is likely in
your best interest to anchor high. If you are a junior level and trying to get
a middle-level role, it's probably better to not anchor.

~~~
bbcbasic
Lead qualification and research will help save you wasting time without
showing your hand first.

------
brianwawok
Feedback -

Really hard to actually follow the "book". Each page is far too small, and
very hard to find the right link to "next". This would be 1000x more useful as
maybe 4-5 pages if not 1.

Now I assume it is like this because you want a bunch of clicks.. but I could
not image hunting around trying to find all the content. It is a pretty bad
desktop experience. Something 1/4 of the screen is content.. the rest is
header, footer, another footer, and maybe a plug to buy your book.

~~~
JoshDoody
Thank you for the feedback - I appreciate this and it gives me some great
ideas to experiment with.

I built it this way just because that's how I think of the negotiation
process—a series of discrete steps.

Can you elaborate on why it's difficult to find the "next" link? You mean the
breadcrumbs make it hard to find the right link? Or placement on the page is
challenging? Both?

Thank you again!

~~~
CJefferson
You need to guide people around more accurately.

Here is a stream of thought visiting the site.

Bla bla how to read, let's get to the content, scroll down fast. Woops, went
too far, now in footer. Put the content up-front when people arrive.

"PART 1", that sounds good. But that's not a link, even though it's blue (the
common colour of links).

Now in part 1.

Should I follow the links in the page, no let's go with 'Next'. This looks a
lot like the main page again. It is the main page. I clicked on the word after
Next, I should be 'Next'! Why have two links back to your main page after the
words 'Next' and 'Prev'?

[https://fearlesssalarynegotiation.com/book/salary-
structures](https://fearlesssalarynegotiation.com/book/salary-structures) is
basically contentless. Should I click on the links in the page, or on 'Next?'
If this is like a "book", I would expect to read it by clicking through
'next', but that misses most of the content. Basically, think about how you
want people to navigate through. Do you want people to work through page by
page with 'Next', or jump around freely? At the moment it seems I have to swap
between the two myself, and try to search out all the content.

~~~
JoshDoody
Excellent, thank you for your feedback. I've updated the main Table of
Contents so that when you click eg "Chapter 1. How companies manage their
salary structures", you're taken to the beginning of the chapter's content
rather than an overview of the concepts in the chapter. I see how this is
better.

Previous and Next are a little trickier to address, but your feedback helps me
see how it can be confusing. Thank you!

------
JoshDoody
After my recent discussion with @patio11
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11830598](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11830598))
and the great we got, I decided to make my book free to read online.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Cheers!

------
whack
_" Recruiters and hiring managers like to present an offer in terms of “your
total compensation package” or “total comp” because that number is usually
quite a bit bigger than the base salary. It often includes target bonuses,
stock options, etc. I recommend ignoring target bonuses or stock options when
you negotiate your salary because the real value of those things is often
unknowable."_

This actually sounds like bad advice for most companies I've worked with. Many
financial companies offer contract-guaranteed 1st year bonus amounts, and
there's a strong expectation that in future years, if you're doing even a
reasonable job, your successive bonuses will keep growing higher. In big tech
firms like Google/FB, you get a guaranteed number of RSUs that vest over 4
years, which sets a floor on your yearly bonuses for at least the first 4
years. For senior employees, this bonus can be just as big as the salary
itself.

Ultimately, the only number that matters is how much money you're going to
get. Whether this money comes in the form of salary, cash bonus, or RSUs, is
mostly irrelevant. It's good to be cynical about any unwritten promises the
recruiter gives you. But going to the other extreme and optimizing for base
salary, instead of total-comp, is a classic case of optimizing for the wrong
metric.

~~~
bbcbasic
It comes down to pricing a financial instrument. The expected amount of money
you will get. You can take risk e.g. contract vs. permanent and startup vs big
corp into that calculation, and probability (random bonus vs. almost
guaranteed) into account.

