[beachstartup]

that's absurd. you should name the price you expect, and not go below your minimum.

would you hire a plumber that refuses to name his rate, and then when pushed, tells you a number 5 times higher than normal? why do you think any other employment negotiation is any different?

if you "never name a number", the person on the other end is going to know you're inexperienced and operating on cargo cult mythology, and will simply take advantage of you.

[Apocryphon]

The 5 times part is surely a joke, but not naming a number is like HN-promulgated salary negotiation 101

http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/ https://www.twilio.com/blog/2016/02/patrick-mckenzie-on-sala...

Definitely would be good if someone wrote a counter-response to this prevailing meme

[twic]

If you have a good idea of the price you expect, based on a clear understanding of what you can command, then this is an excellent idea.

The standard "don't name a number" advice is based on the assumption that most candidates don't have that. They know what they earn right now, but they don't know what they could be earning. In that situation, you want to sweat some information out of the recruiter by getting them to name the number.

There are other ways you can get a bit of edge.

In a previous round of job hunting, i let a recruiter persuade me to apply at Amazon, even though i was 85% sure i didn't want to work there. They made me an offer substantially higher than my salary at the time, because they're desperate to hire, because nobody wants to work there, because they're a shitshow. I could then take that offer to the other companies i applied to, where i actually did want to work, as a starting point in salary discussions.

In my most recent round, one recruiter said to me "Company X want to know how much you currently earn, because they can't offer above 130k for this position and they don't want to waste their time if you're on more than that". 130k may not sound like a lot to you over in the Valley, but it was getting on for twice what i was making at the time here in London. "Well,", i said in the most noncommital voice i could manage, "130k would probably be okay".

[astrange]

What currency is the 130k in? If they made you move here to SV, it may not be a raise.

[twic]

Pounds. It involved moving just over a mile from my old job.