[sokoloff]

> Trick is to apply without mentioning your extra conditions, get offer, and then say "I only want 32 hours /week."

This will often result in a big waste of time for both sides. You might not care about the company waste (fair enough), but as someone who values their own time, you might prefer to find out up-front in 15 minutes that your requirements cannot be met rather than after spending a day or more on it.

Same with salary. I don’t go 15 minutes into a call with a headhunter without understanding whether we’re in the same zip code on comp. I’d rather not waste my time.

[itamarst]

Definitely want to do some research up front to rule out places where it will never fly. But- negotiating shorter workweek is different than negotiating salary (in most countries, anyway).

My experience, as well as others I've heard from, is that if you say upfront "I want fewer hours" companies will just say "no". This is not as much an issue with salary, because there's diversity of salaries, but pretty much no companies will hire you for 4 days without extra negotiation. So: if you ask for 4 day workweek upfront the vast majority of companies will just walk away.

On the other hand, if you keep your mouth shut, once you have an offer already you're in a different situation. Worked for me, as well as person I interviewed who has done this way more than I have. The company has decided they like you, you've impressed them, now they're in "what do we do to hire this person" mode. So if you ask at that point they're much more likely to say "yes".