[mgkimsal]

This one bugs me

"Recruiter: “Why don’t you tell me how much you think you’re worth?”"

Well... what I'm worth to a company depends a whole hell of a lot on how good they are operationally. Company A may be able to extract $500k of value per year from my skills. Company B may only be able to extract $80k of value from my skills. What am I "worth"? It's largely dependent on the environment I'm operating in, and how good they are at organizing everyone's skills to produce/extract value.

[rmc]

> "Recruiter: “Why don’t you tell me how much you think you’re worth?”"

My response: You're the recruiter. You should know more about this company, the industry in general, the industry in this city, current skills, etc than me. It's your job to know what I'm worth.

[ryandrake]

If your company is public, you can take a crack at that one using public data.

    My current company's Operating income (EBIT): $X
    My current company's Labor cost: $Y
    Number of employees: Z

So, on average employees at my company are worth ($X+$Y)/Z. Then you start adjusting. I'm a knowledge worker, so my contribution towards EBIT is greater than average (say, by 20%), etc. You can probably come up with an objective measure of your "worth" that is far more than you are making. That's what you start the negotiation with.

[harperlee]

This is a very interesting comment. I've never thought of it that way, but you could argue - for big corporations at least, where they are sufficiently mature - that lower pay expectations on their side signals structural problems. Raising that point on the negotiation might even be useful, as you move from "what can I prove /how much can I convince them that I am worth?", where all the burden is on me, to a more equitable position where they need to put guesstimates on the table.

[serve_yay]

Hell, I'll answer that question any day. No problem. And if they don't like my answer I'll find someone who does. The fact that what I'm actually worth to them depends on their operational efficiency is Not My Problem.

[sukilot]

Patio11's famous advice article includes this great point and others, IIRC

[mgkimsal]

At some point in one's career of working for other people, it will dawn on most people. Came a bit faster for me when I've been working for myself.

'Hourly billing' is a perennial issue - people want to compare hourly rates on stuff, and yet I'm typically able to get stuff done far far far faster than many others (perhaps not the average HN reader, but def compared to many people I know).

"What are you worth?" is, likely, only something that can be readily answered by those in the sales arm of an organization, as it's most readily tracked and accounted for in those terms.