What Color Is Your Parachute 2018 by Richard N. Bolles copy

The Third Secret of Salary Negotiation
During Salary Discussion, Never Be the First One to Mention a Salary
Figure
Where salary negotiation has been successfully kept offstage for much of
the interview process, when it finally does come up, you want the
employer to be the first one to mention a figure, if you possibly can.
Why? Nobody knows. But it has been observed over the years that
where the goals are opposite, as in this case—you are trying to get the
employer to pay the most they can, and the employer is trying to pay the
least they can—whoever mentions a salary figure first, generally loses.
You can speculate from now until the cows come home, as to why this is
so. There are a dozen theories. All we really know for sure is that it is true.
Inexperienced employer/interviewers often don’t know this strange rule.
But experienced ones are very aware of it. That’s why they will try to get
you to mention a figure first, by asking you some innocent-sounding
question, like: “What kind of salary are you looking for?”
Well, how kind of them to ask me what I want—you may be thinking.
No, no, no. Kindness has nothing to do with it. They are hoping you will
be the first to mention a figure, because they’ve learned this lesson from
ten thousand interviews in the past.
Accordingly, if they ask you to be the first to name a figure, the simple
countermove you should have at the ready, is: “Well, you created this
position, so you must have some figure in mind, and I’d be interested in
first hearing what that figure is.”