What to say when recruiters ask you to name the first number
I never understood this line everyone parrots about not giving the first number. That tactic works best only in situations where both parties have no clue what ballpark the other party has in mind. Which is definitely not the situation when you&#x27;re one of 1000 similarly qualified engineers applying for a well-established job role.<p>In situations where both parties have a reasonable idea of what ballpark they are playing in, it&#x27;s far better to toss the first number, because you get to set the baseline for the rest of the negotiation. Unless you&#x27;re a very experienced negotiator, that initial baseline plays an outsized role in where the negotiation winds up finishing. For example, suppose both you and your counterparty know that the negotiation is going to be within the 100-150k ballpark. You tossing out 145k as the first number, will play much more to your benefit than allowing the recruiter to toss out 105k as the first number.<p>Obviously this tactic only works if you&#x27;re well aware of what ballpark you&#x27;re playing in. But that should be achievable by simply talking to your classmates, or perusing the many salary aggregators and discussion forums online. The only caveat I would add is to wait until all interviews are over and you&#x27;ve received confirmation that the company wants to make you an offer. At that point, no one is going to reject you for being too optimistic with your initial offer. Worst case scenario: you&#x27;re going to get a much lower counteroffer. But at least you get the benefits associated with setting the baseline.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pon.harvard.edu&#x2F;daily&#x2F;negotiation-skills-daily&#x2F;what-is-anchoring-in-negotiation&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pon.harvard.edu&#x2F;daily&#x2F;negotiation-skills-daily&#x2F;w...</a>