I never hear this question anymore- or at least, not where it hasn&#x27;t been answered already.<p>The trick?  That&#x27;s literally the first thing I bring up with a prospective employer, even before hello- &quot;I&#x27;m making X right now.&quot;  It&#x27;s remarkably effective and rather than making one sound difficult to work with, it makes one sound valuable.  It also sets a negotiation floor and trims off wastes of time.<p>In a boiler-room metro like San Francisco right now, employee turnover is rampant, so the &quot;let the inexperienced candidate negotiate against his own salary&quot; stratagem that matches employers&#x27; instincts throughout the country really bites companies here, because other employers can come in and +50% the employee&#x27;s salary after 3-6 months.