How Programmers Should Negotiate Their Salaries [Comic]

Programmers and Salary Negotiations

Ever went to a job interview and were unpleasantly surprised? Check out Roland shopping for his next job gig and bear witness to how his confident salary expectation was nulled in an instant.

Be a Mysterious Programmer

Ever heard of the Noel Smith-Wenkle Salary Negotiation Method? This method advises to never reveal your expectations and suggests to let the company you are interviewing for reveal the actual numbers. This way you'll be able to decide, whether the amount deserves your skillset or not. In case the numbers don't match, the method further advises, not to reveal any digit.

In practice, the Smith-Wenkle Method involves four steps:

1. If the company asks for a number on the application, leave it blank.
2. When the company verbally asks how much you'll take, you say, "I'm much more interested in doing [type of work] here at [name of company] than I am in the size of the initial offer." Smith-Wenkle says this will suffice about 40% of the time.
3. If the company asks a second time, your answer is: "I will consider any reasonable offer." This is a polite stalling tactic, and Smith-Wenkle says this will work another 30% of the time.
4. About 30% of the time, you'll reach this final step. Again, your response is a polite refusal to answer the question: "You're in a much better position to know how much I'm worth to you than I am." This is your final answer, no matter how many times the company tries to get you to go first.

Is this method realistic? Share with us here, if you agree or not! Leave a comment here, if you think this is the way to go or totally unrealistic!