Negotiate as high a price as you can, not necessarily aggressively, but enough so that they know you take yourself seriously. Then take anything over 10% less than that.
Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?
11–20 of 41 posts
Re: Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?
#12Re: Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?
#13Ask for other compensation rather than money. For example, ask for a 4 day work week, or 2 months paid leave, or possibly other perks that are important to you? You could also ask that the company make a donation on your behalf to another cause. The nice part is that you can look passionate, important, and pragmatic all at the same time. For example, say "I deeply care about free and open source software. As part of…
It's a good idea, if the salary talk is after I've had a chance to prove I have value. But a lot of times there's actually a specific field in the application form with "expected compensation".
Put market rates down in that field, and then when they reach a hiring decision, say "By the way, because of tax rates in my country, I'd like it if you could make my salary no more than $55K and donate the rest to these charities." I don't know any business that wouldn't be glad to find out, on hiring decision, that their new employee will cost them half as much as they bargained for and they can take a tax write-off on the rest.
Re: Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?
#14Ask for other compensation rather than money. For example, ask for a 4 day work week, or 2 months paid leave, or possibly other perks that are important to you? You could also ask that the company make a donation on your behalf to another cause. The nice part is that you can look passionate, important, and pragmatic all at the same time. For example, say "I deeply care about free and open source software. As part of…
I've been asking for 80% time for 10 years, and my current company is the only one who has ever approved it. Companies say that only the work matters, and they want to be flexible, and yadda yadda, but corporate culture expects you to be available on Fridays, at least nominally. And this is more true the bigger the company.
Re: Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?
#15Re: Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?
#16Ask for other compensation rather than money. For example, ask for a 4 day work week, or 2 months paid leave, or possibly other perks that are important to you? You could also ask that the company make a donation on your behalf to another cause. The nice part is that you can look passionate, important, and pragmatic all at the same time. For example, say "I deeply care about free and open source software. As part of…
I've been asking for 80% time for 10 years, and my current company is the only one who has ever approved it. Companies say that only the work matters, and they want to be flexible, and yadda yadda, but corporate culture expects you to be available on Fridays, at least nominally. And this is more true the bigger the company.
I've also noticed a disturbing trend with pseudo on-call availability, even on the weekends, labelled as "flexible working hours".
Then there's always the "unlimited time off, we trust you".
Re: Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?
#17Hire an accountant. The extra money will more than pay for one.
Re: Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?
#18I have found there to be some common misconceptions about how tax brackets work, at least in the US. I'm not sure if this is how it works in your country and you might already be aware of this, but just in case it is helpful to anyone...
Only the income that is above the boundary of that higher bracket is taxed at the higher rate. All of the income below the boundary is taxed at the lower rate. E.g. if you make $105k and a higher tax bracket starts at $100k, only $5k is taxed at the higher rate.
Re: Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?
#19I have found there to be some common misconceptions about how tax brackets work, at least in the US. I'm not sure if this is how it works in your country and you might already be aware of this, but just in case it is helpful to anyone... Only the income that is above the boundary of that higher bracket is taxed at the higher rate. All of the income below the boundary is taxed at the lower rate. E.g. if you make $105k…
Romanian tax law is really weird; I'm guessing this is probably related to the IT worker tax exemption.
Good advice for most of the rest of the world though :)
Re: Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been asking for 80% time for 10 years, and my current company is the only one who has ever approved it. Companies say that only the work matters, and they want to be flexible, and yadda yadda, but corporate culture expects you to be available on Fridays, at least nominally. And this is more true the bigger the company.
I've also noticed a disturbing trend with pseudo on-call availability, even on the weekends, labelled as "flexible working hours". Then there's always the "unlimited time off, we trust you".
Yes, the company I'm at now has the 'unlimited time off' policy. Which has been shown to reduce the amount of time off people actually take, and means they don't have to pay out vacation when you leave. And that's on top of the perception that they're being kind to their employees. A triple win for the company.
But that's exactly why I want my 80% time to be officially recognized. I don't want to feel guilty or worry that I haven't justified my existence when I'm not there on Fridays. The contractual 3-day weekend means a lot more to me than an extra 20% salary with strings attached.