State and Federal government has done "No Negotiation" for a while. Based on your experience (and they usually have hard guidelines) you fit into a specific gra

State and Federal government has done "No Negotiation" for a while. Based on your experience (and they usually have hard guidelines) you fit into a specific grade/step. Generally, the only 'negotiation' you can do is to try and sway their guidelines. "I feel that even though I have 2 years of work experience I had extensive internship experience that should move me from a step 3 to a step 5." (But, everyone in a step 5 makes the same) And even then some (my state govt) still limits where they can put you. Eg, programmers make between $X-$Yk. You cannot make more starting than ($Y+$X)/2 even if you invented the tech they're using. A lot of 'cool jobs' pay shit anyway. I moved from a 'boring job' to a 'cool job' and took a very slight pay cut (although I did negotiate). But, I enjoy the work a lot more. There are tons of people who want to work at startups or places like stripe/reddit and are willing to take 'shitty pay'. Even if they allowed for negotiation the pay would still probably be less than what you get.