Yes, but this also works in reverse. Wouldn't you much rather the anchor be in your hands? You always say a crazy high number, but you can couch it in terms whe

Yes, but this also works in reverse. Wouldn't you much rather the anchor be in your hands? You always say a crazy high number, but you can couch it in terms where its not necessarily the number you are asking for. Anchors work like that. To make this concrete, if I was a level 5 engineer and I knew total comp was around $300k in the Bay Area, I may say something like, "Well, I have been considering getting back into consulting where I know I can get at least $50k / month, but let's see where we can get here at [tech company]." Note I wasn't asking for $600k / year, and didn't even say I made that now, I just floated it out there. Boom. Anchor. Yes, you will get either a chuckle or a "Weeeeeeell" hem-haw. Doesn't matter. Anchor has been set. Most engineers have internal blocks. They don't believe they are worth $600k / year. Better bet your ass MBAs and sales guys do. And we wonder why they make so much more than us?