... as if I didn't write enough in the last comment, something came to mind that bears mentioning, as well. It occurred to me that I didn't inquire about the s

... as if I didn't write enough in the last comment, something came to mind that bears mentioning, as well. It occurred to me that I didn't inquire about the size of companies that you're looking at. You mentioned hiring managers, so I assumed the target is 500+ employee outfits, though the place I'm at is not that large and we have hiring managers. If you have a person dedicated to negotiation and you're not doing negotiation directly with the manager that wants to hire you, make sure to have these discussions with the right person. At the place where I did a large amount of interviewing (as the interviewer), the separation in this area was very strong. The hiring manager would do the initial negotiation and if they could get you to agree to terms that were within the typical range for the position, the manager wouldn't be involved at all. If a candidate had unusual requirements[0], the hiring manager operated as a middle-man with the manager. The hiring manager is simply "doing their job". You getting hired doesn't reduce their work-load or their team's workload. You can use that to your advantage by saying "Would there be any issue with me reaching out to (manager) to have some questions answered about the position?" Don't come out and say you are trying to work around the middle-man and when you talk to the manager, bring up the office situation somewhat casually. This prepares them for when the hiring manager reaches out and might improve your chances. I've seen this play out twice -- once in the footnote and once with a guy who was brought into a team as a remote employee reporting to a manager who disallowed remote work[1]. YMMV, though. [0] We had one guy, that we hired, ask for $50,000 more than the position paid, for example. [1] Incidentally, both of these circumstances played out very badly for us. The overpaid individual left after 4 months to an even better paying position and the remote guy did as well as remote guys do when the rest team practically sits on top of each other in one office -- out of sight, out of mind, until quarterly budgets get discussed and the manager sees one more employee than he remembered having.