怎样谈工资

    每一次成功的求职面试，肯定都会谈到工资问题。长久以来，求职者们得到的标准建议一直都是：谈工资要委婉含蓄点。

    再就业服务机构Challenger, Gray, and Christmas的CEO约翰·查林格建议，求职者们应该“让雇主现报出一个数目——这个数目可能会超出你的预期。”职业和生活博客网站Brazen Careerist的佩内洛普·特伦克建议，“‘你的工资范围是多少？’对这样的问题，最好的答案，就是想尽办法，‘我不告诉你。’”

    这通常会导致令人不舒服的、甚至敌对的懦夫博弈。如果你一直担心这类对话，这里有一个好消息：我们可以给出更漂亮的回答。

    爱达荷大学（University of Idaho）近期的一份调查发现，以开玩笑的口气提出百万美元薪酬，实际上能让之后公司开出的实际工资增加10%。研究测试情景中假设的求职者，是一位行政助理应试者，她上一份工作的工资是29,000美元。当被问及对新工作薪酬的期望时，她会以一种半是犹豫半是自嘲的口气答道：“我当然想要百万年薪，不过，我只希望能得到公平的待遇。”

    在这位求职者拒绝说出具体数字的情况中，雇主最终给出的平均工资约为32,500美元。但当这位求职者开玩笑地说出一百万美元时，雇主给出的平均工资则约为36，200美元。

    在上述案例中，工资的增加其实是一种名为“锚定”的心理效应在起作用。爱达荷大学心理学教授、同时也是该项研究的负责人托德·索尔斯坦森说：“我们听到一个数字时，不论是否与主题相关，我们都会固定在这个数字上，进而影响到我们的判断。”

    但在开出具体条件之前，求职者应该考虑到可能出现的反弹。德州大学达拉斯分校（University of Texas at Dallas）经济学教授、校谈判中心主任雷切尔·科洛森警告说：“实际上，如果谈判伙伴开出一个过于极端的条件，对方最常见的反应是停止谈判。”

    在索尔斯坦森研究中有一个预设条件，即参与者们无权拒绝求职者，而是可以告诉求职者他们能提供多少工资。

    那么，求职者们到底应不应该拿高薪开玩笑，以期自己的实际工资能有所提高？科洛森称，除非你能坦然接受可能失去工作机会的风险，否则别这么干。在推荐策略之前，她希望进行一项后续研究，量化相关的风险级别，例如，“有多少面试官会因为求职者的玩笑感到厌恶，进而雇佣别人？”

    不过，率先说出确切的数字还是能带来回报。规避这个问题的标准建议是，忽略锚定的实际效果。

    科洛森说，信息才是关键。科洛森为本科生、MBA和高管教授谈判策略已有18年之久。如果求职者了解到一个特定职位的工资范围，并能给出一个雇主愿意支付的最高金额，那么，率先说出自己期望的具体工资额，肯定会对求职者自身有利。

    查林格依然建议谨慎行事。他说：“雇主千差万别。根据雇主的工资结构，相同职位的工资水平有可能上下浮动20%。”

    There comes a point in every successful job interview when it's time to talk money. The standard advice to job applicants has long been to play it coy.

    John Challenger, CEO of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas, urges applicants to "let the employer name a salary first -- it may be higher than you expect." Penelope Trunk, founder of Brazen Careerist, advises that "the right answer to the question, 'What's your salary range?' is almost always some version of 'I'm not telling you.'"

    This often leads to an uncomfortable, even adversarial, game of chicken. If that's the sort of conversation you dread, here's good news: there are better alternatives.

    A recent study out of the University of Idaho found that making a joke about a million-dollar salary actually increased subsequent offer amounts by more than 10%.

    The hypothetical applicant in the study's test scenario was an administrative assistant candidate who had listed her last salary as $29,000. When asked what salary she wanted in the new job, she either demurred or quipped, "Well I'd like a million dollars, but really I just want what's fair."

    In the cases where the applicant declined to name any number, the average salary offer was about $32,500. When she joked about a million bucks, the average offer rose to almost $36,200.

    The increase is a function of a psychological effect known as "anchoring." "When we encounter a number -- even an irrelevant number -- we fixate on it, and it influences our judgment," says Todd Thorsteinson, a psychology professor at the University of Idaho and the study's author.

    But before you start throwing numbers around, you should consider the potential for backlash. "In practice, if one's negotiating partner opens with an offer that is too extreme, the most common response is to disengage from the negotiation," warns Rachel Croson, professor of economics at the University of Texas at Dallas and director of the school's Negotiations Center.

    Participants in Thorsteinson's study were not given the option to decline to hire the candidate, but were merely asked how much they would offer to pay her.

    So should job applicants make a high-salary joke in hopes of increasing compensation?

    Only if you're comfortable with the possibility that you might lose the job offer altogether, says Croson. Before recommending the strategy in general, she'd want to see a follow-up study that quantifies the level of risk involved -- for example, "what percentage of interviewers would be turned off by the joke and choose to find a different employee."

    Being the first to talk numbers can still pay off, though. The standard advice -- to dodge the question -- ignores the very real effects of anchoring.

    The key is information, says Croson, who has taught negotiation strategies to undergraduates, MBAs, and executives for 18 years. If an applicant knows the salary range for a given position and can name a number at or near the top of what a company is willing to pay, being the first to throw out a dollar figure is always to her advantage.

    Challenger still prefers to play it safe. "Companies are all over the map," he says. "The same position may pay 20% more or less, depending upon that company's specific salary structure."