Company Size: 20000-49999 (United States)

Be honest about what you want. You don't want to waste anybody's time.

Be friendly, make sure they know you are very interested, then make up competing offers that are slightly below your maximum anticipated salary.

Ask the company for a competitive offer, if its the same as your highest offer, ask them to beat it (when some sort of touchy feely justification, like how you are about to have another child or something like that) so that it meets your maximum.

Both parties need to know about this topic during the interview. It could create a lot less wasted time if the salary is not right for either party concerned.

Ask what the salary range is; if your expectations or experience warrants the top, ask how you will be promoted and when; if there is no room for pay neg. then ask for other things like vacation, 5 yrs time in service (gets you more vacation and you get immediate vesting)

Never give a dollar amount up front. Ask what other employees are making in this job. Give a range of how much you would like to make with the minimum being the minimum you would accept and the maximum being more than you actually want. Work from there to get what you will be offered and decided what is the right amount to accept.

You should tell the employer you need to see if you & the company will be a good fit. If so, you're sure you both can come to an agreeable compensation package. Personally, I would not talk about compensation until a formal job offer was made. The first person who talks money, loses. If you ask for too much, you won't get the job. If you ask for too little, you probably won't be satisfied. No amount of money is worth being miserable in a job for any extended period of time. How long would you stay doing something you dread--day after day?