> I had always been too afraid to directly ask "what is the compensation range for this position?" but now I ask exactly that, forthrightly and without confrontation. Nobody refused to answer.
My opinion is you should just ask for what you want, rather than asking what the compensation range is. You will get an answer, but you're unlikely going to get an actual meaningful band.
Yeah, that was what I was assuming as well. I would ask the range, they'd give one, I'd flinch at the top-end of it and inevitably they'd come up 5%ish percent right away. From there I was generally able to wind up 10-20% above top of the original band.
My opinion is you should just ask for what you want, rather than asking what the compensation range is. You will get an answer, but you're unlikely going to get an actual meaningful band.