#negotiation

"Your grasp of political reality is masterly, Vimes. You lack only the appropriate vocabulary."

The thing is, the salary range is LARGE - the upper bound is nearly half again as big as the lower bound. Several of my friends are desperately trying to get me to ask for the top of the range (or higher??), while my dad and one friend suggested that I shoot for the middle given that I’m a brand new grad who would work remotely from a lower cost of living area, and my mom said “no you don’t want to look greedy!” and suggested the lower end.

I’m discarding the mom advice, but these numbers sound absurd. Bitches, do I shoot for the moon? Or maybe tell them that my salary requirements are dependent upon travel frequency and accommodation reimbursement policy and give them a broad range right back? So that I can check if they really mean the range they’ve listed online? What’s the protocol here???

Also! If hypothetically my salary made me ineligible to contribute to an IRA and I max out my 401k contributions, do I just put any additional retirement savings in a regular ol’ investment account?? (Or maybe HSA??)

To answer your last question first: yes, invest the rest.

Now here's where it's tricky: your entire question doesn't matter because it they're posting a salary range, YOU do not have to tell them your expected salary.

A lot of states now legally require employers to include a salary range in the job description (I explain why in the link below). Some companies try to get around this requirement by including a range that is so absurdly broad as to be meaningless. No matter! You know their game and you're a smart cookie. So when/if you're asked about salary, just tell them "I expect my salary to fall within the range you've posted."

They know how much they've budgeted for the role. They know how much they're willing to spend on you and how little they hope you ask for. So make them say it. Make them say it to your face. Don't ask for it. I explain more about how to do this in the link below, but as a general rule, the job applicant should NEVER be the one to say a number first. The employer should.

What To Do When You're Asked About Your Salary Requirements in a Job Interview 

Post a Salary Range in the Job Description, You Fucking Cowards

He literally said it. The thing I was talking about for months.

President of the US just admitted that he is helping russia and vladimir putin directly.

But nobody fucking cared. I guess we roll with it now. I think in couple of months Marco Rubio will eat his words about "we're not gonna send weapons to russia".

I'm in love with this chaos!

The Capitol cannot save these mentors without their help.

They need the districts.

This is their chance

They all separately decide to refuse to send people to get the mentors out until the Capitol sends their children home and officially dissolve the games. Sadly, the Capitol refuses. They decide to try and solve the problem themselves. A week later, they have made no progress, and the mentors are starving. They’ve had to drink the water the Capitol has been dropping onto the roof, which seeps through the cracks and spills down to the ground. It gives them an intimate understanding of how the tributes must feel during the games, only they don’t have to kill each other. At least they have the privilege of knowing help is coming.

Some of the tributes begin to feel a little bad for their mentors and volunteer to get some kind of food to them. Treech, Lamina, Wovey, Mizzen, and Sheaf can slip through the debris blocking the entrance far enough to shove liquid nutrients through the cracks without risking a collapse of the whole thing, which would kill the mentors. They take this opportunity to eat some of the packs and hide a few more in their pockets for the other tributes, but they do give the mentors a few of the packs. It’s… surprisingly kind of them, and it makes the Capitol people consider if maybe they should just go along with the districts’ demands to bring their kids home. By the time they finally accept the districts’ demands, the districts aren’t satisfied anymore and demand the peacekeeper bases be emptied out, and all the supplies be left to the districts, in all districts, to ensure they won’t just go ahead and drag the kids back to the Capitol for the games. They want the arena flattened to the ground, and full jurisdiction to decide what will happen to the gamemakers. The Capitol initially refuses, but the families of the mentors demand the Capitol do everything the districts demand so they can get their children home safe. Finally, the president caves to saving his son over listening to the crazy doctor’s demands and gives in to all of the districts’ demands in hopes to get the mentors out.

And… it works. The districts actually keep their end of the deal once the peacekeepers have cleared out and all the districts have their children back. They get the mentors out, most of whom first ask about if their tributes are okay since they couldn’t feed them while stuck in the arena. Surprisingly, most of them are relieved to hear the games have ended, even though that means they can’t fight to have the prize anymore. Most of them even manage to negotiate with the district workers who got them out to be allowed to see their tributes in the districts once in a while.