> Yes, and the same reasoning would apply to folks suggesting that employers routinely are open to negotiation.

No, it wouldn't, because employers have a strong incentive to hide salary band violations, while employees have a strong incentive to discover when negotiations are possible.

> it strikes me as an extraordinary to claim successfully negotiating higher-than-average wages is typical.

Then you should probably go talk to somebody who made that claim. But it's a nonsensical claim, so my guess is not many would be making it.

Who's saying anything about typical?

I've never been a typical employee in my life. I have, however, been the highest-paid non-manager (or so I was told; this might have been an attempt to shame me into working more for free) in a hundred-person development group, well out of band, because I brought capabilities and skills to the table that they needed more than they needed to Maintain The Integrity Of The Salary Band.

So if your point wasn't that employers routinely deviate from their prescribed bands ("as a rule") why did you respond to my comment? What I see is an anonymous Internet Person bragging without context (for all I know your non-typical experience could have been with 99 developers who were seriously below average).

They won't routinely deviate from prescribed bands for your typical engineer. There are many, many engineers who are atypical, whether because of skill set or skill level; before I went into consulting I was able to command top-of-market salaries because I am pretty good--not the best, but pretty good--and actively went into areas of technology that others didn't. I was then able to communicate to potential employers why this mattered and how I would be able to help them, because I have enough of a business background to be able to make the case for myself. And while whatever "talent" is involved may be innate--I don't think it is, but whatever--the rest is eminently learnable.

And calling me "anonymous" is kind of funny.

If you see him as anonymous, you are definitely not trying very hard. Or at all.

I'll be seeing you at the next Anonymous Anonymous meeting, right, Anonymous?

You know it, A.