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Ask HN: Are you more likely to apply for a job that discloses salary upfront?

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Re: Ask HN: Are you more likely to apply for a job that discloses salary upfront?

#51

Post by kej »

finspin wrote: post #19
jawns wrote: post #6

I doubt you'll get anyone who says that salary range disclosed in a job advertisement is not a good thing, from the perspective of the job seeker. The question you may want to ask instead is: "Does the benefit to the job seeker of having a salary range specified outweigh the loss of potential advertisers who do not want to disclose a salary range?" If you're just doing this as a side project, with no expectation of m…

I'm thinking that launching just another job board won't get me anywhere. I'll have to either a) spend heavily on advertising (which I can't afford) or b) differentiate myself from all other job boards out there. I live in Finland (5 million habitants) and based on my research only about 5% of job ads include salary. It's not part of the culture to discuss salaries publicly so it's very well possible that companies w…

I feel like the job board (yours, Monster, Dice, whoever) is in a unique position to solve this problem. You can ask each side for their salary range but then don't disclose it to the opposite side. You can then match candidates to compatible jobs and everyone knows up front that the desired ranges overlap.

Re: Ask HN: Are you more likely to apply for a job that discloses salary upfront?

#52

Post by mcraiha »

finspin wrote: post #19
jawns wrote: post #6

I doubt you'll get anyone who says that salary range disclosed in a job advertisement is not a good thing, from the perspective of the job seeker. The question you may want to ask instead is: "Does the benefit to the job seeker of having a salary range specified outweigh the loss of potential advertisers who do not want to disclose a salary range?" If you're just doing this as a side project, with no expectation of m…

I'm thinking that launching just another job board won't get me anywhere. I'll have to either a) spend heavily on advertising (which I can't afford) or b) differentiate myself from all other job boards out there. I live in Finland (5 million habitants) and based on my research only about 5% of job ads include salary. It's not part of the culture to discuss salaries publicly so it's very well possible that companies w…

Offtopic for original question, but yeah, us Finns should be more open about salaries since our tax records are already public information. But some Finnish companies are worried about publishing salaries because they think foreigners won't even apply for certain jobs if they see that e.g. Swedish companies are giving a better salaries.

Re: Ask HN: Are you more likely to apply for a job that discloses salary upfront?

#53

Post by mailshanx »

ap22213 wrote: post #40

Total compensation is the first and only thing that I ask before even learning about an opportunity. I make $240k / year. And, that's a jaw-dropping figure for companies that only seek warm bodies to fill seats. It's better to get that out of the way immediately.

Awesome! Where / what do you work on?

Re: Ask HN: Are you more likely to apply for a job that discloses salary upfront?

#56

Post by finspin »

ff_ wrote: post #39
finspin wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm thinking that launching just another job board won't get me anywhere. I'll have to either a) spend heavily on advertising (which I can't afford) or b) differentiate myself from all other job boards out there. I live in Finland (5 million habitants) and based on my research only about 5% of job ads include salary. It's not part of the culture to discuss salaries publicly so it's very well possible that companies w…

Hey, I live in Finland as well, and this sounds very interesting, I'd love to discuss about it. Shoot me an email :)

Great, I'll be in touch! :)

Re: Ask HN: Are you more likely to apply for a job that discloses salary upfront?

#57

Post by scaryclam »

bbarn wrote: post #23

There's a big problem with salary ranges: Everyone wants the highest number listed. This prevents employers from being honest, because that max range should be the MOST They want to spend, but to the applicant, it's the least they think they should accept. It's frustrating as an applicant, and having been on both sides of this fence, I've stopped listing it because it's a very easy question to ask on a first contact:…

We just list our budgeted amount. Candidates will get at least the bottom number, so they can be sure we're not going to low-ball at offer time. The highest number indicates what we won't be offering above as that's the maximum for the budget. Candidates who want more then know it's unlikely to be a good fit for them, so know not to apply. There's no reason to be dishonest.

The problem with not posting it is this: most candidates who would have been a good fit for the position won't even bother applying. I'd prefer to post it and get the odd annoying candidate trying to negotiate up than not get any decent range of applications at all.

Personally, I'll just skim right on over a job advert that didn't bother posting the range. There are plenty of other good jobs from companies who do post it.

Re: Ask HN: Are you more likely to apply for a job that discloses salary upfront?

#58

Post by bbarn »

tbirrell wrote: post #41
bbarn wrote: post #23

There's a big problem with salary ranges: Everyone wants the highest number listed. This prevents employers from being honest, because that max range should be the MOST They want to spend, but to the applicant, it's the least they think they should accept. It's frustrating as an applicant, and having been on both sides of this fence, I've stopped listing it because it's a very easy question to ask on a first contact:…

That also a dangerous question to answer on first contact. If I was applying I would not believe you and just avoid answering anyway. Time will still be wasted and this whole process will continue to be non-ideal.

Why would you not believe me? It's not like I can force you to take a job either way.

I expect people to want to either make more money than they are now (I never ask that question, btw.. I think that's offensive IMO) or have a better experience in coming to work at a new job, and any manager worth working for should too.

Re: Ask HN: Are you more likely to apply for a job that discloses salary upfront?

#59

Post by Spoom »

kej wrote: post #51
finspin wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm thinking that launching just another job board won't get me anywhere. I'll have to either a) spend heavily on advertising (which I can't afford) or b) differentiate myself from all other job boards out there. I live in Finland (5 million habitants) and based on my research only about 5% of job ads include salary. It's not part of the culture to discuss salaries publicly so it's very well possible that companies w…

I feel like the job board (yours, Monster, Dice, whoever) is in a unique position to solve this problem. You can ask each side for their salary range but then don't disclose it to the opposite side. You can then match candidates to compatible jobs and everyone knows up front that the desired ranges overlap.

This is a really interesting idea. I would expand it further... OkCupid for employment. Outsource algorithmic and language knowledge measurement to something like TopCoder and add that as a potential dimension on which to match. Education, clearances, experience: these could all be match dimensions.

Re: Ask HN: Are you more likely to apply for a job that discloses salary upfront?

#60

Post by st553 »

jackfrodo wrote: post #9

All things being equal, if I had to choose between applying to two jobs, and one of them explicitly offered the salary that I believe I'm worth, then yeah, I would apply to that one. On another note, one thing I've been thinking of doing, (and I'd be delighted if you did it!) is a job board that only shows positions with take home interviews instead of in-person coding exercises. I think this is a growing trend as pe…

Just to expand on this, maybe a job board should tell you what the interview process is like. Whether its take home test, whiteboard, in person project, etc.
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