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“What’s your current salary?” is a trap question–Here's how to answer it

fearlesssalarynegotiation.com

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Re: “What’s your current salary?” is a trap question–Here's how to answer it

#61

Post by scarface74 »

josephorjoe wrote: post #35

I have found that almost any decently sized company uses some sort of online form as part of the application/interview process. These forms usually have a current or desired salary field and often has fairly strong validations on it (e.g., must be filled in, must be a number between x and y, no non-numeric characters allowed). So you either have to fill it in or not submit the application form at all (the rest of whi…

If you're blindly submitting your application to a large company, I think you're doing it wrong.

I don't think I've ever (20 years) applied to a job without either going through a recruiter or an inside source.

The one time I did speak to a company based on a reference, during the HR/internal recruiter phone screen, they asked me did I have any questions

One of the questions I asked was what the salary range they said it depends on experience. I told them my experience is on my resume and we had talked for 30 minutes so they know my experience, so what was the salary range based on my experience?

I told them that we didn't need to waste each other's time with scheduling an in person interview unless they can give me the information. She said she would email me. She did, I told her that was too low. I never heard back.

Re: “What’s your current salary?” is a trap question–Here's how to answer it

#62

Post by Joeri »

scottshea wrote: post #20

I had a horrible phone interview with a company where the recruiter refused to continue until I told them how much I made at my current job. I suspect that they were more interested in a salary survey than actually hiring someone.

It depends on how desperate I was, but I would wrap up the conversation in a situation like that. If you can't be amicable before hiring me, you definitely won't be after.

Re: “What’s your current salary?” is a trap question–Here's how to answer it

#63

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

southphillyman wrote: post #48
fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They won't stammer. They will without the slightest bit of shame attempt to cajole/badger/guilt/etc you into revealing the information. Then they may also engage in a background check / credit report goose chase to get or infer the information. You say "you dodged a FUCKING BULLET", and I agree in principle, but in practice, a lot of employers do this, and a lot of people submit themselves to this kind of crap which…

They say former employers can only verify dates of employment, where else will salary information show up? I wasn't aware that this information shows up in background checks. I wonder if you could just counter the request by saying you signed a NDA that forbid sharing that information.

Well, if you work for a state college/uni/other entity like I do, then the salary information is public. Former employers can say or do what they like, they rarely do anything other than verify dates of employment, confirm a few facts, out of a perceived fear of a civil suit, (I guess). Credit reporting agencies OTOH, and other similar companies use all sorts of information to build profiles about you / your habits / other demographic data, and I'd be surprised if there weren't some of these companies who would sell either predicted (and perhaps erroneous) salary range for you, or a factual (if partial) salary history mined from various sources.

>I wonder if you could just counter the request by saying you signed a NDA that forbid sharing that information.

Seems reasonable, or some version of "No thanks, I'd rather not."

Re: “What’s your current salary?” is a trap question–Here's how to answer it

#64

Post by waisbrot »

southphillyman wrote: post #48
fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They won't stammer. They will without the slightest bit of shame attempt to cajole/badger/guilt/etc you into revealing the information. Then they may also engage in a background check / credit report goose chase to get or infer the information. You say "you dodged a FUCKING BULLET", and I agree in principle, but in practice, a lot of employers do this, and a lot of people submit themselves to this kind of crap which…

They say former employers can only verify dates of employment, where else will salary information show up? I wasn't aware that this information shows up in background checks. I wonder if you could just counter the request by saying you signed a NDA that forbid sharing that information.

> They say former employers can only verify dates of employment

I don't know who "they" is, but this isn't true at all. Many large-scale employers are only willing to verify dates of employment, because they're scared of being pulled into a defamation lawsuit. But that's just an overabundance of caution from them. There's nothing to stop your former employer from responding to requests with "southphillyman typically visits the toilet every day between 11:20 and 11:40".

Re: “What’s your current salary?” is a trap question–Here's how to answer it

#66

Post by novia »

ConceptJunkie wrote: post #53
novia wrote: post #31

I have an entry level position at my firm, and I was applying to other internal positions that more closely match my skill set, but which would cause me to have a huge increase in pay. One interviewer/screener asked me how much I was currently making, and I said I'd prefer not to disclose that information. Their response was, "That's ok, I can just look you up in our system. Ah, you make $x." It was so infuriating.

So why did they ask? To see if you would lie?

Most likely they had to ask every applicant the same list of questions.

Re: “What’s your current salary?” is a trap question–Here's how to answer it

#67

Post by kgwxd »

Too many words and moving pictures just to get to:

"I’m not comfortable sharing my current salary. I would prefer to focus on the value I can add to this company rather than what I’m paid at my current job. I don’t have a specific number in mind for a desired salary, and you know better than I do what value my skillset and experience could bring to your company. I want this move to be a big step forward for me in terms of both responsibility and compensation."

Re: “What’s your current salary?” is a trap question–Here's how to answer it

#68

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

joeax wrote: post #45
josephorjoe wrote: post #35

I have found that almost any decently sized company uses some sort of online form as part of the application/interview process. These forms usually have a current or desired salary field and often has fairly strong validations on it (e.g., must be filled in, must be a number between x and y, no non-numeric characters allowed). So you either have to fill it in or not submit the application form at all (the rest of whi…

Just enter your current salary + $30,000. Unfortunately you have to play the game. If they call you for an interview it means they think your are worth that much.

Or they expect you to pad it and plan to negotiate you down. Far easier to just flat out say how much you want.

Re: “What’s your current salary?” is a trap question–Here's how to answer it

#69

Post by nazakc »

i never used a strategy in negotiating a salary before and i got burned during my last job interview because even though i landed the job with a salary higher than what i was earning in the previous job, i found out i could've gotten more out of them. exactly the scenario depicted in this article. i am thinking of ways to renegotiate with them now and would love to hear about any such strategies.

Re: “What’s your current salary?” is a trap question–Here's how to answer it

#70

Post by josephorjoe »

pryelluw wrote: post #60
josephorjoe wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have stopped applying to companies that require these forms for an initial application submission, but recently I was asked to fill one out after a few email exchanges, a phone interview, and an online coding test. We were about 2 weeks into the process at this point, and I was interested in the position and they seemed interested in me. Next step was a technical phone interview, but before doing that they just nee…

Mind posting the algo question? I enjoy solving those :)

It was a variation on Max Subarray, but instead of finding a contiguous max subarray you could (but didn't have to) skip every other number (but cannot skip 2 consecutive numbers).

So for [1, -1, 2, -1, 3, -1] you could take [1, 2, 3], but for [-1, -1, -5, -20, -10, -1, -3] you would end up with [-1, -5, -10, -1]. Input values and ranges are large enough that brute forcing won't work.

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