Do Not Disclose Your Salary to Recruiters • Hacker News Board

Re: Do Not Disclose Your Salary to Recruiters

#11

Post by niccaluim » Thu, Sep 03, 2015, 5:14 PM UTC

paulhauggis wrote: post #3

Wait, what happened to freely disclosing your salary to everyone? Remember the hashtag movement?? You mean to tell me that this is actually a bad idea?

Disclosing to everyone would do away with the issues raised by the article. If everyone knew everyone's salary, there would be no underwater price-fixing scheme, and disclosing to recruiters would do no harm to you and your colleagues' negotiating positions.

Re: Do Not Disclose Your Salary to Recruiters

#12

Post by weland » Thu, Sep 03, 2015, 5:14 PM UTC

qudat wrote: post #5

Ignoring the recruiter problem for a second, should I ever feel obligated to disclose salary information? I have had potential employers straight up ask me what my current salary is, should I just tell them I'm not going to answer that question?

You're generally not even allowed to discuss your salary with your colleagues after (if) you're hired by one of those potential employers.

If it's confidential after that, it should be confidential before, too.

Re: Do Not Disclose Your Salary to Recruiters

#13

Post by shady_trails » Thu, Sep 03, 2015, 5:14 PM UTC

qudat wrote: post #5

Ignoring the recruiter problem for a second, should I ever feel obligated to disclose salary information? I have had potential employers straight up ask me what my current salary is, should I just tell them I'm not going to answer that question?

Its an easy question to deflect.

- "I don't feel comfortable sharing that" - "I'm still looking at a couple different options and don't want to pigeon hole myself" - "What salary is being offered with this position?"

If they take issue with your non-response, its a (small) sign that you might headed towards a non-ideal working environment.

Re: Do Not Disclose Your Salary to Recruiters

#14

Post by exstudent2 » Thu, Sep 03, 2015, 5:14 PM UTC

As stated in the article, it's best to ask them for their budget. If I have any interest at all I clearly state these two things on first contact with a recruiter:

1. I don't discuss my current or past compensation.

2. Before I engage at all, I need to know what the baseline salary and compensation package is for the role in question.

If they're coming to you, you have 100% of the negotiation leverage.

Re: Do Not Disclose Your Salary to Recruiters

#15

Post by minimaxir » Thu, Sep 03, 2015, 5:14 PM UTC

paulhauggis wrote: post #3

Wait, what happened to freely disclosing your salary to everyone? Remember the hashtag movement?? You mean to tell me that this is actually a bad idea?

The intent of the #talkpay movement was to identify disparities between employees of the same position, possibly due to extrinsic factors like gender: http://www.buzzfeed.com/carolineodonovan/talkpay-topped-twit...

This article is more about negotiation.

Re: Do Not Disclose Your Salary to Recruiters

#16

Post by davidgrenier » Thu, Sep 03, 2015, 5:14 PM UTC

Too bad this article makes the flawed assumption that getting a higher salary is just better.

I recommend reading Kahneman... here: http://www.pnas.org/content/107/38/16489.full.pdf

Re: Do Not Disclose Your Salary to Recruiters

#17

Post by xacaxulu » Thu, Sep 03, 2015, 5:14 PM UTC

Never never. The market is competitive. Just tell them "I'd be interested to hear how your company/client values my experience" or "I'm open to competitive offers". I've received crazy good job offers by simply never revealing salary.

Re: Do Not Disclose Your Salary to Recruiters

#18

Post by SandB0x » Thu, Sep 03, 2015, 5:14 PM UTC

abannin wrote: post #4

Recruiters are often paid x% of one year's base salary. In this case, your interests are aligned with the interest of the recruiter. In my experience, recruiters are 'box checkers'. They have little to no knowledge of your skill set or the skills required for the job outside of buzz words that can be printed on a resume. The reason recruiters ask for your salary is not to engage in price fixing but to ensure that the…

The recruiter wants to maximise

    (probability of you getting the job) x (recruiter cut) x (your salary)

and they also want to maximise the first term. It doesn't necessarily matter if the job is the best option for you, from their point of view.

Re: Do Not Disclose Your Salary to Recruiters

#19

Post by tomjen3 » Thu, Sep 03, 2015, 5:15 PM UTC

qudat wrote: post #5

Ignoring the recruiter problem for a second, should I ever feel obligated to disclose salary information? I have had potential employers straight up ask me what my current salary is, should I just tell them I'm not going to answer that question?

You should never feel obligated about anything when negotiating (afterwards, yes, keep your agreement it will help your in the long run and is the right thing). Your goal is to get the best possible deal for yourself.

Re: Do Not Disclose Your Salary to Recruiters

#20

Post by brianwawok » Thu, Sep 03, 2015, 5:15 PM UTC

abannin wrote: post #4

Recruiters are often paid x% of one year's base salary. In this case, your interests are aligned with the interest of the recruiter. In my experience, recruiters are 'box checkers'. They have little to no knowledge of your skill set or the skills required for the job outside of buzz words that can be printed on a resume. The reason recruiters ask for your salary is not to engage in price fixing but to ensure that the…

> Recruiters are often paid x% of one year's base salary. In this case, your interests are aligned with the interest of the recruiter.

This is often true, but not exactly true. Freakanomics has a study on something similar, real estate agents. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jO_w6f8Ck

The difference between you making 130k and 150k may only be 2k difference for the recruiter, which in the interest of getting the job filled is very small. However to YOU, the difference is 20k which can be life altering.