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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

#41

Post by novia »

dv_dt wrote: post #39
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.

This behavior is telling you (maybe not intentionally or consciously), that you need to look outside the company for a large pay bump. Unfortunately, many companies do this. And honestly, there is a middle ground that a company needs to walk, otherwise on the far side, they can be a ship full of very well paid employees on a trip where a few thin years could sink it. But to be clear, it's absolutely not in your perso…

Yeah, I have been focusing 100% on external positions since then.

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

#43

Post by dhd415 »

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…

I despise these forms and their presence almost always results in my deciding not to submit an application. The best companies I've worked for have either (a) not had these employment history forms at all or (b) asked for them to be filled out in minimal fashion after the offer had already been extended and accepted.

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

#44

Post by QuinnyPig »

holydude wrote: post #18

In my country i am not legally allowed to share my current salary. When I am negotiating I always say what is my absolute minimum and specifically make clear that it is just s bottom line and i would prefer more.

Why on earth would you do that? There's a great chance you just shaved a giant pile of money off of what they would have otherwise offered.

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

#45

Post by joeax »

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.

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

#46

Post by southphillyman »

Philadelphia is trying to ban this and is getting major push back from the likes of Comcast. HR departments keeping procedures like this in place suppresses the wages of minorities, women, and people who may have graduated from lower tier schools. Basically anyone who may have had to accept a job at below average wages is screwed going forward.

Last time out I just flatly refused to provide the information, some recruiters refused to move forward and it is what it is. This is just another reason why it's better to be interviewing while already gainfully employed. Gives you some leverage when dealing with BS like this

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

#47

Post by fecak »

I have a bit of a different theory on this, based on my experience as a recruiter for almost 20 years. I should clarify that I don't even ask for current salary anymore in dialogue with my candidates.

If you know your current market value, there is no harm in providing your current salary.

As a real-world example (and a bit of an edge case used to illustrate the point clearly), if you know the typical salary for an entry-level developer in Philadelphia is 70K a year, and $NEWGRAD is currently making 35K while working during school, saying "I'm currently making 35K and looking for 70K" is entirely appropriate, as both sides are aware that is the going rate for entry-level developers in Philly. You can't offer NEWGRAD 38K and expect him/her to accept the job.

This applies to anyone, whether you are overpaid or underpaid in your market. If you have strong data on what the market will bear for your services, whether you make half of that figure or twice that figure currently has little bearing on your actual market value.

The challenge is that most people do not have that data, and it's tough to figure out for many. As much as people hate recruiters, an experienced and specialized recruiter should be pretty good at telling you what your market value is - and most should be willing to provide this info to you without any strings attached.

Based on my own recruiting practice and my tendency to allow (encourage) most of my candidates and clients to negotiate directly much more than most other recruiters, I tend to find that candidates who are the most dodgy about their expectations or history are more likely to face a more difficult negotiation from the client.

People who are honest and transparent are perhaps viewed differently by employers than those who fight the question.

I think employers appreciate a healthy negotiation as long as it is done in good faith, but I think the value of being transparent in the negotiation may outweigh any benefits of secrecy, based anecdotally of course.

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

#48

Post by southphillyman »

fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #40
dethswatch wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Them: "We'd like to see proof of your salary history." Me: "Sorry- we arrived at an agreeable number earlier. I don't see how a salary history would change that." Them: (stammers...) Either way it's a win- you either get it, or they toss you and you dodged a FUCKING BULLET.

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.

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

#49

Post by josephorjoe »

dhd415 wrote: post #43
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…

I despise these forms and their presence almost always results in my deciding not to submit an application. The best companies I've worked for have either (a) not had these employment history forms at all or (b) asked for them to be filled out in minimal fashion after the offer had already been extended and accepted.

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 needed me to fill out a formal application...

In this case, it doesn't matter much as I did not do well on the technical interview (got hit with a tricky algorithm question that I didn't know the trick for).

But it also probably didn't help my case much that I put down a fairly high number in their 'desired salary' field on the form -- basically I put down the top number I thought I could expect them to pay for this position.

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

#50

Post by sp332 »

utnick wrote: post #29

I don't really see the point of not telling them, if the company has no idea about your previous salary, they aren't going to be tricked into offering you some huge number, they are going to come in at the average wage in your location for that position. What you should do instead is identify the number you want to get paid before hand. ( Which should be higher than the average ) And then honestly tell them , I'm cur…

This assumes that the person looking for work has more leverage in negotiations. If a person really needs the job, they can't just walk away over a drop in salary.
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