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How to answer the “What’s your current salary?” job interview question

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Re: How to answer the “What’s your current salary?” job interview question

#81

Post by beaconstudios »

sneak wrote: post #75
beaconstudios wrote: post #31

Here's something that worked well for me: I deferred the salary question until after I'd had some contact with my potential employer (rather than the recruiter) so they had a sense of my value. Then, when asked what my current salary was, I said something along the lines of the following: "my current salary is well below where I want it to be, because I started out in a low-level job and worked my way up getting the…

It has nothing to do with "screwing people". This is terrible advice. Salary negotiation is the single most important financial decision you will make in your life. That shit compounds , son! Do. Not. Give. Them. A. Figure. First. Don't! @patio11 explains why in exquisite detail here: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/

you say all this like I suggested anything different. Salary negotiation is important, and in my experience the worst thing you can do is either mentally commit to taking the job before you negotiate a salary, or sow the seeds of mutual distrust early on. If you try to pull the same bullshit on the recruiter that they're pulling on you then you're playing their game on their terms.

What I've suggested, contrary to your (unnecessarily abrasive) reply, is not to give up on negotiations but to push past the impersonal arguing over numbers and get to the actual negotiation at hand by laying not only your own cards, but the other person's cards, on the table. You implicitly say up front "if you try to pull the same old $salary * 1.1 game with me I'll turn down your offer" while also laying out what your expectation is. You name a number, and say "that number is not good enough, make it better" and thus leave the ball in their court. This is not you saying "well I want a better salary than I have now, I make £20,000 and I will accept £27,000" - you're saying "well I want a better salary than I have now, I know I'm underpaid, I make £20,000 right now - it's on you to guess what I place my value at, but you know it's not a small jump".

All this without making you look like a distrustful asshole like many of the previous suggestions would do.

Oh, and I forgot to mention in my previous comment - you can be ambiguous about the amount you make too if you want, e.g. "I make below market rate" or "I make about 2/3 of what my friend makes for the same job". But it's very transparent.

Re: How to answer the “What’s your current salary?” job interview question

#82

Post by scribu »

michaelt wrote: post #66
scribu wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except this article does address that concern, tangentially: ask the recruiter for the salary range.

Would an employer normally disclose the salary range? I mean, wouldn't candidates then always demand the maximum in the range?

I'm not sure if knowing the salary causes candidates to always ask for the maximum.

But that possibility doesn't seem to deter some companies from making salary ranges public (see Stack Overflow job listings for examples).

Re: How to answer the “What’s your current salary?” job interview question

#83

Post by foobazzy »

anotherevan wrote: post #80

I think the next time I'm asked what my current salary I think I'll try responding, "Well, what's your budget for this position?" When they baulk, you can say that it sounds like neither of us are prepared to talk about that just yet, so lets focus on figuring out the role will be a good fit for the both of us first. Wonder how that would fly.

Forgive me for being rude here, but I laughed at your comment. I made that rookie mistake, and I paid for it. I also kept making it and didn't realise what I was doing wrong. So, the thing here is a little more complicated than getting/giving a straight answer for this question, however logical that might sound.

1. Yes. Companies do specify a budget when they tell a recruiter to look for candidates for a position.

2. How much you get offered in the end defines what the recruiter's cut is going to be.

3. Companies want to low ball you for 2 reasons. a) Get the guy for a minimum at first, so that the damage is minimum when and if he doesn't work out in the short term. See what we can do in the performance review some months down the line. b) The recruiter's cut will be lower.

As you obviously know already, there are many opposing forces at play in the this game and your salary is always going to be x% of increment over your current salary (with a minimum of $y, maybe). Hence, asking a direct question has never worked for me. Neither do I see why it will work for someone else (until of course, you're charming).

Re: How to answer the “What’s your current salary?” job interview question

#84

Post by ozim »

josh_fyi wrote: post #2

Say "My contract prevents me from disclosing my compensation package" (probably true), "and I treat my commitments seriously."

Yes, I belive "recruiters" should be dealt like that when they ask such question. They can use that information to pitch some guys they have in line for your position as well.

I am not going to give free information to third party which might be actually affecting my employer.

Re: How to answer the “What’s your current salary?” job interview question

#85

Post by british_india »

This is what I said recently and it worked spectacularly well. (Increased my salary by 25%.)

I said: "I would prefer that you tell me what the position pays and let me decide based on that. If I suggest a number and you feel inclined to match it, the I would have placed a target on my back, taking a salary the company was not comfortable with."

What ends up happening is the company spooks itself into paying you more than they would have--to avoid insulting you and having you walk. It works.

Re: How to answer the “What’s your current salary?” job interview question

#86

Post by falsedan »

dood wrote: post #79
falsedan wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only hard part is determining what your labour is really worth - this can take a fair bit of effort, research and soul-searching, but is an absolutely essential prerequisite to negotiation. I disagree. I think the intrinsic value of labour is not necessary to consider when calculating what you should be paid. The golden rule is: you're worth what people will pay you. I think you need three numbers: how much you…

Sorry my comment was unclear, I mostly agree with you. In a negotiation the only thing that matters is how much the company values your labour, and how much of that value you can capture. Figuring this out is the hard part.

No problem, I made the jump to intrinsic value [of labour] myself.

Re: How to answer the “What’s your current salary?” job interview question

#88

Post by MagnumOpus »

kristiandupont wrote: post #67
chii wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if they say you are worth what you were paid in your last job!

I don't know what kind of positions you are applying for but if a recruiter started antagonizing me like that I'd say "well it looks like we are not a good fit for each other. Have a nice day!"

If the applicant has the upper hand (i.e. if he has highly desired rare skills), this will not happen.

And if he doesn't because you are applying for the 99% of jobs that require no unique knowledge - then it is no loss for the recruiter to antagonise the applicant. The worst outcome is to get the subjectively second-best candidate out of a hundred who can all do the job just as well.

Re: How to answer the “What’s your current salary?” job interview question

#89

Post by DoubleGlazing »

fahadkhan wrote: post #19
DoubleGlazing wrote: post #17

I find that a lot of the tactics used to deflect or avoid answering awkward questions in interviews just do not work. There are two questions that always get me in interviews. The first one is the salary one. If I am evasive, or try to deflect, the interviewer will probe deeper. They just wont take no for an answer. In fact I've even been told straight up "Give us a figure, or we won't proceed". Another one is about…

Do you need any one job that badly? Appreciate I am in a fortunate position but I was under the impression that there is more demand for developers than there is supply.

I have found that with a shortage of developer talent companies are quite happy to pay to get staff who have no baggage that can affect productivity. In other words they'll pay you loads, but you better be in the office all the time, and maybe throw in a bit of overtime as well.

Most companies that claim to be family friendly are anything but.

Re: How to answer the “What’s your current salary?” job interview question

#90

Post by DoubleGlazing »

falsedan wrote: post #55
DoubleGlazing wrote: post #17

I find that a lot of the tactics used to deflect or avoid answering awkward questions in interviews just do not work. There are two questions that always get me in interviews. The first one is the salary one. If I am evasive, or try to deflect, the interviewer will probe deeper. They just wont take no for an answer. In fact I've even been told straight up "Give us a figure, or we won't proceed". Another one is about…

> Another one is about my children. They are five and seven and finish school in the > afternoon, when they are collected by their after school service. Under EU law > interviewers cannot ask about my family life, but they do. That's a huge red flag. Just asking the question in an interview situation leaves them open to unfair discrimination lawsuits, and you can easily get a negotiated settlement whenever they end t…

Oh I know, but what can you do. It's your word against theirs. And if you were to tape the interview and successfully claim for unfair dismissal your name will get around the local IT industry pretty quickly.
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