Discussing Salary with the Recruiter
Part of a Recruiter’s core responsibilities is to confirm current compensation and desired compensation. Don’t try to talk around any requirements, including salary. The Recruiter is paid to confirm your current salary and most recent compensation package. You should provide current base salary or annualized gross comp based on your hourly rate if you are contracting.
If the Recruiter doesn’t ask you about compensation, in my experience, their range is below market and they don’t want to discuss compensation. It’s almost never that they are above market and are going to throw mioney at you no matter where you are at in terms of compensation. So let me repeat – a Recruiter who doesn’t discuss salary – usually not a good sign. If you’re an Executive doing a very exploratory call and there’s no job description, it’s ok to say, “You know what? I’m really not comfortable talking about compensation yet.” However, give them some data points if you can. If the job is budgeted, approved and posted, you need to discuss compensation.
The Recruiter will require you to provide your current or most recent compensation package. It’s very risky to tell the Recruiter that you aren’t willing to disclose your current salary. It’s the Recruiter’s job to confirm compensation prior to advancing candidates to a Hiring Manager.
Low Ball Job Offers
One of the most demoralizing things that can occur in your job search if you receive a low ball offer. That’s just one of the reasons why it’s critical that you share your salary history and desired compensation upfront with Recruiters during the phone interview. Why wait as a candidate at the offer stage to find out the compensation is not going to work? When it comes to below market offers, it’s very difficult not to get profoundly insulted.
If you look at from the perspective of the potential employer, it may offer viable strategy – with some candidates. Extending low ball offers will anger and repel a large percentage of qualified candidates who know their market rate. However, a small group will consider taking a salary cut for the opportunity, not fully understanding that it will be almost impossible to make up the lost ground now that average merit increases are around 2%. They are taking a permanent pay cut.
CareerRx ProTips for Discussing Salary
Stay analytical and calm. When speaking to job seekers about their salary requirements, many candidates become very emotional about compensation. As a job seeker in process with a Recruiter, practice moving away from emotion and towards analysis when dealing with salary. Specifically, provide datapoints on compensation to the Recruiter that show your salary history and all components of your compensation.
Don’t get emotional about the salary discussion. We don’t want to hear your backstory. You should say, “Here are my data points around compensation. My current compensation is a base of $k, an incentive of % and on target earnings of $. Here’s my last 5 years of salary history.” Done. No long story about what you should have gotten paid, who was out to get you and how your last company screwed you on salary.
Use multiple datapoints
Over the past decade, millions of American have experienced economic armageddon. And to survive after losing a good paying job, you had to take a pay cut to get the next job. I absolutely recommend saying to the Recruiter, “Listen, I’m going give you multiple data points. My compensation now is a little bit lower than what it used to be. For that reason, let’s look at several factors.”
This moves the discussion from an opinion about your value to a market analysis based on facts. Recruiters are typically working with 3 critical datapoints as well:
– Budgeted salary for the role for that calendar year
– Salary range
– Current compensation of existing employees in the same role
– If you are in Sales provide your base, total OTE and then actual earnings in the prior calendar year.
– If your current salary is below market, but you were at a higher salary in a prior role, definitely provide that data point to the Recruiter in the phone interview.
Above all, stay calm and avoid ranting.
Confirm Both Budgeted Salary and Total Range
In some companies, offers are not able to be above the budgeted salary for that calendar year even if the range allows for higher salaries. Also, Recruiters may be told by the Hiring Manager that they must hire into the role at a certain salary level that is not above current job holders to ensure internal equit
If you’re below market, acknowledge it and know that the Recruiter also knows if you’re below market. We know what the going rate is for your skill set and geography.
Make the Recruiter Your Advocate
Help your Recruiter help you. As a Recruiter, I don’t want to hurt a candidate. I want them to make more money. I had a candidate last year who was at 125K in their current job but in their previous job they were at 140K. The budget comp for the role was 138K. I said, “Let’s bring him at 138K. It’s already approved in the budget and that’s the zone that they’re in.”
Recruiters will try to do anything I can to help that candidate get back to where they were if it’s possible. The hiring manager depends on Recruiters to make a recommendation on the candidate’s salary based on a number of factors. They always ask, “Where do you think we should bring them in based on what is budgeted for the role and their salary history?” Be aware that if you’re mean to the Recruiter, you have just lost your advocate.
Sure they can bring you in low, save 10K and then somebody poaches you. It’s not in the employer’s best interest but companies are doing this all of the time. As a Recruiter, I always tried to make the best salary recommendation for the longest tenure.
