“Competitive salary” - is there anything more annoying when job hunting?

[Shirleyphallus]

I’m looking for roles at the moment and do a job where, depending on the industry, you could be paid £30k or £150k which is a ludicrous range and so it’s a huge waste of time to send your CV off if it comes back that the salary banding is way off your requirements

Why do companies do this? Seriously what’s to be lost by publishing salary banding?

*apply

Went for a role advertised as "competitive salary". Now they had seen my CV and would have had an idea from my job title and experience that I was on a decent salary. During interview they asked me my salary and they physically looked shocked and said they were hoping to offer a more "junior" salary!! It wasn't a junior role....

Sometimes it's because they don't want other people at their own company to see what the salary range is.

More often it's one of two reasons:

1. the person in charge of hiring the new recruit is out of touch, doesn't live in the real world, doesn't know what the fuck they're doing and wants to "see what's out there". You hear this phrase a lot at recruitment meetings.

2. they want to get people in as cheaply as physically possible and therefore don't want to put on a range, because they think they might be able to get someone for less than what they can afford to pay, or that someone might push for the top end of the salary bracket when they could have gotten away with paying them bottom end of it.

I really think it is so bloody rude when there is a long, long list of all that's expected and then 'competitive salary' tagged on the end.
Who the hell is going to jump through hoops when they don't even know if it's worth it?

If I really wanted the specific job that did this in advert I’d call in advance of applying and see if they’d give any ballpark salary information. If they said they’d not then I’d consider them utter time wasters and avoid.

But yes it’s completely unprofessional seeming and sends out massive red flags about that company not really knowing their market. Very low turnover workplaces can be tricky, as well as very high turnover places. The complete skinflint/wanting more than they can afford or big pay disparities workplaces are equally dodgy.

I've been interviewing over the last few weeks and our internal recruitment team never quote salaries when looking for candidates.

I know the range I can offer between, so the most I ask is what their salary expectations are. So far the expectations have been £8k to £10k below the max I'll go to.

@PhilCornwall1

I've been interviewing over the last few weeks and our internal recruitment team never quote salaries when looking for candidates.

I know the range I can offer between, so the most I ask is what their salary expectations are. So far the expectations have been £8k to £10k below the max I'll go to.

This is really refreshing to hear, because I used to work in recruitment and almost everyone would pressure candidates into revealing their current salary package, as well as their salary expectations.

Completely agree that a company who's doing it to conceal salaries from current staff is one to avoid also.

I'm job hunting, and I don't apply if there isn't a salary posted. I'm actually very flexible to salary, because I'm looking for either full time work in the right sector, or part time work around training for that sector. But if they don't respect me enough to tell me their expectations, I don't respect them enough to work there.

This should be one's attitude to all parts of job applications - I was ready to turn down a role because their ambitions for a temporary post were ludicrously high, and they only had one 45m interview, back to back with other interviewees, for a senior position. They had too many questions so I had no time to ask my own! They didn't offer me the job, but I've sneaked a look at them since and the person they appointed fell through, and it seems that they still haven't completed any of the targets mentioned at interview. They have nicked some stuff from the presentation I gave though.