For wanting to know the approx salary before going to a job interview?

[helenjen]

I have recently been made redundant and before that the last time I went for a job interview was over 8 years ago - so I may well be very out of date here.

I applied for a job earlier on this week which I saw on an online job site which sounded right up my street, however there was no salary info on the post. Not even negotiable between £x and £y, it was just blank. I thought I might as well apply and if they got in touch I assumed I would be told the salary.

Yesterday I got a call inviting me for an interview which I have arranged for Monday however when I asked about the salary, she said she didn't have the information which I found a bit strange. She said they would tell me at the interview on Monday.

I get that it is probably negotiable and they will offer a salary based on however well the successful candidate does in their interview - however AIBU to be a bit put off by it? I feel like a professional company would just be upfront and honest about it?

Thanks Millie, I know, I work in the public sector now. But even when I worked in the private sector, it was the norm for companies to put an hourly rate/salary scale on job ads. Now, many companies try to pay what they can get away with, depending on the applicants. That's wrong. I'm lucky, I love my job, but at the end of the day, I work for the salary, not the job satisfaction.

Thing is if they want people who work for the love not the money they are going to end up with dickheads because even the people I know who do not need to work for money they are so skilled they command more than most mortals anyway which is how they ended up in a position of not needing to work for money !
People need to know their worth in the market, there is a massive skills shortage in the UK you can pick and choose employers, interview them !!!

Seems to be the new way. Dh has been asked to apply for a role internally but they don't know the salary and don't understand why he's "so hung up on money" er, because he has 3dc and bills to pay and new job would require a change in our childcare. Bonkers, and dh isn't that worried re money.

Doesn't sound like much has changed over the last 20 years :(

I had an interview for a company back then; who actually advertised a salary band (at the time would have accepted somewhere in the middle). Spent all day there, gave a presentation, showed them my technical skills.

Got a call the next day offering me the job but on less than half the minimum advertised. Thankfully I was already employed so I told them where to go.

Stupidly (without at first realising it was the same company) went through exactly the same again with them about 4 years later (yep - told them where to go again).

I do actually know someone who works there on a good wage. I'm not calling discrimination but he's male. I'm not.

And don't even get me started on the company where I trecked 4 hours by train to walk in for an interview to shocked expressions when they realised "Tony" was "Toni" (ok - sorry best name change I could come up with) and the comment "oh, you're a woman".

Cue two hours of very painful interview questions about "so how would your husband feel about you working away occasionally?" (er - he wouldn't give a shit as it's a job and I earn more than him and he's not actually my husband right now) and "would you be happy to leave children whilst you worked".

Yep - completely illegal even then but, small company, couldn't prove anything. Long 4 hour train journey home.

And that was in an industry (IT) which even then had allegedly moved away from being male dominated.

Oh - and going for a band promotion with the local council I was working for at the time to be told "you're not getting it, you're not married and you don't have children so you don't need extra money".

I'll never forget the rudest man alive who on my third and final interview asked me why my joints clicked (fucking weirdo) and then told me he had never seriously considered my application because I lived in Liverpool and the job was in Manchester. Which he asked me why I didn't share.

Except of course I had. It was on my cv, and after the first interview I viewed some flats in walking distance and in budget of the office.

I should have know when they kept me waiting for nearly two hours before seeing me. Arseholes. Oh, and the job was a minimum wage, commission based agency where I would be expected to work through lunch and after hours.

Question (because I can't understand why this faffing around doesn't waste a lot of money for companies):

Isn't it still usual to have travel expenses refunded in full ?

Ever since I left uni (early 1980s) I've never had an interview with a company who didn't refund full travel costs rail & taxi, plus they normally provide a decent lunch. I was refunded flight, hotel & meals several years ago, applying for a job on the continent.
I would never bother applying for a job that doesn't specify salary range, or that costs me money to visit.

My speciality (I've a STEM Phd) has a shortage of people. However, although salary range is very decent, it's nowhere near the stratospheric bankster level. So I'm not a Master of the Universe or anything like.

It's rubbish and massively disadvantages women who tend not to be comfortable selling themselves....

In this book someone recommended on MN... Research showed men negotiated on salary 7 times more frequently than women!! Women just didn't ask... It also has massive consequences... Lower starting pay, leading to lower total life time earnings esp if career breaks meaning that women will retire with much less savings and pension provision.

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002WJM4P6/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

ThomasHardy The same thing happened to me when I asked about salary during an interview. I was definitely made to feel it wasn't the done thing to mention money (no salary bands ever published).

I wasn't offered the job, so never found out. But did learn later, as an aside, that this company was/is notorious for paying females a lot less than males doing the same job.

BigChoc - I have never ever had travel expenses paid for interviews. I guess that's the difference between professional or not.

Thanks for the info, Felicia
That's very unfair & discriminatory, though

Felicia - me either. The counter to that is that I am now senior enough for interviews to be after hours or to ask for a mid-way meeting point, like a hotel bar/restaurant. I get precious little annual leave and I am not giving up a day of it for an interview.

The personal remarks at interview some of you reported are outrageously rude & stupid. And they don't even seem capable of reading CVs.
Seems they just choose their interviewers from the most unpleasant & incompetent people in their firm

Those who can, do. Those who can't, interview

I've never had expenses paid either private or public sector, professional or unskilled but then I've never earned over £30th.

I did ask once and it was met with shocked expressions! I spent a year temping and getting interviews in London and train fare nearly bankrupted me - never got a London based job.

It's a real bugbear of mine. DH has wasted so much time when job hunting and interviewing in the past because of no salary being listed.

He's in retail management and i've never seen similar jobs vary so wildly in salary in other sectors. Seriously, retail management roles for a large department store in our area - it will carry a salary of anywhere between £20k - £60k for stores that have the same turnover/number of staff/responsibilities etc.

He's been to two interviews in the past few months where he's been told the salary on arrival only and had to thank them politely and leave without even interviewing because the salary range is far lower than he needs (so much lower it would never be negotiated up to what he's on now iyswim)...such a massive waste of time!

YANBU at all.

I have no good stories to add, but have enjoyed reading the ones posted.

I'll out Hull City of Culture who advertise roles at different levels from admin to senior management as 'tell us your current salary and salary expectation' and no indication of a salary range. I agree with others who say it really looks like they want cheap over experience and shows a total lack of transparency in HR practices. If there any interested creative types out there here is the latest list of vacancies: www.hull2017.co.uk/jobs/

The issue I would have is, if they're not prepared to tell you the salary up front it makes them look quite unprofessional, and do you really want to be working for that kind of company if this is an example of one of their management decisions? Little things like this can reveal a lot about culture.

I have interviewed for our company; I'm only a lowly drone though and I have no access to salary information. So yes, I've interviewed people and had to direct them to HR for that because I genuinely don't know (and the delightful management have told us discussing salary is a sacking offence.)
In my defence, I do a good interview. I try to put candidates at ease, give them a chance to really sell themselves etc. I've had quite a few really nervous candidates I've managed to calm down. One even said she'd been dreading it but enjoyed it !

Unfortunately my boss prefers the gift of the gab type to people who may be shyer but have the skills and temperament needed so she often overrules my opinion on whom to hire. Then I get the flack when the used car salesman type she wanted turns out to be shit ( and my choice of the serious scientist who was a bit shy was turned down..,)

I hate my job,,

An interviewer who isn't allowed basic information, like salary, isn't being allowed to do their job properly

If discussing salary is a sackable offence, then they are almost certainly hiding the fact that employees are being paid very differently for the same jobs - nearly always it's women losing out and those who don't have the right network.

Keeping the proposed salary a big secret means they are below market rate and hoping to find someone sufficiently desperate to take it. Avoid, avoid, OP unless you really are that desperate person.

Good luck with your interview tomorrow OP

Formal, if you're in the uk you can't be fired for discussing salary.

I know you can't legally but in reality, they can fire you for whatever they want. Or manage you out for having the wrong attitude
Someone in my office got fired for requesting to go to 80% time - something she has s legal right to do. They fired her. She persued them through the employment courts and won
But she still didn't get her job back.
My boss keeps everyone on a sort of 'I've already got a few things about you' type of warning. I'm on mat leave at the moment and I'm pretty sure she'll try to manage me out once I'm back if I am unable to do all the unpaid, insane hours overtime I used to pre baby. I will be not sufficiently committed to the role or something like that. I can't keep up with calls to Japan or aus at 3am, a full European day then 'just attending these important calls' with the USA lot who refuse to acknowledge the world is a sphere with time zones.... Had stellar reviews and yearly promotion before I moved under her and I've gone from liking my job to loathing it.
American company but in Sweden, which has v strong work protection and they can still do whatever they like.

Ironically, the one good thing about my job is the pay. I would have left long ago if it wasn't so good,

I did work for a company once in a quite low position. I went for another job within the same company. They gave it to the YTS boy because he was a man and would have to look after a family one day.

Walked out because I was not going to have a 16 year old who rarely washed being my supervisor. As it happens it was the best thing i did because the MD of the company that I had told them looked extremely dodgy cleared the company bank accounts out because no one checked the small print he had written into his contract. The company closed soon after I left. I got a job on treble my salary in another local firm solely because I had walked out and knew of the MD and were very impressed at my astute summing up of the guy. Apparently he was well known for pulling the same stunt in a couple of other companies.

How did you get on OP!?