asking about salary before interview

[colalight]

I have an interview at the start of December and it is my first interview in 16 years (unless you count internal interviews).

For various reasons I want to leave my current employer (who I've been with for 16 years) but I have a very good salary and benefits package here.

The job I'm applying for has a salary scale but doesn't say "successful applicants will start at the bottom....blah blah". It is public sector. (I am in public sector already but a different company and sector.)

On the application form, it asked for current salary and I kept this blank because I thought a, it might put them off me and b, I really want to leave my current employer that I thought I wouldn't mind a pay cut.

I'm currently in the middle of that salary scale and whilst I wouldn't mind a small drop in salary, I couldn't start at the very beginning. Reality has kicked in and whilst my current employer is making me ill (literally), my initial thinking that happiness is more important is probably wrong. I don't want to have to watch the pennies. And there would be that sense of failure if I took that much of a drop

WIBU to contact the interviewer and ask if the salary would be negotiable? I don't want to waste mine or their time? Would that ruin any chance of getting the role? I know in my company that incoming employees cannot negotiate. The salary is what it is.

I also think the job involves a lot more work than I'm doing in my current role too.

Jobs in this area are very hard to find too.

Don’t ask. Go to the interview, wow them, make them decide you’re the right candidate & then discuss.

Honestly, you'd be stupid not to ask in the interview.
In fact it's often advised to ask during your interview, because it's much easier to negotiate/confirm salary prior to the job starting than once you have started.
Never have a started a job without everything confirmed and sorted first, other wise how else would you know that it's right for you to leave your current job?

In the civil service interviews I’ve been party to the salary is stated at the start of the interview and you are asked if you want to proceed on that basis - it’s always been the case that the starting salary is the bottom of the band

As the salary you want does fall within the published scale, I would not ask further before the interview. During the interview they should ask about your salary expectations,but if they don't you can raise it then.

I hire people a lot and it's mildly annoying when candidates ask for an absolute precision point on the advertised salary scale before I've interviewed them - I am probably interviewing people with a range of experience and skills, so the final salary is going to be a discussion with the successful candidate.

Good luck with your interview; hope you get it if you like it at interview.

I'm in the same position as you. I want to change jobs but don't want to start at the bottom of my pay scale.

I'm tempted to email expressing my interest in the offered jobs, and asking what starting salary would be for my level of experience, before applying but not sure if this isn't really the done thing.

It's a waste of both our time if I go and they insist on me starting at the bottom. If it makes any difference, I work in an area where a lot of places are continuous recruiting so there is unlikely to ever only be one job where I'm against lots of other applicants.

Don’t ask. Go to the interview, wow them, make them decide you’re the right candidate & then discuss

My experience of public sector, albeit limited, is that there isn’t masses of room for negotiation. You may be able to negotiate a salary part-way up the scale but I don’t think you’d get more than the max.

No job is worth being miserable and ill.

What salary drops are you talking about? 50k down to 40k? 80k down to 30k? 30k to 15k?

‘Good salaries’ are relative (as several recent threads show) but it’s important to be comfortable.

Ignore feelings of failure, entirely unhelpful. What’s important is to find the correct balance between salary, comfort and your good mental health.

If the salary is genuinely manageable go for it and attempt a negotiation but if it’s not then I wouldn’t bother.

I only work in public sector... ime, unless you are fairly senior level, they only start at bottom of the scale. This policy will be buried somewhere in their websites. You have to be prepared to walk away if you can't accept that.

Sorry, I’ve just reread - if your salary is in the middle of the scale then go for it. I was offered a LG role which straddled two grades. They wanted me to start at the bottom of the lower and I went in at the top moving to the next scale a few months later.

I work.in public sector and have jumped between 4 local authorities in the last 6 years (all totally different roles). In every local authority my previous salary was matched. It's policy within HR you just have to show a pay slip to prove your salary. You shouldnt have to start at the bottom even when it's a new rule.

*role

Would your DH consider changing schools? if you move closer to London he could get an inner or outer London weighting (depending on school location) which would add significantly to his salary. Experience of teaching in London is always desirable to schools elsewhere and there is often more opportunities to advance.This would open up your search, so you could target nice pockets in London areas and if needed still be near the SE coast train terminals for weekend visits to the parents.

Do you particularly want a house? if not, you could get a 2 bed flat in some nice SE London locations e.g. Balham (close to Clapham junction for trains to Hove). Would you miss the sea and the Downs?

You know the scale and the salary you hope to obtain is within that scale so I wouldn't ask before the interview.

One of the objectives of the interview, is for them to find out and you to sell your experience and skills. They wont know this before the interview to comment on potential salary. They will start salary negotiations on what they think is an appropriate salary for the relevant experience and skills you will bring to the role.

At our company if you can completely meet all expectations of a role you would expect to receive the salary mid point. Anything above that is when you work beyond (not just harder in) the role description and add additional value. Not sure if the public sector is the same.

I’m just leaving a public sector job in an area that has a recruitment and retention problem. When I started it was non-negotiable that you started at the bottom unless you we’re moving from another government department. Now I think if you’re skilled and qualified they’re slightly more open-minded. So I’d be inclined to say that it wasn’t clear in the application pack where on the scale people would start and could they please clarify. And as a PP said, I wouldn’t worry about a sense of failure if you drop a little bit - your health and well-being is more important

thanks all, yes @SunnySomer that is the wording I was thinking of using,

I guess there's no harm in asking then, I have a job either way but it would be difficult.

To the PP who asked, it would be a £7000 pay cut

I'm also disabled, so if I took a pay cut it would be even harder to progress back up the way. I worked very hard to get where I was and my current employer isn't as disability confident as they claim to be.

CS paybands are set unless you are an out of this world candidate who has already been doing the job amazingly for years in the private sector

My experience of CS says don't ask..like PP said- wow them, make them think you're the best and then ask.

But the very very high chance is that they won't have room to negotiate outside of that pay band.

I wasn't asking to negotiate outwith that pay band, I was looking for something in the middle of the pay band

If you're transferring from another civil service organisation they'll often match the pay you're currently on if it's the same grade - different orgs have different bands, and they recognise it wouldn't be fair to give a pay cut when it's ostensibly the same level of job.

Btw I've never had an interview where salary was mentioned (all public sector or civil service), so if it were me I'd wait until a job offer came in, then you know they already want you and you've scored highest, so you're in a strong negotiating position

I applied for a job that said Band R (example). No amount of Googling told me what that was so I took a punt on the job title and job description and applied. I was offered the job and top of Band R was £3k less than my current salary. Fortunately my skills were such that they offered the next Band up and I'm starting in the middle of January. I wished I had contacted them beforehand but actually I wouldn't have applied if I had known the actual Banding. So make of that what you will!

Oh in that case no don't mention it. Salary is definitely negotiable within the paybands, unless they specifically say it is not. Better to wait until they've said they want you.
Good luck!