Page 3 | AIBU Desired salary?!?!

Throwntothewolves · 07/03/2021 00:53

My DH is having this problem. He has a lot of experience and additional qualifications in his line of work, but finds so many jobs ask this. Sometimes he asks before applying as he's been offered jobs where they think they can pay little more than minimum wage for a skilled, experienced worker, which is completely unrealistic (blame covid for that). But he doesn't want to price himself out of the market either. He just wants fair pay for the skills and experience he has.

Obbydoo · 07/03/2021 04:27

@SnackSizeRaisin

Don't undervalue yourself. Have a good think about what you want to be paid and then add some more. They are not going to turn away a good person because the figure is too high (and you don't want the job if the pay's not enough anyway).

This is terrible advice! Of course they will turn you away. Unless you work in a highly specialist role, there will be a load of other people who are equally as good as you but who aren't demanding an excessive salary.

Obbydoo · 07/03/2021 04:33

@tttigress

I have seen a few videos advising on the interview process.

The advice is, don't discuss salary until the very end.

The company should give a range though, so you know if there is an actual point in you applying.

Again, terrible advice. I wouldn't waste my time interviewing someone if I didnt know what their salary was. When I advertise a role and ask for people to include their salary in the application, I would bin their application if they don't provide their earnings even before reading their CV if I get a decent volume of applicants. Admittedly if it's a specialist role and I only got a handful of applicants, I wouldn't do that but don't take the risk.

ReleaseTheCracken · 07/03/2021 05:05

I left this part blank in an application in late November last year.
They emailed me a few days later, thanking me for applying and asking what my expectation was.
I replied to ask them for guidance as it was part time.
No reply.

I saw last week that they are still advertising the position so I emailed the same woman again, no reply.

I've decided that they are a waste of time and probably not the sort of company I would want to work for.

Sapho47 · 07/03/2021 05:48

@Crazyhouse123

A job I have been keeping an eye on has come up and I really want to go for it.

However as part of the application it says "desired salary" and there is no option of skipping it.

I hate this question, I have seen it on other applications recently too. I want to know what the salary range is! End of! I know it will be more than I am on but I don't know how much more. I don't want to say too much in case that means they will dismiss my application...equally I don't want to sell myself short!

Does anyone have any advise about what they would do or have done with the same question?

How much money would you like?

Write that

G5000 · 07/03/2021 12:05

And here in this thread we have one of the reasons for pay gap. Oh no, don't ask too much, go just barely above what you think is fair, they will bin the CV..(yes possibly if it's a low skilled job that anybody can do, where skills and experience doesn't matter and the company will just go for the cheapest candidate, no matter what - doesn't sound like that kind of job though). Most men will happily ask way more than the market rate, as that's your starting position for negotiations. And unless the salary is determined by external factors and there's no room to move, most companies are also happy to pay for the right candidate. (If salary is really set, why even ask?)

boltfromtheblueblue · 07/03/2021 12:16

Again, terrible advice. I wouldn't waste my time interviewing someone if I didnt know what their salary was. When I advertise a role and ask for people to include their salary in the application, I would bin their application if they don't provide their earnings even before reading their CV if I get a decent volume of applicants. Admittedly if it's a specialist role and I only got a handful of applicants, I wouldn't do that but don't take the risk

But why would I waste my time interviewing for you when you haven't told me the salary? You should be pricing the worth of the job fairly, not waiting to see what I'm on now to work out how little you can get away with paying me.

Ginevere · 07/03/2021 12:46

Tbh I would go big or go home!

When I was asked to apply for my current job I did some research and found out that the average salary was 10k higher than I was on at the time. As a result, I put 15k higher in my expectations but wrote ‘I would be willing to negotiate this based on an attractive package.’

They just went ahead and gave me the 15k bump! Makes me wonder if I should have gone higher! But yes, my advice would be to find out what the going rate is for the role and push it up a little.

IWentAwayIStayedAway · 07/03/2021 12:57

Ive been on an interview panel and asking thst question but it was to give us an insight into the interviewee thought process. It was a business development role / sales. So we had people looking £50k. No problem. But couldnt set themselves a sales target. Common sense would be if you want a 50k salary you need to bring in 50kish in sales....weeded a lot of people out

HeavyHeidi · 07/03/2021 13:02

I wouldn't waste my time interviewing someone if I didnt know what their salary was. When I advertise a role and ask for people to include their salary in the application

No way would I disclose my current salary to potential new employer. You're supposed to pay a fair salary for the job you are asking them to do. What does it matter how much someone has been earning before, doing a different job for a different company?

The only reason you would ask for previous salary would be to pay as little as you can get away with. So a company knows that the average for this job is 50K, someone applies says their current is 20, and they would take advantage of this and offer them 25. Underpaying your employees is usually not a great long term strategy.

Sparklesocks · 07/03/2021 22:44

Again, terrible advice. I wouldn't waste my time interviewing someone if I didnt know what their salary was. When I advertise a role and ask for people to include their salary in the application, I would bin their application if they don't provide their earnings even before reading their CV if I get a decent volume of applicants.

Seems a shame to dismiss potentially great candidates based on such a small detail, quite short sighted really. I assume you at least publish a salary when advertising so you’re at least not leaving candidates to scramble and guess? After all, lack of transparency is what contributes to the pay gap.

JaceLancs · 07/03/2021 23:21

I am an employer and we always advertise either exact salary or a range if it depends on experience/qualifications
Budgets are quite tight and I wouldn’t expect anyone to apply if they weren’t happy with the figures

8090sTv · 07/03/2021 23:36

I am a detail geek so I would bench mark similar roles, then think about if I want higher what am I offering or negotiating on like location/hours.