Quick question for the HR folk

[MascaraOHara]

I have been asked to provide my current salary and salary expectations for a new job

I have a problem

The salary offered is double what I currently earn. Though the job is exactly what I do and both my employer and I recognise that I am grossly underpaid

I am concerned that if I supply my genuine current salary the will reject me immediately as they will assume I am unsuitable. despite my CV fitting.

If I consciously leave it out they will think I do not pay attention to detail and have accidently not supplied the requested information

What should I do.. I am assuming I can't lie

Also when you are asked your salary expectations I've always assumed you should choose a ~amount in the salary range provided so as to indicate if you would be looking for top or bottom end of the salary range. A colleague suggested I put something significatly lower (30k lower) than the bottom of the range they've provided but I think that wouldn't be appropraite at all and give entirely the wrong message.

thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

My advice MascaraOhara is never to undersell yourself. It is not your problem your current job doesn't pay as well. If you are qualified to do this new job and provide supporting evidence they cannot discriminate against you. You need to be honest (always the best way to begin a new career!!)
I wouldn't do what your friend suggested - this company has obviously provided you with the salary range they can afford. This may be the standard wage for your qualifications. So depending on your years experience I'd guage it that way. Eg if the wage is eg £50k-£80 and your've been doing this job for 10 years with impressive yearly reports I'd aim around £60. if you've been doing it for a year then around the bottom. If over 15/20 years then above £70k. Most people today work for about 40 years, so I'd take your years experience and divide by the 40 and see what proportion you should use as a guide - am I making this clear?????? eg 10 years experience is 10/40 = 1/4 (25%) of the range the range is £30k and 1/4 of that is around £8-£10k Follow???

Good luck with it. Go sell yourself highly -- if you are qualified for this role go tell them why they need YOU!!!

Is this what the phrase "pay review pending" is for?!? So they know you know your current salary is under the market value . . .

My salary has been an issue for years. It's historic because I joined as an apprentice rather than a graduate but I 'rose through the ranks' relatively quickly and they've never been able to catch my pay up as I work for a huge organisation where purse strings are heavily guarded by a million layers of middle and senior militia management

I work for a company that's extremely unstable after being assured they were doing something about it I was in a cycle then the cycle got canned and nobody got anything etc etc

Ultimately they think I won't go anywhere because it's so convenient

I will state my expectation is at the bottom of their range but it still doesn't remove the fact that they might think I'm over selling myself

Thank you for your thoughts

Mascara - it sounds like you work for the same company I have just taken redundancy from.

I was being paid 20% below the bottom of my grade, and then all pay rises were canned once I had finally got a manager who was willing to do something about it.

I have a possible job offer (admittedly in the south rather than north) and they will offer me twice what I am currently on.

At interview, I said that I wouldn't tell them what I was currently on as it was pitiful, and that they should offer me what they think I am worth.

Possibly B&J we are consistantly going through rounds of VR and CR at the moment! and that sounds exactly like the situation we have here.

Good luck with your potential job!

I wonder if it would be rude to politely state I'd rather withold my current salary for the time being.. at the moment it's only the agency asking

I work in IT

I also have an interview for a possible contract job (which would pay loads of money) next week.

In fact I have heard that my ex-coworkers have been asked to take a pay cut

The only reason I stayed so long was that my immediate managers were lovely.

If it is just the agency then talk to them. It is in their interests to get you the max amount. And it wouldn't be rude, I always think it is pretty irrelevant what you are on now as compensation packages are more complicated than just a figure

also IT and from what you say about the paycuts it is the same company.. though please don't say it's name on here

what location were you? is that too nosy?

aha - I will put my email address up here, if I can find one that doesn't have my real name on it

you can get me on mascaraohara at hotmail dot co dot uk

if its an agency asking then discuss with them what is a realistic figure.

If you're applying for a different job, then your current salary might be viewed as an indicator of the 'level' you are operating at. But if you are doing the exact same job for a comparable employer that's not an issue, so although eyebrows might go up at your current salary, if they are interested in your experience and skills, it won't put them off.

I think salary expectation questions are a bit pointless in a way. There is a salary or salary range offered for the job, and any candidate meeting the requirements specified should be offered a salary at an appropriate place within that range. I certainly disagree with your colleague who is saying tell them you only want much less than is being offered. If you meet their requirements you should expect the range given. Any chance your colleague is a wee bit jealous of you applying for a job with such a salary jump....?

It's entirely likely that both questions are standard ones agencies ask rather than questions the employer is actually asking.

That's what I'm worried about Flowery (your first statement) except you put it much better than I did.

It is a different role as in different title and different industry with a different structure but all of the required skills and experience are almost identical to my experience and skill set. I would confidently say I was at least an 80% fit to the specification.

I replied yesterday afternoon saying I was happy to discuss salary should I be interviewed and that my expectations were in line with the range given so we'll see.. might come to nothing.. still only the agency asking at the end of the day!

Thanks, all. You're all so helpful in this topic, I like it here

What you've said sounds perfect.

Skills and experience are miles more important than what salary you are on now, and should always be the criteria used. So if you are a good match to these criteria there's no reason you shouldn't get shortlisted just because you don't happen to be earning that much now.

I didn't get shortlisted once for a job I would have been perfect for. I was a complete match for everything they required, had done a very similar job successfully in the same industry in a very similar organisation working with the same group of people with the same issues. But I didn't even get shortlisted because I technically hadn't been working in HR quite as long as they required, due to the fact that I am good at my job so progressed quite quickly. Apparently if I'd spent an extra year sat filing personnel records at the beginning of my career, rather than being promoted, I would have been shortlisted.

Still irritates me, can you tell?!

Their loss, that's what I say!

the only eyebrows raised here (IT) are when people are on a much higher salary than the job they're applying for. If it's less but they're a good match we snap them up and asssume they're being grossly underpaid! You'll say how you're a match, they'll check that at interview,nothing else to consider, really.