During a job search one of the more challenging encounters is not dealing with the tough interviewers or interview questions, but it is responding to the question: What is your current salary? This question typically comes at least twice during a screening and selection process: First during the call when a recruiter is screening you for a possible fit and finally during the offer stage when you have already been cleared because of your success through various stages of the interview process.
Of late, there have been many blogs and articles by various career professionals imploring those in job transition to not disclose their salary information so that it is not held hostage to their next salary. In their writings or messages they provide various ways to dodge this question, some of which border on the ludicrous. Some even suggest cracking some kind of joke around this issue, while others provide a rather rude script of what to say, not just when the recruiter asks such a questions during initial screening, but also during the offer stage when your potential hiring manager is trying to put a reasonable package to hire you!
What prompted me to post this blog is some recent examples I encountered when some of my clients not only got screened out from the get-go, but a few C-level candidates did not get an offer they were expecting after going through a long interview process. Some, who concealed their compensation history got offered considerably lower packages than their current compensation, which resulted in shutting down to process after considerable investment of everybody’s time and others ended up having to take lower salaries because they were about to lose their current job, which they did not disclose prior to the selection process getting underway.
This blog is about an alternate—and proven—approach to how to look at this whole issue of compensation and how to deal with it in a way that not only gets you what you deserve or want, but also puts you in a strong position to negotiate what you want in your next salary. The approach I am suggesting here is not just an idea or an experiment, but something I have repeatedly used to coach my clients transitioning out of a current job to their next.
The Screening Call: Before we get into how to handle this salary question from the get-go, let us first examine the reason why the salary question is relevant—even important—starting with the beginning stages of the selection process. In almost all cases, including the C-level situations mentioned above, a recruiter first makes a call to screen potential candidates to present to the hiring manager. These recruiters are given the “job specs,” which include salary parameters.
Recruiters know that anyone looking to change jobs will seek a bigger salary package than what their current or recent job offered them. So, when the recruiter asks the salary question in the initial screening call it is best to have a good answer that protects your ability to go to the next round: a call or meeting with the hiring manager or team. At this stage the recruiter is merely assessing if your price point allows them to present you to the hiring manger based on how the screening went during that call. Thus, lack of this salary information can be a show-stopper despite how well qualified you were for that job and how well you did during that screening call, making you a “blind” candidate. A recruiter will not typically present a “blind” candidate to the hiring manager for the fear that they may look less than diligent—even sloppy—in how they present candidates to the hiring manager.
The second reason why this information is important, even if you do not get to the next step of the selection process, is that it provides the hiring company where the market is. HR departments constantly update their salary-range information from this data to stay competitive in the market. So, disclosing your salary for a given position helps the hiring company compile salary data to keep market parity. Although this may not be a direct concern of yours, it is an act of being a “good citizen,” who also benefits at your current employer if you never even contemplate leaving your current employer. HR departments constantly revise salary ranges based on such date to keep current employees at their company happy.
The third reason—perhaps the most important reason of all—to disclose your salary is the strategy you use to decouple your current or recent salary from the one that you want or deserve in your next job. To many, this concept may appear foreign, but it is commonsense. The salary you earn in your job must be derived from the value you create for the employer in that job. What you earn(ed) or were paid in your previous job is not relevant to what you must be paid in your next. So, even though you have disclosed your current (or most recent) salary to the recruiter during that screening call, it should not be hold hostage to what you can negotiate based on how the interview process reveals the value you create in your next job. This is the single most important factor that decouples your past salary from your next. This is also the most important reason why you must disclose your salary information with confidence from the get-go!
Now that we have laid the rationale for why salary information should be disclosed when asked let us develop a script of how to conduct these conversations during the various stages of the interview process:
During the screening call with the recruiter: Recruiters ask this question in a variety of ways, so be careful to listen to what is asked and provide a response to that question ONLY. For example, if the recruiter asks what salary are you looking for in this role, your answer should (only for this stage of the process): My 2016 W-2 (employer’s tax reporting document) reports total wages at $xxx. The reason for stating your W-2 (or such) numbers is that it provides instant credibility. It also precludes any temptation of exaggeration you may have at this stage. Many companies require you to later submit such documents as a part of the final checklist before hiring. So, make sure that you disclose this number truthfully and with alacrity. Sometimes, the recruiter may ask you for the breakdown of the total number. In such cases provide what is on that form.
Once you disclose this data the recruiter is satisfied that they have what they need to decide if you are within the salary range of candidates they can present to the hiring manager. If they then ask you what salary you are looking for in the job you are after, the best answer to that is: I am open to what works for us both and I’m not attached to any number at this stage. All that the recruiter is now looking for is how much risk they are taking in presenting this candidate if they get to the offer stage and the company is not able to make a winning bid.
During the interview with the hiring manager: At this stage this can happen in two different ways: Early in the process the hiring manager has “calibrated” you as a viable candidate and wants to know if they can present you to their chain of command for the next round of selections. Although this is not still reached the negotiation stage, your best response to this question is: “I have already disclosed my W-2 numbers to the recruiter during the initial screening, so you know my current price point. In this role I expect to be compensated based on what value I’m able to deliver to you and hope that we can make that equitable.” So, if the hiring manager is now all excited about you then they are going to read this as: If we can match or better the W-2 numbers we can win this candidate. So, they are going to move you to the next stage. At this stage you must not be too specific about your demands.
Final round before the offer: When all the interview rounds are done either the hiring manager or recruiter loops back with you and asks what will work for you if they were to put a package together. At this point you must bring the “value concept” to the fore and say something like: After these rounds of interviews I am confident that I bring and can deliver the following value to this role. Based on that assessment you provide a number that is above the number you disclosed from your W-2. How much higher this number is, will depend upon your ability to make a cogent closing argument to your hiring manger based on what you learned from your interview rounds.
Once you have reached this stage it is time to start negotiating what you can settle for and let them go ahead with packaging you a formal offer.
This process is something I’ve coached my clients to use and in many cases we practice this script many times until they feel confident of able to navigate through the process to get what they set out to achieve. In many cases they were able to achieve 20-40% jump in their total compensation with this approach. The only hurdle to getting what you want is your own conviction of value you bring to the job and your ability to convince the hiring team that you can deliver that value!
Good luck!