Don't Ask for Salary Info Up Front
One of the quickest ways to determine a mismatch of your skills and history with a potential new position is whether they are planning to pay far more or far less that what you make currently.
Some recruiters are proactive in this area and will ask you about your salary history and (possibly) your expectations, as a way to avoid obvious mismatches.
If the company doesn't bring it up, it's usually awkward and can even seem inappropriate for you to do so.
But here is why it almost doesn't matter, if both the company and job seeker are being honest about the job, qualifications, and expected history of the candidate.
(And, in fact, this is why when a recruiter asks you about your salary history right at the start of the conversation, you can surmise that either your own resume doesn't indicate well what you have done and been responsible for and can do -- or the recruiter isn't sure how to match that to what the job is that they are hiring for. If it's the former, you need to work on your resume. If it's the latter, sorry, you got a green recruiter and you'll just have to work through that, if the company and job are really of interest.)
Similar jobs pay similar rates. If it's clear what you have done, and it's clear what they want you to do, there's an established range in the market place for that work. Your current company and your future company all subscribe to (and contribute to) the same salary surveys, and use those to benchmark their salaries.
So while there might be a slight mismatch -- think of it as +/- 10%, not +/- 50%. So when you are in that small range, there is usually enough room to do the right thing, if the candidate and company are a good match.
So the far more important and complicated bit is determining whether there is a good match. And the academic part is determining the precise salary, since the ranges at your old company and your new company are going to be very similar for someone at your experience level, in your area of expertise.
So focus on the work. You don't want to exclude yourself from the outset by asking a question that a sophisticated candidate and recruiter already know the answer to -- we are in the same ballpark, and can work out the details, if there is a good match as evidenced by interviews, reference checks, professional history & accomplishments, and skills.
19 out of 20 cases I see work along the lines I have described. But if you know you are already an outlier, you may have to be more bold and be frank about it up front. This doesn't mean asking what they plan to pay for a position. At most you want to share your salary history at the start, "just to make sure we're talking about the same level of responsibility and scope."
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But, at the risk of repeating myself, here's the "secret": Pretty much every company large enough to have an HR department uses a survey that tracks what other companies (with which they might compete for talent) pay people. And they tend to use that to set their salary ranges. They all end up in the same ballpark, because of this, and it just becomes a step up or down, all within a similar range.
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And while you *might* be wasting their time, you are not wasting your time when you interview:
1) companies have leeway,
2) they take their salary history into account,
3) the answer before you interview and the answer after you interview may change, and
4) there are few interviews that are really a waste of time since
a) the more interviews you do, the better you get, and
b) getting to ask direct, pointed questions of the managers in a variety of different companies can quickly make you much smarter about your field of expertise by letting you see how it's done at many different companies.
Some recruiters are proactive in this area and will ask you about your salary history and (possibly) your expectations, as a way to avoid obvious mismatches.
If the company doesn't bring it up, it's usually awkward and can even seem inappropriate for you to do so.
But here is why it almost doesn't matter, if both the company and job seeker are being honest about the job, qualifications, and expected history of the candidate.
(And, in fact, this is why when a recruiter asks you about your salary history right at the start of the conversation, you can surmise that either your own resume doesn't indicate well what you have done and been responsible for and can do -- or the recruiter isn't sure how to match that to what the job is that they are hiring for. If it's the former, you need to work on your resume. If it's the latter, sorry, you got a green recruiter and you'll just have to work through that, if the company and job are really of interest.)
Similar jobs pay similar rates. If it's clear what you have done, and it's clear what they want you to do, there's an established range in the market place for that work. Your current company and your future company all subscribe to (and contribute to) the same salary surveys, and use those to benchmark their salaries.
So while there might be a slight mismatch -- think of it as +/- 10%, not +/- 50%. So when you are in that small range, there is usually enough room to do the right thing, if the candidate and company are a good match.
So the far more important and complicated bit is determining whether there is a good match. And the academic part is determining the precise salary, since the ranges at your old company and your new company are going to be very similar for someone at your experience level, in your area of expertise.
So focus on the work. You don't want to exclude yourself from the outset by asking a question that a sophisticated candidate and recruiter already know the answer to -- we are in the same ballpark, and can work out the details, if there is a good match as evidenced by interviews, reference checks, professional history & accomplishments, and skills.
19 out of 20 cases I see work along the lines I have described. But if you know you are already an outlier, you may have to be more bold and be frank about it up front. This doesn't mean asking what they plan to pay for a position. At most you want to share your salary history at the start, "just to make sure we're talking about the same level of responsibility and scope."
-----
But, at the risk of repeating myself, here's the "secret": Pretty much every company large enough to have an HR department uses a survey that tracks what other companies (with which they might compete for talent) pay people. And they tend to use that to set their salary ranges. They all end up in the same ballpark, because of this, and it just becomes a step up or down, all within a similar range.
-----
And while you *might* be wasting their time, you are not wasting your time when you interview:
1) companies have leeway,
2) they take their salary history into account,
3) the answer before you interview and the answer after you interview may change, and
4) there are few interviews that are really a waste of time since
a) the more interviews you do, the better you get, and
b) getting to ask direct, pointed questions of the managers in a variety of different companies can quickly make you much smarter about your field of expertise by letting you see how it's done at many different companies.