“What’s your current salary?” is a trap question–Here's how to answer it (opens in new tab)

I have found that almost any decently sized company uses some sort of online form as part of the application/interview process.

These forms usually have a current or desired salary field and often has fairly strong validations on it (e.g., must be filled in, must be a number between x and y, no non-numeric characters allowed).

So you either have to fill it in or not submit the application form at all (the rest of which is usually perfectly reasonable), which is not going to impress anyone.

I suppose you could also hack their javascript and take out their validations and hope they don't have server side validations as well. That should impress them :).

edit for sense/grammar

A close friend recently related to me that during an interview process the HR contact mentioned that they had just revoked an offer from someone who 'asked for too much' during negotiations.

Director level position (non-profit, Washington DC). Candidate asked for ~100k, and they were willing to give it to them - until they got a detailed salary history and found out their current salary was ~80k... so they would've only offered ~85k.

So they were absolutely fine with paying 100k for the job (very reasonable for the role and size of the org), until they learned it would be a decent pay increase for the new hire. Insane.

It will not surprise anyone to learn this org has a bad reputation for internal culture and holding on to talent.

I have an entry level position at my firm, and I was applying to other internal positions that more closely match my skill set, but which would cause me to have a huge increase in pay. One interviewer/screener asked me how much I was currently making, and I said I'd prefer not to disclose that information. Their response was, "That's ok, I can just look you up in our system. Ah, you make $x." It was so infuriating.

I've seen a lot of people including recruiters talk about how this is a terrible idea. But then I see this and folks like patio11 talking about similar negotiating strategies. How do I know which one is right?

Apparently in MA, USA, where I live, it is illegal to ask this[1]. It is brought up on Business Radio often (sirius xm 111). Although strangely, the host always thinks the law applies just to woman, which I'd find very odd. However, I am not sure people abide by it.

1. https://qz.com/749476/massachusetts-salary-history-job-inter...

If you live in Massachusetts it's now illegal for a perspective employer to ask this question as part of your interviewing process:

http://www.mass.gov/governor/press-office/press-releases/fy2...

I don't really see the point of not telling them, if the company has no idea about your previous salary, they aren't going to be tricked into offering you some huge number, they are going to come in at the average wage in your location for that position.

What you should do instead is identify the number you want to get paid before hand. ( Which should be higher than the average ) And then honestly tell them , I'm currently paid X, but am looking for a job that pays Y.

If they say they can't do that, its too big of jump or whatever, just say that you understand and thanks and move on to the next company

In my country i am not legally allowed to share my current salary.

When I am negotiating I always say what is my absolute minimum and specifically make clear that it is just s bottom line and i would prefer more.

As I get older I (hope) I am slowly starting to understand how the world works, and that is gradually changing some of my interactions from being nice and considerate and open and honest, to being careful and calculated. Although I still have a long way to go. I guess oftentimes I am open and nice at first meeting people still and then realize I have to be more calculating. Which by that time I probably have already given myself a disadvantage. I am almost 40 now so hopefully I will finally get this ?character flaw? ironed out pretty soon.

When it comes to money, people look out for themselves. And unless you are independently wealthy and maxed out your penchant for philanthropy, then you probably have to do so also.

BTW this is a terrific article.

I've never had much luck with this approach. It sucks to get through the interview process and find out that you're asking for $XX,000 more than they are willing to pay for the position. I now prefer to state up-front how much I want, rather than wasting time getting an offer for ten+ thousand less than I want and only have HR willing to come up a few grand.

I'm sure many people have applied this technique to great success, but I have strong doubts that it's universal. Maybe it's because I never bring much to the table, or that I live in an area where "market" salaries are not affordable for companies.

I have a bit of a different theory on this, based on my experience as a recruiter for almost 20 years. I should clarify that I don't even ask for current salary anymore in dialogue with my candidates.

If you know your current market value, there is no harm in providing your current salary.

As a real-world example (and a bit of an edge case used to illustrate the point clearly), if you know the typical salary for an entry-level developer in Philadelphia is 70K a year, and $NEWGRAD is currently making 35K while working during school, saying "I'm currently making 35K and looking for 70K" is entirely appropriate, as both sides are aware that is the going rate for entry-level developers in Philly. You can't offer NEWGRAD 38K and expect him/her to accept the job.

This applies to anyone, whether you are overpaid or underpaid in your market. If you have strong data on what the market will bear for your services, whether you make half of that figure or twice that figure currently has little bearing on your actual market value.

The challenge is that most people do not have that data, and it's tough to figure out for many. As much as people hate recruiters, an experienced and specialized recruiter should be pretty good at telling you what your market value is - and most should be willing to provide this info to you without any strings attached.

Based on my own recruiting practice and my tendency to allow (encourage) most of my candidates and clients to negotiate directly much more than most other recruiters, I tend to find that candidates who are the most dodgy about their expectations or history are more likely to face a more difficult negotiation from the client.

People who are honest and transparent are perhaps viewed differently by employers than those who fight the question.

I think employers appreciate a healthy negotiation as long as it is done in good faith, but I think the value of being transparent in the negotiation may outweigh any benefits of secrecy, based anecdotally of course.

I had a horrible phone interview with a company where the recruiter refused to continue until I told them how much I made at my current job. I suspect that they were more interested in a salary survey than actually hiring someone.

Very good article, but I'm not sure if their advice for the answer to the salary question will always work:

>I’m not comfortable sharing my current salary. I would prefer to focus on the value I can add to this company rather than what I’m paid at my current job. I don’t have a specific number in mind for a desired salary, ...

Now what if they will offer you some salary, and you find it too low? You have just said that you didn't have a specific number in mind. To me it looks like that sentence threw away your opportunity to disagree with the offer and ask for a higher bid?

To the author:

> You’ve told them your uncomfortable

your -> you're

I do this. It's a good strategy in most circumstances, but you do need to be careful. On one occasion it killed the whole process because the company refused to go further with the interview on the basis they assumed they wouldn't be able to afford me. I think they just wanted cheap developers. If you don't have other places to apply to or you're applying somewhere you really want to join, it does come with some risk.

I've always hated this question and the best I've managed is to pick what I thought was a biggish number and tell them that.

I've used this technique to great effect for almost 20 years. The problem I have now is that my salary is so high that, without presenting a desired salary, there aren't any easy filter questions left to determine whether a potential employer is remotely interested in acquired somebody of my "caliber".

It is reasonable to expect a company to stretch their budget by 20%. However, it generally isn't reasonable to ask for double their budget. The faster we can get to no, the faster we can talk to other folks.

>They ask you to guess what that budget is, and you decline to guess because you read this article[.] So you move on to the next stage of the interview and do well.

In my experience, when I decline to state my current or desired salary, that's the end of the interview process.

Philadelphia is trying to ban this and is getting major push back from the likes of Comcast. HR departments keeping procedures like this in place suppresses the wages of minorities, women, and people who may have graduated from lower tier schools. Basically anyone who may have had to accept a job at below average wages is screwed going forward.

Last time out I just flatly refused to provide the information, some recruiters refused to move forward and it is what it is. This is just another reason why it's better to be interviewing while already gainfully employed. Gives you some leverage when dealing with BS like this

Too many words and moving pictures just to get to:

"I’m not comfortable sharing my current salary. I would prefer to focus on the value I can add to this company rather than what I’m paid at my current job. I don’t have a specific number in mind for a desired salary, and you know better than I do what value my skillset and experience could bring to your company. I want this move to be a big step forward for me in terms of both responsibility and compensation."

The worst part about this question is they try to get you to answer it before you've even really figured out what the role is.

When asked this, I've countered with "I was hoping to make $X" (where X is much more than I make now). Then I follow up, but "I'd like to learn more about the company before I make any decisions on salary."

This establishes that you are a high-value candidate, and you are flexible and not an egomaniac that only cares about money.

I've definitely run into a few cases where interviewers definitely would not proceed with the conversation without a number. Usually they want "what you made" but really they want "what you'll take" so I've had great success just switching the scale from "Salary" to "Total Compensation." Usually a recruiter or HR person who won't move on without a number isn't smart enough to think about the difference and just proceeds as if the number you gave is a salary number. Doing this twice has moved my salary to the very top of the pay scale for my position and location.

Related discussion on a previous, similar thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11832613

i never used a strategy in negotiating a salary before and i got burned during my last job interview because even though i landed the job with a salary higher than what i was earning in the previous job, i found out i could've gotten more out of them. exactly the scenario depicted in this article. i am thinking of ways to renegotiate with them now and would love to hear about any such strategies.

"That's proprietary."

it's another problem but related: for me it's much more difficult to find an employer i'd even really like to work for regardless salary. _that's_ hard.

Very, very long article. TL;DR: "I don't want to tell you, make me an offer instead" is the suggested answer.

It's been a decade since I have been an actve job seeker, so things may be different now. But my response to that question was always "I'm not going to say what I'm currently making but I'll be happy to say what the minimum amount I'll consider is." If any of them balked at the number I would get up and walk. Some backed down immediately, and we continued the conversation, and others did not. Either outcome was fine with me.