Negotiating an increased salary during the recruiting process

getmore4less

The general advice is negotiate after offer not before.

thelawnet

heretolearn wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with asking if there is any flexibility on the salary. What have you got to lose?

But if you aren't prepared to take the job at the advertised rate if they say no, I don't think you should apply in the first place. I've had someone do this to us, and it annoys the h*** out of me. We've advertised salary range of A to B. Lots of people apply. We narrow this down to say 6 to interview. We spend all day interviewing. We shortlist from that down to 2 or 3 best candidates. We meet again to pick the lucky winner. We call them and find out it was all a complete waste of time, they will only do it for B+£5k. We are a small firm, if we had an extra 5k for salaries sitting around we'd've given it to someone by now. They've taken up an interview space someone else could have had, we've now got to go back to number 2 choice instead (who we naturally now feel slightly disappointed in having to go to as they aren't the best candidate).

OTOH, a lot of companies (or maybe their recruiting agents) advertise at up to £x, but then when you get there they are actually only offering/budgeting for £x-£5k, and they waste a lot of people's time, getting them to interview for jobs that pay less than the candidate is willing to work for.