Rant: Getting tad annoyed with recruiters asking for current salary. Please help.

LiveOnce

Hello all,

I suspect I know the answer to this but perhaps you can help.

I am getting a tad annoyed at recruiters starting off presenting opportunities by asking what my current salary is / what my salary expectation is without disclosing the opportunity.

I have caught them out when I have been called for the same opportunity by two different recruiters. One tells me their the max is Xk and the other, after asking me for my expectation, gives me 5k below the max.

A good recruiter should be able to tell what you can get based on your experience.

My questions are:

Do you legally have to disclose your current salary to a recruiter or a HR department of a company when they ask you?

If a recruiter says "What is your current salary?" what is a good response?
I do feel like saying "None of your business" or "It's irrelevant" or "Why do you need to know that?"

And "What is your salary expectation?"
My response feels like saying "What is their salary range so I can see where I can pitch?"

I know their main interest is to close a deal and most of them don't really care what your salary is as they might not be paid that way. Ultimately you end up short changed.

The recruiters can be annoying and helpful so maintaining a good relationship is important so how do you handle this firmly without them dictating it?

Fireflyaway

I agree. I experienced this quite a bit recently. When asked I'm happy to say what my salary is but quick to ask what they are offering too. At that point some will try to avoid the question by saying negotiable or competitive etc! I won't even talk further till I know. If your salary is 30k and that's what you need / want / are worth, its a waste of everyone's time to discuss a £15k job.
You don't have to say what you are paid but personally I think it irrelevant. What's acceptable and the going rate and decide based on that if you want to carry on negotiations.

ssparks2003

If you don't want to tell them either dont tell them, lie (tell them what you think you are worth rather than what you currently earn) or ask them what they earn and how much bonus they earnt last month and when they decline to tell you say if they won't tell you; you won't tell them

LiveOnce

ssparks2003 I get your point but then we are stooping to their level.

Does anyone work around this issue successfully?

TELLIT01

My response would be to ask them what the salary on offer is. You can then say whether or not you are interested in being put forward for the job.

Sarastro

Don't forget they are paid as a percentage of the salary they achieve so will be balancing the client's push to get the best candidate for as low a price as possible, with putting forward enough candidates to ensure it is one of theirs that gets the position.

I think I'd be tempted to say, "it's x but I'm looking for a new position in order to increase that". Then you can't be offered anything that's lower than current salary.

asajj

I usually don't tell the exact. If I earn let's say 25k, I will say around mid-20s. They earn a % as Sarastro pointed out so they will want you to get something decent still.

Masomnia

Personally I think asking what salary you're looking for is fair. If the company is wiling to pay £25k as a max, but you won't move for less than £27k then it's better for them to know that at the start and then neither of you are wasting time over a job that you will never accept.

Your current salary is irrelevant though. They just want to know what they can get away with offering you. Or in some cases they just want the information.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

Just tell them the high end of what you actually want in order to move. They can't guess from your experience; people with the same experience are on wildly different salaries.

The company might be offering up to £40K and want 5 years experience but that doesn't mean they will pay you £40K if you are currently on £20K with 5 years experience.

The maximum salary for a job is the maximum they are willing to pay someone...not the maximum they are willing to pay you. I have interviewed a lot of people who we might have taken on for more than they are currently on but who have decided "I am worth the maximum salary" and who patently are not, so we didn't employ them at all. The reason they were on less than other people with the same experience is because they weren't as good, and this became very obvious at interview. They were good enough to do a job, but not worth top end.

So tell them what you need, and you might get it. Try and get thousands more than you are worth, and you will get nothing.

steampowered

I don't think you should respond by saying 'none of your business'. That is not helpful.

Instead you should respond by saying 'my salary expectations are ...'.

The recruiter does not need to know your current salary, but they do need to know your salary expectations. There is no point talking to you about a job which pays £30k if you are looking for a job which pays £100k.

Comms69

A good idea is to ask how salary progression works.


With public sector it's usually a standard, but worth exploring in private.


As SR said, you may not be worth the full salary at the time, but a structured progression plan over 3-5 years is beneficial to everyone