your recruiter hates games even more
Fantastic post by HR Guy about stupid salary games candidates play. He’s right on when he says:
You answer the question because I know you aren’t willing to work for minimum wage. There is some minimum level you will absolutely not work for. If I have posted a salary range for this position, then it shows your level of education about the position. If I have not posted a salary range, you should probably know the pay you would be looking at in the industry you are looking. If you don’t give a salary range and the interviewer doesn’t grill you, you probably lost the job and you should be prepared for that if you’re that stubborn of an ass.
This is doubly true when it’s a third party recruiter asking you the question. People, we ask these questions because we actually NEED TO KNOW. We’re dealing with multiple candidates for multiple positions at a variety of companies, and we need to know just how low is too low for you.
It is in our best interest to get you as much money as we can without screwing the deal. We are usually also in the advantageous position of knowing what the salary range is of the position, so when we also know what your expectations are, it makes it much easier to hammer out an offer with the client. After all, it’s part of our job to help negotiate the salary- we’re the ones with the industry and market expertise across multiple companies (can’t tell you how often the powers that be in a company just have no earthly idea what a fair market salary is), and when we negotiate on your behalf, it’s just a lot less likely to turn distrustful.
So don’t use your silly little evasion tactics on me- you’re wasting my time, and making it more difficult for me to work with you. I don’t expect a hard-and-fast rule- If a position is a good fit for you, I’m not going to turn it down on your behalf because they’re offering $5,000 less than what you were hoping for- I’m going to ask YOU about it. All you accomplish by dodging the question is to annoy the crap out of me and make yourself look like a pompous jerk who thinks he’s too smart for the jobsearch process.
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July 6th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
Hi Tiffany,
I’d like to point out one innacuracy that I’ve noticed in your post. You say “it is in our best interest to get you as much money as we can without screwing the deal.” That’s only true for full time positions - your commission is 5% (for example) of what a candidate will make a year, so it is in your best interests for the candidate to get an offer for 120K a year instead of 100K. However, it’s completely opposite for contracting jobs. A client pays the recruiting company, say, 80/hour. So it’s in your best interest to get the candidate to accept a 65/h instead of 70/h, because the difference goe s to you. So it’s not always that your best interests are aligned with the candidate’s.
July 6th, 2006 at 2:10 pm
Alex, thanks for your comment, but you’re just flat-out wrong.
I figure my bill rates on a straight mark-up of whatever I’m paying the talent. So for every additional dollar I pay my talent, I charge that dollar plus the appropriate markup on that dollar to my client. I generally settle on a pay rate with my talent before quoting their rate to clients. On the rare occasion when I have the bill rate set with no flexibility, I explain that situation to the talent and allow him or her to decide whether it’s fair compensation for their time. If it’s not, I simply have to explain to the client that their budget is insufficient to get the person they want, or I’ll cut my markup to make it fit if it’s a client I really need to keep happy.
It’s a candidate’s market in DC IT, and I can afford to push for higher pay rates for my talent. Which is why they like working for me.
Also, I don’t work on commission, so the rate I get the talent to accept has no impact on my paycheck at all.
August 12th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
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