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Recently, the OIWC addressed and offered suggestions on the sticky and sometimes uncomfortable conversation about compensation during an interview process (membership required). This past week, I’ve encountered a situation that I had to share:
We submitted 2 candidates to interview for a role for which we are recruiting. In each case, we were upfront about the salary for the position – indicating that the client is not flexible on the compensation range. (The position is a junior level role – so the compensation matches accordingly – but as you can guess in this market, there are a lot of people looking for a new job and many overqualified for the position.) So, we were careful to state the range early on in our conversation – in order to verify continued interest, acceptability of the range, BEFORE we spent time qualifying the candidate for the role. We didn’t want to waste the candidate’s time, our time, or our client’s time.
However, twice this week, we’ve had candidates agree to acceptability of a range, go through our screening, move forward in the interview process, then, indicate to the client that the salary range was not acceptable.
I ask, "What were you thinking?"
Are you holding onto hope that the client will love you – and consequently offer more than the indicated range for the role? That you are so fabulous they'll do anything to get you?
Look, budgets are tight right now, companies are cracking down – driving hard on profits, and hiring managers don’t have a lot of flexibility (and with pared down teams...no extra time). If you agree to a salary range for a position to get an interview, then ask for more money, you look bad. It reflects poorly on you (as you have wasted everyone’s time), and the recruiter most likely won’t work with you again.
Be honest! If the range “offered” for a particular position doesn’t work for you, let your recruiter/potential employer know, and you will maintain a positive relationship in the event the compensation range is relaxed (or a more appropriate position opens).
Bluff everyone involved until late in the process and you, most likely, will not hear from the company or the recruiter again.
