When a recruiter asks for your currently salary, do you hesitate? It’s not uncommon as we take our time and utter our value in terms of dollars to the recruiter. After that candidates state their self-worth; also in terms of the dollar. Either way, as we reveal numbers, candidates should consider two things; how conservative they are and if they are being too aggressive. You shouldn’t sell yourself short or be too aggressive, so how do you come to a point to where it’s both reasonable and fair?
ARE YOU UNDERPAID?
A lot of people are afraid that if they are underpaid, they will remain underpaid forever as they are introduced to the 15-25% increments in salary. Simple Googling would often give them advice to not give out their current salary as it will affect them if they are underpaid. It becomes a roulette between the candidates and the companies as they try to find a way around this. You must come to a number that you really want and not just shoot in the dark based on expectations. If you want the company to come to a number based on your qualifications, most will mark you as not serious and cast you aside.
Your past or current salary should only partially be considered. Two powerful points that are not considered is market research on pay scale and internal company policy. Pay scale is self-explanatory, yet, some forget to forecast pay scale with supply and demand. As some skill sets get faded out and new ones come in, there are many variables to judge what the pay-scale is now and what it will be.
Internal company policy are rules that they must follow. Sure, some candidates are truly worth a 50% increment in salary. But hiring managers must follow strict policies on how much budget they have allotted for that position. No matter how qualified or how much recruiters negotiate, they cannot break internal policies.
An example to use these two points in favor of a candidate would be simple:
RESPECTING THE CORPORATE HR GUIDELINE = RESPECTING THE COMPANY CULTURE
Person A is a over-qualified and underpaid candidate that has worked in a local company. Now they are applying for a multi-national bank. They should not use their current salary to make a judgement on how much their expected salary would be. You must use the banks current base salary for the position they are applying for as well as check the HR’s range for that position to make a calculated estimate on their salary increment.
Market rate + internal policies is the best policy to approach all career prospects. Let Venturenix guides you. You may schedule an appointment with our consultants in to make the best out of our services.