Be Ambitious Yet Sincere When You Disclose Your Salary Requirements
Discussing money and salary with a company will always need to be done with sincerity and professionalism. Money isn't everything but when the topic is brought up with a hiring manager or someone in Human Resources, you need to be prepared to give an answer that is taken seriously. This post discusses a recent experience that an HR Manager had with a software engineer in their first phone call. The conversation went well and at the end, the candidate was asked what kind of salary he was looking for and his answer resulted in him immediately being removed from consideration. Let's explore this. From the candidate's standpoint, let's take a quick inventory of all the variables in his favor right now regarding his job search:
1. Red hot labor market where software engineers are in high demand.
2. The candidate in this post matched up very well for the opening.
3. The need to fill this role was an urgent one at the company.
4. Word on the street is true. Salaries are escalating here in Austin.
At face value, the candidate had a lot of momentum going into the call. Here is a quick history on him. Software engineer with four years experience. Let's call him Ryan. Backend Java developer and was at 125k in Spring of 2020 and he got 140k with a Series A startup in Fall of 2020. The company paid their engineers well but also mandated a high pressure work schedule on them, ie. 53-55 hours per week. There was some executive turnover at the company and it resulted in Ryan's job being eliminated in Spring of 2021. So after 6 months at this high pressure startup, he was currently unemployed but with his skills still sharp and the market being what it is, he wasn't worried about finding a job. He still had this strong sense of self-confidence that the labor market was heavily in his favor. And you know what? He was right.
However, it was this self-confidence that led him to get a little carried away with a company when it came time to disclose his salary requirements. He wasn't rude or anything like that. If I had to frame it a certain way, his disclosure lacked any form of sincerity and professionalism. Not only was the number out of range but his tone was perceived as being disrespectful by the HR Manager. It was enough of a red flag for her to shut it down immediately after the call.
How did I find out about all of this? Total coincidence. I randomly get a virtual meeting scheduled with a software company to help fill a role for them and at the very beginning of our session, the HR Manager starts telling me all about her experience with Ryan. Her tone was such that she had to get it off her chest. She was referred to Ryan directly and was immediately interested given the strong match his resume was for the role. The introductory call was going just fine but when the topic of salary requirements came up, here is how it went,
HR Manager - So, Ryan, can you give me a brief history of your salary/compensation and what kind of range you are targeting for your next job?
Ryan - Okay, I'd be happy to. I was at 125k but then got a big raise at that dysfunctional startup to 140k and my employment with them ended in March of 2021. I just started looking for work again so how about we start with 160k and see where we land?
When you read the words, it doesn't sound like that big of a deal. However, what a virtual meeting communicates that this post doesn't was his tone and dare I say, attitude that he brought along with his salary request. The HR Manager told me that when Ryan communicated the 160k salary ask, he tilted his head just a bit and cracked this half smile. In Ryan's defense, he might have been trying to be light hearted but it certainly didn't come across that way. The HR Manager immediately assumed that it was a joke to him and that insincerity presented itself as a big red flag. If there was one adjective I could use, Ryan was being flippant. He threw an unrealistic number out there and by tilting his head with a coy smile, he seemed to be conveying to the HR Manager the question of, "So, are you prepared to go there?".
When we disclose salaries and negotiate with companies, our sentiment needs to align with our numbers and if it doesn't, the results can be negative. In your heart, if you knowingly ask for an unrealistic salary figure, your delivery won't be genuine. After all, how in the world can you sincerely ask for a number that you aren't being sincere about? In the case of this engineer, to be at 125k in Spring of 2020, bump to 140k in October of the same year and then, after being laid off, ask for 160k in the introductory call was very aggressive. He was out of range. Believe it or not but some companies would make an attempt to educate him on industry averages and try to talk him down some. But for Ryan to deliver these numbers while cracking a smile to someone whose profession it is to read the emotions and sincerity of job applicants was taking it too far. The HR Manager was alarmed and shut it down. In Ryan's defense, perhaps she was being a bit sensitive but these days, companies are very concerned about taking candidates deep into a process only to lose them at the offer stage. Nip the red flags in the bud and close down the candidates you aren't feeling good about.
In our virtual together, she told me that she had not yet informed Ryan that she was closing out his candidacy and we discussed how to properly deliver the message to him. Here is what she told me she planned to email him,
Recommended by LinkedIn
Hey Ryan, thank you for your time the other day and I really appreciated getting to know more about your background. At this time, we are going to move forward with another candidate but we're happy to keep in touch in case an appropriate position comes available for you. Best of luck in your job search and it was a pleasure connecting with you.
This stings and you know why? Because Ryan comes away without the true reason why he was declined. There was no education; no moment of learning from this error. What if he really was joking and trying to be lighthearted? True, he should not have delivered his salary requirements the way he did but if he came away knowing this was the reason he was rejected, he would have learned from this moment and never done it again. But in the company's defense, it's not their job to correct improper interviewing etiquette. In the HR Manager's eyes, this falls well outside her range of daily responsibilities. It's her job to find great technical and cultural matches for her open roles and Ryan was immediately removed from consideration. Ryan will still find a job here in Austin but this kind of approach will very likely result in him missing out on a great company. For instance, this particular startup already has a company valuation over 600 million and knowing the VC firms behind it, they will exit successfully in a few years.
Again, the labor market is on fire and companies have hiked their salaries here in Austin. The numbers you are seeing are real but please don't forget that companies have not watered down their interviewing processes at all. A company will always scrutinize engineers for their interest in the company as well as their genuine sincerity when it comes to salary requirements. Yes, don't leave a penny on the table and do all the research you can to take inventory of what your value is right now in Austin's market. But don't be flippant and throw out some random number that you know is out of range. The number alone will concern the company but the sense that you aren't being sincere or worse, even joking, could result in immediate rejection.
It's a challenge when a software engineer has an initial discussion with PeopleOps/HR rather than Engineering. I've written about this before. Rather than discussing the development environment and getting that big picture of the company's engineering org, you are quizzed on your employment history, your inclination to come 100% back into office and yes, your salary requirements. However, you can control the direction of this conversation. Play nice, tell them you are very interested in the company's product offering and that you feel you are a good match for the role that you are interviewing for. If you are pressed about salary requirements and feel like you must give them a number, you can provide a rough range of 12-15% over what you're currently making. Make no mistake, that is an ambitious request but if your first call is going well, this kind of ask should still get you through to the next round. If it goes all the way to offer and your references come back positive, you can bump this number a little more, citing other companies' interest in you. You can play the game.
Just don't play it like Ryan did okay?
Thanks,
Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-699-5719
Director of Product & Engineering
3yIt's unfortunate that in our industry we still have to base our salary based on our past or current job. My current salary has nothing to do with my application to a new place. This especially hurts communities that are already discriminated against and are underpaid. I will not interview with a company that needs to know how much I make. I will tell them what my requirements and they can go from there. Better yet...why don't companies just list what salary range they are offering. #knowyourworth
Software Engineer at Nvidia; I ❤️Rust
3yPersonally, I see absolutely nothing but downside if a company ever asks me what I’m currently making. Even at the offer stage. I want them to come to me with a number, first. I won’t bring it up with a company at all, and if they try to before an offer letter is coming, then I’ll respond with something like “why don’t we wait to discuss compensation until I’ve had a chance to demonstrate value in an interview?” If a company is hard pressing me for salary requirements, then that’s a big red flag as a candidate. It shouldn’t matter what my requirements are, it should be “this company knows the market because they’ve done the research and is willing to pay market wages”. The only times I’ve ever been hard pressed for salary were invariably when the companies involved had absolutely no interest in paying market wages. There is no upside for me to disclose my requirements to a company, ever. I want them to invest as much time as possible into me before we talk numbers. An agency recruiter, OTOH, I’ll give them my salary on the first call, because they’re actually on my side. They’re never going to disclose it to the company, because it’s entirely possible I might find out that they did, which would ruin their reputation.
I’m a programmer. Code may do many things: some right and some wrong. But it does not lie. Always be kind. Always learn. Always teach. And always question.
3yHis number was a little less than 15% over his previous salary. Rejecting that out of hand seems to be an excuse rather than a justification on the part of the company. Perhaps it is they who missed out. Admittedly it is hard to say.
The whole situation around salary requirements is exceptionally clear when one works with the right recruitment firm. You tell them the job requirements, the compensation bands, and sweeteners and then they help you locate prospects that fit your criteria and also identify an exceptions that may warrant further conversation. If a candidate has been referred by another employee or is applying directly for a role then they should expect that the initial conversation is one to confirm background, experience, and compensation requirements. A hiring manager gets all of this from their recruiters before the first meeting even takes place so if candidates are coming in cold and expecting to meet with the hiring team before these basics have been understood by both sides then they risk wasting a lot of each other’s time. Hopefully after the initial screen it is clear that the necessary hurdles can be met and from there both parties can dive deeper into why that company and role are right for the candidate and why the candidate is the best fit for the role. Nothing wrong with being aggressive if you have the right skill set and can be patient, but remember there are often several candidates interviewing for each role too.
Revenue Marketing | Omni-Channel Demand Generation | Digital Marketing Campaigns | Events | Product Launches
3yI look forward to when recuiters in Texas don't have to right to ask what we got paid at our last job(s). I believe that they should tell you the range they are willing to offer. I rarely give a range.