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Subject:RE: Salary issues ( a twist) From:"Jeanne A. E. DeVoto" <jaed -at- jaedworks -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 19 Jul 2001 02:45:54 -0700
At 2:20 PM -0700 7/18/2001, kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com wrote:
>During preliminary job interviews (often on the phone, usually conducted
>by an HR person), I _always_ get asked this question:
>
>"How much are you making in your current position?"
>
>What I'm looking for is a way to dodge that question without ruining the
>interview.
>
>This is not a question about how to set a salary range - I'm getting lots
>of advice about that. I just want to not have to tell them how many
>Simoleans (sp?) I make.
Just don't answer the question. It's none of the HR person's business what
you're making now. They have a legitimate interest in how much you want,
but none in your past salaries.
There are basically two ways to handle this:
1) Treat it the way you would treat any other out-of-line request for
personal information: "I'm sorry, I don't give out that information."
[accompanied by a polite yet slightly pained smile]
2) Treat it as a misworded request for salary requirements (which I suspect
it often is - the HR person is actually looking for how much you expect to
get paid) and answer *that* question instead:
- "Well, for a position with the responsibilities we've outlined, I'd
expect a salary in the range XXX."
- "I'll need to learn more about the position before we can begin talking
about a salary range."
- "What range are you looking to pay?"
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