Is the current income question correct in the interview?

Question

Career in IT

Colleagues, such an interesting idea arose today: how correct is it to ask a question about the current level of earnings at an interview? And even more interesting, how the interviewer will react if the candidate ignores the question. I myself at one time went through many interviews in search of a job, and in my opinion not a single one passed without this question, then I honestly answered my current income level. In principle, the essence of the issue is clear - "buy cheaper", roughly speaking. But if a person does not say his current level of income, does this mean that he will be offered his “real price”, so to speak, or will the dialogue be built in some other way? Who will share their own experience?

Answer 1

the joke is that my old contract contained a clause on non-disclosure of the terms of employment :)
but in general - if you don’t want to, don’t say it, but you can ask a counter question - what salary range do they have.

Answer 2

Why is it necessary to "buy cheap".
Rather, “can we afford this person, since he will certainly want to have a higher salary, and if our salary is lower, can we interest him in something else as compensation.”

Answer 3

Announce your estimated salary in a new place, + 20%, what are the problems?
Either the employer agrees (plus for you), or he will bargain, and you have a 20% margin

Answer 4

It is good to know how much a person wants and how much they have now, based on this, draw their own conclusion about the offer of a new salary.
Not the right thing to do. A person needs to be paid on the basis of what he deserves, regardless of how much he had in his last job. That question would put me off.

Answer 5

In American companies (at least large ones), it is generally not customary to ask a question about the current salary.
About the desired - they ask AFTER they make an offer, i.e. when the hiring decision is made. As a rule, inadequate candidates are eliminated earlier, so I don’t know what happens if a person names the desired salary twice the upper limit of the fork.
In Russian companies, they ask even before a job offer, but there is a good answer to the question about the current salary (said with a smile): We are now discussing a new job. This job has different responsibilities, different workload, different conditions. My salary at my current job isn't one of those, is it? And we smile calmly.

Answer 6

In principle, the essence of the issue is clear - "buy cheaper", roughly speaking. But if a person does not say his current level of income, does this mean that he will be offered his “real price”, so to speak, or will the dialogue be built in some other way? Who will share their own experience?
You correctly understood the essence of the issue.
At the end of 2011, I was interviewed by a large Russian company. First, there was a preliminary interview with HR, then, since everything more than suited him, I was offered to roll directly to the main one on the same day.
There they drove me for another 20 minutes on general questions, checked my knowledge a little, but the dialogue about the expected salary was as follows:
- Tell me, how much do you plan to receive from us in this position?
- * I name the amount agreed upon at the first interview *
- Yeah, and if you were offered, say, * this amount is 3,000 rubles *?
- We, sort of like, at the first interview agreed on the first amount.
- A * amount -2000r "? At the same time, you will not work somewhere, but with us, in * company name *.
- No, thanks, we agreed on the amount.
- As you know, we will call you if anything.
PS No for me to be such a greedy asshole and choke myself because of 2k, I just really didn’t like the very phenomenon of such auctions for wages.In the evening they called and said that they were taking me (for the first salary), but then I changed my mind.
By the way, about big companies - in Yandex, SUP and mail.ru they told me the approximate salary during the first interview, not yet finished testing my skills.

Answer 7

Somehow a guy came to us ... Together with an experienced system administrator, I talked with him. The candidate is a normal guy, it is felt that he got into IT not by chance, however, his current knowledge is about the same as that of a fifth-grader compared to a graduate of PS-7 Baumanka. They asked about the desired salary - he named a figure three times higher than his knowledge is really worth. I asked him: how did you get such a figure? He replies - they pay me so much at work (20% less), I just want more money. It turned out that he works in an oil and gas office where money is not counted; where, in turn, I got through a kindred acquaintance, work at the level to ping the gateway and create an account in AD; And this is his first job. In such a situation, there was no point in making a job offer with us for three times less money, and one could only wish him success in finding something, where he can get a normal prof. experience.
And I still had to regret that it was impossible to tell him in plain text our vision of the situation.
Answering, albeit belatedly, the question of the TC: employers ask the current level so that if they make a job offer, then, as a rule, not for less money; and to _not make_ a job offer if the current salary is much higher than what the interviewer considers reasonable for this candidate.
The second important point is market analysis, updating information on salaries in the industry.

Answer 8

By the way, a funny and interesting question.
On the one hand, yes, the HR interviewer shouldn't be asking this for the sake of "buy cheap." After all, if a person came to get a job and is interviewed, then he is aware of the salary at this place, therefore, she suits him. So why ask this for comparison? If the salary was not indicated in the job description, then it is possible. But, what was the person getting settled thinking about, because it was possible to discuss this issue in advance by email, for example.
On the other hand, why not say everything as it is, about the current salary level, about the expected salary.

Answer 9

Not correct. And tell the interviewer about it directly.

Answer 10

"... question about current income..." is actually incorrect. We are used to the fact that there is only a current salary (hello nineties). But what to answer in the case of several sources of income of different quality?

Answer 11

Often, an employer has a salary fork for a vacancy, including, in any case, the amount from this range will be called, and not some kind of “real price” (if it doesn’t fall into the fork, both in + and in - then this is already a reason consider requalifying the job offer).
Personally, I was often asked about the approximate current income and expectations in a new place. For example, it helps to understand the ambitions of the applicant, self-assessment of his professional growth.
“I have been working in the industry for 5 years, I receive $500, but I want to receive $5k” - so that you think at the place of the employer about the adequacy of this
applicant answer him. Nothing will happen, just the necessary understanding will be received in other ways.

Answer 12

The dialogue will be built depending on who asks. For example, in Ukraine this question is often asked in order for the candidate to set the salary bar for himself in a new position. To be honest, I successfully used this feature of the Ukrainian career game a couple of times to raise my salary. :) All the same, in the conditions of "gray" salaries, it is unrealistic to calculate the real salary of a candidate.
In more decent offices, this question is also asked, but after the sounded money offer for an open position. This is presumably done in order to keep abreast of the salary situation of competitors.

Answer 13

for good, the company should have rates for each position and when hiring a new employee, you should not buy an employee cheaper, because. during the review, you will consider not only the achievements of this employee, but also how long he has worked in the company, and accordingly you will raise a non-competitive salary. And the CEO may not raise his hand to a normal level, because the increase can be 1.5 - 2 times. Especially if the CEO is American, and in the US, a 1.5x increase is a very steep increase. As a result, you can run into the fact that the employee will simply leave for another company.
Regarding the correctness or not of the question of salary ... Yes, the question is not correct. A person comes to a new company often for several reasons: they want a new project, they want a bigger salary. Those. conclusions can be drawn by yourself, without going into questions about salaries.