December 9, 2009
Should you disclose your salary requirements?
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NWjobs
One of the most frequent questions I get here at Hire Ground is how write the perfect cover letter. This is, of course, impossible to achieve as every hiring manager is looking for different skills and character traits depending on the job requirements. In general, the cover letter is supposed to introduce you to prospective employers, explain why you're interested in the job and provide the hiring manager with a few personal details about you. The resume is what's supposed to do the heavy lifting on your technical skills.
Increasingly, however, many employers are complicating matters by asking applicants up front for a specific detail that until recently never used to appear much in cover letters, or even in resumes: Salary requirements.
This is an uncomfortable subject to bring up, because whatever figure you provide can end up sabotaging your application. Write down a salary they consider "too low" and you risk being deemed inexperienced, or you may end up losing a substantial amount of income if hired. If your salary happens to top an certain threshold, the employer may toss your application on the spot.
To solve this quandary, career consultant Jerome Young has a simple solution: Don't provide any information about your salary until you get an interview. "Your cover letter is not the place to discuss your salary requirements," Young wrote in his blog. "Even if the employer asked for your salary requirements, I would suggest that you don't provide this information."
Young, himself the victim of a layoff from Hewlett-Packard before founding his consulting business, AttractJobsNow.com, wrote that the two reasons why employers include salary requirements are 1) to cull the candidates who want too much money and 2) to offer the lowest salary they can for the position. "You don't want to compete for a job based on how little money you're willing to take," he added.
In cases where a minimum salary is requested in a cover letter, Young's advice seems a bit drastic and may turn off those hiring managers who place a high premium on following directions. I would suggest a compromise by providing a salary in the form of a range. If you write, say, "in the range of $55,000 to $65,000, depending on job requirements and benefits packages offered," you leave yourself some room for negotiation and also indicate that you are interested in finding out more about alternate compensation packages.
Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.
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Karen Burns is the author of The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl, a career guide based on her 59 jobs over 40 years in 22 cities.
Lisa Quast is a certified career coach, mentor, business consultant, former corporate executive and author based in the Seattle area.
Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.
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What about empoyers who ask you the salary question in a phone interview before they even meet you in person?
The salary negotiation sets the tone for how the employer will treat everyone in the future. The trouble is, in salary negotiations, it's hard to give the 'right' answer. There are a lot of wrong answers, and only a few right ones.
V, in the case of employers asking for salary requirements right up front in the first phone call, that's a red flag that the employer may not be entirely professional. But in the event it does happen, I would suggest prefacing your response with a caveat that any salary figure you state would be dependent upon specific job responsibilities and any other benefits that the employer might be offering. Then you could give a salary range that would give you some wiggle room for negotiation.
i know this may sound stupid, but in this economy most of us are in extreme debt. i happen to be one of those people. its not that i don't make enough to get out of debt, its just that since my bills have due dates through out the month i never have ample time to save enough to pay off the debt in a timely manner. so i was wondering is it absurd to ask my employer for my yearly salary in advance? has this ever been heard of, and do you think it would be likely for my employer to give it to me. i was even going to suggest signing a contract so that they know i wouldn't be taking the money and then trying to leave my job. if i were to have my salary upfront minus the taxes and insurance i could pay off my debt right away and start off fresh for the first time in 10 years. i've tried researching my question online but have found no information relating to what i would like to present to my employer. also if it is somehting that i could suggest whom do i ask the question to? my supervisor, my HR officer, the CEO?? thanks for any and all help.
Danielle, That's the funnies question I've read in my entire career. Great luck!