| Author |
Desired Salary---Job Application Question.
|
|
| Ybentrepreneur 2005-01-02, 11:19 pm |
| How exactly should I answer this question? I was working as a temp in a law firm, now i am applying for this 1st level position. | |
| plantwiz 2005-01-03, 5:54 pm |
| quote:
Originally posted by Ybentrepreneur
How exactly should I answer this question? I was working as a temp in a law firm, now i am applying for this 1st level position.
Where is the question? You have made a statement.  | |
| enforcer 2005-01-04, 4:14 pm |
| quote:
Originally posted by plantwiz
Where is the question? You have made a statement.
Desired Salary (What is your) | |
| cppwiz 2005-01-05, 1:10 pm |
| Unless the application states that this field must be completed, I would write "open" in this box. It's a basic negotiation technique. You don't want to "leave money on the table." They may be willing to pay more than you think. Always make the employer set the opening salary number and negotiate from there.
The only caveat to this strategy is if you know the offical pay range by working with the internal systems at the company. If you applied on an internal job posting system that listed the min-median-max pay for the position, then you should set your desired salary just above the median. Because you were working as a temp, you might have access to this information and the hiring manager will most likely approve your desired salary. If the manager doesn't think you are above average after already working there as a temp, then you might want to re-consider accepting a permanent position at that company. | |
| curiousgeorge 2005-01-05, 2:11 pm |
| I disagree with some of what cppwiz wrote. Companies start people's salaries in the low third of the pay range. They hardly ever start someone out above the middle of the pay range.
You should expect to get paid a little bit above the minimum. If you get more than that, great. But don't expect to jump in at the high end of a salary range.
Hiring managers typically weed out people based on their salary requirements. If your minimum salary is more than 20% above what they intend to pay, they won't even consider you. They feel that if you took the job at a much lower salary than you were expecting, you wouldn't stay long.
Many times I have called the HR department at a company and asked them the pay range for the position they advertised. They always tell me.
Bottom line, don't accept the bare minimum, but don't expect the high end either. | |
| cppwiz 2005-01-06, 1:49 pm |
| I disagree with some of what curiousgeorge wrote.
I work as a DBA and see starting pay rates of employees across the company (6,000 employees). The company will set the starting pay of a new employee on two main factors:
1) How much the person was making in a previous job. The company knows that no one wants to take a pay cut and the company also does not want to increase a person's salary more than 10% over the previous salary.
2) How desperate the company is to fill the position. If the position is critical or has been open for several months, the company will pay more to fill the position.
The bottom line is basic negotiation skills are necessary when discussing salary. Rule #1 of any negotiation is to force the other party to set the "opening number". The employee is then enpowered to wisely negotiate higher if necessary. Don't sell yourself short. | |
| ChrisDfer 2005-01-06, 6:46 pm |
| I put 1 a year.... Then when they ask me if I made a mistake I say yes, and tell them I meant 1 million. They then proceed to call the police after they notice I am not wearing any pants and my socks are mismatched. |
|
|
|