There is a prevailing thought that in the interview process it’s always best to delay the discussion of salary negotiation as long as possible.
I’ve already spoken about this issue of salary where I referred to this strategy but does it always make sense?
I also gave the example of how discussing salary up front saved me wasting even more time during an interview than I already had when I found out what they were paying.
So it isn’t really a 100% foolproof plan to discuss salary up front or to delay it as long as you can. The truth is that sometimes it can make sense to do one or the other.
If I was a hiring manager, based on what I’ve seen as a recruiter and being the type of person who likes to cut to the case when applicable, I’d rather know up front that you want $70,000 when I’m only paying $50,000 or whatever the case may be.
Sometimes, the salary that a person wants and the salary that the company is paying just doesn’t match up. Wouldn’t you rather know this sooner rather than later?
The fear of course is that asking a hiring manager “what does the job pay” usually sets alarm bells off in a hiring manager or recruiter’s mind even though if it is a fair question.
In my experience, some people tactfully ask the question and make it look like they’re just trying to get the answer right away and avoid wasting their time or my time if the job isn’t suitable money wise.
Then there are the people who ask in a way that lets you know they’re just looking for a few dollars more and are likely to get a job offer from my client and then accept a counter offer from their current employer. I try to avoid working with those people.
The bottom line is that in reality, it really depends on the situation and your personality. More often than not I agree that it does make sense to delay salary negotiation as long as possible but of course this also means it could take you longer to find out that the job simply doesn’t pay for what you’re looking for just like in the example I referred to above.
