April 11, 2008 at 3:06 pm
A perspective employer could argue that a history of increasing salaries is a measure of competency. If you were doing the hiring and saw someone had remained at the same salary for the last ten years, wouldn't that be a big red flag that they might be an under-performer?
Not necessarily. If you work for a governmental agency, you may only get a small yearly increase regardless of how well you perform or not.
😎
April 12, 2008 at 2:15 pm
There is certain information that should never be included in a resume - age, weight, height, marital status, religion, or political affiliation. The only exception would be if any of that data is relevant to the specific position you are applying for. Examples - IT positions at a health club, retirement community, or a religious or political organization.
You should never include salary information, references, or a photograph.
A resume should generally be one page, with a simple layout in MS-Word (97-2003) format so you can email it - many companies will run your resume through a scanner to extract the data & will save time in filling out forms.
Each resume you write should focus on the specific skills that are being sought by the company, so you might wind up with several different versions of your resume if you have significant skills in several different areas.
Use the Internet to its fullest - research the company, not only their via Web site but also what other information may be available from other sources.
There are different types of resumes to match your personal situation - the standard chronological resume works well if your work history shows steady growth patterns, but functional resumes are better when changing careers or if you have either periods of unemployment or work history that is unrelated to the position being sought. Creative electronic resumes might be appropriate if your specialty is Flash or other interactive media to showcase your talents.
April 13, 2008 at 4:54 pm
I must admit I have never heard of employers asking for a salary history. I was asked once about my current salary in a job interview and just gave them what I wanted to make minus a bit so I looked reasonable. I live in Sydney, Australia and people get asked about their current salary or expectations for salary but not a full history. I have also never come across an application form for a job, with or without salary history. Wow, am I glad I live in Australia. My salary is between me and my current employer only.
When interviewing for my current position, I was asked what I wanted to be paid and I had already thought about this. I told them and they agreed to it. I may have been able to get more but I asked for a fair salary that I was happy with. I also get some lovely perks with my job such as lunch, drinks, snacks, very flexible hours and the ability to work from home when I need/want to!
Cheers,
Nicole
Nicole Bowman
Nothing is forever.
April 14, 2008 at 6:52 am
In one interview, the people asked me what salary range I wanted. I said if they thought I was the right candidate for the job, I was sure the company would give me a comparable and decent salary for the job. The manager said this was the best answer he ever heard.
April 14, 2008 at 8:07 am
Two responses you could try (gleaned over the years from various sites), which seem to work OK:
1 - If they ask you what you are looking for, say something to the effect of "I will seriously consider your strongest possible offer."
2 - Turn around the question on them and say "Can you tell me what you have budgeted for the position?" Then they have to "show their cards" first (some companies do this on a job posting anyway), and you can tell whether it's worth proceeding.
If it's a pre-interview form, you could just fill in "market rate" for desired salary. If they want to know what you made in 1995, not sure what to do then.
July 26, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Hi everybody,
I'm a little bit late in this posting, but I'd like to share with you my similar case.
Some months ago I was fired, don't worry, I got a new job 2 days later.
But when I was taking interviews and the employer asked me about my last salary, when I talked the truth I was automatically excluded from the process.
So, I need to lie. Decreasing my last salary.
So, if I knew how to negotiate a good salary before and now I can decrease my salary because I saved enough money. Where’s the problem?
---------------------
Alex Rosa
http://www.keep-learning.com/blog
July 26, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Alex Rosa (7/26/2008)
So, I need to lie. Decreasing my last salary.So, if I knew how to negotiate a good salary before and now I can decrease my salary because I saved enough money. Where’s the problem?
Well, personally I wouldn't want to do it both because I would not want to profit from a lie and because lying is intrinsically an outward sign of an inner disrespect for other people.
On a more practical note, it also means that you will be living a lie as long as you work there and under the threat of losing your job because of it. Lying on you application is legal grounds for dismissal without notice in every state in the U.S. and every corporation that I know of (and I know of quite a few). And it has no effective statute of limitations. This is significant because in many states and many corporations, it is otherwise virtually impossible to get fired.
And yes, I have known people who had 10 or even 15 years at a company who were fired because it was discovered that they had lied about something minor on their job application. And I have heard of cases where the employee had 20 or more years and in some cases were even executives.
In the long run, honesty really is the best policy.
[font="Times New Roman"]-- RBarryYoung[/font], [font="Times New Roman"] (302)375-0451[/font] blog: MovingSQL.com, Twitter: @RBarryYoung[font="Arial Black"]
Proactive Performance Solutions, Inc. [/font][font="Verdana"] "Performance is our middle name."[/font]
July 26, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Alex Rosa (7/26/2008)
Hi everybody,I'm a little bit late in this posting, but I'd like to share with you my similar case.
Some months ago I was fired, don't worry, I got a new job 2 days later.
But when I was taking interviews and the employer asked me about my last salary, when I talked the truth I was automatically excluded from the process.
So, I need to lie. Decreasing my last salary.
So, if I knew how to negotiate a good salary before and now I can decrease my salary because I saved enough money. Where’s the problem?
I wouldn't lie about it, just deflect the question.
What you made previously really shouldn't have any bearing on what you should be getting now. When asked - I deflect the question, because quite honestly - I can't justify in my head why that is even an appropriate question to ask. That ranks up there with a lot of the other "unfair questions", and it still mistifies me why that particular one never made the list of "you can't ask that". It tilts the table way too much towards the employer's advantage IMO.
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Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
July 27, 2008 at 10:09 am
Hello guys,
Thank you for your comments, I my opinion this is a great way to improve our experience.
But let me explain something that I think was not clear in my first post.
In a country like Brazil, a professional that earns more than US$95k (year) isn't a student, and when the salary average in your field is US$45k, you could have a problem if you need to work for another company.
If you pay attention in the initial text that Steve Jones wrote, when he said: "...and a fairly large pay cut might turn off some companies. They might assume that I'd just be looking for the next $100k job as soon as I could."
THIS is the reason to don't say the correct last salary. I'm my experience to deflect isn't a good approach.
I've been working as a Consultant, and in Brazil frequently a consultant get a job (project) to work for at least 1 year (the initial propose), but when the job start he notice that they will have work for 6 months and not at least 1 year. Important: The contractor previously knows about the real duration, but to hire someone for a short contract is more difficult to hire someone for a contract longer.
So, I don't feel comfortable with this situation, but I'm just playing the game.
Thank you again for share your thoughts with us.
See you,
---------------------
Alex Rosa
http://www.keep-learning.com/blog
July 27, 2008 at 11:42 am
Well, I already knew some of that and as for the rest, it wouldn't have changed my response at all.
[font="Times New Roman"]-- RBarryYoung[/font], [font="Times New Roman"] (302)375-0451[/font] blog: MovingSQL.com, Twitter: @RBarryYoung[font="Arial Black"]
Proactive Performance Solutions, Inc. [/font][font="Verdana"] "Performance is our middle name."[/font]
July 27, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I have got to agree with rbarryyoung:
Well, personally I wouldn't want to do it both because I would not want to profit from a lie and because lying is intrinsically an outward sign of an inner disrespect for other people.
Like others have stated I do not like to give salary history or what I am asking - so I deflect the question by replying that salary is not what I am looking for but rather total compensation which includes vacation period, are there paid holidays, is some number of days of paid sick leave available, are salary increases normally after a periodic review and are reviews annual or semiannual. This generally shuts up the human resources individual who hopefully then passes my resume on to the hiring manager and I get an interview. I have found that if this does not work then the company is attempting to fill the job with the lowest salary they possibly can and all the experience / talents you have are not weighed very heavily in their decision process. In the current down turn in the American economy I think companies are currently looking for the cheapest body then can to fill the position and if the new hire does not cut the mustard they discharge them and post another employment advertisement or go back to their hiring firm to do it for them.
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