[Baypiggies] Job - Salary Questions

[Jason Culverhouse]

Adding my thoughts and 15 years of being on both sides of the table.

This is a generalization to benefit  the people who ask questions
like this on the list. You are getting as a professional, and you  
should be
treated as one. You should feel confident that you are being compensated
fairly, everything being equal, vast salary differences are  
discrimination.
Good companies should be methodical in setting compensation.  Bigger
companies are going to use a real compensation survey. Understand
that compensation is more than "salary".

On Oct 27, 2009, at 7:28 PM, Nathan Yergler wrote:

> God forbid that I prolong this thread, but I'd like to offer a data
> point which counters this.  I don't claim that it's representative,
> only factual.
>
> I was considering applying for a position with an east coast company
> that does all Python, and they explicitly state that they require
> "salary requirements" with resumes.
>

Here is a fictionalized "I"  and "you" as both candidate and hiring  
manager

"I" would never put this kind of requirement on a "position" (if you
see one it is usually for some "legal" reason).  The main reason being
that the interview process is part of placing "you" in an organization,
the last thing "I" am thinking about is can I afford "you" in dollar  
terms.

As a person interviewing, I would hesitate to declare any salary
requirement before an interview.  I wouldn't want money to look
like a motivator. When you go on an interview you need to decide if
you want to work at the company and this is going to change your
perception of what you should be paid.

Back to manager... I usually give the candidate two choices:

1) tell me what you make
2) tell me what you want to make

Some people are uncomfortable with one of these choices so
I always feel it is best to give them an option.  If you are
uncomfortable with both you probably didn't make to this step.

If I have interviewed you and looked over your resume
my mental number should be pretty close to what you state.

What happens next really depends on the size of the organization.
In all cases understand that they never want the chart of
salary/title/years of experience to look like a scatter chart.
This really sets the bounds of what can be offered by a company.
This "magic box" is going to differ based on the stage, size,
industry, region, benefits package, etc.

In a small organization, I could put together an offer in 10 minutes.

At a big company, I would go to "the person who understands the magic  
box"
and get a range that can be offered.  This range is going to cover  
salary,
title, and stock.  Once I have this range I have to close you within
the range otherwise I have to climb a mountain to get it changed.

The moral here is that your money, motivation, and your interview skills
are going to put you in that sweet spot of "hire".

> I applied, stated my requirements (with some justification), and
> received an offer at the top end of the range I specified.  I wound up
> turning it down for reasons unrelated to salary, but the experience
> does make me approach that question differently these days.
>

FWTW - If you get what you asked for, you probably didn't ask for  
enough.

> FWIW,
>
> Nathan

Jason