Discussing Salary at Networking InterviewsFrom: Jack Chapman During job interviews always follow Salary-Making Rule 1: Postpone salary discussions until you have been offered the job. However, during information-gathering interviews, salary discussions can sometimes be appropriate. Occasionally, people will want to know your salary expectations as a way of understanding what level of work you want and are able to handle. I instructed one client of mine to begin her networking interviews with a salary discussion. Since she was working for a temporary-services agency, she could be mistaken for an eight-dollar-an-hour gofer unless she made her potential clear. She started her conversations with a statement like: “I know I’m able to handle responsibilities that pay in the high thirties. I’m flexible about where I start and I’m interested in talking with you to identify paths to that end.” That brings up the question of how to ask for salary information when you’re not interviewing for a job. In the United States, discussing one’s salary is practically taboo in social conversation. People are curious about who’s making what, but are too afraid to ask. So when you offer a you-tell-me-yours-and-I’ll-tell-you-mine deal, it’s too good to pass up. Even then you’ll be getting only a range, with their salaries situated anonymously in the middle. People often attach identity, status, value, and prestige to their incomes, so revealing them can be scary, too intimate. I know counselors, lawyers, mechanics, and even baby sitters who are too shy to ask peers what they charge per hour. Nevertheless, if you intend to add a networking approach to your job-hunting campaign, you’ll need to discuss salary with your contacts. It will probably feel awkward to discuss it and awkward to avoid it, but you need to discuss it. Keep in mind again that your salary is linked to your level of responsibility. You need to treat salary as a thermometer; you’ll be telling people how much heat you can take. Before you seriously talk to people on your job hunt, do the research as described in Chapter 5. Look at the jobs and ask yourself which one you realistically think you could best handle. Get the range by looking it up. Then do a reality check on your expectations by discussing your findings on information-gathering interviews. Phrasing your check on responsibilities you can handle might sound like: “What are the biggest challenges you could see me handling? And what do positions like that pay?” Another research question you can ask a contact is: “With the amount of experience you see in me, and considering the functions I can handle, what would you estimate my salary range in this field to be?” And you can follow up with: “Well, I’ve researched [supervisor] positions in the [travel] industry, [production-supervisor] positions in [light manufacturing], and a few other types of positions, and I come up with a range of X to Y dollars. What would I have to do in your field to get that kind of money?” You can, if you like, go first in such a situation. As long as you aren’t discussing a specific job opening, it figures to be an open-ended conversation that’s not likely to box you in. That’s especially true if you’re talking about your researched estimate. Remember, too, that interviewers may not really know how to answer you. You probably realize by now that, since people would sooner discuss their sex lives and last sessions with their therapist than reveal their salaries, others’ estimates of your earning abilities may really be a blind guess. Your own estimates may educate them on the size of the problems you want to handle. With that clarity, you’ll get better-quality referrals to other contacts. Jack Chapman is a nationally know job coach and seminar speaker specializing for the last 20 years in salary negotiations and job interviews. For more information on Salary Negotiations, please visit: http://www.breakthrough-salaries.com/ |