Tacky to inquire about salary before interview?

amother

Aquamarine

Mon, Oct 23 2017, 6:28 pm

cm wrote:

Salary is, or can be, flexible. One person doesn't necessarily earn the same amount as someone else doing the same job, for a whole lot of reasons. This is negotiated during the hiring process. Some employers are more open about the salary range than others before you get to that point. An applicant should try to be familiar with the industry standard of compensation going into the process.

It really does help the applicant if the job posting indicates a range, but if it doesn't, it is ok to ask (using a complete, grammatically correct sentence, regardless of venue) what the general range is. Demanding to know a specific salary suggests immaturity and certainly shows some lack of professionalism. There is a time and a place for making demands, and this isn't it.

These are mainly the points that my boss has. Salary is negotiated. And re; industry standard, youre right. I’ve had scenarios like this - lets say I am a restaurant, looking to hire a cook. Not a chef. One applicant has been a personal chef before, so she wants an hourly wage of a personal chef. She wont get that in this job. She’ll get way less. Different industry standards. Another applicant has only bussed tables before. This job will pay more than her bussing tables job.

The other job that he has available, the 20 hour/week job - he told me that he is finding a lot of people who send resumes, but want way more money than is standard for the job. Its entry level admin, but people want a salary as if they were working 40 hours/week. Meaning, if he was going to pay $15/hour for the entry level position, he is getting asked for $30/hour.

amother

Gray

Mon, Oct 23 2017, 6:29 pm

Well it's no wonder you're frustrated, OP. You've been asked to do a job with your hands tied. Not only that, if I understand your posts correctly, you've been asked to do this as a personal favor, unpaid. Is that correct?

If this is related to your job, you should be paid for your work. It should be done on company time with pay.

You should also ask your boss to untie your hands and give you all the info you need to field job applicants. Otherwise just pass his number along and that's it. Let him deal with dozens of inquiries from inappropriate job candidates.

amother

Teal

Mon, Oct 23 2017, 7:00 pm

amother wrote:

There really shouldn't be much room for negotiation for a job for a non-for-profit with a few working hours a week. Not talking about a position where a more qualified person will bring more value to the position.

amother

Aquamarine

Mon, Oct 23 2017, 7:25 pm

amother wrote:

Not true. Again, being vague here. But trust me.

amother

Cerise

Mon, Oct 23 2017, 7:51 pm

I definately agree to discuas salary range before. I once took off a half a day from work and traveled 45 min for a job interview...sat through an hour long interview with potential employer only to be told salary is 15,000 a year vs. 40,000 I was getting currently for a very similiar type of job....boy was the employer embaressed and upset that she did not want to say salry and only that it was great pay.

petiteruchy

Tue, Oct 24 2017, 10:02 am

I don't know how you can expect to get realistic responses when you won't give any details about the job, the setting or anything.

Two postings for "similar" jobs could elicit very different responses from potential applicants. I'm a teacher and I have seen job postings for teaching positions that turned out to be glorified tutoring jobs at extremely low pay and low hours. The crazy thing is that they often ask for teaching qualifications, knowing that they're not going to actually get someone, but in the process, wasting the time of every qualified educator that comes along. For those sorts of jobs, if it were posted on Facebook, I'd absolutely think it fine to ask "salary?" If they can't be bothered to actually be clear about the kind of position they're offering, they're not that serious about finding someone high caliber.

Depending on the field, (teaching, graphic design and "sales" are the three that immediately come to mind) job seekers might be very aware of the many bull**** jobs that get posted on facebook, craigslist and other online settings and have relatively little patience for wading through the millions of people who want a BFA grad with 10 years design experience to do 2 hours of work for $15 an hour.

amother

Blue

Tue, Oct 24 2017, 12:35 pm

I haven't read all the responses but I'm thinking it really depends on what kind of job offer this is. If you're applying to be a teacher, dr. or fashion designer, then asking right off the bat about the salary doesn't exactly make you look like you're passionate about what you do. But if this job is about helping in a warehouse, driving, or washing dishes in a restaurant - it's obvious that money plays an important factor here - you're not exactly in it for a long lasting career.