Job description is P&C

My stand on revealing salaries could be seen as a borderline disorder by most HR who are following what everyone else is doing – value employee based on previous jobs and companies.

A few days ago, I had a taste of reversal role.

Friend told me, “My company has vacancy for IT.”

“Do you have the job description? Is there any link or website on it?”

“No. That’s P&C.”

“What?”

“We don’t advertise it. You want, you can write in.”

“Then when can the candidate know about the job description?”

“Write in already, HR will check if qualify. Qualify only HR will call. Get job only know job desc.”

“Haaa? Interview time also don’t tell?”

“Interview can ask all you want.”

“And you know this because this is how HR in your company works?”

Come to think of it, I asked a silly question.

“I’m in HR la!” She answered.

Doi!

I wonder how this company recruits people by only disclosing job title. Unlike past salary, job description is relevant to a position! Weird.

Reason #2 interviewers ask for your salary

Pre-interview

G had been to the department store where I was going for interview. I remembered he had told me that “the place actually looked not dead.” We both had expected the place to be.. well, dirty, scruffed, old, going to crumble down. Haha.

I went to the washroom before my turn for interview and my 1st impression on the office went down the toilet bowl. The 1st toilet bowl had icky brown thing – I wasn’t sure it was shit or dirt. Didn’t care to even step into that toilet cell. The next one didn’t have any place to hang my bag! Darn. Luckily it could flush.

Interview 

The interview was refreshing. The interviewer asked a lot of questions that no other interviewers had asked me and when she asked, “What’s your expected salary?”

I answered the range and added, “Why do HR ask this question?”

“It’s so that we know what people are expecting. So we wouldn’t take advantage of people. Like a person’s expect RM1.5 and we wouldn’t give RM1.2. And if the job is RM5K, we wouldn’t give the person RM4K just because he/she put that as expected salary.”

Whoa… I didn’t know this company was so ethical. My heart swelled. Felt good.

“But what if the candidate expect more?”

She shook her head, “Then we’ll see the performance, skills, experience.”

At the end of my interview, she asked, “If another company give you RM2600 but we give you RM2000 only, which would you choose?”

My eyebrow raised a bit. “I would choose the best job for myself.”

“Both are the same. Only salary different.”

“Well.. that’s tough to decide.”

I thought I didn’t answer properly for this question. I mean, if everything important to me were the same, why not go for the higher salary? Obviously, if the company offering lower salary has other perks that the other does not, then it makes sense to go for the company with less salary.

Everything is the same except for salary? One has to be having a bad case of low self-worth to take the lower salary.

Post interview 

After I reached home, I asked G with an accusing smiley, “Hey, you said the place was nice?!”

“What?? No ah! It was abominable! Eeeee.”

Reason #1 interviewers ask for your salary

Most of the interviewers that I had been to asked me about past salaries and expected salary. Now, Why should I reveal my past salaries? The only interviewer that didn’t ask me these 2 questions was the Sales Manager for a top IT company which I blogged about because it was the most Interrupted, interview I ever had.

P&C 

In another interview with a fashion company, the interviewers asked, “You didn’t put your past salaries?”

“It’s P&C between my company and I.”

“P&C?”

“Yes.”

“Why is it P&C?”

“It’s included in my agreement with my previous companies. I’m sure your agreement has the same thing. Confidentiality.”

They shook their head. 1 of them asked, “But can you tell us?”

“We want to estimate.”

[pause] “It’s really P&C. Estimate what? How much to give me? Isn’t this job based on work performance quality? Not what I was paid in another job under another position?”

“We estimate – we don’t estimate based on your previous position – but – we have to know how much you were getting so that we can estimate how much to give you.”

That was really contradictory.

“Let’s say an employee from LV applies for this job and they earn 2K plus. Are you going to give over 2K for the same position just because his past salary was high?” I asked them.

By the way, the interviewer had informed me that this job was in the range of RM1500 – RM1800 only. For a “very important, detailed job. Your job has very high responsibility of [job desc].” Whoa. Such high responsibilities, such low salary :D

“No.”

“Then?”

“OK, can you give me your salary expectation then?”

“I had informed #1Interviewer (which was there too) about my range – from $$$$ to $$$$.”

“Yes,” #1Interviewer confirmed it with a nod.

Salary range disclosure is always better than revealing your past salaries. You’d be lucky if the person who interviewed you or decide your salary actually calculated inflation into the decision making. RM800 may seem very little now but it was ok 10 years ago for a SPM graduate. RM10 000 may look a lot but if you are a CEO to a successful company, that’s not much.

In the real world 

The thing is to you don’t want to give a range that’s lower than the company’s budget. If the company is honest and ethical, it would offer a salary based on the position, not your (lower) expectation. However, the company could discard you if you expected higher than the budget. In the end, ask yourself do you want to settle for lower salary (or maybe other perks) if you are select.

Just becareful and do your research – what is the salary range for the position and company that you are applying for. You can find more about salary report from:

• Job Street
• Kelly Services 2006
• Salary.com (US)
• Salary Expert (US, Canada, UK, and Europe)