Damaged goods? 6

[ivymike]

I recently reviewed the resume of a guy with 20yrs experience, some of it concurrent with my own at a particular company (I'd never heard of him). His salary expectation NOW is more consistent with 4yrs-6yrs experience at that particular company (at least based on my experience there, which ended >4yrs ago). I'm pretty skeptical that the guy is worth a darn, despite what his resume might say, given that *I'd never heard of him and *after 20yrs he was looking for about the same pay as someone 4-6yrs out of school.

Do you think that it's possible to shoot too low when applying for a job, and preclude getting it? I think this case is going to prove that it's possible, at least at one company...

 

[FalsePrecision]

Give him a chance - maybe he is asking very little because most companies don't need his experience level, and he is desperate for employment. If he is productive, give him a big increase at 3 months and expect him to improve even further.

Being an old guy myself, I have plenty of negative stories about former employers/managers who were "expert" de-motivators.
If they only gave someone the benefit of the doubt, they would have had a much better team

 

[sam74]

I am currently paying for the price of past bad management. Started with the same company 7.5 yrs ago as a rod man on a survey crew, worked some inspection, and 5 yrs in the general civil/site group. I'm currently doing work that is one to two positions higher than my current classification and I just found out that I was only recently moved into the bottom of the pay scale for the classification I was assigned 4 or 5 years ago. So now I am applying for jobs with minimum experience levels of 3 yrs with the bottom end of the published pay scale making more than I am now.

Maybe it was my lack of interest in kissing ass or stroking egos or my managers desire to pad his retirement fund. I don't think it had anything to do with my ability to learn or my productivity.

Why don't you interview the person and play twenty questions to get an honest grasp of his/her knowledge in your field?

 

[Slugger926]

In a tough economy, my company is starting engineers out at the bottom no matter what these days. Maybe this guy is just wanting his foot in the door and didn't want HR to throw away his resume because of experience. ONce in the door, a person can get promotions fairly rapidly if they are worth it.

 

[IRstuff]

If you need to, you should be able to at least get the guy's salary info from the company.

It may simply be that he's just not that much of a hotshot and didn't get much in the way of raises.

TTFN

 

[FalsePrecision]

IR, amount of raises has no correlation to ability. Too much politics in the workplace.

 

[BJC]

Ivymike
Don't hire the guy, do him a favor. He deserves to work for someone who would never ask such a question.

 

[HVAC68]

Where does he come from ? Same country as yours or a different place where the cost of living is much lower ? I think it's not fair to make a comment without knowing this background. I accepted a lower pay (in absolute terms) when I moved on from one country to another, but still in line with the industry standards - not because I was desperate, but because I wanted to move from one country to another for various other reasons. The cost of living is much lower in the second place.

HVAC68

 

[PSE]

Look at his work history and consider your own. In many cases, someone who has worked for a company a long time perhaps getting raises averaging around 3% will in the long term end up making less than a new hire. Jumping around in the industry tends to have a larger effect on salary increases. It sounds like you have enough contacts to find out more about this individual rather than making an immediate judgement call based on salary history. I would recommend using them less you miss out on a "bargain" employee.

Regards,

 

[weh3]

I believe it to be unprofessional of interviewers to require you to state your salary position on the first interview, because that makes the whole relationship a question of money.

On the other hand, my present employer, in his first phone call, stated the salary range for the job, and was I still interested? I appreciated that openness.

One interviewer gave me the third degree about what kind of money I was looking for. I answered that certainly the compay had an established range for the position, and that I was sure that somewhere in there would be a suitable starting point. He said that they did, but he could not tell me what it was, but I still had to reveal my position. That is not a good faith negotiation.

With another group during the same interview, I got more of the third degree about how much money I wanted. Getting ticked off by this time, I said "Just as much as I can get my money-grubbing hands on, of course."

I did not get that job. When the question of money puts you in an adversarial negotiating position against the company, rather than a position where you are both trying to achieve something mutually beneficial once you have agreed that you want to work together, then it most likely bodes ill for future relations.

It becomes a game of "guess the number between zero and one hundred fifty". If you guess too low, then you don't understand the job requirements. If you guess too high, then you are a gold digger.

The subject of money is like that first kiss--once you cross that line, all you can think about is either getting more or giving less.

William

 

[melone]

Perhpas, s/he is afraid of pricing themselves out of the market. Maybe they feel that their age is a negative, and would like to compensate using their salary. Some income is better than no income, right? I know that age discrimination shouldn't exist, but let's be realistic, it does.