| >> "the employees of this company don't care about how much money they get paid" More for you, then! Seriously though, that's always an uncomfortable question when it comes up. Before accepting my current job, I was interviewing at another place. When asked, I kept my current salary private and was honest about my reasons: "I'd rather not disclose that, because it puts me in a bad situation when it comes to salary negotiation." They responded with something along the lines of "Once an offer goes out, we don't negotiate beyond that. We try to pay employees what they're worth and we think we do a very good job of making that evaluation before hiring into our team." Note that what they said seems like they gave me an incentive to offer a number. But read a little more closely and note that this really isn't the case. I reminded the HR rep that the job listing had a salary range posted, and if any offer was outside of the "very high end" of the range, then I would likely to decline. Once a company makes a decision to hire you, they want you. If they aren't willing to negotiate a salary beyond an initial offer, then good luck negotiating a raise. In my case, I had 2 more interviews (one via phone, one in person) before I decided that the company wasn't a good fit. |
I'm not saying that this works all the time or that it's ethical, but sometimes it can result in a significant pay rise.