this post was submitted on 08 May 2024
5 points (100.0% liked)

CS Career Questions

354 readers
1 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be welcoming - Not everyone is a 10 YOE senior engineer. Let's all help each other.
  2. No memes - Refer to the Programmer Humor community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I'm doing interviews, and I wanted to get an idea of what other people are doing. Say a position offers a pay range between 50-65k. In my interview with HR (first interview), should I try to provide a more narrow range? for instance, " Based on my skills and experience, I'd expect a range between 56-60k" Or should I just tell them the range offered is good for me and let them actually provide an offer? This is of course assumes the entire range is acceptable to me. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

top 4 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Don’t be the first to offer a price, now you’ve just told them they don’t need to offer more than 60k.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Usually I wait for them to ask (or offer). Then I counter-offer and/or explain my number.

Sometimes that's at the end of the 1st interview, sometimes at the start of a 2nd interview.

If I'm not impressed with the first interview (as interviewee), I'll bring up salary expectations in their "do you have any questions for us?", just to save them and myself from a 2nd interview if we're not in the ballpark.

On the other side of that table, when hiring, I'm usually talking with a professional recruiter, who let's me know the candidate's pay expectations.

In the case that I'm hiring, the candidate, the recruiter, and I all want to get the candidate in at a salary at the high end of fair - to maximize their pay, maximize the recruiter's commission, and to minimize my future HR work to retain them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I keep an idea of the pay thats acceptable to me and if they don't meet it I tell them. So basically I let them make the offer and im ready to say its to low.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I’m an overconfident asshole who always gives my asking price

The kicker is that I’ve always had a job when looking at new jobs so I was always prepared to walk away from negotiations.

If you want to gauge whether that range is a real or bs range ask them what a low end vs high end recruit looks like.