Giving personal information to headhunters

[Brah]

Every now and then I test the waters or get contacted by a headhunter about a role, here or overseas.

Some (few) headhunters are good and I've worked with before; others I have no idea about and am dealing with them the first time, but if the role looks worth it I consider taking it to the next step.

But there are a lot of recruiters out there in a lot of firms, and a lot of them are shite.

Often, I can set my watch to when they will ask about current compensation.

I may be admittedly old-fashioned, but I don't like giving this info out to just anyone - it, along with "your graduation date", etc. all goes into someone database, who knows what happens to it after that. Could even be another recruiter, working with someone else, someone you know, and it 'leaks' out.

I am being asked for my current compensation information for an overseas role that is twice my current salary. I have to wonder if my salary would rule me out once they know it. The role is far from a perfect fit but something I could do as a stretch, and would get me into the company and with this new recruiter for future roles, however this never feels right.

When do you give this out?

[Strong Eagle]

Since you know you would work for the salary offered, I would respond to the headhunter that you are sure that the offered salary will fit with your requirements, should you be selected after the interview process.

Or, since the headhunter has no way of verifying, give him/her a number that "fits" with the new company.

[ecureilx]

Brah, when my OH, was applying for work here, the employer asked for her pay slip, as it is one of the 'requirements' here

For the post, the pay was pretty much standardised, and I mildly asked the HR if she is unable to provide her pay slip, what is the recourse ?

The HR as always, threw a hissy fit and said they may 'reconsider' gthe offer

Then I decided to send her Income Tax statement, which reflects a pay that is more than double of what was being offered here, and in a nice way asked the HR if they will revise the pay, now that they know she was earning much more back home.

The Silence was deafening!

yep, some local HRs are stictly following the written down processes, they lost touch with reality.

[the lynx]

I effing hate this payslip/revealing-your-pay trend. But in recent exercise with several head hunters and recruiters (due to some movement going on in my industry), I managed to figure a way to deal with this. Not sure if it is applicable in all situations but you may find my recent experience helpful @Brah:

1. At their first attempt to ask for your salary, tell them to "make their offer based on the market rate for this role and for candidates in your portfolio".

2. Very likely, they will try the bullshit of "needing to know this information to see if your current salary fit the client's budget for hiring." Truth: There is no budget (or at least there is a very arbitrary budget) because hiring companies have always needed candidate yesterday(!). Your answer should be that the recruiter are then "the best judge since they already know their client's budget requirement and being industry players themselves, they should know better what the market rate for this role is." This should put them in the spot for not trying to make themselves fools further (plus in a way, you're acknowledging their perceived influence in the industry - although you can snigger in your heart that it is so untrue).

PS: In Singapore, Singaporean recruiters will pull the "but this is Singapore culture to ask for current salary information" line. (Politely) tell them that you never needed this the whole time you're in Singapore and you never will. Probably tell them that it is as just as how some MNCs do not want to deal with resumes with photos, body ratio, race and religion information. I used that line one time and a recruiter sheepishly agreed that I had a point and we moved on to next level of discussion.

3. When #2 happens, the recruiter would either make a lowball offer, or ask you for expected salary then.

4. If they do the former, that's when you should know that you wouldn't want to work for that company in the first place - or if you feel the game, you can start your usual negotiation exercise. Then you will realise that knowing your current salary is not even an actual pre-requisite in the first place (although if you are relying on Taleo crap, that omission could eliminate your chance by system - that's why I prefer to deal with human recruiters directly either through recommendation or Linkedin, rather than hoping for them to get hold of them after using the recruiter portals.)

5. If the latter, keep pressing for their offer first. Normally I win in this situation and get an (usually lowball) offer but at least it keeps my game going. But if you can sense that they will give up and move on, and this company is so well-established that you can't afford to lose at this point, then drop an expected salary range (only as a last resort). When this happens, you are no longer obligated to provide your payslip because in the whole discussion, it was never communicated between both of you that you are negotiating on the basis of your current salary, but rather your expected salary range. PS: This note is very important when the new HR of the new company is giving you a grief for previous payslip after you are hired.

6. If you lose an offer because of payslip requirement, you probably don't want to work for that company or recruiter in the first place. But it helps to keep a cordial but firm atmosphere throughout the entire discussion.

[Brah]

Thanks all, very helpful.

This is for a role in Tokyo, and they contacted me from my LI profile.

From the advice here and my own reticence I've decided to say that the role meets my salary expectations and if talks go to the point of an offer I will consider providing salary info.

[ecureilx]

Talking about personal information, on a related note

I was trying to lodge a request with SQ, for something

One of the items that I can't skip is my date of birth, and IC Number

Why oh why ? for a simple request of information ?

[Brah]

More on this -

The recruiter keeps asking for this as he says the company 'expects this" and, age.

The only reason they want age is to screen out people.

All this before an interview even happens.

I emailed him to say that I would only be interested to work for a company which recognizes my abilities and is interested in what I can offer. So will see where this goes.

I am sure headhunters will compile anything people are willing to give up.

(this is for a job in Japan BTW)

[JR8]

It strikes me as the convenient crystallisation of you and your resume in one figure. It short-cuts the HH having to know the market and judge your worth based upon your resume etc. I wonder what nationality the HH is, as even 20 years ago (IME) UK/US/Aus HHs knew they were on very thin ice asking this question. If they ever did I'd simply side-step it by replying with the salary range I would consider. The thinking being that together with your resume/interview is all the HH needs to try and match you to a position, and revealing your current pay hands them the 1-sided advantage of potentially getting you for less than you're potentially worth.

Besides just because you're on $x at company x... it's tenuous/subjective to how that relates to what you might be worth at company y, even more so if the potential move is between two countries.

I wondered if this kind of question has been asked before, feeling it that it probably has. I googled on 'recruiter head-hunter asking for current salary income', and woah sure enough, lots of hits...
Here's just one from LinkedIn...
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sorry-re ... y-liz-ryan

Good luck

[Brah]

It strikes me as the convenient crystallisation of you and your resume in one figure. It short-cuts the HH having to know the market and judge your worth based upon your resume etc.

I wonder what nationality the HH is, as even 20 years ago (IME) UK/US/Aus HHs knew they were on very thin ice asking this question. If they ever did I'd simply side-step it by replying with the salary range I would consider. The thinking being that together with your resume/interview is all the HH needs to try and match you to a position, and revealing your current pay hands them the 1-sided advantage of potentially getting you for less than you're potentially worth.

Besides just because you're on $x at company x... it's tenuous/subjective to how that relates to what you might be worth at company y, even more so if the potential move is between two countries.

I wondered if this kind of question has been asked before, feeling it that it probably has. I googled on 'recruiter head-hunter asking for current salary income', and woah sure enough, lots of hits...
Here's just one from LinkedIn...
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sorry-re ... y-liz-ryan

Good luck

Thanks JR, and side-step I did, I wrote a repsectful and carefully considered reply to the headhunter, he said he understood, but when I replied back to ask if we are still in play he didn't respond. It's the weekend so let's see.

It can be difficult to make comparisons of different roles in different countries, all having different tax schemes, costs of living, etc.

The google search did indeed bring up a lot of good articles, from the likes of Forbes and other reputable sites denouncing this practice.

I do however have to consider the Japan factor, where this recruiter is and is from, where normal rules do not apply still, including on the controversial topic of age.