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by the lynx » Fri, 25 Sep 2015 11:41 am
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.