A couple of months ago, a former co-worker called me and asked if I would provide a reference for her in a job search (which I readily agreed to). Then she went on to ask me this, “This company wants to make me an offer and they called and asked me what I currently make, and asked for a copy of a paystub. What should I do?”
Personally, I find this question stupid. I’ve been asked it many times (including quite recently) and in all instances I’ve been surprised by it (doh!) and I’ve answered in what I now consider to be the wrong way.
Every hiring manager has a range of salaries that they are willing to pay for a position, and they have a range of bonuses, a range of stock options and other incentives. And then there’s the common incentives that everyone gets (401(k), vacation, …). So why even ask the question? Why not make an offer that makes sense and be done with it?
If you are a hiring manager / HR person on the hiring side, do you ask this question?
If you are a candidate, how do you handle this question?
In any event, here’s what I recommended to my friend, answer the question along these lines.
- I’m sure you are asking me this so you can make me a competitive offer that I’ll accept
- I’m also sure that you have a range for all the components of the offer that you intend to make to me; base pay, bonus, stock options, …
- So what I’ll tell you is what I am looking for in an offer and I’ll leave it to you to make me an offer based on the standard ranges that you have
- I am looking for a take-home pay of $ _____ each month
- Since you offer a 401(k) plan which I intend to contribute $ _____ to, that means I am looking for a total base pay of $ ______ per year.
- I am looking for a total annual compensation of $ ______ including bonuses
- In addition, I am looking for ______ days of vacation each year.
That’s it. When asked for a copy of current pay-stub or anything like that, I recommend that you simply decline to provide it and make it clear that this is not any of their business.
Now, whether one can get away with this answer or not depends on how strong your position is for the opening in question. Some companies have a ‘policy’ that they need this paystub/W-2 stuff.
Not providing last pay information and following their ‘process’ could make the crabby HR person label you ‘not a team player’ or some such bogus thing and put your resume in the ‘special inbox’ which is marked ‘Basura’.
In any event, this all was fine and my friend told me that she was given a good offer which she accepted.
How do you approach this question?
Hype Cycles 