when they ask for your expected compensation, ask them their range

If they disclose the budget, should you quote higher than that and negotiate, quote the upper bound told, or less than it, within the range itself?

Software Engineer

depends on how much you’re expecting. i often go with range between say 80-150k. that keeps you around for longer in the process and you can quote on the higher end while negotiating at the final stage

Business Analyst

Search for same position in same location in Glassdoor and ask for above average salary. Then they will tell you their range.

Machine Learning Engineer

Should I ask the HR directly before the interview is scheduled? Looking for guidance on this topic. Thanks

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

How to find out budget of the position the company is hiring for?

Consultant

How to find out budget of the position the company is hiring for?- Grapevine

So, I had this call from a head hunting firm in May 2023 for a Growth role in a startup(invested by MNC). That time, I was working and they took 33% as overall hike on my CTC. The interview didn’t get scheduled and I got laid off. They recently connected with me again mentioning that the role is open but they have quoted significantly less salary now(18%) overall hike on my previous CTC. 

Was just checking through the mail and I found out.
This time though the interview got scheduled. Am yet to give the interview.

Has the budget reduced for the role? Or is the 3rd party lowballing me?

Reduced salary than last connected.

Head Of Growth

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

I know current market is not approving this but based on the skills it should be acceptable. If the current ctc would have been good then why would someone switch. Please suggest some advices to mention how to not reveal the cctc till the offer is received. Lately for scheduling interviews also companies ask for cctc and ectc before taking even a single round how to tackle all these and also can we mention more than our cctc?

How to not reveal your cctc and ask for more than 100% hike?

Software Test - QA

I have about 5 YOE and looking for a job change. While I received so many calls from startups for SSE backend roles. During initial discussions I often let the HR know that I am earning 28 lakhs as CTC and I ask for 40 lakhs CTC, they say that they will get back to me but they never do so. Am I doing something wrong? Am I asking for too much. Should I wait for the market to get back to normal?
PS: I definitely have the major set of skills they are expecting for the job role.

Salary that needs to be negotiated

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

Recruiter: Will call you asking basic details, without knowing anything about the job description and team involved. When you ask any questions, they are always coming back with information, sometimes they don't too

Actual project team: more often than not, in need and if they like you they will communicate very clearly that we want you. When asked about benefits etc general response or always HR will connect.


HR: comes during negotiation time, will not anything about the role, will come with sole purpose of saving some bucks on CTC. More often than not, they will be the reason a candidate withdraws from process, or negotiation doesn't work, even though the actual team might be okay with negotiation.

This is my experience, HR is giving such a vague offer which looks good on paper but on hand it's nothing in terms of growth and pay increase. Same old CTC vs gross salary shenanigans. When negotiating the HR thinks I'm not worth it and asks for proofs of every deduction from current employer.
This is such a stark difference from the Actual team who interviewed me and were very good and open.

HRs , Recruiters & Actual team are always on different tangents

Analyst

I had a recent experience of having an interview with this MNC and getting negotiation calls,and I was willing to settle near their offer, just because the office was very nearby and then suddenly I got ghosted.

I was not even actively looking for a job and 6  rounds of conversation and a month later I got ghosted.

Why HR's don't give a black and white answers.

Why HR Ghosts you in the middle of Salary discussion

Software Architect

Welcome to Personal Finance's Private Community

An example scenario:
Let’s say my CTC is 34 LPA + annual stock payout of 5 Lakhs. My total yearly earning potential is 39 LPA. 

In the new role they don’t have a variable or stocks. Is it reasonable to ask for a 25% hike on the overall earning potential?

So the new CTC is 49 LPA. 

I haven’t switched my employer in the past few years so currently is lacking the clarity on the way how negotiations are done. Kindly help by sharing the best practice.

Is this a good way to negotiate expected CTC?

Product Marketing Manager

I have given interviews and cleared them.
I got a call from HR asking for payslips and another offer details.

They said they will get back with offer.

How to go about here? If they come with a lower offer than what i asked, how much liberty i have to ask further.
Does HR will come with 2-3 various levels of offer and then try to negotiate with me.

Any help or insights would be helpful in how HR comes with offer details.
My interviews were pretty good and i think they like me.

How does salary negotiation before offer work

Don't share payslips yet if possible. Do it after finalising your offer details. 
  
 What information have you shared? Current compensation? Expected range? Do you have any other offers in hand? 
  
 The game that follows now is that of leverage of information vs offer expiry timelines. 
  
 They will share an offer. You can call it "interesting" but don't share more details on if you like it or not - you need to "think more" before you can share your opinion. Say that you need to discuss it with your well-wishers and also evaluate compared to other opportunities. 
  
 Get back to them on email and call the offer "strong" (if it is really good) or "interesting" (for all other cases). Suggest some improvements to the offer that would make it more compelling for you. Don't guarantee that you will accept the offer if these things are provided (unless it's your last day till offer expiry). Keep negotiating with everyone that is interesting and keep dropping the non-interesting ones. 
  
 Also, don't call the negotiation discussions a "negotiation" - that word sounds negative. Call it "discussing offer details" or something. 
  
 FYI: All of these tips are from the highly popular negotiation blog posts by Haseeb. They've worked well for me.

Software Developer

Equity Research

So this is a problem that I’ve been facing for a while now. I’ve watched tonnes of educative videos where as a response to the recruiter’s question about last drawn CTC, the creator advises asking if there’s a budget allocated for the role. In my experience , on asking the budget, the recruiter blatantly says that they can’t disclose it but insists on asking about mine. Now, that isn’t so much a problem than the recruiter asking for the expectation. In this scenario, it’s either quoting a very low band so that you can still be consider for the role and being underpaid or you quote what you actually want for them to consider and they rejecting their candidacy on that every criterion. 
P.S. - This conversation usually happens telephonically and is one of the first interactions with the recruiter/company. Most companies on LinkedIn complete this exercise via form which leaves no room for discussion or consideration. 

Is there anyone else who’s faced a similar issue? How did you go about it? 
Just FYI I come from a legal background, so idk if this trend is domain specific, but any insights/suggestions would be of immense help.

Being underpaid v Not being considered for the role

Lawyer

Welcome to Product Managers's Private Community

Current CTC
Expectation
Notice Period

How do you deal with them?

Questions from Recruiter

DevOps Engineer

Hello folks, 
When applying for roles, I have seen HRs asking for your current CTC and expectations. Some even ask to share Fixed+Variable components.

I have read that it is illegal in some countries but nothing about India. Is it so common in India to share these details. And if I wish to not share, do they drop my candidature for screening round?

Sharing your CTC with HR

System Engineer

Hi everyone, I am a frontend developer(3yr+) who wants to switch to backend development. I am looking for some advice from people who have made a similar transition in their career. How was your journey and what was your plan?

What do you recommend I should do to become a backend developer? What skills and technologies should I learn?

Also, how should I handle the salary and job search aspects? Should I take a salary cut or join at the same salary? 💰 How should I approach HR or put myself on job portals?

Please help me. I am feeling confused and unsure about my career path.🙏

How to transition from frontend to backend development?

I am applying for new jobs. I have Masters from IIT. My current base is 19.5 

In salary discussion how much raise shall I ask for given my little experience?

Salary discussion for 1.5yrs experience

What is the difference between Deloitte, Deloitte USI, Deloitte India and Monitor Deloitte

Corporate Strategist

Had the first (exploration) call with my would-be boss and HR lead to figure out which role I would fit in. Company is an MNC startup, best culture ive heard of, lots of friends working there in different verticals etc. I usually dont reveal salary this early on but it was a very quick call and they asked about it and I felt like I had to this time to not come off as a snob or stuck up.

Chances are low and I am okay pushing back but Im paranoid about getting lowballed now. Any advice on how to better my chances in the upcoming rounds? Greatly appreciate any help

Revealing salary in the first round. Yay or nay?

It depends on where you are in terms of the compensation spectrum. It can definitely lead to bias if your current salary is not on the higher side. 
  
 For too long, I have played this back and forth game of revealing salary and asking them for budget and frankly, it’s too tiring in Indian recruitment circles. 
  
 So, I have started just being honest from the beginning about my current pay & expectation and have seen recruiters be transparent about their budgets too. 
 Eventually if a company has to lowball they anyway would, but I am glad that I don’t have to exercise so much cognitive effort playing this game of riddles

Product Manager

Marketing Associate

When the recruiter or HM opens up for questions, are you inclined towards asking them tough questions related to the organisation?

Lately I've started asking:
- How were people who were impacted in the latest lay-offs decided?

- Do you believe the team is at risk of lay-offs? In the overall org, where would you place this team in terms of business criticality.

- In case of downsizing how will you ensure that your team is going to be least impacted.

- Questions on talent being fungible, coding practices, knowledge organisation and sharing (hoarding/individual level, team level, org level)

- How does the manager ensure equity in workloads (especially useful for startups).

- Team agreements like stand-up timings, in-out timings, and most importantly, how often were  these changed in the last 6m-1y.


Folks, feel free to add to the list! Would love to hear your thoughts.

Managers are supposed to manage teams and be technically competent. Everyone is a champ when times are easy. The true colors are shown only when the going gets tough.

Most of the answers are gonna be template/standardizations. The key is to read between the lines.
If the manager is clueless or the body language doesn't inspire any confidence, then it's a red flag.

Asking tough questions to Hiring Managers

I have been applying for jobs, and every time I get a recruiter call, they ask me for my current СТС.
Is it ok to tell them the current CTC at the very first call?
Asking this because, in my current company, the budget was more but they gave me hike based on my previous CTC, because I had disclosed my current CTC before.
Also, how do I tackle the question how much is my expected salary? Is it a good idea to tell them right away? 
Asking this because what if they have bigger budget but still end up paying how much I asked for. 

PS: I am new to all of this, please help me how to tackle these questions. 

Thank you.

Salary Discussion Tips

These days HRs are asking the employees before sitting for an interview about their current ctc. I don’t want to reveal that to them and want to get paid according to the industry standards/ based on the market conditions. How to smoothly avoid that question and avoid getting underpaid?

How to avoid “what’s your current ctc?”

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

Have been interviewing for roles and the HRs are low balling like crazy even though they most definitely have the money, talking about non-startups listed companies as well. Makes me think if offer shopping or editing a current offer with a higher number and then shopping is the only way to go

HRs low balling?

Founder’s Office

How many folks here 100% refuse to share last salary and are adant that HR state their budget. How do you guys do it and also has it ever happened that you needed up losing a great opportunity coz of this???

How to find out budget of the position the company is hiring for?

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