Lying about current salary to recruiter

I know within 10%, but exactly how much i don’t know…

sorry nana, I would tell people not to use this lie… if I heard that I would either think the person is a moron or just flat out lying…

Exactly. In an industry where attention to detail (especially numbers to the decimal) is important, someone not knowing his salary is not a good sign. It also tells others you don’t know or don’t care about your market value. How would you know if you are under/over paid or fairly paid?

I don’t know my exact salary anymore. I know what $5,000 range it falls in, but couldn’t tell you the exact amount.

^ you wouldnt check before interviewing?

This is ridiculous.

I have literally no idea how much I make. All my bills are on auto pay and my company just puts some money in my bank account from time to time. There always seems to be enough, so I don’t really worry about it.

No, the exact amount isn’t important. What’s important is how much I will require a new employer to pay me to entice me to leave my current employer. When I’ve been asked what my current salary is, I’ve just said that it’s approximately $xxx,xxx plus a bonus that has ranged from $xx,xxx - $xx,xxx over the past few years. No one has ever had an issue with that.

Wow.

^BSD.

I also have no idea how much I make. I trust my Jewish bookkeeper does a good job of balancing my various bank accounts and pay my bills on time. According to my monthly summaries, I’m in good shape.

I have two conflicting feelings here:

  1. It’s a bad idea to lie about things. If an employer feels you have lied to them, they can terminate you retroactively (though at-will contracts basically allow this anyway). Recruiters aren’t employers exactly, but they are this grey-area middleman. But there is clearly something rotten at the core of society when the idea that “everybody lies about everything” is taken as an excuse not to have personal integrity.

  2. (the conflicting feeling) If you are dealing with someone who consistently lies to you, I don’t feel they have any right to know the truth from you. So I endeavor to be honest with honest people and don’t lose too much sleep lying to people who I know lie to me. But mostly, I try to avoid dealing with people who lie. In finance, that is admittedly difficult if not impossible.

  3. It’s important to remember that even if one should endeavor not to lie in order to be a person with integrity, that doesn’t mean people are entitled to know the truth about everything they ask about. An integral person will tell people that they are not entitled to know the answer to something rather than hand out a lie. Over time, one learns to handle that with tact. Just because I don’t like to lie doesn’t mean you get to know the true answer to everything you choose to ask.

Take a look at how employers might answer a question of “what do you pay people in this kind of position.” They will hem and haw or lowball or tell you that it’s not your place to know.

  1. The reality is that it’s a market where the power is in the employer’s hands. So one question to ask is what are the cost/benefits of revealing the number versus lying about it and versus telling people that they don’t have the right to know. If they know what your current comp is, they know what your best alternative to a job with them is (unless you have a competing offer). If you know what the job should pay, you have an approximate idea of what their best alternative to hiring you is.

But recruiters? They lie so much that, I just don’t think they’re entitled to know very much. They lie more than politicians; and I didn’t think that was possible.


That was four points. Clearly I can’t count.

Does it mean we can lie though? we are the ones, as candidates, sign the contract that says all information are as accurate as to our knowledge.

The basic version of what I said is that: 1) people who lie for a living do not have the same right to expect the truth from others than people who work to be truthful do (i.e. if you lie to me, don’t expect me to be truthful or forthcoming with you; but if you are truthful with me, I will be truthful with you). 2) lying to a recruiter is a strategic decision, that has to weigh benefits and risks. 3) where possible, I prefer to tell people that they are not entitled to know certain information, rather than lie to them.

If you sign something saying everything is true to your knowledge, then it really needs to be true to your knowledge. Usually, that’s with an employer, though, so the information they got from you is what’s covered. The information they got about you from a recruiter: well, you don’t know what the recruiter said; they may well have lied to the employer even if you were completely honest to the recruiter.

Don’t you have to sign that when you sign with a recruiter? usually when you register with an agency they make you fill out a form on your education/ experience/ reference… and you have to sign at the end to say that you agree with them using this information adn that the information is true to your knowledge. no?

Haven’t you people learned to deal with recruiters yet? You have to treat these people like crap and let them know you are in charge. Being verbally abusive is a must. If they won’t tell me about the position, I tell them to never call me again, period.

I usually interrrupt them right in the beginning of their pitch and tell them the real deal.

“Look, I know how this game is played, don’t waste my time, let me know what you got and if I’m interested I’ll let you know, and no, I’m not going to tell you how much I make.”

These people have no leverage with you and you must be aggressive with them. I have found this to be the case 90% of the time. If you come off like a pussy, they will be blowing smoke up your arse all day long telling you how every job they have is a great fit for you.

mb lying is encouraged in japania?

^troof

Just to be clear, I was being sarcastic. There are very few things you need to know about your finances. A good estimate of your retirement account balances, your amount of debt and your base salary are those things.