Salary Range Law: Will it help you?

Salary Range Law: Will it help you?

Question

New laws in New York and California require employers to include the salary range of a job in job ads. Theoretically this will help applicants apply for jobs that pay what they’re looking for rather than waste time playing “Guess the pay” before agreeing to interviews. Every law can be gamed. I can see companies posting ranges like $25,000-$100,000. Maybe they really plan to pay no more than $40,000. Do you think there’s any way a salary range law will help us?

Nick’s Reply

salary range lawHah — you’re right. If there’s a law about pay, somebody’s going to game it! You actually offer a good example: meaninglessly broad salary ranges. Who’s going to police that?

What’s the story on salary range law?

Proponents of salary range laws say employers have been getting away with underpaying workers. Disclosure of salaries in job postings will supposedly fix that and bring fairness to hiring practices. (New York Times)

SHRM, a professional association for human resources managers, says these laws will cause “salary compression” because employers will be pressured to increase starting salaries so they can fill jobs in a competitive market. And they’ll pay for that by leaving existing employees’ pay stagnant.

Leading Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini points out that the New York City law permits employers to exclude the value of benefits, bonuses, commissions, equity and other forms of compensation from these disclosures. This creates a lot of leeway around the new requirements, and confusion around salary negotiations.

Will a salary range law help you?

I’m skeptical. I think it depends more on the company you’re dealing with and on how it implements the law, if your state even has a law. It helps to read a variety of reports about these salary range laws, which seem to be spreading across states. (So far, New York City, California, Washington State and Colorado are on the bandwagon.)

I’m more interested in how real job seekers —  who experience all sorts of gaming of the employment system — view these new laws.

  • Have you been exposed to this yet?
  • Has it actually affected you, helping or hurting?
  • Are companies playing games with salary range laws?
  • How do you think this will affect your job-search experiences?

There’s no good answer about whether or how this will benefit job seekers. Penalties for failure to post salary ranges are up to $250,000. However, it seems that as long as an employer publishes a salary range, it is free to pay more or less than that range. Where does that get us?

Rather than count on the kindness of employers under the law, I think you’re best served by knowing how to negotiate to get the compensation you want.

Have you wasted your time interviewing for jobs that don’t pay enough? Will salary range disclosures be helpful? What kind of salary law would be helpful to job seekers?

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Desperate Recruiting: The yada, yada, yada interview

Desperate Recruiting: The yada, yada, yada interview

Question

Hiring great people is a noble goal but it raises two challenges: how to attract candidates with those rare, valuable qualities into your pipeline, and how to identify them in the interviewing process when everyone is telling you how talented, motivated, curious, and ethical they are (yada, yada, yada). Desperate recruiting doesn’t work! How do we get past all that so we really know who we’re hiring? How do we avoid hiring in desperation?

Nick’s Reply

desperate-recruitingLet’s talk about two fatal flaws in the entire recruiting and hiring process. First, we try to attract people when we need them. That limits us to rushed “just in time” recruiting methods that don’t work well. That’s desperate recruiting.

Second, these methods elicit rote responses from candidates who apply for jobs almost indiscriminately. We’ve all seen it — candidates with the “I’m your (wo)man” smile on their faces.

As you note, that’s the “Yada, yada, yada” interview. You can spend the entire time talking interview in your office when you could be talking shop in the real world.

Find and enter their pipelines

To find the few right candidates (rather than search through the entire universe of candidates), we can try to “attract people into our pipeline” all day long. But the ones we want are living in their own pipelines, or professional communities.

Here’s the problem. You can’t assess someone in a job interview. You need to see them in action. That takes time  because we must go to them.

To recruit effectively, we need to attract good people long before we need them, so our relationships will be based on common interests, not common desperation. That means we must go to them and enter their pipelines, long before we need to hire anyone. We need to create relationships based on shared experiences that have already revealed the right skills.

Recruit people you have already gotten to know that know you. That takes time and there is no shortcut to that kind of quality.

Desperate recruiting: Chasing people chasing jobs

The people we want are all around us on discussion threads on work-related forums all over the Internet, talking shop. They’re at conferences and in education programs. Talk shop with them, get to know them, establish your own cred and you’ll always have someone to turn to when you need to hire.

People make career changes only at certain points. We must meet them on their career tracks, and be present at the critical points in their work lives. We can be there to talk to the best because they already know us, or we can be out chasing people who are chasing jobs.

The Zen of it is this: You can’t really identify the people you want in the interview process. At that point, it’s too late, and it’s all too scripted. That’s desperate recruiting.

Every year, the world spends billions for “just in time hiring” through online job boards, but precious little on circulating among the narrow, relevant communities these folks live in. How silly.

Yada, yada, yada

If your pipeline is full of applicants and resumes, that’s desperate recruiting. The best you can do is Yada, yada, yada through 20 interviews pretending you’re getting to know someone. You can’t assess someone in a job interview. It can’t be done. You have to mix it up with them in their own real world. Really getting to know who’s the best takes time. If you want to hire them, you have to start last year.

How does your company hire? Do you “Yada, yada, yada” through your interviews? Or do you cultivate relationships? Tell me why it takes too long to do it my way…

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How do I explain I quit an unethical company?

How do I explain I quit an unethical company?

Question

I am currently employed full-time and grateful to have a job. I am in the finance department of a small but unethical company which has no accountability, multiple “hands in the pot,” and uses unethical business practices. My suggestions to improve the department and to comply with GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) are always met with, “That’s just the way it’s done here.” I can’t live with this. I have an exit strategy and the support of my spouse while I seek employment.

How do I approach the issue in interviews with future potential employers when they ask why I left that job and why I’m not working? Although honesty is the best policy, I most certainly cannot discuss the wrong-doings. Suggestions?

Nick’s Reply

unethical companyYou work with bad apples and want to get away from them. That reflects well on you. You just need to say it the right way.

I worked for an unethical company

You could just come out and say it, but that’s not diplomatic. Saying it like that could raise questions about your tact in general. I don’t mean you should play the game of, “Well, you know what that means…”. But how you say you worked for a bad apple of an employer says a lot about you.

How to Say It
“I want to work for your company because you are one of the shining lights in this industry. I left my previous company because as a small, closely held operation it behaved in ways I was not comfortable with. I realized that I want to be in a more progressive company that is run ethically. Fortunately, my personal finances are solid and I can afford to take time to find the right company and job.”

Move the conversation along

That’s all I’d say. The passing reference to ethics will get the message across without you needing to say anything more but that you wanted out.

Say nothing about this in your resume, only in person or on the phone. A buddy of mine likes to say that your resume can’t defend you. This is a perfect example. You need to be in conversation so you can address any questions, and so you can steer the discussion toward what you can do to make this company more successful.

If an interviewer asks for details about the problems at your old company, just explain that you cannot disclose confidential information about a previous employer. That gives you room to discuss only what you want. Any good employer will respect that — and respect you for it.

Count on your references

To compensate for your silence about the particulars of your unfortunate experience, you must have references that will back up your claims about your abilities. They need not be from your unethical employer. In fact, they could be from other professionals outside that company, people you had business with in the course of doing your job.

Don’t be surprised if one of those references spills the beans that your old employer is an unethical company with unsavory practices.

Always remember: When there’s a void in a job interview — that is, when there’s something you cannot talk about — the best way to fill it is to focus on showing how you’ll do the job profitably. In the end, that’s what every employer is really looking for in a new employee.

I’m guessing other readers have faced similar situations. How much should you say about a past employer that wasn’t on the up and up, leading you to quit?

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Doing free work to earn a job interview

Doing free work to earn a job interview

Question

I know you have addressed this in the past but it’s the first time I’ve encountered an employer that wants me to do free work to earn a job interview. I applied for a senior marketing position and, after an initial phone interview (with HR, who couldn’t talk about marketing), I was told that the next step would be an in-person meeting with the department.

Instead, I was sent three assignments to complete, all due in two days with “no late assignments will be accepted” thrown in. Having many years of senior-level experience, I was insulted. Very nicely, I told them I would share examples of previous work and even talk to marketing department members to show how I could increase revenue. I ended stating that, if that was not acceptable, that I would withdraw my application. I heard back that I was (surprise!) “No longer in consideration.”

Do you have any good ways for job candidates to express to employers how insulting it is to make people do free work for them in the hopes of maybe, possibly, getting a job?

Love your column!  Thanks for all the great advice.

Nick’s Reply

free workI don’t know one company whose executive team, or board of directors, ever reviews the recruiting practices of their HR department. They have no idea how many good candidates they’re losing over poor practices. This is why in many instances good headhunters decline to work with companies via their HR office — they’re not going to waste perfectly good candidates.

Can they ask me to do free work?

While testing your skills and knowledge shouldn’t be a problem, no employer should assign substantial work tasks to job candidates in whom the company has not yet invested any of its own time!

So, what do you, as a job seeker out there on your own, say in that situation? Here are a few suggestions.

I don’t do free work

How to Say It
“I don’t work for free. But I’d be happy to do your assignments at my normal $1,000/day rate, and if you hire me I’ll credit that against my salary.”

If you’re willing to compromise in exchange for a talk with the hiring manager — before you do any of that work — this could give you a substantial edge if you ever get the interview. However, you must be ready to ask a pithy question or two that will impress the manager.

How to Say It
“I’d be happy to do the assignments but I have a few questions about X, Y, Z [where X, Y, Z are highly technical marketing issues that HR could not possibly understand.] If the hiring manager would call me, I’m sure they could provide the information I need in about 5 minutes. No, I can’t submit the questions in writing because that would just result in more questions and require more follow-up information.”

One of the best responses is exactly the one you offered: “If that’s not acceptable, I will withdraw my application.”

Be ready to walk away

I give you credit for being explicit about withdrawing your application. HR already wasted your time in the screening call simply because HR is not qualified to discuss marketing. More to the point of your question, you have no idea who is going to review your “assignments” or even what they’re really looking for. There’s just too much chance you’ll be dismissed by an unqualified judge for the wrong reasons!

You must be ready to walk away if the employer is intent on violating your ethical and professional standards — and if it is wasting your time. The next step is to find a more worthy employer.

Ask about the free work policy

If you have no future designs on this company, I’d send a brief e-mail to the CEO or chair of the board describing what happened – with no complaints or recriminations, just the facts. Close with something like this.

How to Say It
“I wish I’d had a chance to meet with your marketing manager so that I could present the mini-business plan I created showing how I can do the job to add more profit to the firm’s bottom line. In today’s economy, when filling important jobs is so difficult, do you keep any metrics on how many excellent candidates you lose because HR doesn’t know anything about marketing when it conducts screening calls?”

Too busy to do free work

To avoid a “next time,” don’t agree to be screened by HR for any job. Tell HR you’d be happy to talk with them after you and the hiring manager have determined there is a mutual interest in investing more time.

How to Say It
“As a senior professional I’m extremely busy. I’m interested in your job opportunity, but my time is limited. I’d prefer to talk with a marketing peer at your company before taking time for discussions with HR.”

Fielding solicitations from recruiters and HR does not require that you suspend your standards of what’s reasonable, or that you jump through hoops or that you do free work to earn a job interview. I think you already know exactly what to do because you already did it! Again, my compliments. The loss is theirs.

For most employers, it’s a long way to acquiring the skills necessary to go out and find the best candidates who are worth recruiting, enticing, cajoling, seducing and convincing to take a job. What candidates like you are subjected to is embarrassing. That employer wants you to do all the work of assessing whether you’re worth talking to. The shame is the HR clerk’s for rejecting you because you won’t do their work for them.

Thanks for your kind words about Ask The Headhunter!

We’ve discussed doing free work before

I think they expect me to work for free

And my good buddy Suzanne Lucas (a.k.a., The Evil HR Lady), offers some perspective, too: Job Interview or Bake-Off?

What’s your experience with “Do these assignments first!” Have you ever refused? Have you done the assignments only to get rejected without an interview at all? Where do such interview practices belong in the hiring process?

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You paid that career coach HOW MUCH?

You paid that career coach HOW MUCH?

Question

My question relates to these firms that allege to provide an executive career coach who will work with you to help you attain higher positions with higher earnings within an average of 60-90 days. They will redo your resume and LinkedIn profile, create your executive presence, and help you develop your personal brand. (One offers an $800 “quick action package.”) Everyone can use coaching from time to time as we all have things to work on, but $5,000 seems to be a lot, particularly when one is out of work and searching for their next role. Your thoughts?

Nick’s Reply

career coachThere is an awful lot of marketing and, well, B.S. in what many of these firms are selling. It’s no accident that they throw a lot of implied promises at you very quickly and want their fee in advance.

There are some very good career coaches out there. Finding one that’s trustworthy and helpful is another story. The cost of entry to the coaching business is small, making it an easy rip-off of one degree or another. There are loads of “certifications” and questionable“credentials” that virtually anyone can buy to advertise coaching services.

How to find a good career coach

Let’s cut to the chase, then we’ll discuss some of the gotchas to look out for when you feel you need a career coach.

The best way to find a really good coach is through their happy clients. In other words, ignore the marketing. Talk with others in your field, and at your level of work, and ask what coach they’ve used and recommend. Ask why, exactly, they like the coach. Then consider whether the coach might address your specific needs.

But don’t sign up because you were solicited or even because your employer recommended a particular coaching service when they laid you off. Just like a personal referral is an excellent way to land a job, a trusted referral is how to find a good career coach.

The tip-offs

How can you spot a likely rip-off? Let’s look at the tip-offs in the promises they market for those big up-front fees:

  • Higher positions
  • Higher pay
  • 60-90 day time frames
  • Quick action package
  • Executive presence
  • Personal brand

Higher job and pay

Much of the time, coaching (including for executives) is all about finding and getting a better job and more pay. The simple truth is that there can be no guarantees about an outcome over which neither the coach nor the client have any real control. Only an employer can make a job offer (or offer a raise), and I’ve yet to meet the coach that controls job offers or raises.

Job hunting, at any level, is a daunting task and often a depressing experience. There are a lot of questionable services purporting to help you get a job because there are a lot of potential suckers desperate to avoid the hard work of getting a job.

Here’s the lesson:
Please — even if you’re not really a sucker — consider what it really means when someone claims they’ll get you a better job and more pay if you’ll pay them.

“Guaranteed!” 60 – 90 days or less!

Some of the best coaches I’ve known have taken upwards of a year to help a client get the job and compensation they want. Sometimes the agreed-upon objectives are never attained. That doesn’t mean the coach isn’t a good one. But it does explain why the bad ones want the money up front.

A good coach will never promise, or even imply, a time frame in which you will reach your goals (and definitely not 60-90 days!). To do so is dishonest simply because every client is different — and so are their goals. At most, all a coach can promise is that they will improve your knowledge, understanding and skills about your career development.

Here’s the lesson:
Claims and promises of a job are different from an ironclad, written money-back guarantee. Some windbags will charge you thousands up front and promise to continue coaching you “for as long as necessary.” That is, for as long as you can swallow their questionable advice. So if there’s a big fee up front, ask for a signed money-back guarantee to help you get ahead with a new job at the pay you expect.

Never pay a a career coach a big fee up front

Does a therapist charge $5,000 in advance to solve your emotional problems? Of course not! Because no one can actually control whether you will get a job for the pay you want, unsavory practitioners want a sizable fee in advance because the longer it takes you to meet your goals, the less satisfied you will be — and the more you will wish you hadn’t already paid all that money.

$5,000, $10,000 and higher in-advance fees are common. The justification is wrapped around a marketing trick: They’re not merely coaching you, they’re selling “a program” or “an engagement.” They want to lock you in — and that should also tip you off that the coaching will be canned, not customized for your needs.

It’s an old confidence game: Take the sucker’s money all at once, because by the time the “client” realizes what the game is, their money’s gone.

Here’s the lesson:
Pay as you go, or don’t do it. If the coach is good and you are happy with the progress, you are free to continue — just as you would with a therapist. This guarantees a stop-loss mechanism. If you find you’re not satisfied, you can terminate the relationship at any time without any further losses.

Quick action for a small added fee?

This one is a dead giveaway. If I could get employers to make quicker job offers for an extra $800 I’d be a genius! There are no geniuses in the career coaching business, just a lot of very frustrated, and thus gullible, job seekers. Everyone’s in a hurry and someone’s glad to charge an extra fee because you’re eager to pay it.

Executive presence and personal brand

Find me an employer that includes these requirements in a job description and I’ll be glad to charge you oh, another $800 for a nice, starched white shirt to wear to interviews and for a cute logo you can stamp on your resume and forehead.

Gimme a break. Desperate job seekers call for fatter fees and fancy terms for “great reputation” — which no one can sell you!

Virtually all of what career coaches deliver is available free online or at your local library. Nonetheless, you still might want help, especially to address specific hurdles and challenges. Ask around. What coach do respected people in your field vouch for? Discuss what the deliverables are and understand the important distinctions between advertising and guarantees. Pay as you go, and monitor progress closely.

Good help really is hard to find. Don’t make me ask, “You paid HOW MUCH for career coaching?”

How much have you paid to hire a career coach? Did you pay up-front or as-you-go? What was the outcome? What’s your advice to this reader? Did you ever get burned? What would you do differently?

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