how to tackle current compensation question
im in socal, med devices. payscales are wildly different than Bay are or seattle. currently interviewing for Amazon Seattle. recruiter/team based in bay area. can they ask for my current compensation or expectation being in CA? if yes, whats the best strategy to tackle this question. (i dont want my current TC to affect their offer) TC: 115K YOE: 12 (I know)
It depends on the negotiation stage. What worked for me before was to just say something polite like you are paid at certain percentile of your role and expect it’s similar or higher in the range. If they push once, you can say you are happy to discuss specifics when the time comes. If they push another time, you can repeat yourself politely. In negotiation, they know you are responsible for your own sake in hiding info and they are gathering as much as info as they can. It’s a fair game. So the fact that you don’t want to reveal your facts is absolutely ok.
'Negotiation' chapter on John Sonmez's "Soft Skills for software engineer" book has some really good points.
Listening on audible rn. Great stuff.
I am hearing this the first time - that recruiters can't legally ask you for your current compensation. Is this true for all of US or only some states? What about Austin, Texas?
California for sure cannot ask somce the last few years
hmm.....let me search about Texas
When I left a startup with very low TC, I told recruiters my TC was way under market, so it was not relevant. I immediately talked about how much I was expecting from other companies I was interviewing with.
They shouldn't and can't legally ask. They can ask how much you want, and that depends on the level and role. Check levels.fyi and ask on the high end
Im interviewing for a certain role. At what point will i know what exact level it maps to? Should i ask before/during onsite? Or is it mentioned on offer.
You should figure out if you're interviewing for a senior position or sde2 or principle or whatever. They should tell you before the interview to help you prepare anyway