I was contacted by an in-house recruiter recently about a possible position at a well-known Japanese game company (I’m a CG animator with 5 years of game animation experience, 4 of them in Japan). I have a phone interview tomorrow to talk about it and have a plan for talking about salary up-front but wanted to see what you guys think first.
1) If the recruiter doesn’t bring up salary first, I will ask about it at the end of the interview during question time.
2) If I don’t get a clear number, I propose a salary range for what I believe is the market rate for my skills/experience after having done some internet research and talking to colleagues who have more experience than me.
3) If they ask me what my current salary is, I tell them I would rather not talk about it until after I receive an offer. Reason being is my currently salary is slightly lower than what the new company offers to new graduates. I would be effectively asking for a 50% pay bump.
4) If the salary they offer is lower than expected, I tell them it would be difficult to leave my job without at least the minimum amount I am seeking. (I am actually very comfortable at my current job so I have no problem walking away).
Am I missing anything?
2 comments
Good plan but for #3 instead of agreeing to tell them later, I usually explain that the salary should be based on their offer, not my current position. Duties, workload, overtime, perks etc will all be different so it isn’t possible to compare salary apples to apples.
Your case will require tact because you’re facing an in house recruiter, but if pressed I offer to give a minimum acceptable salary and qualify it by saying it’s the minimum to consider the position, and may change based on the job details.
If you need to bring up the salary question because they don’t mention it, I find it useful to frame it as a “to make sure we’re on the same page” question. Things might be more open for discussion in the gaming industry though, I’ve never worked in gaming.
#4 says you are willing to walk away if you don’t get what you want because you are comfortable/happy in your current role.
In that case, stop all the conniving and just state what it would take for you to leave and, as another commenter stated, put it in terms of increased responsibilities/duties/etc with the position. Stop beating around the bush and just tell people what you need/want.
When interviewing people, I much prefer people being direct on their salary wants and if you tell me you want X and it fits in my range, unless it isn’t the very top end, I will generally give X + some additional to ensure your happy.