I'm sorry that you had to go through this. I agree that it's intrusive and really shouldn't be tolerated.
A while ago, I was in the middle of the job interview process for a company. Having read some rudimentary background on salary negotiation, I was somewhat prepared for how to deflect the "how much are you making?" question.
The next interview was a technical interview, so I wasn't too focused on this aspect of the interview process since I hadn't received a verbal offer. The technical interview went well, but suddenly the interviewer asked "what are you making right now?". Completely clueless, I started talking about the projects I was working on and various technical aspects. The interviewer nodded, and then replied "No, what I meant was what is your current salary?"
I was completely unprepared, fumbled and after some resistance gave up my salary after being told, "this process cannot continue until you tell us your salary". (They also subsequently asked for W2s as proof) I handled this extremely poorly and basically backed myself into that corner. Basically, they negotiated much better than I did, even if it meant resorting to heavy-handed tactics like that. Later on, HR explained this line of questioning to me by saying, "we ask for this information... not to draw a box around you, or anything like that, but so that we can give you an offer that matches everyone's needs".
Long story short, the offer came in at almost exactly $PREVIOUS_SALARY * 1.05. I politely declined.
While this process was painful, I learned a lot from it - always be ready to handle the salary question, even if the interview is supposedly a technical one. If you willingly give up your previous salary, in most cases, you're looking at an offer 5-10% higher at most. (Unless you're an outlier making several standard deviations above the mean) Don't let people box you in.
It looks like they learned something as well, since you declined after they invested time into your interview and offer process. Thanks for doing that, you made things better for everyone else here in aggregate.
>"we ask for this information... not to draw a box around you, or anything like that, but so that we can give you an offer that matches everyone's needs".
Yuck. I'm always amazed at how willing they are to waste your time by playing "gotcha" over things they should have worked out before you ever came in. Very unprofessional to spring all that on you.
It's really interesting this discussion, I don't go past the first initial discussion with a potential employer without understanding the salary range.
If they refuse to comment on that I assume it's low and head on elsewhere.
A while ago, I was in the middle of the job interview process for a company. Having read some rudimentary background on salary negotiation, I was somewhat prepared for how to deflect the "how much are you making?" question.
The next interview was a technical interview, so I wasn't too focused on this aspect of the interview process since I hadn't received a verbal offer. The technical interview went well, but suddenly the interviewer asked "what are you making right now?". Completely clueless, I started talking about the projects I was working on and various technical aspects. The interviewer nodded, and then replied "No, what I meant was what is your current salary?"
I was completely unprepared, fumbled and after some resistance gave up my salary after being told, "this process cannot continue until you tell us your salary". (They also subsequently asked for W2s as proof) I handled this extremely poorly and basically backed myself into that corner. Basically, they negotiated much better than I did, even if it meant resorting to heavy-handed tactics like that. Later on, HR explained this line of questioning to me by saying, "we ask for this information... not to draw a box around you, or anything like that, but so that we can give you an offer that matches everyone's needs".
Long story short, the offer came in at almost exactly $PREVIOUS_SALARY * 1.05. I politely declined.
While this process was painful, I learned a lot from it - always be ready to handle the salary question, even if the interview is supposedly a technical one. If you willingly give up your previous salary, in most cases, you're looking at an offer 5-10% higher at most. (Unless you're an outlier making several standard deviations above the mean) Don't let people box you in.