by Kevin Foley » Fri Apr 28, 2006 7:15 pm
As Dave said, leave the salary box blank, and ask that they not contact your current employer. Pretty standard stuff.
Regarding the salary box: where you will run into trouble is that HR (and maybe the hiring manager) will definitely ask what your salary expectations are. Most candidates fold at this point and blurt out some half-considered number. As Dave said, “He who speaks first, looses!”
Your response to this inevitable question should be: "I expect that you will offer a salary that is commensurate with the contributions I will make to your company. However, if you want to provide a salary range that you have in mind for this position, I will be happy to confirm that we are in the general ball park."
Whatever salary is mentioned, your answer should be “Yes”. Once you have an actual job offer in hand, everything is negotiable.
Be sure you don’t lie. HR has sneaky ways of figuring out what you make! Liars don’t get jobs.
If they press you on your current salary, point out that it is not relevant, and that you expect to be compensated based on the value of the contribution you will make in your NEW job, not your OLD job. If they don't like that, who cares? HR never makes hiring decisions, hiring managers do. And most hiring mangers don't care a whit what you will be paid. They are more interested in hiring the best person for the job, no matter what they cost.
But as I said, only 1 in 20 candidates has the guts and skill to stand up to even a newbie HR staffer, let alone a car salesman!
Cheers,
Kevin