How do you handle a prospective employer's request for your current salary?

[Fern]

Often when i'm job hunting, i come across employers who require you to fill out a job application and the application is a detailed request for not only your current salary but your salary at each of your previous jobs.

How do you handle this? Do you simply comply, and tell the truth?
Do you comply, but give inaccurate, ie, inflated income information?
Do you apply for the job without providing the income info at the risk of being rejected?

I've always resented having to supply this information. It immediately skews the playing field in favor of the employer, who, armed with your income information, can ensure they pay you not a penny more than they need to in order to get you to take the job.

Not long ago I applied for a job with Prudential Financial, a national company with many divisions, including insurance, real estate and relocation. The HR person warned me to be COMPLETELY accurate with the application, particulary with my job history, as she said they would check on everything, and that in fact if there were discrepancies in my recollection of dates of employment of more than 2 months, i would be immediately disqualified.

I think that's ridiculous. I can tell you what year i began at any given job, and what year i parted ways, but pinning it down to the month is another matter when we're going back 10 or 15 years. Prudential made me concerned enough that i went to the trouble of contacting 2 of my former employers to make sure i had the dates right.

Anyway, I interviewed with Prudential's HR and then was asked meet with a manager. Fine, and great. We scheduled the interview, but then HR called me back and said the manager didn't want to drive to the location (where i would be working) and wanted me to drive an hour down to where she worked. OK, no problem. then HR called me back again and had to reschedule the interview due to the manager's busy schedule. Then HR called me back again to explain we needed to reschedule the interview but the person who would be my direct report was not actually hired yet, so they didn't want to schedule another specific date, but she would get back to me.

Thank god i had other irons in the fire and in fact found a job elsewhere just a few weeks later. But can you believe Prudential never bothered to call me back?

Often when you're in need of a new job, you tend to overlook any little red flags that go up, like i did with Prudential. Their approach to a prospective employee was not very inspiring; to me, it mostly demonstrated internal disorganization and a lack of regard for anything but their own timetable and convenience.

[buzz]

Originally Posted by Fern

Thank god i had other irons in the fire and in fact found a job elsewhere just a few weeks later. But can you believe Prudential never bothered to call me back?

LOL! Umm...yes. Sounds like standard HR procedure to me. The sooner I can escape the HR office and talk to someone who knows what they are talking about, the better. And I do not, as a rule, supply past salary info.

[krayziebone33]

Originally Posted by buzz

LOL! Umm...yes. Sounds like standard HR procedure to me. The sooner I can escape the HR office and talk to someone who knows what they are talking about, the better. And I do not, as a rule, supply past salary info.

I tend to agree with Buzz. I don't usually provide potential employers with salary information. I feel that it is a disadvantage to me and any negotiations that may ensue.

[pearlieq]

In general I don't provide past salary information. I'm leery of any company that requests it, and wouldn't consider working for one that insisted upon it. I find the request insulting and intrusive.

Of course, I'm saying this from a perspective where I can be very choosy about the employment I'm willing to accept. If I were desperate, I might bend.