No candidate wants to appear greedy, selfish or lazy during an interview. But research suggests that’s exactly how hiring managers will perceive you if you ask about salary and other benefits.
Therein lies the paradox of the job seeker: he or she needs to earn a living and wants to have a life outside of work, but admitting this out loud to a potential employer is a professional barrier.
“It’s unpleasant for the interviewers,” he explains. Business Insider Anthony Nyberg, a professor at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina, said: “It makes them think you care more about the rewards than the work itself.”
The result for job seekers is that Patience and moderation are the key. Remember: you only have influence once the company decides it wants to hire you.
Nyberg compares it to dating: “Wait until they fall in love with you before you start talking about how many kids you want to have.”
Managers want employees who are “motivated”
Research by Rellie Derfler-Rozin of the University of Maryland and Marko Pitesa of Singapore Management University concludes that Managers are less likely to hire candidates who ask about salary and benefits in job interviews.
Derfler-Rozin and Pitesa also detail that managers rate candidates who ask job-related questions more highly than applicants who also ask about compensation or benefits.
Academy of Management
Researchers attribute this to something called “purity bias in motivation,” which means that managers only want to hire people who are intrinsically motivated by the work itself.
Of course, this notion is a farce, as few workers can afford not to care about the external rewards of a job such as salary and other benefits like flexibility and time off.
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Nyberg says workers who ask about the vacation policy are viewed particularly negatively. “It feels like you’re just walking in the door saying, ‘I don’t want to work,'” she says.
There are broad implications for managers who could be missing out on talented candidates simply because they ask about salary.
In particular, Managers may overlook job seekers from lower economic backgroundswho are more likely to need money, and women, who are more likely to be concerned about flexible hours, childcare and family-work policies.
Pay transparency laws could ease some of this tension. In the United States, New York, Nevada, Colorado and Connecticut already have laws requiring organizations to announce a pay range in advance. California has a similar law that will go into effect next year.
And yet, reports of Bloomberg suggest that these laws are ineffective. Some employers publish artificially low salary ranges, both to prevent wages from rising and to prevent current employees from discovering that they are underpaid.
Patience can lead to money
For job seekers, the implications are clear: they should do as much research as possible about the job and what the company pays for it.
Erin Andersen, a career transition coach in New York City, recommends resources like Salary.com and Payscale, which offer salary ranges for jobs and locations, with a breakdown based on criteria like education, years of experience… “There’s a lot of information out there,” she adds.
It is advisable to wait until you are the leading candidate for the job to ask your potential boss about salary.From a strategic perspective, you want the employer to consider you as a candidate for the position.
Then you have to bide your time until you get an offer. “There’s very little risk in waiting until the employer brings it up,” Nyberg says. “People are afraid of investing all this time in what they think is a $90,000 job and finding out it’s actually a $25,000 job, but that doesn’t really happen.”
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Tags: Job, Job Interviews, Company