Today's rant is a little off topic but I just had to get this down. I'll say this only once (well, maybe I'll repeat it later but it sounds tougher this way)!

DO NOT send your resumes into a corporate recruiting team 15 times to 15 different jobs!!!!! It's HIGHLY unlikely that you are qualified for all of those jobs given that they range from associate level to senior VP! It's simply not fair to the employer and perhaps of more importance to other people who actually ARE qualified for the job. Stop resume spamming people and maybe you'll get a call back! Whew! Had to get that off of my chest.

OK, it's been quite some time. Since my last rant, I've been thinking a lot about Salary Discrimination. What's that? Well, I've been running into more and more candidates who pretty much beg me to not have to tell their previous salary. You'd think that they wanted to hide this info so they could bargain for the best deal, right? Actually, they don't want me to find out that they made so much over the last few years. The story I'm hearing is that things are going great on phone interviews until the money issue comes up and then things get really quiet.

Why would an employer care? Well, it seems that with today's market being what it is, people are considering positions with lower salaries than they would have last year. This makes employers a little edgy. There's always the thought that a candidate might just be taking a role that is offered now just because they're really hard up and need the cash. As soon as another, presumably higher paying, position is available, they'll hop.

There's some precedence for this. Just look at the heady dot-com days. You can argue that this was just a little tit-for-tat. First the big employers showed little loyalty to their employees by laying them off by the boatload for higher profit margins. Then along came the dot-com boom and it was your chance to stick-it-to-'em. Well, the one thing both sides seem to be forgetting is that the market sways back-and-forth between the two extremes and we better all figure out how to just plain 'ol "get along." :)

I can also tell you, and I'm sure other recruiters will confirm this, that there are people out there who will start off a discussion on salaries like this...

"Well, I made X last year and was running the whole team. This year, with the market being what it is, I'd be willing to take a lower amount and be a team member...

[now here's where the big BUT comes in...]

...BUT I'm sure that within six months you'll be so excited about my work that you'll be giving me the big bucks and I'll be running the team."

There are a few problems with that. For one, unless the current team leader dies there's no way you're moving up that fast! Secondly, any responsible company has predefined budgets for their teams and you're not likely to make a huge salary leap in 6 months simply because you decided that you'd be willing to take a lower paying job in the first place. Again, employers want their people to be comfortable. Really!

Also, making the big bucks while you could was fine, but you also may have learned to live the lifestyle. You have the cars, mortgage, private schools, etc. No responsible manager wants someone starting a new job having to live on macaroni and cheese. Feeling strapped all the time isn't good for morale. Again, we really do want our people to be happy. Really!

That being said, there are very good, justifiable reasons for having the high salaries that existed during the boom days. You shouldn't be ashamed of doing well when the market allowed you to. There are also good, justifiable reasons for taking a lower salary this year. Likewise, you may not even have to consider a lower salary if your particular skill set is still in great demand. Regardless, next time we'll look at this from the candidate's point of view.