Raise The Job Interview Ante: Don’t Bet Your Salary History

Here’s the secret to negotiating your salary.

Question: I listened to your Career Talk show last week on Wharton Business Radio: “Negotiating 911.” I have a question about keeping your salary private during the hiring process. I am in the military and our compensation is readily available for anyone who is willing to do the research. How would you recommend moving forward and maintaining some of the leverage during the negotiation when that is the situation?

Nick Corcodilos: Employers don’t realize that it’s not your salary history that matters. What matters is the conversation that enables them to figure out what you’re worth to their businesses. So why do many employers stray from that objective? Instead, they rely on what someone else paid you to do another job in another context. How irresponsible is that?

Then they do other, indirect assessments. “Show us how you’d handle a hypothetical problem. Where do you see yourself in five years? What degrees do you have? Why are manhole covers round?“ I call these the Top 10 Stupid Interview Questions.

None of that is a direct assessment of whether and how you would do a job, or of your value to their businesses.

When employers don’t do a more direct assessment, it hurts your ability to negotiate because you don’t get the chance to demonstrate what really matters: how you’d do the work. It’s the old story about, “What if we dropped you out of a chopper onto a deserted island and you had nothing but a pen knife, a piece of wire, and an egg? How would you survive?”

That’s what a smart employer looks for. Of course, if you’ve never done a certain job before, it’s a tall order in an interview to tell how you’d do the job. But you must rise to it. Think fast on your feet.

Here’s the secret: You must step out of line in the job interview—interrupt the traditional process—and explain to the employer how you’d stand and deliver.

Here’s how I suggest you do that: “I’m happy to tell you how much the military paid me. But my value to the military is very different from what it will be to you. I’d like to propose something, with your permission: I’d like to work with you, to help you judge my value to your business, which would be different than some other business. If you’ll tell me what deliverables you’d like to see from the person you hire—say in three months, six months, 12 months, and two years—I’ll show you how I’d tackle that challenge. I’m happy to answer any questions you have and to discuss anything you want. But if you’ll work with me on what I just described, I think I can show you what I’d be worth to you, and if I can’t, then you should not hire me.”

(I discuss how to demonstrate you’re the most profitable job candidate in “How Can I Change Careers?”)

Negotiating is not about keeping your salary private. It’s about setting up the negotiation so you can use the most powerful tools you have to persuade employers that you’re worth a lot more than they thought. To gain an edge, take your salary history off the table if you can. Even if you can’t, you can still challenge employers to judge you on your value, not on an old paycheck. Then help them see how you’ll drop profits to their bottom line if they hire you.

Thanks for your service to our country. Help an employer get past your salary history. Raise the job interview ante by betting on your ability to show how you’d tackle their specific objectives. That means you must commandeer the interview.