Two job hunting questions - salary requirements...

[beckylynn]

...and applying for multiple positions.

First, when asked for your salary requirements, what do you answer? What if you know you currently work for a company that pays more in exchange for fewer benefits in an industry that often pays a little lower and offers endless crazy benefits (tech)? Do you answer with a base amount you would take, skew higher for negotiating room or answer honestly with your full salary knowing it might price you out of the position?

And when applying at huge companies, is it appropriate to apply for multiple positions? At the current company, it would be as each division is responsible for their own hiring, has their own recruiter, etc. So, applying for multiple positions in different divisions would just ensure your resume is seen by as many key people as possible. But it's hard to know if that's the case elsewhere or whether it would just prove...annoying! And does applying for differing positions impact the answer? I mean, if you are equally qualified for, say, a marketing position and a business development position, would you apply for both? 

The other thing I find tricky is relative titles - is a manager comparable at one company to another? Or would a manager at company 'A' be equivalent to a 'VP' at company 'B'. But that's just something I'll have to make an educated guess about reading about the company and the position available.

Thank you, thank you for any advice!

[Deleted]

I always say salary is negotiable depending on total benefit package. I do apply for more than one job in a large organization, which I hope isn't a bad thing.

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[beckylynn]

Thanks - it's always so hard to know how things work in another organization. Whether what works in one will work the same in another.

[Lilac]

I work for a very large company and recently became a hiring manager within my department. Our dept. has a job req. open and I am the only hiring manager who sees the applicants. An applicant could apply for 5 different positions, but they all get filtered to the individual hiring mgrs in the depts that opened the job reqs. I would never know that the applicant applied to other positions within the same company. So my advice is to go ahead and apply to all the job openings that seem like a good fit. It's possible that the same hiring manager has several reqs open, but not too likely.

As Vicmo said, HR does screen all the resumes, so make sure to only apply to relevant positions.

[beckylynn]

So, when applying to larger organizations, it's probably safe to apply to multiple (relevant only, obviously) positions. It just happens that background is conducive to two separate positions (that often wind up overlapping in some companies) so I wouldn't want to miss the perfect job by limiting to just the one position. Definitely only jobs with the right applicable qualifications, though - I'm not planning to blanket any one company with random resumes!

And it seems that "salary is negotiable" may be reasonable? We're flexible - we're willing to make adjustments for the right job. So, I wouldn't want to wind up ruled out because of salary expectations (but I also don't want to undervalue!).

At the current company, you could apply endlessly for positions and the same person might never see your resume twice. And salary expectations really only matter in terms of negotiations as the salary bands are clearly defined for each position. Your resume wouldn't be weeded out, but the offer would only fall within determined bands so you wouldn't be offered more or less based on your answer to that question. Did that make sense?

So, it's hard to know how to approach that with other companies in the most advantageous way possible.

[Deleted]

I currently do corporate recruiting but have done all types.

First, when asked for your salary requirements, what do you answer?
If this question is asked verbally give a no less than $5k or no more than $10k range. Stick with a $5k range if you have just a hand full of yrs or exp. If you are very experienced or marketable then go to a $10k range. The actual $$ you are looking for should be right smack dab in the range.

If you are answering on an application and no where indicated it tells you that you must list your salary requirements just leave it blank. If it asks you your requirements then my instructions are the same as verbal.


What if you know you currently work for a company that pays more in exchange for fewer benefits in an industry that often pays a little lower and offers endless crazy benefits (tech)? Do you answer with a base amount you would take, skew higher for negotiating room or answer honestly with your full salary knowing it might price you out of the position?

Again defer to my answer above. The numbers you should answer should always be what you want to make. Irrelevant of what you are currently making. This is unless you have a very special circumstance or if they already know what you make. Then you are going to need to explain why the $ you are asking for is so much different than your current pay.

And when applying at huge companies, is it appropriate to apply for multiple positions? But it's hard to know if that's the case elsewhere or whether it would just prove...annoying!

Any large company is using one central applicant tracking system. So no matter how many departments you are applying to in how many number of offices, cities or states, the hiring manager can see how many jobs you have applied to in the lifetime of your profile and what specific jobs you apply to. So with that piece of info apply wisely to positions that you are qualified for. If you are qualified for a lot of opening go head and apply. If you think your skill set is a reach then think about it before submitting that application. We give a side eye to candidates that have 50+ applications in their profile.

The other thing I find tricky is relative titles - is a manager comparable at one company to another? Or would a manager at company 'A' be equivalent to a 'VP' at company 'B'. But that's just something I'll have to make an educated guess about reading about the company and the position available.

Yes you will have to make an educated guess or look on linked in and try to figure it out.