Salary History Verification.... (employment, applying, average, interview)

[540_804]

How common is it?

So I lied during an interview.

This was a pre-employment 1st round, screening phone interview.

This interview was not with the person who would be doing the hiring decision but with some assistant in a far away land.

The interviewer asked me about my current salary and I was completely blindsided by the question so I threw out a salary range that was 5-10k above what I am making. To put that into context, the inflated range I gave is still significantly below industry standard/average (which should give you an idea of just how underpaid I am). It wasn't anything remarkable and nothing that would lead someone to question it. I didn't want to give them my true salary which would have maybe caused them to not take me seriously as a candidate.

The interviewer didn't question it at all and actually seemed a bit surprised at the low pay. He immediately replied, "oh well you'll be happy to know this job would come with an appreciable pay increase." I think the question was to determine if my salary expectations were within the pay scale of the job I was applying for.

I would note that this is for a fairly entry-level professional job where most applicants won't even have any job experience. The pay is a set, non-negotiable rate so my current pay would have no bearing on my future pay.

So how likely will they verify my income? I know they say most people inflate their salary but I'd hate to be disqualified for it, though I know it would be completely my own fault.

[Mojave82]

I had folks call our HRO branch to validate salary window. We recently had an applicant counter offer with a salary window that was 30% above standard in our industry.