Why won't companies admit they can't afford you? (apply, interview, employer)

[mightleavenyc]

I have been doing a number of phone interviews with recruiters lately and when they ask me how much money I am looking for, I give them a specific range. They seem appreciative of this as I think a lot of candidates will just say "negotiable" and won't name a range. Sometimes I can tell from the recruiter's tone that my number is too high, but they will never admit they can't afford me. I'll just get their stupid auto "rejection" e-mail in a few days that says I wasn't a "good fit" or they have "more qualified candidates".

Why can't they admit they can't afford you?

[Marie Joseph]

Sometimes they will say this sometimes not. One of the ways that I have worked around this is ask the recruiter what the salary range is for the position. I always try to get them to name a number first; I never name the number first if I can help it. I'm one of the "negotiable" and "so what were YOU thinking about for a salary range for this role?" kind of people. I still do sometimes get employers tell me that my salary is out of their range, and this is okay.

"Fit" can mean pretty much anything, or nothing. It can mean the employer thought that your personality wouldn't mesh with the corporate culture/current team members' personalities, that your skills/experiences were not an exact fit for the role, or that maybe someone internal got the job. "Fit" is an all-around term that is thrown around pretty frequently. "More qualified" is also pretty generic, and while these are not helpful, HR often uses them because they keep us out of potential legal trouble.

[eastcoastguyz]

Originally Posted by mightleavenyc

I have been doing a number of phone interviews with recruiters lately and when they ask me how much money I am looking for, I give them a specific range. They seem appreciative of this as I think a lot of candidates will just say "negotiable" and won't name a range. Sometimes I can tell from the recruiter's tone that my number is too high, but they will never admit they can't afford me. I'll just get their stupid auto "rejection" e-mail in a few days that says I wasn't a "good fit" or they have "more qualified candidates".

Why can't they admit they can't afford you?

Because it would take too much effort on their part to have more than one form letter.

It isn't about affordability, it is about what they think they can get away with. If the labor pool from their prospective is much larger at the time, they will not come up in their numbers. There are also some companies which simply don't pay well.

[War Beagle]

I understand the role of negotiation in the hiring process, but how much time and money is wasted by not even providing a baseline salary figure up front? I'm not even asking for a range because everyone will just ask for the top end.

Its pretty frustrating as a job seeker to apply for a job, get a phone interview and go to an in-person interview only to be told well into the process that the salary is much lower than would be acceptable. Of course, the job seeker isn't supposed to ask about salary, so sometimes it takes going through the process to find out for sure if the salary will be acceptable.

When I hire people, I do what I suggested above. I don't want to waste my time interviewing someone for a $15.00/hr job that has a minimum requirement of $18.00/hr. However, the wasted time that comes from the hidden salary seems to be very popular in the business world.