You may think that a high salary only has upsides. Since your past salary is a strong anchor for what future employers will offer you, it follows that a high salary then will mean a high or even higher salary now. But sometimes a high salary can be a turnoff that prevents you from being seriously considered as a candidate. Consider these three real-life examples I have seen firsthand just in the past year:
- A finance professional worked with a small company as its CFO. The company went under, so this CFO would prefer to transition to a larger company where she wouldn’t be C-level but simply one of several executives, say at the VP or SVP level. However, she was paid and titled as a CFO, so prospective employers don’t really believe she would take less.
- A sales professional was so good at his job that his commissions brought his earnings over the 7-figure mark (yes, that’s over a million dollars in total compensation). His field has a long selling cycle, so employers typically offer a guaranteed package for new sales people. But what employer will want to offer a 7-figure guarantee, and if this sales professional volunteers to take less will employers take him seriously?
- An entry-level candidate with just over one year of experience has decided his first career path isn’t for him. Unfortunately his first job was in investment banking at a leading firm putting his annual compensation much higher than anything he would make in other fields. He would tell employers in his new target area he’s willing to take a cut but gets shut down at the application stage once he reveals his salary history.
At junior and senior levels and at all types of roles, having a high salary can be an obstacle to getting in the door at prospective employers. Here are three strategies to help combat the sticker shock and at least give you a shot at being considered:
Avoid the salary discussion for as long as possible to allow the prospective employer to fall in love with you first. This means that you don’t share salary history before the interview. Yes, this could mean that you can’t fill out an online application that requires salary before you can proceed, but you’ll have to network your way into those companies.
If you are asked in an interview for your salary, or you insist on completing the online application and writing something for a salary number, state your target salary instead of your actual. For the written application, you can explain it later if it comes up (i.e., "When I wrote $60,000, I was stating what I was targeting for the position, as my historical salary was in another field and therefore irrelevant"). In the interview, you can directly say you’re sharing your target rather than historical.
If you are pressed for salary history, call out the elephant in the room –yes, your number is high, here’s why it worked then, and here’s why you’re open now. For the CFO trying to be seen for lower-level roles, she highlighted how she was CFO for a smaller shop and shared how she had since consulted in other non-CFO capacities at reduced rates commensurate with those specific roles. This let employers know that she was aligning her compensation with the roles and not wedded to the CFO salary. The sales professional highlighted how his compensation was commission-driven, not guaranteed. The investment banker talked about his genuine interest in his new field to impress upon future employers that he was really leaving his former career (and its higher salary) behind him.
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Some employers will still close you because of compensation. When I recruited, I had hiring managers who never looked at candidates whose salary history was much higher than the current role’s budgeted salary. However, in many cases, when you’re thoughtful and candid about your salary history and future expectations, employers will enter discussions with an open mind.
This isn’t just a luxury problem for the highly paid. With the recent recession and even more recent stock market gyrations, the hiring market is still soft in places. Salaries have been stagnant for a while. If you’re experienced in your job and have gotten increases in the past, you might be at a higher compensation for your role than an employer who has kept wages flat for years. You might not think of yourself as highly compensated, but you still might be relative to new jobs you are considering. It is worthwhile for all employees to know how to handle all types of compensation discussions.
Caroline is a career expert and the author of Jump Ship: 10 Steps To Starting A New Career. She has coached executives from American Express, Citigroup, Condé Nast, Gilt, Goldman Sachs, Google and McKinsey.
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