Herein lies the cautionary tale of a man who still hasn’t found what he’s looking for; and by that, I mean he is still without a job. This story begins with the best of all things; a client who is willing to consider a candidate with no local Australian work experience. So often new immigrants are told that due to their overseas qualifications or education, they are not eligible for appropriate roles here and it’s a hard row to hoe getting that break. So this client is a good one, open minded and really quite positive about engaging with a great candidate. And then we have the candidate; a nice eager person, desperate to get their first break in Australia. They have been out of work for 7 months and are keen to work.
Now, comes the dark and stormy bit of our tale… Liam (who I have to say, has an outstanding reputation for providing frank, honest and positive support to candidates at all levels) has a direct conversation with Eager Beaver Candidate. Part of the conversation goes like this: “Right, I want to talk to you about the salary. I know we have talked about this already, but I know it will come up in the interview.
The salary on offer for this role is $75,000 + super and there is no room to move on this salary. They are going to ask you about it, so I want you to focus on the opportunity and to let them know that you are very happy to accept an offer at this level.” To which Desperate and Income-less agrees whole heartedly.
The money is very good, the opportunity is sensational and he is really excited. So excited he goes in and tells the client he wants $90k + super. Listen dear reader, do you hear that? It’s the sound of crickets. It sure as hell is not the sound of a happy client and a job offer. It’s the sound of a jobless candidate sitting at home alone with no pay cheque coming in. Eager Beaver did not get the job.
And Liam was infuriated (well for a start, the client is like ‘what the hell?’). No consultant likes it when a client has to question their skills and judgement because a candidate had a brain infarction and completely went against EVERYTHING they agreed to. So here is the deal people:
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If you don’t want to work for the money on offer, say it up front. Don’t lie and say you will and then try to negotiate at the end. The number of times that strategy works in your favour is less than the number of times I have won lotto. And I don’t even buy tickets.
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If a recruiter is telling you that the money is non-negotiable, it’s non-negotiable. We are not lying to you for the hell of it. We are not lying to you at all.
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If you do this, we have an extraordinarily simple solution: we won’t work with you again. We expect honesty and integrity in our candidates. If we have reason to question your integrity as a result of you misleading or lying to us, then we will not present you to any client.
Poor Liam, it sucks looking like a fool because you expected a candidate to actually listen to you.
