[quote=deadzone]Yes I agree with you about the COLA being worthless. That’s why I want to arm myself with as much salary data as possible. Mainly for taking care of my own people, I may need to get into it with the company execs if they are not willing to give more realistic raises this year.[/quote]
Why do you feel you need to arm yourself with salary data in order to negotiate your compensation in CA?
If you aren’t already aware, state law prohibits potential employers from asking you salary/compensation history from your current or previous employer in determining compensation for your next opportunity.
Now, if you voluntarily give your information about your compensation, they obviously can use it to determine your future compensation, but you are not obligated to answer what your salary history or required to provide proof of what your previous compensation history was…
So you can play it two ways. If you had a great compensation package, that otherwise would be unbelievable, I think it would be helpful to volunteer that information with proof so it it removes any doubt you made that.
If on the other hand your compensation was shitty, you aren’t obligated to say anything. At most the only thing they will ask you is “what are compensation requirements” or “this is what we are willing to pay you”… And you can negotiate from there, assuming there is mutual interest up to that point.
Most of the people that I know that jumped ship wasn’t really looking to move in the beginning. They got hit up by a recruiter on linkedin, who asked them if they were willing to consider a new opportunity, they casually said “I’m always open to opportunity but not really actively looking”, did a few rounds of informal meet and greet, and then if the company actually was interested, threw out a comp number that was big enough for them to motivate to move, thinking well if the new company gave what they wanted, they would seriously consider it, not thinking that it would happen…And then the new company gave the comp package that they threw out there. Usually, when a recruiters contacts me about a opportunity, I usually go through the motion of talking the recruiter and then the hiring director/VP, because you never know what you might find…and even if it’s not something that I’m interested in or I’m not a good fit, I always leave a note with that person “well, it’s nice to meet you. I know you’re looking for people and if there’s anyone on my network you think that might fit what you’re looking for, feel free to reach out to me and I can put you in contact with anyone you might think is interesting”… It’s goodwill to do this. Because while, you might not have landed a fitting job with that person, maybe you can help him find someone that is. And then maybe that person remembers you, and he/she runs into someone looking for someone with your background, maybe he’ll put you in contact with that person…if you do that enough, it increases you’re chances of finding a better gig. Might not be today, tomorrow, or the next month…There’s certain point that finding a next job is more about who you know and your reputation than going through the bottom up approach of applying for job through HR…
The other thing I’ve learned is if you have to pick and choose between pissing off your engineers or pissing off your VP.. Piss of the VP. Why? Because especially for a lot of those younger hot shot engineers. Those engineers give or take a few years will end up being directors and VP’s, and chances are, how well you treated them (or not) will have a direct impact on what sort of opportunity you might have in the future, when you might end up working for them because they got on a luckier path than you did… Just recently, I had a former employee asking me if I wanted to fill an open manager position because his boss moved up. I wasn’t interested in the position, because generally I don’t like moving backwards to a lower position, unless there’s a good reason to, but the boss seemed like a good guy.
