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Comment by nommm-nommm | Hacker News Reader

Careful!!

There's quite a few ways to verify past salary. Specially some employers report employment information to private databases and your potential employer runs a "employment report," like banks run a credit report, as part of a mandatory background check. To see if you lied.

Of course, they can't do that without your permission but agreeing to a background check is a condition of employment.

The database i am thinking of is, IIRC, owned by Lexis Nexis and they claim to have employment data for the majority of Fortune 500 companies.

EDIT: The database I am thinking of is called The Work Number and is owned by Equifax.

http://www.businessinsider.com/salary-information-not-privat...

>One woman interviewed by CNBC had a Work Number report that was a whopping 22 pages long, complete with a copy of all of her paychecks over the years.

They claim to have employment information for over 1/3rd of American adults.

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That's why you just say "around" and add 20% to your current salary.

And even if a company does find out, who cares? What I made at a prior job has zero bearing on my next job. If the new company thinks I bring in enough value to be paid X, then they paying X should be fine.

Who cares? There's a -huge- difference between dodging the question with a vague answer, defecting, or refusing to answer and -outright lying- about your previous salary! These reports are run to catch lying. Do the former, don't outright lie.

Similarly, I know part of my job when I do an interview is to sell the company and the position. So I'll put a positive spin on things but I won't outright lie.

Our internal recruiters ask but it's not a deal breaker if someone doesn't answer. You know what is a deal breaker? Lying.

I've personally seen two offers rescinded after it came out that someone added an egregious amount of money to their previous salary (one to the effect of made approx $100k, said they made $185 and took $175 while complaining loudly about their "pay cut").

What sucks for them is:

A) Everyone involved in that process knows they're a liar.

B) They were now unemployed because this was during the post-acceptance background checks

C) They won't be able to work at any company anyone from A is doing hiring stuff for

Wait, so you were ready to pay someone 175k until you found out they only made 100k at their last job and rescinded the offer? How about name the company so people can make sure to avoid them. I hope this company also lists their internal budget for every position, since you know we want to all be honest and everything.

If the user's summary is accurate / I found the correct individual on Linkedin the company is [redacted]. I agree with your assessment that this sounds like a unethical company, not to mention the amount of glee expressed in the post over an individual being screwed by the company is disconcerting.

On HN users aren't allowed to pursue each other's personal details and bring them here as ammunition in an argument. That crosses the line into personal attack, which is emphatically not allowed here, regardless of how wrong you think someone else or their employer may be. Please don't do it again.

How did the recruiters find out?

My preferred technique is to mentally baseline my current total comp, then shoot for that as my base at my next position.

You really shouldn't compare salaries, since benefits can vary so much.

So if I'm making $100k in base now, but have a good bonus structure, a good vacation package, health, retirement, etc., could make that total comp closer to $150. So that's what I say is my current compensation -- most people will anchor to that in salary negotiations.

in tech companies, bonus + equity is usually multiples of the base salary.

1. Parent post was just for illustration, he's probably not talking about his actual salary + equity.

2. Is that really true? Multiples? Maybe for the CEO! I've been in tech for almost 2 decades and have never seen an equity package of more than ~25% or so of base salary. Usually it's about 5-10%, no?

0.05 is a multiplier.

i am talking x >= 1.

I have more than 25% at a public company at the initial offer, but not multiples.

However, I left a company that wasnt liquid which was multiples in equity. But once you risk-adjust it for ever being worth something...

Yea, I'm talking actual, vested, liquid equity, sellable per year. Not monopoly-money options.

Depends on the company; My current employer added 2 times my annual in RSUs.

Please name 5.

I'm not a recruiter, nor a hiring manager, but personally, I'd be more concerned about the competence of someone who answered truthfully. Yes, engineers probably aren't hired for being good at salary negotiation, but still.. it isn't hard to figure out that telling the truth isn't beneficial.

I'm probably making $30k less than I could be making right now because I tell the truth! Had no idea so many people lied. Makes sense to do so but didn't seem to be worth the risk to me. I wish I had a way to quanitfy how many companies actually check for this. My last two times out I used the same recruiter so couldn't really lie to him, I think going forward I won't work with his agency and just make up my number.

A rule of thumb is most big companies will utilize big data in employment decisions. I currently work for a mid-size company and I had to go through a whole third party background check.

You obviously don't have what it takes to be a good HR worker.

(I mean that as a compliment.)

Correct: a service called The Work Number by Equifax. http://www.theworknumber.com

My current employer uses that, so I checked my report. It has a 13 year gap. It also neglected the RSU grants that vested at a previous employer.

It's a risk I'm willing to take for the potential upside.

The best way to see if your company is willing to give out salary information to random verifiers, is to ask HR yourself.

In most cases they would not give out that sensitive information unless they have a written consent specifically stating that you allow salary information to be given.

It's not as sensitive than your credit history which is bought and sold by credit bureaus. It's also not as sensitive as all sorts of public records like foreclosures, personal bankruptcies, and criminal records.

Anyways, its likely subject to the FCRA which means you can get a copy of your own report once a year to see what it contains.

EDIT: Here you go, you can request a copy right here, https://www.theworknumber.com/Employees/DataReport/index.asp

Also to add, if you work for a public institution, your salary for the past three years is in public records.

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