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Comment by laureny | Hacker News Reader

Good points, but personally, I have never played along with the "We'll pay you just a bit more than what you are making right now".

When the question "How much do you make right now?" comes up in an interview, I answer "How much I make right now is irrelevant, here is how much I want if I'll be working for you" (said with more tact, obviously).

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"Unfortunately my current employment contract precludes me from discussing my salary. I'm sure you understand and have similar policies yourself. However, a ballpark figure would be north of $[desired-salary]."

That's a great answer which should kill any further question in that area instantly, I'll make sure to remember that. Thanks!

As a hirer, I'll always ask what they make now. But I'll also ask are they happy with that salary.

There's no point using it as a basis if they are not, but if they are, it's a good starting point.

> As a hirer, I'll always ask what they make now.

How would you react if the candidate gave you the answer I typically give in this situation? ("my current salary is irrelevant, here is how much I want")

I'd be fine with that. It's used as a discussion point to arrive at a salary the person is happy with. If your original salary isn't one you want to base it off, that's ok.

That's admirable. It's unfortunate that a majority of the money discussion folks in HR will end the conversation if a candidate doesn't give a current salary.

During the last decade I changed several jobs. For each next job I managed to get 3-4x of my previous salary. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't happen if I had disclosed my previous salary.

For each next job? So if you started at 20k, and by several you mean 3, and by 3-4x you mean 3, that's still an impressive trajectory (20k to 180k in a decade). Even more so if you started at 40k, changed job 4 times and quadrupled each time..?

I think you're doing more things right than just not mentioning your previous salary...

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