Legally unentitled or not, there are lots of application forms that make it impossible to submit without specifying your pay rate at previous jobs. I’m not sure how they avoid getting dinged for requiring it, but I assume that they manage somehow.
The most consistent job-search advice I’ve heard is to avoid going through the HR forms until you’ve already discussed the position and pay rate with the hiring manager and reached an agreement in principle. The only method I’m aware of to achieve that without an inside lead is to put your resume up at the usual sites and let recruiters contact you first. Of course, that doesn’t work if your resume is insufficiently impressive to get bites.
I question your “absolutely”, given that it worked for me. The important bit seemed to be getting the “yes, we want to hire you at roughly X rate” before touching the forms; at that point they were just a necessary formality, and including the salary history on the forms no longer hurts any.
Go to conferences, meetups, social hours. Meet people and network.
This is what I meant by having an inside lead. Note that the things you’re suggesting for acquiring one, while I’m sure they work for some people (perhaps most), are spectacularly unpleasant for others. Having a second-best solution is still valuable for those of us who experience unstructured meetings with strangers as roughly equivalent to being dropped in the shark tank at the aquarium.
I have never, ever gotten a job via an HR form.
I agree that going through the standard HR application process is a terrible idea, yes. I find it amusing that every careers page for every company on the web will tell you to do exactly the thing that you should not do if you want to make any kind of headway. HR in general seems to make it as hard for anybody to get what they want as possible. My partner’s in management, so I’ve (peripherally) seen them from both ends.
spectacularly unpleasant for others. Having a second-best solution is still valuable for those of us who experience unstructured meetings with strangers as roughly equivalent to being dropped in the shark tank at the aquarium.
They are spectacularly unpleasant for me too, but I still go them because I want to have a decent salary and choice of job options. Also: don’t forget you can network online in chat fora/mailing lists etc (where you can do your networking without being face-to-face).
Likewise: it’s possible you just haven’t found the right meetups etc to go to… there are a lot of aspie CS people around, and they still tend to like learning new stuff at tech meetups… find the ones that are very specific to your geekiest technology (avoid the ones that are like “web entrepreneurs” and instead choose something for your programming language, or even more specific—some really-specific toolset for your industry… the more geeky you get, the fewer random strangers you find, and the more people just like you—who are also not highly sociable, but will be more likely to be interested in your topics, and help you out when in need.
Also: you don’t have to thoroughly enjoy the experience… you just have to endure it and fake being social for one night a month… and practice makes perfect here (or fake-it-til-you-make-it)
Asking for salary requirements is fine and perfectly normal. You should state your salary expectations upfront, so as to not waste everybody’s time.
Asking for salary history is a totally different situation. Employers are not legally entitled to that information.
I don’t know which laws you would look at; this was part of my HR training at a previous gig.
Legally unentitled or not, there are lots of application forms that make it impossible to submit without specifying your pay rate at previous jobs. I’m not sure how they avoid getting dinged for requiring it, but I assume that they manage somehow.
The most consistent job-search advice I’ve heard is to avoid going through the HR forms until you’ve already discussed the position and pay rate with the hiring manager and reached an agreement in principle. The only method I’m aware of to achieve that without an inside lead is to put your resume up at the usual sites and let recruiters contact you first. Of course, that doesn’t work if your resume is insufficiently impressive to get bites.
This absolutely won’t work. Go to conferences, meetups, social hours. Meet people and network.
I have never, ever gotten a job via an HR form.
I question your “absolutely”, given that it worked for me. The important bit seemed to be getting the “yes, we want to hire you at roughly X rate” before touching the forms; at that point they were just a necessary formality, and including the salary history on the forms no longer hurts any.
This is what I meant by having an inside lead. Note that the things you’re suggesting for acquiring one, while I’m sure they work for some people (perhaps most), are spectacularly unpleasant for others. Having a second-best solution is still valuable for those of us who experience unstructured meetings with strangers as roughly equivalent to being dropped in the shark tank at the aquarium.
I agree that going through the standard HR application process is a terrible idea, yes. I find it amusing that every careers page for every company on the web will tell you to do exactly the thing that you should not do if you want to make any kind of headway. HR in general seems to make it as hard for anybody to get what they want as possible. My partner’s in management, so I’ve (peripherally) seen them from both ends.
They are spectacularly unpleasant for me too, but I still go them because I want to have a decent salary and choice of job options. Also: don’t forget you can network online in chat fora/mailing lists etc (where you can do your networking without being face-to-face).
Likewise: it’s possible you just haven’t found the right meetups etc to go to… there are a lot of aspie CS people around, and they still tend to like learning new stuff at tech meetups… find the ones that are very specific to your geekiest technology (avoid the ones that are like “web entrepreneurs” and instead choose something for your programming language, or even more specific—some really-specific toolset for your industry… the more geeky you get, the fewer random strangers you find, and the more people just like you—who are also not highly sociable, but will be more likely to be interested in your topics, and help you out when in need.
Also: you don’t have to thoroughly enjoy the experience… you just have to endure it and fake being social for one night a month… and practice makes perfect here (or fake-it-til-you-make-it)