Has anyone gotten a position then recruiter wanted you to take less money?

I applied for a position as a contractor, the ad stated the specific pay rate amount was the max. No discussions were made about the pay rate before the interview. I aced the interview and an offer was made the next day but they wanted me to take a little cut from the hourly pay rate. I declined taking a cut then they agreed to what I wanted but I decided that the position was not for me and declined the offer. I felt that if this was brought up after the interview what else would they throw at me later on in the contract? What would you do in this situation?

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jeremywatts2005

Happens all the time. I have had recruiters offer on salary in writing then say that they could not go that high because the salary was denied. I went through this last yr with my current company. We started at one salary an few hours later they reduced the salary. I balked and threatened to walk to a contract I had in my back pocket. They then put the original offer on the table and I refused. In the end I ended up making 10K more than I was making as a contractor with them. Same with the upcoming role I am looking at. I had a salary on the table then yanked, then upped and then yanked and now we are somewhere in middle and I have a 20% bonus opportunity up from 10%. I only have to take a 2k a year reduction on base to get the extra 10% bonus. Worth it to me since I almost always bonus when I am at a company. Just work through the negotiation process and stick to your guns. If you cannot get it in base salary try bonus, move to an hourly rate, sign on bonus or something else. We are trained over the years that the company's compensation groups and HR have all the negotiating power. That is not correct we have a skills and abilities that are valued and we have to market and sell them.

dhay13

happened to me with my current job. had an offer letter in hand then received a call the next day saying they couldn't pay that much. it was only a $2000 difference so i agreed anyway. turns out they actually honored the initial agreement afterall

No_Nerd

Story of my life ..... Don't be afraid to walk away...

joemc3

I had an offer for 70k. They asked my current salary and I still lied and said 50k. They came up with an excuse that the employer has targeted a certain individual for the role. Which is a lie as the position is still posted on their website 3 months later. They pulled it playing you can't get that massive of a pay increase. I think they went to low ball other applicants. Never trust them! I went and sent an email to a CEO of a company I wanted to work for and got the job I wanted. I am jaded I hate recruiters.

Danielm7

Remember that recruiters are salespeople. They are going to try to make a job/product look as appealing as possible so they can get the sale/commission. I was once offered interviews by 2 recruiters for the same role, one of them was 50% higher. When I questioned the higher one about the salary he got all squirrely and said that he tried to factor in what the salary MIGHT have been if you got hired after contract in a year and average out what the benefits MIGHT be a year later.

I ended up taking the job through the other recruiter, working at the company I know their real salary and benefits, the higher recruiter was totally full of it, just trying to loop in more people.

markulous

Yes. My second IT job they were telling me they'd get me at least $20 an hour, then they said the company told them that it'd be $15 an hour. They said, "Oh don't worry though, they assured me that you'll get monthly increases so in about 5-6 months you'll be up to $20."

I asked the job that and they all paused and looked at each other then said, "Umm no we haven't ever done that or said that".

No_Nerd

Yep about 10 min ago I had a 40/hr offer on the table then in the interview it got moved to 30/hr. I let them know to find another candidate , and walked out of the meeting.

kiki162

Lesson #1 - Deal directly with HR staff - NOT recruiters. Bottom line, don't waste your time! Many are sales people, and talk you up so much to the company they are trying to place you with, that you may be in over your head.

v1ral

No_Nerd wrote: »

Yep about 10 min ago I had a 40/hr offer on the table then in the interview it got moved to 30/hr. I let them know to find another candidate , and walked out of the meeting.

Did you ask what happened to the 40/hr offer?

renacido

So they had a pay range, then the offer was in the range but below the max. You asked for the max and they agreed. Then you declined the offer.

My response: WTF?

You successfully negotiated the pay you wanted, they agreed. You won. Then you still walked away. Why?

I would understand if extended an offer, you accepted, then afterward they tried to change the deal. That's totally different.

This is in the same WTF category as a company rescinding an offer because the candidate tries to negotiate a higher salary. It's called a salary negotiation. It's both parties acting in their own interests.

Fayz

No_Nerd wrote: »

Yep about 10 min ago I had a 40/hr offer on the table then in the interview it got moved to 30/hr. I let them know to find another candidate , and walked out of the meeting.

Wow that's insane. I probably would have done the same thing. I also find it dishonest and unprofessional to state one pay rate then try to low ball later.

No_Nerd

Sure did ,

I was told that the individual who offered me the 40/hr is no longer with the company.

Story:

1. I successfully nogicated a pay rate of 40/hr with individual X
2. Second interview and confirmation of pay rate with individual X @ 40/hr
3. 24 hours prior to final presentation to client I was offered only 30/hr by a different individual ( Y)

I was informed that individual X was no longer with the company and the max the contract would allow was 30/hr. I declined the offer and walked out.

I was not given a " range for the position" I was initially offered 25/hr then though some negotiation I was offered 40/hr ( which I assumed was the max for their position)

So offer was extended at 40/hr then right before presentation to the client the offer was removed and dropped down to 30/hr

Fayz

renacido wrote: »

So they had a pay range, then the offer was in the range but below the max. You asked for the max and they agreed. Then you declined the offer.

My response: WTF?

You successfully negotiated the pay you wanted, they agreed. You won. Then you still walked away. Why?

I would understand if extended an offer, you accepted, then afterward they tried to change the deal. That's totally different.

This is in the same WTF category as a company rescinding an offer because the candidate tries to negotiate a higher salary. It's called a salary negotiation. It's both parties acting in their own interests.

Thing is if they pull this now. I am unsure what they try to pull later on into the contract. Another candidate went to the interview also and they told him the contract could be 3 - 6 months depending on how things go. I was never told that I was told its 6 - 8 months. The ad stated 6+ months. I personally know that candidate and we interviewed on the same day.

No_Nerd

If you can afford to do so, I would walk....

JockVSJock

I don't even know why anyone would try to work with these recruiters. They continue to try and low-ball me on salary and put in positions that I'm overqualified for. I know I can't be the only one who has this happen to. I don't even return their calls, emails and I mark all of their contacts on linkedin as spam.

They are a waste of time, because they want to play games with my career.

They don't care about you and they don't care about your career.

Focus on yourself.

scaredoftests

I love the ones who don't really read my resume. No, I don't have a top secret clearance and no, I don't want a job upstate NY or elsewhere. LOL

djyox

JockVSJock wrote: »

I don't even know why anyone would try to work with these recruiters. They continue to try and low-ball me on salary and put in positions that I'm overqualified for. I know I can't be the only one who has this happen to. I don't even return their calls, emails and I mark all of their contacts on linkedin as spam.

They are a waste of time, because they want to play games with my career.

They don't care about you and they don't care about your career.

Focus on yourself.

Sometimes its easier. I like to get two recruiters and pit them against each other. Two different companies, offering two different jobs. My current place I'm at now (been here 3 years now) was a contract to hire deal. The only way I got it was I had another recuriter at a different company than who I was currently with offering me more money. So the recruiter I was currently with came back with this job which was more money than the other recruiter.

And then when the job I was at offered me full time rather than contract, I really had to think if I should leave there and what I know for another contract gig that didn't know how it would be. In the end, I felt I could grow more coming here. And I did. And its been great....

nice343

One mistake most people make is disclosing their current salary to potential new employers/recruiters.
Try as much as possible not to disclose it when applying for the new job.

Most recruiters work on commission (it's a sales job), the more you get lowballed, the more money they make. I have friends that are recruiters so I know how he game is played.

Whenever you get a job offering from one recruiter, search for the same job on monster or careerbuilder or any job site just to get an overview of what other recruiters might be offering.

Don't ever negotiate from a position of weakness. The best time to look for a job is when you already have a job. It's makes it easier to walk away from a bad offer.

Recruiters know desperate people will take anything. They were just testing to see how desperate you were.

fmitawaps

In my most recent desktop support job, I was making $22 an hour. But when the time came to search for the next job, I told every one of the recruiters I made $26 an hour. So even if they offer what they think is a slightly lower salary, it'll still be a pay raise.

I noticed something on my weekly time sheet that I filled out on the computer, it was a running total of my total cost at the company, and it incremented at a rate of $40 an hour. So the agency was charging the company $40 an hour for me and giving me, the one doing all the work, $22 an hour!

I was not happy when I figured that out. What are they doing that is worth $18 an hour? They enter my information into an automated system once, then sit back and get paid every week!

renacido

I typically tell the recruiter what I make if they ask. Filters out the jobs/clients who can't offer anything better. They know already I'm not leaving my current job for another at the same level, let alone below it. I tell them up front it's got to be at least $_____ or don't bother. Works for me so far.

I love being recruited. Means that job postings come to me, I'm not surfing the boards and writing a million cover letters and shotgunning my resume everywhere.

renacido

fmitawaps wrote: »

I was not happy when I figured that out. What are they doing that is worth $18 an hour? They enter my information into an automated system once, then sit back and get paid every week!

They screened you, qualified you for the position, marketed your services to the client, pay your unemployment insurance and benefits, etc. The client doesn't have the resources or doesn't want to deal with the overhead cost of hiring and managing internal staff to do what you do, but they need someone to do it.

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Mike7

nice343 wrote: »

Most recruiters work on commission (it's a sales job), the more you get lowballed, the more money they make. I have friends that are recruiters so I know how he game is played.

Where I am in Asia, I was told that recruiter gets a commission that is proportional to your new pay.
This can be either a month's pay or a percentage (from 10% to 15%) of your annual compensation.

danny069

Moral of this thread, don't deal with recruiters, deal directly with the company's HR dept.

greg9891

danny069 wrote: »

Moral of this thread, don't deal with recruiters, deal directly with the company's HR dept.

Thats The Truth............