猎头替潜在雇主打探你目前的工资时，你需要和盘托出吗？

    迈克尔•沃尔夫的回答，初创公司创始人

    人们很少会因为你说了什么而认为你“难相处”，更多时候是因为你说话的方式。你确定没有表现得防御心太重或太过好斗？我希望你没有说你“不能”透露之前的薪酬。你这样说只是选择了避而不谈。更好的做法，是说你更希望不说出之前的工资，然后解释一下原因，并请求猎头帮忙解决你认为说出来可能导致的问题。

    与对方坦诚地讨论一下这个问题。你对目标薪酬应该有非常明确的要求，不妨请猎头帮你实现目标（记住，如果对方是成功后付费的猎头公司，你得到的薪酬越高，他们便能赚得更多。）

    此外，要记住大多数猎头（尤其是后付费的猎头公司）都是用人单位外聘的专业人士：他们不能充分代表用人单位，在用人单位内部也没有深层的关系。招聘经理可能甚至都不知道或者不喜欢猎头，而猎头也可能同时代表了许多家公司。所以，别担心会断了自己的后路，除非招聘人员来自用人单位内部，并且与招聘经理有关系。要表现的足够专业，并且让她站到你这一边，但不要因为她而太过担心。

    还需要说明的一点是，使用“合作”和“具有团队精神的人”等术语，让我对这位猎头的专业水平表示质疑，我怀疑她是否获得了自己服务的用人单位的足够尊重。好的猎头有很多，而条件优越的求职者也会有许多选择。如果她让你感觉不舒服，那就跳过她继续寻找。

    玛丽•卡瑞罗的回答，硅谷公司招聘人员

    在谈论薪酬话题时，你只需要遵循一条原则：简洁明了。花在谈论金钱上的精力（和话语）越少越好。

    我曾经跟成百上千的人进行过类似对话。那些得到丰厚薪酬、表现最为抢眼的人是这么做的：

    从来不透露他们的薪酬。他们让我知道，他们对这个职位做过调查，告诉我他们对这个工作的预期，如果公司给出的薪酬与他们的目标不符，他们也会留下一丝余地。例如：“我期望这个职位能给我的薪酬是X，根据我的调查，这个金额也符合行业标准，并且非常接近我目前的薪酬。如果这超出了你或你的客户的预期，我很愿意大家坐下来谈谈这个问题；如果机会确实不错，我愿意重新调整工资预期。”

    没有说任何与“目标薪酬”有关的话。由于某些原因，这会让人产生怀疑。这可能暴露出，你现在的工资与你提到的金额相差巨大。

    他们从来不会谈论自己如何和为什么薪酬过低，即便这是他们的真实感受。这就像掉进兔子洞一样；你一定会说出一些负面的话。少即是多。千万不要打开潘多拉魔盒——没有人想要知道你的薪酬过低，或者你被低估了，或者你的公司正面临经济困难，最近要求你接受降薪。事实上，这些通常都是私密信息，如果你认真读过雇佣协议的话，你会发现，说这些话可能违反了你在入职时签署的保密协议。

    Answer by Michael Wolfe, startup founder

    People will rarely call you “difficult” because of what you say. It will more typically be because of how you say it. Are you sure you weren’t defensive or combative? I hope you didn’t say you “can’t” reveal your salary. You are only choosing not to. It would have been better to say that you’d prefer not to, explain why, then ask the recruiter to help you work around the problem you perceive it will cause.

    Have an honest and frank discussion. You could have been very specific about the salary range you are targeting, then engage the recruiter to help you get it (remember the more you get paid, the more they get paid, if they are contingent).

    Also, remember that most recruiters (especially contingent) are hired guns: they don’t represent the company well or have deep roots in the company. The hiring manager may not even know or like the recruiter, and the recruiter may be representing multiple companies at once. Don’t worry that you’ve burned bridges unless the recruiter is in house and seems to have a relationship with the hiring manager. Be professional and get her on your side, but don’t worry too much about her.

    I also have to say that using terminology like “play ball” and “team player” makes me wonder how professional this recruiter is and whether she has much respect from the companies she works for. There are many good recruiters, and a qualified candidate has many options. If you are not comfortable with her, then jump.

    Answer by Mary Carello, recruiter for Silicon Valley-based firm

    When it comes to the topic of compensation, I can give you one rule: clear and simple. The less energy (and amount of words) devoted to talking about money, the better.

    I’ve had this conversation with hundreds (if not thousands) of people. The people who walked away with the biggest salaries and stayed in the most positive light did this:

    Never actually told me their salary. They let me know they did their research about the position and said what their expectations were for it, and left the door cracked open if the available salary was not in line with their numbers. An example: “My expectation is that this position will be paying around X amount, which, from my research, seems to be in line with industry standards for the role and is very close to my compensation now. If this is outside of what you or your client were thinking, I’m happy to have a conversation about it and regroup if it’s a good opportunity.”

    Never said anything about their “target salary.” For some reason, it comes across as suspicious. It can be a giveaway that your pay now is far different than the number you just mentioned.

    Never got into conversation about how/why they were underpaid if indeed they felt they were. This is like going down a rabbit hole; you’re bound to say something that comes off negatively. Less is more. Try not to open Pandora’s box – nobody needs to know you are underpaid or how undervalued you are or that your company is in financial trouble and recently asked you to take a pay cut. In fact, that’s often private information, which if you read your employment agreement documents, can violate non-disclosure agreements you signed when you accepted your job.