Job Seekers: Job Ads Without Salary Information Are Business Opportunities

LinkedIn is flooded with job seekers complaining that many job ads don’t mention salary. While their frustration is valid, publicly criticizing the lack of compensation transparency wastes mental energy and doesn’t look good to recruiters and hiring managers. Do complainers genuinely believe their posts and comments will influence employers, who aren’t spending their time on LinkedIn reading comments—except perhaps when assessing a candidate’s LinkedIn activities to decide if they’re interview-worthy—to overhaul their hiring process?

Controversial digital footprints negatively affect job seekers more than they realize. While you’re free to say, or write, what you want, you’re not free from the consequences of what you say.

I understand that work isn’t a hobby, and pay is important. However, in fairness to employers, there are many reasons why they might choose not to include compensation details in their job ads or ask applicants for their salary expectations, a few being:

• Seek candidates motivated by fit over money. While this line of thinking contradicts why people work, it’s understandable that employers want workers who are enthusiastic about the job, not just the paycheck.
• Avoid salary questions from current workers. It’s common for employers to have salary disparities among their employees.
• Avoid wage wars with competitors. Employees who contribute measurable value to their employers’ profitability are often on the lookout for higher pay, especially in higher-level professional circles.
• They’ll get stuck at the top of the salary range. If a candidate is offered a starting salary near the lower end of the range, they might feel disgruntled before even beginning the job.
• More diverse applicants. In some cases, salary isn’t listed because the employer is willing to pay even more for a truly exceptional candidate. From personal experience, I know that salary ranges are meant for average applicants, but if an ever-so-rare ‘must-hire’ candidate comes along…

Whether you agree with the reason(s) or not isn’t the employer’s concern, nor is it their concern that omitting salary details in job ads can seem like a power move to pay as little as possible—an unsubstantiated narrative that job seekers tend to promote.

The employer’s closed-door reasoning for not including salary in their job postings isn’t the job seeker’s concern. It’s because job seekers are hyper-focused on what they can’t change, which, in this case, having employers list a salary or a small gap between the minimum and maximum salary pay range in their job posting, that they’re overlooking a huge business opportunity.

Stay with me; what I’m about to explain will require a shift in your mindset—letting go of any limiting beliefs you might have about employers’ motives, along with any frustrations and anger you have towards them, which recruiters and hiring managers can sense.

Employers whose job postings don’t mention compensation often (no guarantee) are willing to negotiate salary; a skill most job seekers lack and, for some reason, refuse to learn. My advice: Name your salary expectation and stick to it!

I’ve never accepted a job where I wasn’t comfortable with the salary; consequently, I’ve never been the employee who constantly complains about not being paid enough. Whenever a recruiter or employer contacts me, which, thanks to my writing of The Art of Finding Work, occurs frequently, I make it a point to inquire within the first five minutes what the compensation plan is, where the job is located, and how the role fits with the employer’s bottom line. (Is the job essential to the employer’s success or just a ‘nice to have’?)

Growing up, I was taught that employees are free agents providing services; essentially, each employee operates as a business of one. I came to understand that an employee doesn’t own their job; their employer does. This understanding led me to adopt the view that by making my salary requirement non-negotiable—rather than having expectations or desires like most job seekers—I controlled my salary, not the employer.

By waiting for an “offer” from the employer, you give them too much leverage. State your salary requirement, and see what happens. “But Nick, what if I’m too expensive?” Do you want to work at a job where you’re constantly feeling underpaid? You deserve to feel satisfied with your salary. Don’t be salary-guilt-tripped or salary-benchmarked.

Your attitude should be: “Yes, I may be expensive; however, here’s how I can impact an employer’s bottom line.”

You probably noticed that I’ve overlooked the crucial part of securing the salary you want, which most job seekers fail to do. You must justify your compensation request (salary, paid time off, benefits, paid sick days, perks, bonus, profit sharing, etc.) by demonstrating the value you can bring to an employer’s profitability. As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, job hunting is a sales activity, and interviews are sales meetings based on the core sales principle: features tell, benefits sell.

There’ll always be job postings without salary information, or with a ridiculously large salary range. How you react—how you spend your mental energy—is a matter of choice. You can get frustrated, angry and publicly condemn employers, which, as mentioned, hurts your job search, or say to yourself, “I’m a business of one! I’m going to prove my worth and name my salary!”