Every job interview has somewhat the same structure: the recruiter presents the positions, talks about the company and then asks the candidate some questions. And one of those questions is always the salary.

Most people are not very comfortable talking about money and they might be shy when asking for a certain number. Also, they might not be aware of what that position is worth or they might be afraid to ask too much and be rejected for that.

But there are job recruiters who help with that and guide the candidate through the process. However, not all of them are willing to do that and such an example is Mercedes S. Johnson, who thought that it is the applicant’s responsibility to know their worth.

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People on Twitter got into a heated debate when they saw a woman say that she offered a lower salary to a job applicant than the budget allowed

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Twitter user Booberella made a comparison of two different job recruiters who talked about their jobs. One of them, Briana Johnson, said that when she talked about salary with a junior software engineer, she asked for too little. The company was transparent and offered her what they thought was a decent wage for the specific position.

The other job recruiter is Mercedes S. Johnson, who encourages people to stop being afraid of asking too much as you never know if the company would agree or not. Which is really good advice, but what people found wrong was her not offering a higher wage when she knew that the company had a bigger budget than the candidate requested.

The candidate asked for $85k but the company was willing to pay $130k, however, the recruiter didn’t disclose that

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And as a lesson she advised people to always negotiate their salaries

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The job recruiter said in her tweet that she offered the candidate a $85k yearly salary when the company had a $130k budget for the position. She didn’t mention it to the candidate and went with the $45k lower wage.

Mercedes thought that she was giving some insight into how things work from a company’s perspective so that people would know that they can ask for more, but the tweet that went viral for the wrong reasons.

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People did not respond positively so Mercedes saw it from their perspective and posted an apology for not offering a bigger wage

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So many people thought that this was very wrong and she should have informed the candidate about the real wage the company could offer. Many pointed out that this kind of behavior leads to contributing to wage inequality as people doing the same job should get the same wage in the same company despite what the candidate thinks they are worth.

Others came to Mercedes’ defense and said that it’s the candidate’s problem that she didn’t know how much she was worth. Also, if a business sees an opportunity to save money, some of them will and it doesn’t matter to them how unfair it is, so this has nothing to do with the job recruiter personally.

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Some people were really surprised a job recruiter would do something like this as it contributes to the pay gap

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Even though there were people who defended Mercedes, the negative comments made her rethink the situation and on her Instagram, she posted a reflection on the situation. She wrote that she realized that just telling people to know their worth won’t give them this knowledge and actually many don’t.

From the comments, she realized how unfair it was and how that would make the candidate feel if she found out about what happened. She felt sorry for what she did as it didn’t have any evil intent.

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Also, there is the problem of people just simply not knowing their worth and how much is too much or too little to ask for

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If you are afraid to ask for too much because it is your first job or you are changing careers, a good thing to do is to research what is the average salary for your or a similar position. It is true that if you ask too much, the recruiter might not take you seriously, but you definitely can ask for a bit over the average as it gives you space to negotiate.

Asking for too little is a bad idea because, as is evident from Mercedes’ example, not all recruiters are willing to inform a candidate about what they are expecting to spend on an employee.

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Others came to Mercedes’ defense saying that recruiters are not obliged to inform candidates about what they are worth

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For some reason, talking about money is awkward and uncomfortable. Often colleagues don’t even know what the other person earns, which perpetuates the pay gap. But talking about salary in a job interview is very important because you wouldn’t want to be underpaid, which can happen because you would miss the opportunity to hear the offer and negotiate something more.

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They argued that it’s just business and it is natural for companies to take an opportunity when they see they can save some money

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In any case of negotiation you need to have some arguments why you deserve what you ask for. Present your skills, experience and share your achievements in prior jobs. It is harder when you don’t have experience but you shouldn’t rely on personal qualities as they are hard to prove during an interview. Remembering any volunteer work, internships or even examples from your academic years might show the recruiter what you can do and why you might not want to settle for less.

Even though the advice Mercedes gave was really valid, you would expect the recruiter to be on your side and find ways to help the candidate to get the best deal

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It is true that you shouldn’t be afraid to negotiate and Mercedes’ advice is very valid and valuable. As we see, companies may have planned a budget that is way bigger than you expected, but what do you think about the recruiter withholding that information? Have you ever experienced something similar? Share your thoughts and reactions in the comments!

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