The phone interview for this employment position immediately started off with "What is your current salary?," so they could immediately eliminate you from contention, rather than determine if you are a good fit, then discussing salary. This was not long after a law was passed, which does not allow companies to ask potential employees their salary history. Rather than being adversarial, I decided not to mention the law and just said my employer will not let me provide that information to anyone. After completing the phone interview, I was granted an in-person interview.
After taking the time to primp and put on a suit, I was about to walk out the door to go to the early morning interview. My phone rang. I wasn't going to answer it because I was running out the door. But, I answered the call anyway. It was the phone interviewer telling me they can't do the interview unless I tell them my current salary. Reluctantly, I informed her that it is illegal to ask that question, then asked her if they still wanted to do the interview. She put me on hold and an unhappy CEO came on the line. I re-explained the law to her. She said, the job is a project-based contract position. I asked if that was in the job ad (because I was pretty sure it stated it was an full time job). She said, that it was indeed noted in the job ad. So, I gave her my desired freelance pay range. She said she would review my resume and call me back if they wanted to go forward with the interview. So, I sat there at home in my suit for half the hot summer day, waiting by the phone.
While I was sitting there, I looked at the job ad. It clearly did not say it was a contract position. It did say it was full time (not project based contract work) and the ad was worded as if the person hired would be an employee coming into the office every day working on their "team."
I never did get a call back and decided to take off my suit at noon, further becoming more convinced that many employers don't respect prospective employees. Who would want to work for such a company?
