I asked lower salary than companies were offering

Question

So I got contacted by a recruiter and we had a talk about new job offers. We had a good talk about my skills and send my CV. He also asked me how much I would like to earn on a monthly basis. With my skills I thought I should be worth around €3000 (I currently get paid €2250 and this is my first job). So I said that it would be great if he found something around €3000.

A few days pass and I get called by the recruiter. He has send my CV to a few companies and these companies are very interested in hiring me. Great so the next thing he did was send me an e-mail with the jobs and a link to their website where the job offer is described. It shows what exactly I have to do and the required skills for it. Most of the skills shown I have in my pocket. However the next thing that shows up is that the salary for this job is from €3800 - €5000. For a different company I also have most of the skills needed and they show a salary from €3500 - €4500.

They are 15-30% higher than what I asked for.

I am afraid my recruiter only found these companies because my salary that I asked is lower than someone who would otherwise ask for a higher salary.

Should I ask my recruiter that I wish to work for the amount they described in their job offer? Is it okay for me to even ask that?

Answer 1

The recruiter, hopefully, was using your number as a filter to screen out positions he/she knows you will not be interested in. That would not be setting a cap on what you would like to make. If the market is set at that range, a recruiter, who is often paid a fee based on the first year's compensation, would be foolish to offer a candidate for less than the minimum of the range.

Also, most companies are going to offer the lower bound, but not less. They deemed that to be the position's market-determined range, for the skills and experience wanted. Most companies might have some sort of extraordinary process to bring someone in above range, but if you're worth less than the range, they would deem you not qualified for that position.

Also, if someone comes to work and they do equal or better work than co-workers who are being paid 30% to 60% more, they know they are going to lose that worker, or have a worker who feels very taken advantage of. Dealing with an opening and then actually filling that opening is a very expensive process, so they don't want to lose money, long-term, by shorting someone of compensation, short-term.

Also, if they get a reputation as a company that drastically under-compensates employees when the opportunity arises, they are not going to be able to bring top talent on board for other positions.

If companies are able to bring someone qualified on board at the minimum, and they're happy about it, that's a huge win for the company. If a recruiter is able to offer someone to a company who is qualified that they know will be happy starting at the bottom of a position's expected range, then that's a very hassle-free placement and commission earned, and they look like they are awesome recruiters in the eyes of the company, which means more business or even, possibly, a more exclusive or favored relationship with the hiring manager.

You should be fine. If the recruiter was planning on bringing you in below the lowest pay level for a position, that recruiter would not have disclosed that the "floor" for that position was higher than the number you targeted. Can't hurt to confirm that your expectation is, for a position that is a higher paying job than the minimum your laid out, that the recruiter will not try to offer you as a "low-ball" for the company.

Answer 2

From personal experience, you would probably get offered a salary somewhere within the stated range. This is because the companies are already prepared to pay that range for the new employee and therefore, if they deem you a good fit for the role and want you, would not quibble over the difference of what you asked for vs what was stated in the job description.

You can definitely talk to the recruiter about the differences in what you asked for and for what the companies listed. However, chances are that this recruiter works on a commission basis and would earn a higher commission if your salary was higher. So the recruiter probably just looked for roles that fit your skill set instead of looking for jobs that matched your salary requirements.