Hi,I was recently asked my salary by a recruiter, and inflated my package by about 3%. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but I'm having second thoughts - have I created potential problems for myself down the line? Can they ask for proof? Is there any reason why anyone should ever find out?Thanks, J

A future employer will find out your real salary when you present your P45 to them, so tell them you lost it/god ate it/sold it on ebay and get a P46 to generate a new P45 - blank slate and although you will pay higher tax for a little while you will get that back anyway.As for inflating your salary to a recruiter why bother? If you give accurate information to the recruiter they can help negotiate a raise for your new role, but you could make this more difficult if a) they are perceived not to have accurate and truthful information and b) they are negotiating an increase which is above an already inflated current salary.

Thanks for that Mars. Good to hear there's no risk from the employer's perspective.Now you explain it, I can see I've made a mistake which won't happen again. Since the error is to the tune of around 1k, is it even worth worrying about, or should I admit to and correct it?

Thanks for that Mars. Good to hear there's no risk from the employer's perspective.Now you explain it, I can see I've made a mistake which won't happen again. Since the error is to the tune of around 1k, is it even worth worrying about, or should I admit to and correct it?

Thanks for that Mars. Good to hear there's no risk from the employer's perspective.Now you explain it, I can see I've made a mistake which won't happen again. Since the error is to the tune of around 1k, is it even worth worrying about, or should I admit to and correct it?

Mars,Nonsense. Neither the recruiter nor the prospective employer has any right/need to know the current salary. It is of zero relevance to the application. Candidates should be wary as the recruiter, much like an estate agent pushing for completion, has no interest in pushing for a higher salary, they’ll be paid commission for the transaction – a few extra k on the package only means more hassle for the sake of a couple of hundred pounds at best. So they’ve no incetive to rock the boat and prolong negotiations.The downside for the candidate is that the employer will bench the new salary against the old, e.g., “Ah, they were paid 50k before, they’ll have to happy with 54+ car” completely neglecting to price in the risk of a change of employer. The point has been made before, but salary should not gradually increase form employer to employer, steadily and gently – each new role should attach a salary based solely on the value the candidate can add. Stop underwriting the short changing of candidates!

Normally I'm in the "tell the truth" camp, but in this case I think you're fine just to leave it as it is. The fact of the matter is that most employers won't bother cross-checking with a P45 after they have made an offer, and if the difference is really only 3%, it will probably be lost in the noise.If they ever were to make an issue of it, 1) they would be incredibly petty and 2) you could almost certainly find a way to justify the extra -- whether it was anticipated bonus, anticipated pay rise, pension contribution, etc. It isn't hard to magic up £1000 from somewhere. If you were trying for £10,000 -- that's a different story!Ultimately, they ask for your current salary to get a ballpark of what to offer you. I honestly don't think +/- 3% is going to make a difference at all. Sitting on the other side of the table, I usually assume that whatever I see in front of me as "current salary" is presented in the most favourable light possible -- and probably a bit above what the candidate actually takes home. Recruiters know this and factor accordingly.

To Oh Please! you are making a fundamental assumption - that the candidate has no say in whether to take a role. Whether or not the recruiter does or does not 'rock the boat' as you put it is meaningless. A client can tell itself x is on 50K so will be happy with 54K all day long, but unless x will accept it that is going nowhere, and in a market where people are winning multiple job offers in most cases clients have to be competitive. A good recruiter will in fact work with both parties to try and find a middleground, and I often underline to clients (and candidates0 that what they are seeking to pay/earn must give a clear feelgood factor - to make the new hire feel valued and wanted in the organisation - reflect risk of move, timelag to next salary review etc, and I often argue for pro rata bonus at the least.My advice to Jonno was fairly generic I admit: a lot depends on size of organisation etc - easier to lose a few K in the noise in a big firm than a small one. The better way to do it is to tell the recruiter what you are earning base + all the components of value in your package - if you feel there is something in it which needs to be compensated in a more tell them! Car allowance, holiday allowances, bonus, hot skills or rare skills bonuses, anticipated pay reviews or rises - all this kind of thing gives ammunition when negotiations come up. Jonno - is the inflation was only 1K ignore it; as VI said its about the size of the inflation and obviously I had no idea you were only referring to 1K difference. But my advice remains the same - honesty (with a credible recruiter) will do you favours as they can work WITH you to get what you are worth, and if you are being paid behind the market they can help you catch up. Final point - regards the recruiter vrs the estate agent. We do not push for completion. Oddly enough when dealing with human beings this is usually the way to wreck it. What I am looking for is a happy candidate and a happy client - that way I am not then forking out a refund on my fees, losing face and losing business (not to mention my reputation).

Fair enough Mars. To be honest with you my rant was a bit cheeky as you seem – from your persona on this forum – to be a decent chap, and are certainly not to blame for the rogue operators in your industry. I still fail to see the relevance of current salary though. Granted, it is for the candidate to decide whether to give this information out. I feel they should refuse, and base the negotiations on their experience and the value add.

Oh Please!, I take your point, but when I ask a candidate about their current remuneration I also ask them what it would take £ wise (as well as opportunity, development etc) to not only get them to move but to motivate that move. When I present a candidate I tell my client what they are earning, what they are looking for, and we can usually work out something in between but closer to expectations than current. It not only helps at offer negotiation but also when determining how to position than candidate with the client, and even in helping me understand what is motivating the move from where the candidate currently works. Although I work for my clients not candidates I always see my role as more broker than salesman - I am looking to get consensus around a person and a role, so the more info I have at hand the easier it is to do this smoothly. But us old hands can debate this all day long, and there are arguments to be made on both sides Oh Please! so perhaps we shouldn't confuse Jonno who sounds like he is at an early stage in his career.

Thanks to all for your feedback. J

i never answer that question from a recruiter directlyI reply with "I would be looking for a basic of XXXXXX and a package worth XXXX"

There is one reason and one reason only why they want to know your current salary: so that they can judge how 'senior' they think you are and the minimum amount they can potentially offer in order for you to accept.When you go to buy a new car, do you tell the salesman how much money you have available to spend? When you go to buy a house, do you tell the vendor your salary and exactly how big a mortgage in principle the bank has offered you? Answer: No, because all it serves to do is undermine your bargaining position.Sometimes you want to make a clean break from your previous history, particularly if you were under-employed or under-paid. Any prospective employer that demands to know how much you currently earn is invading your personal privacy. Also, a new job with a new firm and new responsibilities is SEPARATE/INDEPENDENT of previous employment (assuming you're able to do the job) so why should the ghost of a previous low-paying job follow you around for the rest of your career?

"assuming you're able to do the job" being the important sentance here Cynic. Unfortunately there are far too many people in this world who think they are super heroes. I find this particularly rife in consulting which tends to cover such a broad spectrum of roles / responsibilties. Of course an element of why I ask for current salary is to judge how senior the person is! Whilst you might think you are woefully underpaid and the whole world is against you, I would say only in about 1 in 10 situations is this the case. Don't forget that as recruiters we have as much if not more commitment to our clients as to our candidates, so it is a massive part of our job to actually send through the right candidates. Part of this is money and I speak to hundreds of candidates doing ACN type roles on 40K base who suddenly believe they can get 70K with McKinsey. My job is to find out whether that person really is a good match for my role, skills AND salary wise. Sorry to be idealist but as a "proper" i.e. not cowboy recruiter it would make my life (and the candidate's life) a whole lot easier if they were a bit more honest from the start. Why do you guys want to waste your valuable time anyway (you complain about doing enough hours as it is) going to interviews for jobs you've got no chance of getting?? Do you honestly think you can double your salary? So why don't you just have the honest salary conversation from the get go then we can have a proper conversation like grown-ups about job search aims and objectives etc instead of having to do this boring, time consuming dance?Having said all of that, Jonno - as everyone else has said, 1K really aint a big deal.

It's a shame this industry doesn't have professional barriers to entry and some kind of 'post-qualification experience' rating like the legal profession does.

I moved from industry into consulting and had a 60% payrise. Did I lie about my old salary - yes, did I lose my P45 - yes, did I get caught - no.Would I have got a 60% rise if I told the recruitment agency the truth? I'd say no.Whilst honesty is the best policy, consultancies will always try to hire people at the lowest cost. Take a chance.

Well, thanks for vindicating my position. You are a perfect illustration of my point - you have been rewarded based on your value add, and are not tethered to your previous salary.

I placed a guy from industry into consulting last year with a 90% payrise.Did he tell me the truth - yes, did I tell my client the truth - yes, was everyone involved in negotiating a fair package - yes. Is everyone happy - yes.Him being honest about everything made me understand exactly what the situation was at his previous company, what he wanted and what he was capable of.Question is do you want to be like Liar and run the risk of "being caught" or can you just be professional and open about things?Previous salary is not a tether, just a fact. It's the same as flat out lying on your CV about your job.Again re the start of the thread the 1K inflation was pointless, put not harmful.

If some1 asks u to tell them ur salary, just tell them to f off. Dun matter who they are, unless ur applyin 4 a mortage. None of their bizness, innit.

This thread has inspired me!Next time I go shopping and buy a car, I think I'll ask the retailer how much they paid for it themselves. That way I will be better able to ascertain whether the car meets my requirements and is sufficiently sophisticated enough to do the job I require of it.

I think this thread is one of the more useful on the forum.Summing up, if you are sure of what job / role you want to do, have a good and realistic idea of how much salary you can command and have a first rate recruitment consultant, sharing your current earning with the recruiter is sensible and useful.In my experience, if any of these factors are not present, the issue is more complex.In my current (large) company, the agency used to manage recruitment will only put someone forward for interview if they know their current package. This is then copied to all relevant parties along with the candidate's CV and any relevant assessments as they go through the process.The company policy is to then only offer a relatively modest percentage increase on top of this, to successful candidates. Clearly, there are any number of flaws with this system but these are not relevant within this discussion, as this is the co policy.Having been here a while and seen others' earnings, I now realise that I could have added another £10,000 to my claimed pre-start salary and no-one would have batted an eyelid and I would have been offered a job for a fair bit more money.As this is a relatively free market, I will use this knowledge to secure myself a better paid job in the near future.Surveys of others' salaries are very useful as starting points as there is no real correlation between one's financial contribution to the co and one's basic salary.It's difficult to generalise but as one gets more senior and the salary bands get ever wider, it seems to me to make sense to inflate one's claimed salary as long as you are willing to walk away from lower deals and keep looking for a role that really fits

have a look at salary info for specific firms on glassdoor.com and the research tony has done here at topconsultant.com

The answer to your question on salaries is a simple maths equation:Time (in weeks) since you last did anything useful for a client x waist measurement in cms since becoming a consultant + sq root of quantity of beer you drank at University / the number of 3 letter achronims you can actually explain so someone understands what you are talking about