Recruiter Warns Job Applicant To Avoid Questions About Pay & Benefits During Interview
What is the purpose of a job interview if not to ask questions about the job?
fizkes | Shutterstock The job search process has truly become an exercise in insanity these days, but one worker on Reddit's experience takes things to a whole other level. It seems that companies' expectations for job interviews have become one-sided interrogations where the candidate isn't allowed to ask the most basic of questions.
The applicant was warned by the recruiter to avoid questions about pay and benefits in the interview.
Ask pretty much any career expert or HR person and they'll counsel you that job interviews are meant to be two-sided affairs. "They're not just interviewing you, you're interviewing them," they say. This is basic job interviewing 101-type stuff.
Drazen Zigic | Shutterstock
Also very basic is the fact that the entire point of a job is to get pay and benefits, so asking about pay and benefits is a standard part of the whole deal. Working for free is known as volunteering or a hobby, which is not what a job is. That's why it's called a job!
So imagine the shock a worker on Reddit felt when they were explicitly told by their recruiter not to ask about basically anything about the job beyond the job description itself.
They were told not to ask me-centered questions about any details of the position, even the hours.
The absurd request came as part of the recruiter's email prepping the worker for their upcoming interview. Among the information was a snippet that read, "Avoid 'me' questions on compensation, hours, vacation, benefits, etc."
"Me" questions? Is this a job interview or is the boss giving a TED talk in his office? Half the point of a job interview is "me" questions! The applicant was utterly mystified by this directive. "It’s now frowned upon to ask in an interview what the job is offering in terms of pay or benefits LOL," they wrote in their post.
"So I have to go be put through the wringer about all my qualifications and what I can bring to the table to see if I’m lucky enough to be considered," they went on to say, "but I’m not to ask anything [about] what the job offers me in any way. Interviews are so one-sided it’s a joke."
The absurdly inappropriate nature of the ask is bad enough, but it's also… well, downright stupid. You're going to go to the trouble of interviewing multiple applicants, offering one of them the job, and then potentially having them immediately decline the offer when they find out the pay and benefits after the fact? That is dumb. You are dumb. Why are you like this?!
Some people urged the Redditor not to interview for the job, while others shared hilarious solutions.
It's fair to say that a company being secretive like this about pay and benefits is a bright red flag and very likely not worth the trouble. Of course, these days, getting an interview can be no small task, so many of us would probably move forward anyway. Still, caution is in order.
It's also possible that, as an employment agency, the recruiter doesn't want the applicant discussing things like pay because there is a commission for the recruiter included in that price. That's standard practice for employment agencies, but keeping an applicant totally in the dark like this is absurd and unprofessional. Working this out is literally part of a recruiter's job and should be done up front before interviewing!
Regardless, one Redditor had the perfect "malicious compliance" solution for this ludicrous request: Frame all questions about the forbidden topics as questions about the interviewer or the company.
"What is the pay rate of your most experienced employee in this position? What is the pay rate of your least experienced employee in this position? How much vacation time did you take in 2024? When you were sick, what was the response from your superiors?" the commenter wrote. "No 'me' questions here. Just concerned for the health of the company!"
That's certainly one way to do it! Walking away is another. But the best solution of all? For everyone involved in the hiring process to treat applicants with the care and professionalism they deserve, instead of cogs in a machine or numbers on a balance sheet. It's really not that hard, nor is it unreasonable.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.