When you go on interviews to jobs, do they tell you the job salary? I want to know because if I interview for a job and its pay is terrible, I don’t want to waste my time with that interview. In addition, if I interview for two jobs and get both the jobs. Will they tell me the salary, so I can choose between the two jobs?
Not at an interview. There are many rounds of interviews. But technically HR will contact you and make the offer.
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But you’ll always know what your pay is by the time the offer letter rolls around.
By the way, I know you’re not full time, so you should always go through with interviews anyway. That experience is valuable, and really the only thing that matters for computer science internships.
Internships are not about making money. You’re in for a rude awakening if you think they are.
I would definitely go through your interviews anyway as @CourtneyThurston mentioned as they are great practice and also keeps your options open. You should have a good sense of the salary range anyway beforehand based on industry standards for the position and level. It’s a much tighter range and standardized for most junior positions, it’s at managerial levels where there can be larger discrepancies.
I’m not sure I would go to an interview if I didn’t have some idea of the salary range being offered.
If you were a college freshman (as OP is) and had half a brain, you would. Interviews are bar none the most critical piece to getting hired in cs. Very little else matters, including GPA. And trust me, you are not going to be good at cs technical interviews unless you do cs technical interviews.
Don’t expect to be told your wage range on the first interview. To be honest, an interview is only a “waste of time” if a) the company is being deceitful or b) you feel a sense of entitlement that prevents you from learning anything from the interview.
Your best bet is to go through the interview process. At some point, salary expectations will be discussed unless there is no room for negotiation, which might mean you find out when an offer is made. If you are desperately curious, you could check Glassdoor, but that’s only intermittently representative.
For a professional job, salary is typically not discussed at the interview. The employer might interview different candidates over several days, then a committee might compare the candidates behind closed doors. The top candidate is selected, then the candidate is contacted and presented a job offer with compensation details.
Nobody discussed money ever. Always say salary is open for negotiation. You might turn off people early. Technical interviews are important in CS.
Be careful with that, DrGoogle… a nice rule of thumb is that if you are asked, you say you are open for negotiation, and if they press, you should give a reasonable range. The idea that you should never give a range or name a number is misguided and may cost you an opportunity to move forward in the process (think… there are three people: 1 gives a range of 50-60k, one gives a range of 55-65k, and you give no range. If the company was looking in the range of 45-55k, there are two candidates who are in that range, and if you are all comparable after the first interview, who do you think will be the odd one out?).
Feel free to be a little coy, but don’t take it too far.
Chris, your example is a good reason for not discussing salary. You could be the guy on the high range and therefore you might be eliminated early. You want to do the elimination, not the other way around. You could also ask them what is the range of salary the position is offering and not given your position on salary. If the range is acceptable to move forward then it’s ok to continue. For example if I’m looking for a $50/hour job and somebody is willing to pay $10. I wouldn’t even bother to move forward.
My post original said not to discuss salary as in specific amount, that doesn’t mean you can’t ask for salary range. That’s not discussing money. I still stand by my comment salary is negotiable, meant the final details.