Woman asks for double salary offer in job interview after employer's confession

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The woman wasn
The woman wasn't happy with the offer made during her interview (stock photo) (Image: Getty Images/Westend61)

Job interviews aren't easy. You want to impress the company you're interviewing for as much as possible, but you also need to know your own worth and when to stick up for yourself if you're not being offered a good deal.

One woman has been praised online after she admitted she demanded double the salary at a recent job interview after she discovered her potential employer was hiding a big secret about the position. The woman said she has "decades of experience" in her field so knows what her expertise is worth, and added she was looking to take on a job with "less stress" after working for years in a high-impact environment.

However, at the end of her interview, the hiring manager told her the job would be "almost all international travel". The news left the woman stunned as she pointed out that the hassle of travelling - and the extra time she'd have to allocate for flights - would make her hourly pay rate "almost nothing", so she demanded twice as much cash.

The woman said the employer tried to argue she was being "unreasonable" but she put her foot down, and even accused the unnamed company of "lying" to her and other interviewees about the position. In a post on Reddit, she wrote: "I have decades of experience in my field, and I'm looking for a job with less stress since my finances allow me to. No husband, no kids, no big house or car payments. The job would have not been a pay cut, but on paper it was a stress cut.

"So cut to the interview. I can tell they love my qualifications but they're trying their best to downplay them so they don't have to pay me nearly what I'm worth. Then they explain that it's almost all international travel. I explain to them that I am fine with that, but I know that can be stressful and it means your pay rate per hour falls to almost nothing. So I explained I would require double what their max listed salary for the position was.

'I don't want children staying up late at weekends - I really need adult time' eiqetidzxidtinv'I don't want children staying up late at weekends - I really need adult time'

"They looked shocked. Acted like I was being unreasonable. Tried to say that all I cared about was money. I said, 'I care about other things as well, but since you did not tell me that this was 75% travel until we were almost done with the interview I now have no reason to believe that you are being honest with me about anything else regarding this position or this company.'

"One of them responded, 'Well, people are not interested if we tell them that up front', I replied, 'That's a lovely way to justify lying so you can sleep at night. Bring people in, get them invested, and then change the deal. Which is fine. You want to make a change in the deal, so I want a change too. Take it or leave it.' They looked at each other [and said] 'We will get back to you, thank you.'

"The interview ended there and I left. Even at that pay rate, I'm a good deal, and they know it. What they don't know is that I would just take the job for the free travel and do a really half-ass job of it, then retire after a year or so." Commenters were quick to praise the woman for her approach, with one person even branding her a "hero". Another person wrote: "Bravo, ma'am. I salute you!" and someone else added: "God your response was perfect, I love it. Bet it felt good too."

Zahna Eklund

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