[lscore720]

I discuss the compensation range before the interview process begins (i.e. their resume preparation) only with candidates responding with interest to my initial contact. I make a leap in faith by sharing the company/job details in the first contact, and having been screwed over by doing this, I feel it's fair to hold off at presenting compensation details to literally every person I contact. After all of my hard work, all they need to do is take one second and respond with "looks interesting, but could they match or exceed $XYZ range?"

If they're interested and have not brought up numbers, I'll ask them to provide their expectations first and I appreciate when they do. If they don't, I'm happy to give them a broad range to see if they're at least in the same ballpark.

As an agency recruiter, I serve the employer. If I tell everyone that a job will pay $150K - $200K, far too many people will respond with "yeah, my expectation is around $200K." It's not fair to the CTO/VP Engineering.

I don't believe there's a right answer, but I'm trying to find that middle ground that serves everyone best.

I would be curious to hear what HN users think.