No Info on Pay Range? Thanks but No Thanks.

For those of you looking for jobs, or just keeping an eye out for decent positions that come up (like me), you may have noticed that many organizations don’t post the pay associated with the position.  When there’s no information on pay, not even a broad pay range, then it is harder to ballpark if it’s worth your time and effort to put in an application. It takes a lot of time to apply for a job. There’s the resume, cover letter, and often an application form or online process to follow.  Not to mention any background research you do on the company.  I can easily spend 10 hours preparing a whole application.  Because of the time and effort required for a single application I’m picky about what I apply for and this is exactly what companies don’t want.  They should want to see as many qualified resumes as possible, which brings me to my point - this trend is foolish.  Companies are only hurting themselves by refusing to provide any information on pay – we all know they have a budget dedicated to the position so there must at least be *some* information available to potential applicants.

A recent position posted by Calgary Economic Development (CED) looked like a decent job, fairly similar to the current position I’m in.  But it was hard to gauge from the information given if it would be a step up, a step across, or even a step down for me in terms of pay.  I sent a nice email to the contract address listed and waited for a response.  My hopes weren’t high in terms of specificity but I thought it was worth a try.  Frustratingly the CED did not even respond to my message.  This angered me and prompted my second email.

“Hi, as you have not replied to my earlier email requesting information on the pay range for the Research Manager position I will not be applying.  This is because either 1) you're too busy/disorganized to check your emails and thus are an organization I want nothing to do with OR 2) you read my email and did not even have the courtesy to reply that you don't have/were unwilling to provide that information.  Thanks, but no thanks.”

Which I did not send.  Haha, I pondered it, but felt it was a little too abrasive.

Short of the email-checking-individual being on holidays I see no excuse for no return message.  AND even if the person responsible for monitoring that account is on holidays, shouldn’t someone else be monitoring it?  So now, not only am I less interested in the job because I have no idea regarding pay but also because they seem like a sloppy and/or arrogant organization. Thanks but no thanks Calgary Economic Development. You will not be seeing an application from me.