I recently had a headhunter contact me via LinkedIn. He at first wanted to know if I had any leads on someone with my same experience and qualifications. I actually did, so I told him I would offer his contact information to my lead and ask her if it was ok to provide her contact information to the headhunter.

He then asked if I was sure that I was happy with my current company. I've been with my employer for 8 years, they treat me like family and I absolutely love them. I told him that I have absolutely no interest in leaving.

He started talking about how he was confident that his client would offer a higher salary than I was making. They were prepared to offer 40k plus potential for bonuses.

This is for a position that requires government clearance, the potential of jail time (remote possibility but still a possibility) if not done correctly, requires you to be on call literally 24/7 and overall requires a great deal of experience and knowledge to do correctly. His client also wanted someone with 5 years experience and a bachelor's degree.

I laughed at him. I didn't mean to, it just came out. I wished him good luck and let him know his client would need to adjust their expectations or raise their salary.

My friend did accept an offer from them but only once they went up to 52k with guaranteed quarterly bonuses. The only reason she went that low is because she had just been laid off due to covid and she really needed something.

So I agree. Not only should a salary range be listed, but employers should be more aware of what the position generally pays. It's a waste of everyone's time to lowball.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of employers are going to be taking advantage of covid and try to score talent for rock bottom salaries. They are banking on people desperate to have some money coming in.