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Question. I've had two phone intevies with a company in Dubai and now they want to fly me in for an interview. Is it usual to do this prior to even talking about salary? I am asking because if its not a good enough offer I wont take it ... wouldn't they want to make sure that we were on the same level beofre going to the expense of flying me in?

I think the norm is to keep Salary negotiations till the end. Phone interviews are used to weed out the applicants and the serious cotenders are flown in for interviews, and then if you are picked you can negotiate salary. I dont see anything out of the ordinary thats how its done.

Obviously if they are flying you in at least someone thinks you could be an asset, etc. Which does not mean that you should take anything they offer or that they should offer you anything. Suppose they've asked you about what salary you where looking for during the interview (were you prepared then?). I think you should be prepared to discuss salary always in case they bring it up at any point during the interview. But do not respond with an amount but maybe something along the lines "tell me more about the job, etc. and I am sure the compensation will be in line with both are expectations" they you will discuss money at the end... unless of course they offer you twice what you were looking for...

Good luck (and if anything enjoy your stay in Dubai).

Thanks
I suppose when you are way down here in New Zealand it seems a big thing for them to fly you all the way over. As long its not a committment to accept the job.

Kiwileigh,

Im in a similar situation - I had my phone interview last night and now its time for the face to face and psychemetric tests ..... for me however the MD is going to be in Australia for two days in June so I only need to shoot across to Sydney (which is actually a bit of a shame as I wanted to go and see Dubai with my own eyes). The recruitment agent has passed on to me the salary on offer from the company for my position and has mentioned that it may be worth negotiating after the interview process. Most annoying thing I found was the salary on offer dropped AUS$30,000 after they figured out I was still reasonably young - they also claimed salaries are being driven down by cheaper resources from Singapore/Malaysia.

AJB,

You should also consider that the recruitment agent may have an interest in recruiting you at a lower amount. That way he is valuable to the company (as someone who gets the right candidates for a lower amount than other recruiters). At the end of the day don't take less than what you think you are worth (considering the market, etc.) - but I imagine you already know that.

Same goes for Kiwileigh.

Thanks Concord ..... considering the tax free environment the offer is still around 3 times what I earn here with the opportunity of some pretty decent bonuses ..... and the money aside the development projects that are available are some of the best in the world. So where ever the salary ends up in the range thats been quoted I would be pretty happy.

AJB,

I work in recruitment, and while I always try and find my clients "reasonably priced" candidates at the end of the day the more money my candidate gets - the higher my fee from the company.

Also to Kiwileigh

I always encourage my clients to discuss salary before flying anyone out - it can be a huge waste of time and money on everyones part if at the end of the day their budget is really low! We have had so many instances where candidate have flown out from Australia for interviews only to be offered really low salaries. If you are doing this through an agent it is worth asking them to suss this out for you before you get out there. Often you will be issued with a "draft contract" pending your F2F interview.

Kiwileigh wrote:Question. I've had two phone intevies with a company in Dubai and now they want to fly me in for an interview. Is it usual to do this prior to even talking about salary? I am asking because if its not a good enough offer I wont take it ... wouldn't they want to make sure that we were on the same level beofre going to the expense of flying me in?

I don't work in recruitment so take what I say with a pinch of salt (or the whole salt shaker) but...

It's a negotiation process. The strongest position to negotiate your salary from is when they've made a job offer. That's when you know they want you.

If they don't discuss salary before you fly to Dubai, that's their business. You've nothing to lose by having a look - and a lot to gain.