Like many people, I did virtually all of my Christmas shopping on-line. As is traditional, even for actual shops, the price displayed for the goods that you want to buy is advertised and that is the price that you pay for the goods. I don’t think I have ever been in a store and said to the shop assistant “I’d like to buy this product but I am not prepared to buy it at the price you quote” – if I did, I suggest I might be asked politely to leave and stop scaring the children.
The price on an advertisement is exactly what it says; it is what you will have to pay to acquire that product. So why do candidates applying for jobs online believe that the salary advertised is a starting point for negotiation? When applying for a role, there are a number of matters you would probably consider – job title, job content, location and salary. You wouldn’t apply for a job and then turn round and ask for the job to be based somewhere other than the company’s offices, or ask that it is called something else.
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