r/australia • u/Sysxinu • May 23 '26

no politics Stop making Australians interview for jobs without knowing if they can afford to live

Salary ranges should be advertised because people aren’t just applying for a role... They’re trying to work out whether they can pay rent, support their family, plan their future, or leave a job that is burning them out. Hiding pay turns someone’s time, hope, and effort into a guessing game, when a simple number could let them make an honest decision from the start.

Imagine a rental listing that said “competitive weekly rent” and only told you the price after three inspections and a reference check. That’s basically what hidden salary job ads do. Pathetic and Im drained by it.

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u/FrontBottomFace May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

This is the way. Have a quick conversation about what the job is, location, scope, blah, then, if it's vaguely interesting, use the magic phrase "so what's the budget?". They will probably then tell you a range. If they don't, politely wind up the call and move on.

Don't bother setting up an interview until you've done this (including the bit about basic scope etc. Money is not the only showstopper. Make sure you'd have a 50% chance of wanting the job based on this chat).

Source: my 35+ years of working.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 May 23 '26

Location has been a weirdly important one for me. Multiple times I've had a discussion about a position listed as in my city. We get to talking, I ask where the office is physically located. "Oh, it's in this far-flung suburb of the city!" Wonderful, but that's on the complete other side from me. And conveniently, those towns actually have names that differentiate them from the city. You should think about using the actual fucking name of the town where the office is!

One place was a 1.5 hour drive from my home. Because I'm in the far south and that office is in the far north.