Do Not Apply

When advertising positions, companies attempt to prevent unqualified candidates from applying through setting different bars.

Recently, a position for the Head of Human Resources at an “established Foreign Bank, upholding its long tradition of providing value-added services for both institutional and private investors in the region” was advertised by a third-party recruiter.

The most interesting requirement was, "candidates currently earning less than RMB 700,000 do not apply."

Obviously, this point implies that the bank is seeking a professional:
• … with experience at an established and more bureaucratic company as opposed to a smaller and more entrepreneurial company. In most cases, younger and entrepreneurial companies are much less likely to offer high salaries.
• … who has worked for an international company as opposed to a local Chinese company. Again, international companies are more prone to pay higher salaries.
• … who is older as opposed to younger. Older professionals earn higher salaries than younger ones. Ogilvy's Matthew Anderson says successful executives earn 80 percent of their net worth after the age of 40.

One cannot resist thinking of other motives behind this restriction.
• First, the assumption that the more one earns, the more valuable and pivotal one is. Unfortunately, compensation is not always commensurate with contribution. Furthermore, compensation does not necessarily correspond to strengths and talents, especially in cultures in which leaders are promoted based on age and status.
• The bank follows the belief that one has to climb the career ladder step-by-step instead of leaping over steps.
• The bank yearns to attract a person who has the same role at another organization. The bank probably motivates, encourages, and rewards people performance mainly with money. Consequently, the organization seeks to hire people motivated by money more than intangible elements of EVP.
• The bank is “trying to kill two birds with a single shot”. Upon completion of the recruitment process, the bank owns benchmarking data on compensation packages among professionals with similar qualifications and experience at competitor organizations (within financial or professional services industry).

The only question remains, how likely is it that professionals earning RMB 700,000 will find this job offer since they tend to be passive candidates in China’s job market. An alignment of the medium and the message is inevitably critical.