Throwaway, for reasons that will be clear soon.
So I applied and secured a job sometime mid last year, and during the application process the company asked for my previous payslips, now this is not illegal in my country and fairly common, especially my position is not an executive position. The role is highly specialised and not many people can do it, and since the company (an MNC) was setting up a new manufacturing plant in my region, they wanted experienced hands for the start up of the plant.
Anyway, from my previous company, I already felt that I was underpaid, and I wanted my new salary to be based on my skills and experience and not my previous pay. Companies ask this and they’ll give you an enough of a pay bump to make it worth jumping ship, but not really significant enough to change your life.
So what I did was doctored my pay check (probably illegal, or fraud atleast) so that I can get the pay I wanted. And I assumed if I was too “expensive” the company had the discretion to not make me an offer.
Except they did. And I got a significant pay bump. Yay me!
Anyway, so in my profession and in the industry, there is a “professional tier” of sorts and the higher you go you earn more. And this new company will soon let you know where in the tier you fall in, like tech 1, tech 2, etc. And they based this not based on experience but how much your salary is, so if they release it, most people will have a ballpark estimate of your salary, which I’m not against, in principle.
But the problem lies that, I was not the only person to jump ship from my previous company, and they previous company was one of those that paid the most. And most people knew which tier I was under previously. So when I get my new tier here, it’ll be apparent to my colleagues (the other techs atleast) that something is amiss, like I was previously earning less or on par with them and now I’m like a few levels above them.
I’m kinda worried I’ll be found out (by corporate). But I guess it’s a little late for that. Hopefully I can just shrug it off before it get to be a big deal.
One thing I should point out, at this new place I am one of the top performers, and there is no doubt to my competency or skill level, people come to me when they have issues and questions, and usually I can sort it out. People are saying I am a shoe in for a Lead position, despite my apparent lack of seniority.