Respecting Professionals' Rates
Kwame
🗣️ Let’s talk about respect, experience, and the frustrating ritual of job negotiations.
I’ve been in the IT industry for over 23 years. So when a recruiter calls and immediately dives into a checklist of technologies asking,
“Have you worked with X?”
“What about Y?”
“Why isn’t Z on your resume?”
I can’t help but feel frustrated.
đź“„ Here’s the reality: If I listed every single technology, tool, or platform I’ve worked with over the past two decades, my CV would be 10 pages long — and no one would want to read it. A resume is meant to be a snapshot of relevant, recent, and focused experience. It’s not a timeline of everything I’ve ever touched.
But here’s what really stings:
After all those questions, the first real concern becomes:
💸 “What’s your hourly rate?”
And then — almost always — comes the follow-up:
“Is that open to negotiation?”
Let me be very clear:
You don’t walk into a restaurant, look at the menu, and ask the server if the prices are negotiable.
You don’t bring your car to a mechanic and say, “Actually, I think that brake job should cost 30% less.”
So why are skilled professionals — with decades of experience — constantly expected to justify or bargain their rate?
🎯 Whether you’re just starting out or have 20+ years in the field, you have the right to set your rate based on your experience, your skills, and the value you bring.
And let’s be honest — if you’re charging way above your capability, it’ll become obvious quickly during the interview process.
But the opposite is also true: if you’re highly skilled and underpricing yourself, you’re not just doing yourself a disservice — you’re undercutting the market and sending the wrong signal.
📢 So to all recruiters and hiring managers out there:
- If you’ve asked for the resume, read it.
- If you’ve requested a rate, respect it.
- And if you want to assess skills, do it in a way that values time and experience, not just keywords.
We’re professionals — not auction items.