Wondered what experience people had out there regarding the degree of checking consultancies tend to do on your existing packages (incl base salary) when moving from one firm to another as an experienced hire... i.e. can you get away with slightly inflating it in order to get a better offer?

Two important considerations:i) There is a vetting service in the UK (from memory provided by Experian) that is used by the HR teams of quite a few leading consulting firms. At offer stage these firms will undertake such a check on all offerees - and this will reveal everything to do with your financial background as well as checking on the validity of your academic claims and other suchlike. So you should assume there is a good chance of you being found out.ii) Why would you want the stress and sleepless nights that lying like this would bring. It's a sackable offence to have lied during the recruitment process - and previous salary is a black and white issue, there's no room for debate. Not being able to secure a reference from this consultancy in the future - because you got found out - will make it nigh on impossible to secure a consulting role with any other reputable firm. It's also the case that how hard you negotiate once you are an employee at the firm - and how hard you push to be fast-tracked versus your peers - will have a much greater financial impact than a few thousand negotiated when you are first hired.Tony Restell (Top-Consultant.com)

Tony's advice is good (as always!), but playing devil's advocate I would add the following:1. Experian and most central checking services have databases that are out of date or full of junk. They may have info about your qualifications and how many loans you've applied for in the last year, but I doubt they'll be able to confirm that you're earning £48,500 when in fact you told the HR department you're earning £60,000. The only people who can do this is you, your employer or the tax man right? However, I may be wrong - I'd love to know more about these services and how often they are used/how accurate they are.2. Sleepless nights are a good reason for not lying. A VERY good reason actually. But getting a higher starting salary if you can does make a big difference - imagine having an extra £10,000 per year for the rest of your career.... you can effectively fastforward your career and get the equivalent of several years worth of promotions just by getting a higher starting salary. Plus many employers who hire on the basis of what you "could" earn in the future seem not to honour their promises these days (think about the paltry pay rises and bonuses that have been dished out during recent years by many of the large firms).Tony's key point however is VERY good advice... you really don't want to be losing sleep over a lie that could catch up on you at any time during your career with the new company.

Listen to Tony. Don't lie about it - there is a pretty good chance that your future employer will be doing a pretty detailed check on you. Getting caught would be bad on soooo many levels. And consulting is a very small world. If you are actually good enough to warrant a higher offer, then you'll probably get it - more so if you go to a smaller firm that has more flexibility than the big ones.

When I was searching for a (I assume the right pronoun is a; although an sounds better - I'm sure the english graduate who correct language on this site will help) MC job after my MBA only recuitment consultancies asked for my previous salary. the firms I approached direct, like the one I'm working for now, didn't. They probably knew that as I previously worked in industry the salaries were a world apart. But I wouldn't lie about my salary - maybe you could add a few £k to the bonus that you never got and you might have some room around pensions/benefits but you can't push it up too much. Also, in my experience MCs recruit on your personality, experience and potential - they tend not to bother about what you got paid elsewhere.