mandatory to fill up previous salary for last few jobs?
 

As above - I've been reading up a lot on different interview application strategies, and most of them agree that the salary info should not be given first, so that it does not form an anchor upon which the recruiter may use to give your new salary.

The typical application form includes fields for your last 3 jobs and the last drawn salary - would the HR admin reject the form if these fields (specifically the salary field) are not filled up?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Would be interested to know as well as employers always try to undercut new hires based on last drawn...always pegged on a percentage.Have read that this is not the norm in overseas where employer offer base on interview performance and relevant experience.

how to undercut employers
 

A friend of mine was asked during the job interview "how much salary cut are you willing to take?" He said - upto 10%. Based on his current salary of 6,000 pm, he was offered 5500 pm. He rejected the offer, saying he got something better elsewhere. This company was then forced to offer him 6500 pm.

Moral of the story - if someone tries to undercut your salary, turn the tables on them.

Do this only if:
1. If you really have a better offer elsewhere
2. You have unique skill set/experience they have difficulty recruiting

It all boils down to how desperate they / you are.

For those positions with low entry barriers, we wished the prospective employees all the best in their other offers when they told they had better offers elsewhere. We have fixed pay structures for the various job scopes, and thus not going to offer above the established pay. So prospective employees trying their luck with us will not get offered.

which comes back to my original question - is it okay not to state your last drawn salary?

alternatively, what are the ways to make HR managers reveal the pay range first?

You should try your best to not reveal your last salary.

Also, you should only discuss anything salary-related after you are offered the job. It's unprofessional to talk about salary before you're offered a job.

Many companies require the applicants to fill their info and submit their applications online.
The "last drawn salary" field is always mandatory and marked with an asterisk which all applicants must fill, otherwise the system won't proceed.

Most of the time, it is not up to the applicant to decide whether or not to reveal their last drawn.

Its ok not to state your last drawn salary. You can put TBA,just leave it blank first, or a small range like $4,000 - $6,000.

If you are good and the hiring manager thinks too so, the figure can be sorted out eventually. But most HR will insist the hiring manger to grab a figure.

If the job is through a recruiter, grill the recruiter on what's the budget for this job.
If its direct through HR, do your own research on the market salary rate.