Unlike your general strategy to duck salary history and requirements until you've been offered a job, be candid with bona fide executive recruiters — and if you are asked to send in tax statement proof of your earnings, say clearly that you expect the earnings history to be kept confidential between the recruiter and the employer.

Salary is always a difficult subject to negotiate. Suppose the recruiter asks that you send a marketing package, including your salary history or requirements. With history, state the cash compensation as a separate item, adding your benefit package as a second figure. Recruiters are too sophisticated to buy the "total compensation" statement in which you combine your salary, bonus, benefits, anticipated salary, and anything else you can think of to swell the figure.

As for salary requirements, if you avoid giving any figure at all when requested in your cover letter, then the recruiter probably won't consider you. (This probability is not true when you are dealing directly with employers.) Giving a single figure can make you look inflexible. By stating a range of salary expectations, you can give the recruiter a good gauge of your market value, while allowing room to negotiate.