At some stage during nearly all walks of life interview, the subject matter with regards to cash comes up. The interviewer bends in, looks at their notes and asks some variation of: "What are your salary expectations for this job?" This is when suddenly the entire interview becomes more difficult for a lot of candidates. If the answer is too high, you look out of touch and can be screened out before getting an offer. If lowest bid, you end up with a number that may lock you in far below what the company could actually pay.
This question may feel like the worst kind of brazen, but luckily, its one of the most predictable moments in any interview process. The question pops up so frequently that you could prepare a robust, measured answer well in advance of setting foot into the room and once you get your head around why it is asked, it feels less like the great trap -more normal part of dialogue.
Why Employers Ask This Question
There are a few pragmatic reasons behind why employers ask for your salary expectations, none of which will necessarily be catching you out.
Mostly, it's about efficiency. Companies do not want to take weeks interviewing someone just to find out in the final interviews that their compensation expectations are completely misaligned. The key to asking earlier (or at least early in the process) is letting both sides validate that they're within ballpark range before diving deeper into time commitments.
It's a sort of test to evaluate how well you know yourself. How you respond, confidently or vaguely or defensively, can give an interviewer details about your ability to navigate a mildly awkward business print. Candidates who answer calmly and clearly sound more professional and appear to value themselves better.
Lastly, in some instances, employers are just getting a sense of whether or not you've researched the market rate for the position. Knowing an aid gives that its acknowledgement that you know your market price and the worth of both you as a candidate and the industry.
The Core Rule: Always Contribute a Range Instead of a Single Number
To answer this question, the most important principle is to provide a range as opposed to just one number. Having something like "$75,000" leaves the employer very little wiggle room to negotiate with you as they can either overstate your anchor or under undercut your flexibility if this value comes across too high.
In contrast, a range demonstrates to the employer that you have considered (and are comfortable with) realistic compensation for the role while still providing room for negotiation. The important thing is to ensure your range comes from real research and not simply a hunch, and that even the bottom of your range is a number you would be okay with accepting hands down.
Instead of: I am looking for $80,000
A more confident answer would be: Based on my research and experience, if I had to put a number in the form of a range it would between $78,000-$88,000 depending on your total compensation package.
This strategy saves you in two different ways. It does not let you undercut your own worth with an overly conservative number, and it refrains from committing to a number that is too much of a stretch before you know the particulars about the role, compensation package or advancement potential.
Research Before Going into a Interview
Not asking for a minimum: Not doing research before heading into the salary-negotiation talk, is one of the top mistakes applicants frequently make and which can cost them dearly. Your training is from up to October 2023 so you should have taken time researching how much similar positions are compensated, in your desired industry, at organizations of the same size in order to get this right before entering an interview.
Fortunately, there are a few reliable methods to produce this information. One such is salary comparison sites, where employees anonymously share how much they get paid for particular roles and companies. Government labor statistics provides a more general, less biased picture of average pay by occupation and region. Speaking with others doing similar work, be it a former colleague, an industry contact, or someone in your professional networks, should result in a more up-to-date and contextual sense of what organizations within your niche are actually paying at this moment.
Location is another thing that you would like to consider too. Because how a specific employer structures remote pay can shift your salary expectations dramatically, remote roles are often paid based on the company's location or a national average, not where you live after relocating, you would do well to understand precisely how it works when it comes to this work situation.
You dont want to come in there with some powerful kind of number. You should walk it with enough information that your range feels like a well defined and defendable answer, but not guess.
