The Best Answer to “What’s Your Expected Salary?”

In this article, we’re going to talk about the best answer to what’s your expected salary? Who doesn’t love getting this question in the job interview process? It’s a tough one, I know!

I know it’s frustrating. I know it makes you nervous, and I know a lot of people out there worry about actually giving a number, and you should worry about it.

But, what I’m going to do is give you the exact script, so you can worry no more. I’m going to tell you why you should use this script. I’m going to tell you the mistakes people make, and why your thinking is likely wrong on how to approach this.

In New York they have made it illegal for employers, recruiters, and hiring managers to ask job seekers to supply their salary history. While I’m sure that will continue to grow in the number of countries that will adopt that law, one thing that I don’t think will go away is employers asking you what your expected salary is.

Hey, how much do you want to earn?

Here’s what I advise. Under no circumstances do I ever want you to actually give them a number. Why? Well, this is it’s uneducated. You do not know what it’s like to work there, what you’ll get to do, who you get to do it with, the training and development opportunities, the vacation, the benefits, the benefit costs, all of those things.

It’s very difficult for you to hit the nail on the head by giving them a number, especially this early in the process. The second thing is I don’t want you to worry. There is not a recruiter in the world who determines whether you get hired or what you get paid.

The hiring officials do that, I mean, unless the recruiter is the hiring official or the HR person is the hiring official. I don’t want you to worry about that, because they’re not ultimately going to determine what you’re going to get paid, even if they give you a guideline as to what the position pays.

I don’t want you to worry about that upfront. The other thing is I don’t want you to actually give a number, because you might either aim too low, in which case you’re setting their expectations that your expectations are low, even though they might be willing to pay you more, or you price yourself out because you went too high.

The one thing that the recruiter can do at the beginning of the process is knocking you out, but the recruiter won’t knock you out if they really like your background and you don’t provide a number.

What were you thinking?

You might be thinking, well, maybe I can give them a range. Well, that might be nice, but if I’m the hiring official and you give me a range and you say, “Joe, I’d like to earn between R80,000 and R100,000”. What do you think I heard? I heard R80,000. You’re still giving them a low number, probably lower than they would be willing to pay, so ranges aren’t really great either because those are still uneducated.

They’re likely to anchor on your low number when you mentally are thinking about your high number. Ranges don’t work much, either.

What I would rather you do is, when you are approached with that question, I’d like you to say:

“While compensation is important to me, I really want to look at the entire value of working at your company. What I get to do, who I get to do it with, the training opportunities, the career advancement opportunities, the benefits, the vacation, and all of the other things that go along with working at your organization.

I’m excited to learn about those in the interviewing process, and toward the end, I would be able to give you a much better idea of what it is that I would expect in terms of my salary, based on all those other factors.

At the moment, to give you any kind of estimate would be uneducated on my part. I look forward to investigating those areas, and I look forward to starting the interview process.”

Why You Don’t Get Paid What You Deserve.

You might be thinking, that’s evasive, and they’re going to be upset if I don’t give them a number. What’s actually going to happen is you’re going to effectively position yourself to earn more points throughout the process and make a more educated decision at the end.

What’s going to happen transactionally at that moment, which most people do not realize, is if you’ve got the skills, if your resume’s in order, you are right for this position, and they are ultimately going to want to hire you.

That recruiter will be thinking to themselves. I like this person’s background. This candidate has all the skills we need. I love how they responded to this question and they make a good point. I would like to find out more. Let’s add this one to our shortlist.

The reason I know that is I have been a recruitment manager for many, many years. I would always tell the recruiters, not to ask what their expected salary is. It’s silly for you to ask that because they’ll give you an uneducated answer.  Some insisted on asking the question. They wanted to have an idea of whether or not they should get you into the process.

Every time that the smart candidate didn’t provide a figure, the recruiter would ask me what to do. My response was, that person looks fantastic on paper. Add them to the shortlist!

In this article, you’ve learned The Best Answer to “What’s Your Expected Salary?”. Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter and stay informed!

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