“What Are Your Salary Expectations?” HOW TO ANSWER

I have found that I like to advise people on what to do and what not to do during a job interview and “What Are Your Salary Expectations?” is always an important issue. So your question is:

What do I have to do when I apply for a position and I am asked to answer “What Are Your Salary Expectations?”

At first, the answer that one would give is: “you have to put what you want to win”. Although this is valid, there are also several points that we must take into account to understand what to put when they ask us for this information, especially considering that, many times, whether they contact us for an interview or not will depend of the amount we indicate. Why do you think this happens?

Most of the time, when a selector performs a job search, they already know in advance what budget they have, that is, what salary they can offer to the candidate who is selected. For example, you know that a maximum salary of $ 10,000 per month can be offered for a given position, you open a job advertisement and you receive the CVs of two candidates who have the necessary knowledge for the position, with the difference that one asks for $ 11,000 per month and the other $ 9,000. It is very likely that the one who asks for more will not be summoned for an interview, while the one who asks for less will, simply because the intended remuneration of the second candidate is within what can be offered for the position.

In the event that this person is hired, a new question arises regarding the salary that will be offered: will it be $ 10,000 (the salary that the company planned to pay), or $ 9,000 (the candidate’s intended compensation)? There is no single answer as both options are valid.

Sometimes it happens that the salary that the company offers is immutable, and it does not matter if the candidate asks for less money, since, in any case, he ends up being hired for the amount that was planned from the beginning (which in this example would be for $ 10,000). Other times, when the candidate answer the question “What Are Your Salary Expectations?” a lower than the one intended to offer, he ends up playing against, since the company ends up paying a lower salary than the one he originally intended to pay.

CONCLUTION ON “What Are Your Salary Expectations?”

So, my suggestion is that before applying, do your research and find out how much the job market is paying for that position you want to apply for, while obviously taking into account how much you really want to earn. In this way, when they see the classic “without omitting What Are Your Salary Expectations?”, they will have a much more approximate idea of ​​what to put, avoiding being left out of the search for exceeding the amount, or avoiding being paid less for having paid a much lower remuneration than the market pays.

For more important questions in Job Interview check this Article!