Hey Everybody! It's Andy! Coming at you today with a little bit of insight on
the best approach to how to answer what's your expected salary when you get
this question in a job interview and just so you know where I'm coming at you
with this insight I'm a long time executive recruiter and I've negotiated
more than 600 employment agreements for with more than 200 different companies
so I've seen a lot related to what happens in these salary negotiations and
how everything you do in the entire process can affect your ability to get
paid what you deserve at the end I also have a video on YouTube of this very
same question and the reason I mention that certainly you can go check that out
if you want more but more importantly that video has thousands of comments and
questions on it and so I'm gonna also let you know what the two biggest issues
are with this question that people were asking me so the first thing is while
this question is designed and we're addressing this issue as you are being
asked this by a human in a job interview but most of those questions I was
getting on that YouTube video had to do with Andy well what do I put even on the
application so as I'm filling this out and I'm trying to fill out the job
application through the applicant tracking system I'm being asked what's
my expected salary what should I put in that field and so what I'd like to say
there is if it's if it's an open field put negotiable or open if you can write
text but a lot of these are usually drop-down boxes where they give you
ranges if they give you a range what I suggest then is that you just put
in something that's near your current salary the point here is you don't want
to go too high or too low you don't want to price yourself out and you don't want
to aim too low but most of the time these aren't going to matter know what's
gonna hold you to that they just want to make sure that you fill it out you can
hash this out in the negotiating process as you do well in the interview now when
you get to the interview you're gonna be asked this question and under no
circumstances do I want you to actually give a number and why not well the first
thing is you're unlikely to actually hit the bull's eye you might aim too low you
might aim too high and the fact of the matter is that it's just an uninformed
estimate you might think you know based on what you're currently
or you might think you know based on the research that you've done but what you
do not know at this moment in time is what this particular company is willing
to pay you for this particular job so people who have more information in the
in the negotiating process usually make more informed in better decisions
assumptions or not your friend so what I always recommend is that if you're asked
this question you just say to the recruiter the screener or the inter the
Human Resources official I'm really open while compensation is important to me
it's only one facet of what working here entails so what I get to do who I get to
do it with what my career growth opportunities are the benefits package
or whatever might be important to you roll that into the response you are far
better off doing that and and and then negotiating at the end of the process
when you're when your stock or your capital is the highest from all those
points you've earned throughout the interview process now you might you
might be thinking well Andy that you know that it's gonna sound like I'm
being evasive but fact of the matter is if the recruiter likes your background
he or she is going to turn to the hiring official and say I really like this
person's background I think we should interview them the hiring official is
going to want the chance to talk with you if you've got the goods
remember recruiters do not determine what you are going to get paid they are
likely just trying to see whether you fall in the range so they have an idea
of whether they'll be wasting their time or not but fact matter is you you being
in that interview process are putting that recruiter one step closer to his or
her ultimate goal which is to fill that position so they want they want to make
sure that they're getting the right candidates into the process and more
often than that they're willing to leave all the negotiating to the hiring
officials now some of you are gonna say and this this came from the YouTube the
YouTube video as well and they said well Andy I tried this the recruiter was just
turning red I can feel the steam coming through the phone they really wanted a
number from me if that is the case and you feel like you can
defer until the end of the process I'm gonna give you the bailout answer here
here again going back to what I was saying about assumptions are not your
friends and the more information that you have the more thoughtful you can be
about how you approach this entire process if you feel pressure to give a
number then what I would rather you do is say okay if you really want to make
sure that you know we're in the right ballpark I'm assuming that you have a
range or a budget for this particular position if you simply share that with
me I will let you know if I'm ok with that range and then my suggestion at
this point is no matter what the range is you just say you're okay and you go
in and you wow them employers are much much happier to pay more money if
they're gonna get more they want to pay less if they're gonna get less so but
work that out in the process so those are my suggestions on how to handle that
if you want a lot more on salary negotiation and everything to do along
the way I've got a playlist on my youtube channel and I hope that serves
you and and lots of luck out there I know it's a tricky question but I'm sure
you're gonna do great take care see you soon