when a recruiter asks you how much money are you expecting to make that is the first step of them
making you work on their time you just got a 20 to 30 cut in your salary your very first salary
you haven't done your research you're not actually worth it or you're just you're just not a good fit
over the shoulder over the leg over the coffee
this is andrew with data leap
welcome to the show i have my coffee that's professor meatball my name is andrew and i'm today
today i am going to answer the question what is one of the trickiest trick questions an
interviewer could possibly ask you and the two ways you should be able to answer it if you don't
want to be taken advantage of let's jump right into it because i think by the end of this video
you're going to like this video what are your salary expectations i've covered this question
in tick tocks i've covered this in instagram reels i've covered this in tick tocks part 2
but today i'm going to tell you that this question is meant to do two things and two things only one
make sure that the recruiter is not wasting any of the recruiters time or the hr team's time by
trying to capture a potential candidate that is too expensive for their taste now to be able to
understand what these two points are you're gonna have to think like an interviewer think like a
recruiter and think like the hiring manager when a hiring manager someone who ultimately manages the
new hire the person who is coming into the company that person puts out a position to be filled
they either go two ways one an in-house recruiter who is having a quota someone who works on the hr
team and just needs to fill it in order to make the quota that fills their regular paycheck
that internal recruiter is given a budget of how much money they can spend and how long this hiring
process can take when a company has a internal hiring process that means that they're usually at
a stage where they can afford a internal hiring process now that you understand that there's
exactly two elements one how much time they are willing to spend on each candidacy which could be
just a 30 minute call every week or so as they get an interview after an interview after an interview
usually there's only five or six steps maximums the sixth step would be a on-site interview
either on campus at the location or more likely nowadays it's all zoom calls a first trap question
interviewer asks is how much do you expect to make the timelines of different positions are different
because an engineer that needs to fix the back end asap because otherwise we lose thousands of
customers is completely different than an analyst or a data scientist who needs to be able to
finalize a fraud detection model that is already in production and just needs a few fine tweaks
the stage of the company matters so that's why sometimes software engineers who are more senior
get to have a lot more asking power because they match that bucket of need to get this person asap
now that you understand that some positions need to be filled faster than others it gives you a
little bit more context if you are going for a highly paid position that isn't necessarily
the most exigent part of their recruiting cycle then you have the luxury of stepping back
and taking your time when a recruiter asks you how much money are you expecting to make
that is the first step of them making you work on their time this question is a double-edged
sword because it is beneficial for the company in two ways one if you say a number an expectation
that is lower than their maximum budget then they're gonna go with your lower number if
you're happy with the number that is 20 lower or 30 percent lower you just got a 20 to 30
cut in your salary your very first salary imagine if you started with that and then had to adjust
to the lower salary that would be outrageous and you just did it to yourself the second way that
this question is a double-edged sword is that it weeds out candidates that are either dishonest
crazy high expectations or are just not a good fit if you're a candidate that says a number that
is too high it could mean a couple of different things one you're dishonest you think that you
should say a high number and then bargain down to the middle understanding that you are not actually
saying a number that you'd be comfortable with as friends but as negotiation partners that already
puts you on bad footing with the company before the second or third interview even starts two if
you say a high number it could be that you're just too overqualified and that's a good thing
that we figured out right away because either you are dishonest either you are out of your mind or
either you are just too expensive either way we don't want to continue on and you just saved us
a ton of time three if you hesitate to say this number and then you come up with some number
without a good rationalization they know that you don't do your research due diligence shows a
sign of character and by that they can either manipulate you by taking a lower number or
understand that you are someone who isn't a diligent worker so they're not going to
take you anyway either way it looks bad on you there is a right way to answer this question
and there's two ways to go about it one is that you do your research you find out exactly how much
other offers from the same company are which levels that fyi glassdoor and blind can help
you out with a ton also a couple of reddit forums but i wouldn't trust the veracity of
that information and then you try to extrapolate from industry trends or inflation or something
else that shows your analytical mindset of how much you think this role should be worth today
if you bring up any other kind of news about products that they're trying to build or perhaps
new initiatives that they're trying to follow up on that really helps you in two different ways as
well one it shows you that you have already done the research about the company so therefore you
are already ingratiated into that system of wanting to learn about the company and then
learning more than the average employee and two it helps out because it shows that you
have a bargaining chip here hey you're trying to invest in the company by finding good talent i'm
the right talent here and i want to show you that i'm worth it by giving you a premium price this
is how to answer this question if you wanted to actually say an answer just one small caveat you
might think that answering lower than the industry standard is a bargaining chip something that you
can use when maybe you're a little more desperate for a job and you want to be able to beat out
the competition and say hey i know my position is worth a hundred thousand dollars i'm waiting to go
80 000. that is a dangerous slippery slope because there are things on the market called given goods
things that are more valuable if they are more expensive usually the opposite of any other
commodity and labor is one of those goods if you are in a very highly respected professional field
if you say from the get-go i'm willing to be paid less than my competitor so that you guys think
i'm a more hireable subject that might be good for the recruiter who doesn't care anything more
than just filling the position but ultimately the hiring manager is going to ask the question well
if we want the best of the very best then why would we take you someone who is willing to work
at a discount now i'm going to explain exactly how i would answer this question if i didn't
want to give them an answer which is exactly what i do every single time this is personally what i
do every time i ask the question which happens often pretty darn often in the silicon valley
space more and more so often because recruiters need to tighten up that recruiting process and
they just need to see if there are some dead ends that they don't want to spend a couple of half
dozen work hours on this doesn't recruiting cycle doesn't really take up that much time honestly but
picking a bad candidate really does mess up a recruiter's ratio of exactly how many leads they
find how many offers they extend and how many of those turn into actual full-time employees
so the answer i would not like to answer this question at the time because i make it a point
in myself it's a habit it's a promise it's a secret i keep no you can just say that this
is a principle that i have that the very first interview i am just learning about the company
about the culture and about the products that you guys are working on so i don't make it a point
to say what my value is to the company until the second or third interview i'm happy to talk to our
hiring manager about it i'm happy to give a little bit more context about it later on uh but today
i don't think i'm gonna answer that question this is a respectable answer at any respectable company
every company that has given me a fair shake that has actually not just pushed me around through a
bad recruiting cycle any company that is not shady a real company a company that has real customers
and real revenue and real people working on it they're not going to push you any further than
that i have never flunked an interview by which i mean an interviewer stops following up or says
hey sorry we're not moving forward because you didn't tell us the number you'd be happy with
this has never happened you are only giving the interviewer power by answering the question if
you answer it in a well-researched way then you guys are still on even footing but it will never
advantage you so why answer the question if for any instance you might end up giving them a number
lower than what they were willing to offer you and you bungled it up here is an example if you
think less than one year of experience you're not worth 150 000 or 200 000 salaries you would be
surprised at some of these tech companies if you end up saying a number that's like 80 000 85 000
they'll realize one of the assumptions i laid out before either you haven't done your research
you're not actually worth it or you're just you're just not a good fit so i hope you enjoyed my two
ways to answer my favorite trick question an interviewer likes to ask i'm planning to do one
to two more of these so if you like this content give this video a like it helps other people just
like you find the content alongside other content that they like recommendation systems am i right
but you can also do me a favor by checking out one of the links down below probably the weibo
one that gives you four free stocks when you invest 100 or the robin hood one that gives
you a free stock probably a microsoft one if you invest even one dollar and
as always hope you guys are having a great day i'll see you guys next time peace
over the shoulder over the leg oh wait one second over the coffee over the leg
up over the coffee