What Are Your Salary Expectations?

In any job search, it is usually an inevitability that the question, “What are your salary expectations?”, will come up at some point. How many of us have a coherent, well thought through answer to this question? What even is the right answer? Well, it is by no means straight forward, but is certainly worth looking into so that you are prepared for this awkward question when it comes up, sooner or later.

There are a few factors that need to be highlighted before we even start the thinking process:

• Who is asking the question? Is it the recruiter or the potential employer? If it is the latter, what is the person’s role within the organisation? What are their recruitment responsibilities and their level of influence on the final decision?
• When, in the process, is this question being asked? Is it at the outset during the initial screening stages, or towards the end of the process, when they are selling to you and want to pitch the offer at the right level?
• Is there a recruiter (internal or external) involved in the compensation conversation or are you dealing directly with your future boss?

All of these factors will play a part in the way in which you deal with the issue of renumeration.

What to bear in mind

At its most basic, your priority is to understand what the job entails, what level of value you will be able to add to the business, and what price they will put on that. Furthermore, you will want to understand all the elements of compensation that will include, but not be limited to: base salary, bonuses (guaranteed and variable), how much is in cash and how much in stock/stock options, and other sorts of payment. It will also include: pension contribution, number of holiday days, healthcare insurance, car and other benefits to be specified.

Only when you understand with some clarity what they are expecting from you, and what you can expect from them in return, do you have a realistic chance of effectively answering the question: “What are your salary expectations?”

The recruiter and perhaps their internal recruitment team will want to know this because they will not want to waste time with candidates who are beyond the target bracket they have been given. The employer will also be constrained by how much they are currently paying similar people in similar roles to the one they are interviewing you for. They will not want to bring you in at a significantly higher level for obvious reasons.

There will also be some general sense of how the market is pricing your skills, experience and ability to add value. The recruiter, employer and yourself should all have an idea of what that number is. In fact, when I was still recruiting, I would often get calls at this time of year from various parties wanting to get a sense of what bonus looked like for different levels of employees.

Next steps

With all of this in mind, the temptation, of course, is to respond to the interview question by giving yourself a bracket. After all, you do not want to price yourself out of the market or to open the door to being underpaid.

So, with all that said, I would advise that you push that question off in a couple of ways if possible:

• If it is an early stage in the recruitment process, then say that you need to understand the job in more detail, what the demands on you will be and, to understand all of the elements of compensation that the employer has in mind before discussing expectations. In other words, it is too early to get into a conversation around renumeration.
• It may also be an opportunity to ask the recruiter or interviewer about their view as to what the market number is for the position you’re going for.

The ideal situation that you are aiming for is to understand what they need and want from the position that you are interviewing for. Help them to understand how you are a strong match and just how much value you can add to their business. Let them come to you with an offer and understand all the elements of the entire compensation package - then decide for yourself if it is enough to attract you to join them.

If you are in the process of applying for roles and would benefit from a conversation, get in touch.