There’s Only One Right Way To Answer The Salary Requirement Question In An Interview
By John Sundholm
For many, there’s nothing more nerve-wracking than a job interview, and the most uncomfortable part, far and away, is the salary requirement question. But according to one career expert, there’s actually a very simple, kind of counterintuitive way to ace this part of a job interview. Job interviews are usually full of questions that everyone universally hates because of the way they often seem like traps (looking at you, “What is your greatest weakness?”). The salary requirement question is a perfect example. But Anna Papalia, a career expert, interview coach, and author of the book “Interviewology: The New Science of Interviewing,” said there’s an easy way to answer this question that ensures you stay in control of the negotiation. And it’s not the answer you might expect.
An expert said the best way to answer the salary requirement question is not to answer it at all, and definitely don’t give them a number.
“When the interviewer asks you, ‘What are your salary expectations?’ do not give them a number,” Papalia emphatically said in a recent video on TikTok. She said it’s especially important to never reveal what you are currently or were most recently being paid. “If you are currently making $50k, for example, and you’re hoping for $60k, whatever you do, don’t say, ‘well, I’m currently making $50k, and I’m hoping for $60k!'”
This, she said, is the surest way to undermine yourself and end up with less money than you deserve. “They may be paying $60 to $90k, and you just shot yourself in the foot by telling them that you would take the lowest end of the range,” she explained.
Instead, answer the salary requirement question by simply asking for the position’s salary range.
Papalia advised to turn the question back around on the interviewer. “When they say to you, ‘What are your salary expectations?’ you say, ‘What is the range of the position or what is the position paying?'”
Papalia explained that you’ll almost certainly not get a direct answer. “They’re going to give you a range. They know not to give you one number,” so that they can continue negotiating. “That informs you on how to answer the question. You would say you obviously want top of the range.”
But rather than give a range, some interviewers will push back by saying they need to know what your salary requirement is in order to move you forward in the interview process. Papalia said not to take the bait if this happens and retain the upper hand. “If that’s the case,” she said, “you say something like, ‘well, I need to know the range before we move forward,’ or, ‘I’m sure your range will be something I’d be amenable to.'”
She also urged job seekers to never bring up the salary requirement question in a first job interview.
Papalia said this is among the most common mistakes people make during interviews. Unless the interviewer brings it up themselves, she said applicants should never discuss money in a first job interview. “Interviewing is a lot like dating,” she said in a video on the subject. “Would you ask someone on a first date about marriage? No! Slow it down.” Early interviews, she said, are more about feeling the situation out and seeing if the job, company, and team are a good fit. And, if nothing else, holding off on that conversation gives you more time to practice sticking to your guns when the topic of salary does eventually come up. In the end, job interviewing is a sort of game, so it’s all about strategy and maintaining the upper hand.
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Did You Know…
- A comet’s tail always points away from the sun.
- If you get into the bottom of a well or a tall chimney and look up, you can see stars, even in the middle of the day.
- Everything weighs 1% less at the equator.
- In ancient times strangers shook hands to show that they were unarmed.
- Strawberries and cashews are the only fruits whose seeds grow on the outside.
- Mickey Mouse is known as “Topolino” in Italy.
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