What are your salary expectation?

Great, so you have done that tough job of creating your beautiful resume. You are also successful in cracking that long and stressful interview process and now you seems bit relaxed thinking it’s all done. But this is not the case.  Next, they will now ask you most tricky question that you need to be prepared with during your Job hunting process.

“What are your salary expectation?”

So why it’s so important?

Telling your hiring manager what salary you expect can be quite complicated.

Neither can you go above the upper limit because that might come back to you as the recruiters will prefer candidates whom they believe will be happy with the salary the company is offering nor can you sell yourself short because the recruiters might think that if you don’t think of yourself as worthy enough of a better salary then maybe you are not.

Also, if you do mention a relatively low figure just to get the job then probabilities are that you will be paid that salary. This will prove harmful in the long run. You don’t want a job that offers little monetary compensation, do you? Lower salary than your colleague? Never..!

Why they ask this Question?

In most of the cases, they want to know “how you value your work?” “How confident you are?” “What do you think about your own market value?”

Most organizations have some fixed budget or cap for position being interviewed. So another common thing then wanted to know is,  if your Salary expectation is within that range or higher than that.

Prepare first

Before you answer this question, be well prepared. Collect data in hand. There are many job portals on internet which helps you to find general market trend of Salary for your Roles, Experience and Company.

Few well known internet websites are:

• Payscale.com
• Glassdoor.com
• Salary.com

Even though you will find conflicting information on these sites, but you will definitely get some general sense of what is Salary being offered at your role and experience based on current market value.

Another ways is, Connect with some people working in the company that you are applying to. If you already know some people working there, then that’s great. If not, then seek out individuals through networking on LinkedIn, so that you have a guess of the salary range.

If you are experienced candidate then consider your own experience, skill-level, and your current salary to come up with a salary range that you think will be the right match for you.

Example: I have 8 lacs CTC currently and I am looking for 30% to 35% hike in my next offer.

Tactics to Delay answering this Question

Ideally this question will be asked in your final interview round which is mostly HR round. If you being asked this question in earlier round then you have to apply some strategy to delay answering that in your final round. Or even in your final round, make sure you don’t answer that question immediately until being pressed by HR implicitly to answer.

You can say something like this to delay answering question.

“I am more interested in finding a position that’s a good fit for my skills and interests. I am confident that you are offering a salary that is competitive in the current market.”

Actual answer to question

I am sure you have tried your best to delay answering to question as far as you can. But some HR might press hard to answer you about Salary expectation question. Here are some samples that will help you to give answer to that tricky question.

“Well my Salary expectation is similar to what you pay for this role as per your Company standards”.

It will make the HR person think that you know the range offered by Company and you will be paid similar.

Another short and sweet answer can be “As Per current Industry Standards”.
This answer works best in case you are fresher and looking for a job desperately.

Obviously, some interviewers will press further for a specific number. At this point, you can say something like:

“Well, according to my research and past experience, my understanding is that CTC of 10 Lacs is typical based on the role and experience.”

This frames the number as “here’s my understanding of what’s competitive” as opposed to “here’s what I want.” Also key point here is you are providing them a range and not exact figure so your expectation turns to be more flexible than rigid.
Again you are using word "typical" here which portray your CTC number as a range rather than fixed number.

Some Don’t tips to follow

• Never say any fixed amount directly. Like most people say “I am expecting 50k per month in hand, because you have mentioned in the job profile”.
This gives hint to HR that you are not at all flexible in your attitude.

• Secondly, do not say “I am okay with whatever you will give”. In this case they will ask you to work for free !  :)
This also makes HR to think that you are not confident about your market value and may compromise on your quality in work as well.

• Never initiate discussion on Salary or open-up for any range in your first round. This question is ideally asked in final/HR round and that too should be initiated by HR/interviewer.



At the end , do remember that you will have to prove your worth. Keep that in mind. While companies do have a fixed budget for salaries they can decide to pay you higher if they think that you deserve it.

Now, the point you answer this question, you are unofficially kicking off Salary negotiation process with interviewer. So your next task is “make your best to negotiate your salary”.

Here are  Salary Negotiation Tips  that can help you during process. Ultimately, more good you are at negotiation, more flourishing salary you will be offered.