How to negotiate and answer salary expectation questions

When asked salary expectations, say you will consider all reasonable offers

• It is hard to give a salary number because things like benefits, PTO, sick leave, all make up the offer and these would need to be considered as well
• It is hard to give a number because things like location would affect it and adjust for the cost of living
• I will consider all reasonable offers (yes, you are applying to multiple places and may have multiple offers, let people chase you)

These will make you seem like a reasonable and balanced person who is not easily fooled. Also, if you currently have a job, then you are in no real rush and you can leverage that fact to make yourself more attractive. More leverage you have, the better offer you can get. Without leverage, and without looking like a catch, you will end up with a worse offer.

Don’t give a range for salary expectation!

If you must absolutely give a number for salary expectation, go for 10-20k higher than what you would settle for. Don’t give a range. If you say 100-120k, they will just give you 100k. Companies will pay you what they can get away with paying you, not what you actually deserve. So keep that in mind. Remember that although your salary is just one of many things in an offer, it does lock you to that number for not just this job and its incremental raises based on that salary figure, but for your next job as well. So even though you are playing it cool about salary not being everything (at first), it is actually very important! That is why you are playing this game to win! Not to get a low-ball salary that will affect what you make for years to come.

Full blog post:

https://howtophd.org/2021/10/how-to-negotiate-and-answer-salary-expectation-questions.html

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