The Salary Expectation Dance

I recently conducted an informal survey of internal recruiters and hiring managers to see if they ask candidates to reveal their salary expectations on a first interview and if they will reveal the salary range for their open position if asked by a candidate. As I expected, many responded that they routinely ask for salary expectations on the first interview and never reveal salary ranges. The consensus among several hiring authorities that request salary information up front was "why waste any time with candidates with excessive salary expectations."

But if hiring authorities are truly seeking to build efficiencies and authenticity into the interview process, wouldn't it make more sense to be transparent about the salary range for an open position before the interview process begins? Wouldn't it be more prudent to post the salary range on the job spec or job board? If you schedule interviews without knowing if you can afford the candidate, aren't you already possibly wasting everybody's time?

In the interview process, the hiring authority holds all the cards. He/she knows the job spec, the salary range, the budget, and how the position impacts the organization as a whole. Generally, the job seeker can't possibly know or benchmark all this on a first interview...that is one of the reasons they are there to interview.

But since we are living in a world where hiring authorities are asking for salary expectations up front, your best strategy is to research your earning potential and understand what the market will bear. If the hiring manager asks you about your salary expectations, you can respond by saying "Based on my research of the market, salary ranges for positions similar to this one are between x and y. Is that consistent with what you are looking to offer?" You can research your market value by asking agency recruiters what similar positions are paying, making inquiries about salary ranges/surveys through professional organizations, talking with colleagues, reviewing job boards to see if you can uncover salary ranges for similar positions, or reviewing salary information on sites such as salary.com.

Posted by Barbara Safani

Comments

[Louisa]

I work as a recruiter in Boston at a company called Hollister Staffing (www.hollisterstaff.com) and just wanted to say that I agree completely with your advice about doing research about your personal earning potential prior to an interview. The salary question is usually a tough one to answer, but I always stress the importance doing your research and being prepared to my candidates, and things usually work out for the best!

[Barbara Safani]

Louisa,

Often one of the benefits of working with an external agency such as yours is that the recruiter can serve as a guide, coach, and advocate for the candidate during the interview process. Candidates often have a better understanding of what a position will pay when they work with an external recruiter and I think that can make the whole interview process much smoother. Thanks for commenting!

[Susanna C.]

The salary negotiation process starts sometimes with the letter of interest where salary expectations are required. This is a tricky question, as the interviewee doesn't have a full scope of the job's demands. Even if you do research about salary range in your industry and in your geographical area, each job has unique characteristics. Jobs descriptions are usually full of tasks -lately I've seen over one page descriptions, it's insane!- but with little detail about what the employer offers. Even if you contact the HR dept to know what type of benefits they offer, responses are brief. For instance, how much is the employee's contribution to health care, how much the company contributes to your 401K, etc. That seems to be information you find out once you are hired. In addition, interviewees are always nervous about getting the job -maybe after many months of searching- and might not want to "make waves." I recently was asked to include salary expectations in a letter of interest and then found out the job was with an agency working for a major corporation in an industry that pays very well but is very demanding. How can you guess that one? And how do you negotiate your salary up in that situation?

[Barbara Safani]

The problem with putting down your expectation in a letter of interest is that it leaves you little space to negotiate later on. It's sort of like asking what you would pay for a house in a certain neighborhood without getting to see what condition the house was in first.

Your best bet is to state a range based on your market value. If you realize after several interviews that the job differs from your original expectations, you can negotiate up based on the value you bring to the position.