Effective Responses for a Tricky Question
How do you respond to questions about salary?
You may be asked to discuss salary in your cover letter, in screening interviews by phone, in person during a formal interview, and during offer negotiations. There are several ways to handle this touchy subject.
#1 Rule: Get the prospective employer to state a figure first.
When asked to state your salary requirements or history in your cover letter – don’t – unless you actually know the salary range of the desired position. If you do not know the range, indicate instead that you would be happy to discuss salary in an interview.
What is most important is the extent to which your skills will be a great fit within the prospective organization. When the interviewer wants to focus on your current salary, confidently reply that you would not consider your current salary as comparable to the scope of the position currently open for hire and should an offer be made you trust that the offer will be fair. Then turn their attention back to the skills needed, the expectations for success, the company culture. Show them that salary is a secondary consideration to be tabled for later. The first order of business is to fully understand the scope of the new position. Without it, you cannot adequately assess what would or would not be a fair compensation package.
If the interviewer pushes hard for you to respond directly to salary questions (be prepared for this to happen), turn the question back upon them by asking for both the hiring range of the position and the full salary range (the hiring range may be a subset of the salary range). If you are still pressed for a range, have a prepared response based on prior research. Do not provide a range that is truly less than what you can legitimately accept. If you feel unduly pressured or intimidated, think twice about what this tells you about their management style or company culture and whether or not you really want to work there. If all else fails, provide them with a range of 10K-20K more than your current salary, or more if your research supports it.
Summary: do your research, prepare a range of responses, and do your very best to get them to provide the first number or range. If you require more than they are willing to give, continue to counter as long as you can, and make the best decisions for yourself based upon what you learn.
Lisa has 14 years of résumé coaching experience.
She currently directs day-to-day operations and programming of a career center at a two-year technical college. From 2006-2008, she served as State Chair of a national organization to support women leaders in higher education. She remains on the Board. Previously, she served as HR Director of a legal services firm and specialized in worker’s compensation issues. From 1996-1998, she worked as a graduate assistant in the career services office of a large four-year college.
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