“What salary are you looking for?” Interview Question and Answer
Interview questions are asked to uncover a particular skill, quality or experience from the interviewee. The reason why many job applicants fail during the job interview is because they don’t understand what it is the interviewer wants to hear.
In this article we have broke down what the interviewer is looking for in a perfect job interview answer and to help you create the perfect answer we have recorded an example answer. The interview question “what salary are you looking for?” is a key one to prepare for, as this will set out the income you will receive and has a direct effect on future pay-rises
Depending on the sector and position you are applying for depends on how you would approach this question. For some sectors the employer wants to see if your salary expectations meets the salary band the employer is offering, for other positions, you will need to negotiate your salary – technique explained below.
Video Explanation
With most industries the company will advertise the salary on the job advert. If they don’t this could be a loaded question.
Answer this question with a question.
Example Interview Answer
“Can you tell me what the salary range for this post is?” If the interviewer insists, give a general answer “The salary would depend on the job duties, around £??-£??” Give a wide range
How to Negotiate Your Salary
When negotiating your pay rise, you need to first set the value high by you first setting the initial offer, your employer will then come in under what you stated, but due to you setting the mark high (this has to be realistic) you will often receive a higher salary compared to when the employer sets the first initial offer, which is often low.
This is because we use the initial offer as a baseline and then the employer and employee negotiate from this first offer, all the following negotiations or salary offers are compared to the original offer as we naturally compare everything.
In this example the employer’s original offer is £25,000, your counter offer is £35,000, the final offer will be around £30,000. If you set the initial offer for the same position at £42,000, the employer’s first offer will be around £30,000 which means the final offer will be around £35,000.
Now obviously these figures and offers will vary depending on your experiences, negotiation skills and the employer’s business acumen, but the point is by setting the initial offer high, highlighting your value, you will be offered a higher wage while leaving the employer believing that their shrewdness has secured them a good deal (you asked for £42,000 and accepted £35,000 – £5,000 more than you would have accepted if the employer set the bar low with his initial offer).
As you have stated your perceived value in monetary terms with your initial offer, the employer is forced to offer you a higher salary as they can’t offer a salary that is dramatically lower unless they believe that you are not worth the money or if the company has set a non-negotiable salary limit for your position.
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