A businessman once told me that the first person to name a number in any negotiation—from haggling over the price of a car to salary negotiations—is the loser.
So this question is definitely a difficult one.
But on the other hand, it is important for you and the interviewer to know that you are on the same page financially.
So how to answer?
Wrong answer: Giving a specific salary amount is generally a bad idea before you have received a job offer. In particular, you do not want to disclose how much you are currently making and use that as a benchmark for how much you’d like to make: “I earned $40,000 in my last job and I’d like to get at least $45,000 to $50,000.” This is a mistake because you do not yet know what your job requirements will be. You coulde it her below-balling your worth, in which case you could land the job but earn less than you could have, or you could be pricing yourself out of their range, even though you might be willing to earn less in order to work for that company.
Right answer: You can tell the interviewer that you would be open to a discussion about fair salary expectations further along in the interview process. If pressed, go ahead and name a range of figures, rather than a specific dollar amount, and base that range on research into the salary expectations of your field. For example, you might say, “I know that programmers can earn between $50,000 and $60,000 per year in this area, and I think a fair and competitive number for both of us could be found in that range.”
1) Talk about your value (e.g. You’ve helped the company to increase the profitability or to reduce costs, saved time in certain areas, you are a strong performer).
Make a list of your values. Practice saying them. Be calm, confident and assertive!
2) Do market research (search among head hunters, recruiters, people you know who work at similar position, use google. Use more than one source of information)
3) Give a NUMBER not a range (say your ideal number).
4) Go on with the leverage(Say: ‘I am considering multiple variants at the moment”, so if they really like you they will be willing to pay you more; or you may say ‘This is what the market is offering’). Explain your value, talk about your accomplishment and achievements. Prove that you are different form the rest of the team and that you do deserve more.
‘You know, over the past year I’ve done X-Y-Z and If you compare me to the rest of the team nobody else has made the same time of accomplishment that I have. So I know that I do deserver more.’
5) Time it appropriately (only when employer asks you or during the performance review time)
6) Be humble and polite, yet confident.
