 |
| the best interview ever |
If in any case you’re reading this article and you
have ever attended an interview you will agree with me this is not an easy
question to answer. No here is how to go about this question:
First, do know you need not to disclose any of the
following:
- Your current salary
- Your past salary and you really need not to respond to this question.
But in this case you’re interviewing for a new job,
and the approach you take while dealing with this question can affect the
outcome of the interview, so it is worth being prepared.
In most cases in the early stages of your career,
you will be expecting an increase in salary when you move to this new job. This
may be because the new job may be a step up for you and as such it has more
responsibilities.
Please do remember that your new employer really has
no way of finding out your previous salary, in this case if you want to
exaggerate a little to help justify an increased expected salary, feel free to
do so. However, depending on
responsibilities be careful you do not wanna be conscious with this.
How
to respond when asked what your salary expectations are
Let’s assume you want more money than you are
getting just now. If the salary hasn’t been disclosed for the job, then you
need to carefully discuss the potential with your new employer.
You can start off by saying something along the
lines of, “Well, obviously I would expect a salary that is in line with the
level and responsibilities of the job and my experience – what starting salary
do you offer for this job role?” – This is a great counter to the question. It
doesn’t commit you to a specific figure, and moves the discussion back to them.
They will always have a figure in mind from the start of the interview – most
employers just want to see if they can hire you for less money!
There are several responses they can give to this:
A figure that
is way less than you want (in which case you need to think about if the job is
really suitable for you)
A figure that
is a little lower than you want (then you need to put an argument forward for a
higher starting salary)
A figure that
is suitable or higher than expected (take it – or haggle some more if you’re
feeling cheeky!).
How to haggle for more money
It isn’t easy and you could quite easily mess up the
entire interview if you go to far with this – all the same, it is worth it in
many cases – you should take whatever chances you can to improve your own
person situation.
Here are several arguments you can use to defend
yourself
- I would have expected a higher starting salary for this position
- My current salary is higher than that
- That salary is a little lower than I think I need right now
- I think my experience would warrant a higher salary than that
Regardless of the approach you take, you should
always end it with a question. You do not want to put forward a staunch
argument with no scope of discussion – you need to keep the discussion moving
in your favour by always giving your interview a tight breadth to respond
(rather than leaving the conversation wide open which could result in them
changing the subject).
Your goal should be to maintain control of the
discussion until it is resolved in your favor – the danger is that you can come
across as to stubborn / greedy / etc so it is worth preplanning your approach.
All the best
