"What Do You Think You Should Be Paid"? - How To Answer This Difficult Interview Question!
“What do you think you should be paid?“
This could be a disarming question for any candidate, especially for one who hasn’t prepared.
Negotiating a salary can be one of the most challenging parts of any job interview. But if it’s prepared for in the right way the process can give you not only a meaningful, truly competitive salary but the structure to receive an even better one in the future.
Doesn’t every interview end in a salary negotiation?
Most, but not all.
Many jobs, especially at entry-level, have relatively fixed salaries. But the higher you climb, the more specialist you become and the more experienced you are as a worker the more leverage you have to demand a higher salary. It all comes down to how you approach the process, and how you qualify yourself.
How do I negotiate for a “good” salary?
Industry subjectivity and expectations aside, a successful salary negotiation technique is nothing more than research and leveraging your marketability, applied in as honest a manner as possible, and delivered confidently.
That confidence is only gleaned from preparation, which has to take stock of many business, cultural, demographic and personal inputs, and your position within the industry you aim to work in.
This generally means you need to understand the salary expectations within the industry as a whole and understand the “brackets” you could be paid within. Brackets, in this regard, refer to the lowest and highest amount you could be paid depending on your qualification and experience level.
How do I prepare for a salary negotiation the right way?
Your primary preparation focus has to be the following:
What has the company indicated it is willing to pay?
What are the wider industry pay scales?
What has the company indicated it is willing to pay?
Your primary indicator for expected remuneration lies in the job advert and description, but there are exceptions to the rule, and varieties of how the salary will be advertised, such as the following:
The company advertises the salary rate
The company advertises salary rate brackets or bandings
The company advertises predicted earnings (common in commission-led roles, MLM, “gig economy” roles and freelance jobs)
The company declines to advertise a salary
What are the wider industry pay expectations?
Your second port of call needs to be getting a thorough understanding of average industry salaries. You can do this through research using online tools such as Glassdoor, or reaching out to social media networks and recruiter communities on LinkedIn to find out what the expectations are in their area, or their experience.
However, do be aware there are biases at play when you ask the “industry” what their expectations of pay are. These biases can be influenced by geographic location, demographics, even the experience of the person you reach out to. So spread your net wide and get as many points of view as possible.
Just ahead of the salary negotiation conversation, consider the following in relation to the above:
Have you done your research?
Find the median salary (nationally and regionally)
Find your demographic salary (age/experience)
Find the realistic salary brackets you fit into
Have you asked the right questions during your interview?
Have you asked what the last employee doing this role was being paid?
Have you asked what the pay brackets are for low/high qualified candidates?
What are the promotional/developmental criteria, and equivalent salary rises?
Once you have a firm grasp of the salary data comes the hard part: negotiation.
Once your interviewer asks you what your salary expectations are, you need to be confident, gracious, and honest.
Your expectations should be a fair industry median for your experience. Some negotiating experts will advise you to go a little higher than the median to then negotiate down. We, however, urge you to be fair and honorable throughout.
If your interviewer asks why that amount, we advise you to clarify your quote - quote your sources, and do so calmly and without emotion.
Lastly, one of three things may happen - your interviewer will want to think about it, they will want to counteroffer, or they will reject it.
Our advice is then to step away - you will want time to think about their reply. One of the worst things you can do is kneejerk a Yes, No, or a counteroffer of your own. You need to calmly consider the offer, away from the hothouse that is an interview, once you’ve had time to destress and decompress.
Post-negotiation
Post-negotiation is where you either take a step forward and accept the offer; continue to haggle over details; or where you step away from the application. But often the seeds you’ve sown in the initial conversation will carry you through.
Whatever path you choose, you know you’ll have done so fully in the knowledge that you’ve empowered yourself with the right information, and have made a fair, honest and gracious commitment to your worth.
