How to Answer “How Much Are You Looking For?”
Interviewers want to lock down your salary and expectations in the first conversation with you before you know anything about the job. Here’s how to answer.
In the video, I mentioned another video I have for how to answer this question after you’ve interviewed. This is the link
The Missing Ingredient in Your Interviews (Branding, Resumes, Networking)
Here’s how to answer the question, ‘So how much are you looking for?’
Well, let’s start off with the scenario. The scenario is you’re in your first interview, you’re talking to a screener. Understand, screeners only have the authority to say, no; they don’t have the authority to actually hire you. So let’s give an appropriate answer for them.
‘You know, I’ve only seen a job ad or a job description, or what the recruiter told me. I haven’t met my future boss, haven’t met with the team, don’t really have a sense of the expectations people are going to have for me in the role. Could we talk about that once I have a little bit more information?’
Now, that’s a truthful answer, because you really don’t know what’s going to be expected of you. And they’re trying to lock you down on a number. So follow me further and understand, they may come back to you and say, ‘but I need a number.’
And the correct answer to that should be, ‘I can give you a number, but I want you to understand, I’m not committed to that number until I know more. So let me first start by asking you, what’s the salary range for the position?’ Now, they may come back with something that translates into ‘well, I asked your first!’ To which you can respond with, ‘Yeah, and I asked you second. What difference does that make?’ So again, being playful here, with a smile on your face, as you answer helps to move the needle forward.
Now, they may not be completely honest with the salary range. Let’s just be aware of that. And as such, you have the ability to again, say, ‘you know, I’m gonna give you a number and I want to be clear, I’m not committed to that number until I know more.’ And then once they tell you their number, you can say ‘For now the high end of the range is what I was looking for and when I learn more about the position, I may come back and ask for more. I may come back and say I’d be willing to do this for a little less. But that’s within the ballpark of what I’m looking for. Let’s talk after I actually have interviews with people.’
Now I’ve got another interview about salary negotiation and I call this process ‘defer and deflect.’ After defer and deflect, I’ll have a link to it in the show notes. This is how to answer the question once they come back to you looking for the number after the interview.
Salary Negotiation: After Defer and Deflect
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