Career growth · 5 min read
Salary expectations guide
The salary question makes most people uncomfortable, which is exactly why it pays to prepare. If you have done the research and decided your number before anyone asks, the conversation stops being a guessing game. This guide walks through how to find a fair range and hold it calmly.
Research a real range
Before you name a number, find out what the role actually pays. Look at several sources, not one, and weight them toward your market and your level.
- Salary ranges in similar job ads, especially where pay is listed
- Public salary data and guides for your role and region
- People in your network doing similar work, if you can ask discreetly
- What you know about the size and stage of the company
Set three numbers
Decide three figures before any conversation: the number you would be delighted with, the number you would accept, and the number below which you would walk away. Knowing your walk-away point is what keeps you calm, because you already know the answer to the hardest question.
Anchor your stated expectation toward the top of your researched range, not the bottom. You can always come down, but it is very hard to go up.
When they ask first
If you are asked your expectations early, give a researched range rather than a single number, and tie it to the role and your experience. Something like "based on the role and what I bring, I am looking in the region of X to Y" is honest, prepared, and hard to argue with.
When you can, let them go first
Where it is natural, it is fine to ask what the role is budgeted at before you name your own number. Many ads and recruiters will tell you. The more you know about their range before you commit to yours, the better placed you are.
Weigh the whole offer
Pay is the biggest number but not the only one. Leave, flexibility, learning, the work itself and the people all have real value. Know what matters to you beyond the headline figure, so you can judge an offer properly rather than on salary alone.
The short version
Research a real range from several sources, decide your delighted, accept and walk-away numbers in advance, and anchor high. Preparation turns the salary conversation from a guessing game into a calm, informed one.