What is Your Desired Salary? How to Answer Recruitment’s Trickiest Question

March 19, 2024, 12:48 PM
by Shahriar Rabab

UNB News
Publish- March 19, 2024, 12:48 PM
Shahriar Rabab
Update- March 19, 2024, 01:07 PM

What is Your Desired Salary? How to Answer Recruitment’s Trickiest Question

Representational image: FreePik

What’s your desired salary? It’s a question that will sweat out even the most confident applicant. The question will eventually pop up at one stage or the other during the recruitment process. What you need to do is be strategic about it. If you lowball the number, you will have to settle for less. If you go for the high, you might not be considered anymore. So how do you answer this? Let’s find out.

What is Desired Salary?

A desired salary is pretty much self-explanatory. It refers to the amount you expect in exchange for your service. A desired salary is useful both for the employer and the potential employee. It allows the employer to understand the expectations of the potential recruit and assess whether it fits within their budget or not.

On the other hand, a potential candidate can determine a desired salary based on their experience and skills for a position. However, it is important to research the market rate for similar positions and be prepared to negotiate to reach a mutually satisfactory salary package.

How to Determine the Appropriate Desired Salary

From the perspective of Bangladesh, the concept of desired salary holds little value in most hiring cases. Unless you are applying for a highly technical position or a mid-career switch, the negotiations hardly work in favor of a candidate. Still, there are several ways to determine the appropriate salary. Here’s how.

Understand the Industry Standards

Research what the industry standard is for the role you’re applying to. Consider location, required skills, and level of experience in this regard. Bdjobs, Chakri, and CareerJet can be good starting points for the research.

Match Your Skills and Experience

Be realistic about where you are skills and experience-wise. For example, if you apply for a position requiring 2-3 years of experience as a fresher, chances are you won’t even make it to the preliminary screening let alone salary negotiations.

The best approach would be to again research what other companies are paying for your skills and experience level to get an estimate.

Factor in the Benefits

Many organizations offer benefits and perks like commute allowance, mobile allowance, rent subsidy, and high bonuses. Consider all the benefits you will be getting before estimating a number.

Consider Future Growth Potential

Another thing to consider is the future growth potential of the company. In the case of a company with a robust growth and promotion structure, an initial low salary can be offset by long-term career earnings.

Representational image: FreePik

Why Do Hiring Managers Ask This Question in the First Place?

It's plain and simple. The recruiters want to know whether they will be able to afford you or not. There isn’t any point in going through multiple rounds of assessment and interviews if they are unable to provide you with the desired salary. It would be a waste of time for both parties.

How to Answer “What is Your Desired Salary?”

Now onto the critical question. The pro tip is not to give a concrete number as long as you can. But as it turns out, recruiters these days would do anything to get a number out of you. Here are some strategies so you don’t end up with the short end of the bargain.

Tag Along with the Recruitment Process

The obvious thing to do would be to follow the natural recruitment process. Do not, under any circumstance, include an expected salary quote in the CV or cover letter unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Even if the recruiter asks you to include an expected salary, mention something like “Salary can be negotiated and discussed during the subsequent stage”. The point is to be vague while sounding eager for the job at the same time.

Decide an Expected Quote

Based on the strategies mentioned above, decide an expected salary for the position you’re applying for. Many Bangladeshi recruiters would bring up the expected salary during a physical or virtual interview.

The aim would be to defer the question. But in any case, be ready with a reasonable quote if you’re pressed hard.

Add Note for Negotiations

There’s a growing trend of including the expected salary in the initial application process in Bangladesh. For example, many job adverts in Bdjobs require you to input an expected salary during the initial application.

So what should you do in these cases? The best approach would be to give a salary range. If it only accepts numbers, provide a quote based on your research. Use the “Additional Notes” option to point out that the salary is negotiable. This will help you to be considered for the position even if your quote doesn’t fall within their expected range.

Representational image: FreePik

How to Answer “What is your expected salary?” in an Interview?

Wait For the Entire Picture

Hiring managers may often provide you with a brief overview of the position and jump into the expected salary question. In this case, say something like, “I’d like to know more about the company and the position before discussing salary”. That way you will get a better idea about the state of the organization and the role you’re applying to.

Bring Facts and Numbers

When you put down a number in an interview, make sure to back it up with appropriate research and figures. For example, if you say your expected salary is 50,000 BDT per month, be sure to highlight the industry average and additional skills that make you qualified for the quote.

Flip the Question

When asked about the expected salary, one thing you can do is flip the question. Ask what their budget is or tell them you are open to negotiation.

Get an Overview of the Entire Benefits Plan

Ask the hiring manager about detailed benefits and perks that come with the position. You might negotiate a lower number than your quote if the benefits and perks add up to the initial sum. In any case, reject offers that are unacceptable to you.

Final Words

The job market is now more competitive than ever. Organizations want to recruit candidates that maximize their utility all the while minimizing the cost. Therefore, HR managers may try to hire professionals under a minimal salary structure. To overcome such situations the candidates should understand their deserved salary ranges. Asking for an unrealistic salary may run the risk of losing a potential job scope.

Therefore, to answer the question, "What is your desired salary", the key here is to be strategic enough to negotiate yourself a good bargain. Because if you have the desired skills and experience, the recruiters will want to hire you no matter what.