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The Career Medic

Answering the ‘What are your salary expectations?’ question

The following is an excerpt from my new book, ‘Fired to Hired, The Guide to Effective Job Search for the Over 40s’ which is currently available on Amazon Kindle and will be available in hard copy from the 15th September 2015 on Amazon, Book Depository, Booktopia and Fishpond among others.

If you want an easy-to-read, no-nonsense and practical guide to job search, written by someone who understands job loss and search, this book is for you. Enjoy!

What are your salary expectations (Chapter 14: The Interview #3 Standard Questions and Responses

What are you earning/did you earn in your last job? While the inclination is to add a few thousand dollars onto your pay to get a bigger increase when joining, your best bet is to be honest. In the (unlikely) event you are found out, the employer will understandably be questioning the honesty of all your other responses and, worst-case scenario, could even terminate your employment.

What are your salary expectations? Always give an indication of what your salary expectations are, even if only asked about your last salary. Why? Because what you were earning at your last company may not be the best indicator of your worth.

Fundamentally, the market—or what most companies pay for a role in a particular industry—determines what you are worth.

If you were working for a company that paid low in the salary range and you ask for what you were earning there, you would be doing yourself a disservice. Instead, while in transition you have the opportunity to review job adverts, visit recruiters, study online salary surveys (generally produced by recruiters), network and interview with other organisations, and as a result have the information you need to determine your true worth.

You could respond to this question by saying something like, ‘Given that I’ve been in job search mode for several weeks/months now, I’ve had the opportunity to research the market via job ads, recruiters, salary surveys and other means, and on that basis I’m looking for a salary of approximately [fill in the blank], exclusive of superannuation.’

Thanks for reading about resume-reading software! If you liked this information, you can receive many more tips and hints on effective job search for mature job seekers by purchasing the eBook on Amazon by clicking here.

The Career Medic – Taking the worry out of job search for the over 40s

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