Why they ask about salary in the first place

The salary-expectations question feels like a test, but it is really the opening move in a negotiation. Recruiters ask it early to screen you out fast. If your number lands far above the band they budgeted, they move on. If it lands far below, they quietly congratulate themselves and lock in a lower offer.

So treat the question for what it is. It is not a quiz with a right answer written on the recruiter's clipboard. It is the first exchange in a back-and-forth where information is leverage, and right now they have more of it than you do. Your job is to give a good answer without handing over your whole hand on the first turn.

The candidates who handle this well are rarely the ones with the slickest line. They are the ones who did the boring work first: they researched the market, decided on a real target, and practiced saying it out loud without flinching.

Do your homework before you say a number

You cannot answer a salary question well if you do not know what the role actually pays. A single number pulled from a gut feeling either undersells you or scares them off. What you want is a range grounded in data, specific to the job, the level, and the city.

Pull your numbers from a few sources so no single one skews you:

• Salary sites and aggregators for the role title and seniority
• Posted job ads in the same market, since many now list bands by law
• People in your network who do the same work, who will often share real figures privately
• Recruiters themselves, who quote ranges all day and sometimes tell you if you ask directly

Adjust for the things that move pay: location and cost of living, company size and stage, your years of experience, and any scarce skill you bring. Once you have a credible range, decide your true target. That is the number where you would be genuinely happy to accept, not the number that would merely stop you from walking away.

Deflect politely when it comes too early

Early in the process, the honest answer is that you do not have enough information to name a figure, and saying so is completely reasonable. You have not seen the full scope, the level, or the rest of the package. Naming a number now just anchors the conversation before you know what you are anchoring it to.

A soft deflection buys you time and signals that you think about compensation as a whole, not a single line. Try something like this:

"I would like to understand the role a bit better before talking numbers. Could you share the range you have budgeted for this position?"

That last sentence matters. Many companies will tell you their band if you ask plainly, and now they have shown their hand first. If they push back and insist you go first, do not stonewall them twice. Move to a researched range instead of digging in.

When you have to give a number, give a researched range

Sometimes deflecting is not an option. Application forms have a required field, or the recruiter simply will not proceed without a figure. When that happens, give a range, not a single number, and build the range so it works in your favor.

The trick is where you put the floor. Set the bottom of your range at your true target, the number you would be happy to accept. Negotiations tend to settle near the low end of whatever range you offer, so if your target is the floor, even a "low" outcome leaves you satisfied.

"Based on my research for this kind of role in this market, I am looking at something in the range of X to Y."

Anchor high but stay credible. Y should be ambitious yet defensible if they ask you to justify it, and X should be a number you would sign for today. Never quote a range whose bottom is below what you actually need. If they only hear the floor, that is the offer you will get.

Handling "what is your current salary"

The current-salary question is a trap dressed as small talk. If you answer it, your offer gets pegged to your old pay instead of the value of the new role, and any past underpayment follows you into the next job. You do not owe them this number.

In a growing number of places, asking is actually illegal. Several US states and cities and parts of Europe have banned salary-history questions precisely because they entrench pay gaps. You do not have to cite the law to sidestep the question, though. Redirect to expectations instead:

"I would rather focus on the value I would bring to this role. For a position at this level, I am targeting X to Y."

That answers the real question they should be asking while quietly declining the one they did.

What to do if they lowball you

A lowball offer is not an insult and it is not the end. It is a bid, and bids invite counters. Do not accept on the spot and do not reject in anger. Buy a beat, thank them for the offer, and ask for time to consider it.

Then come back with data and a specific number, not a vague plea:

• Restate your researched range and where their offer sits against it
• Point to the scope, the impact, or the scarce skills you bring
• Name the figure you want rather than asking them to "do better"

Something like: "Thank you for the offer. Based on the scope we discussed and the market range for this role, I was expecting something closer to Z. Can we get there?" If the answer is a hard no and the gap is real, you now have clean information to decide with, and that is worth more than a rushed yes.

Before any of this, get the rest of your story straight, from a sharp CV to a clear sense of your own worth. Tools like Postulit help you turn a LinkedIn profile into a polished CV so you walk into the salary conversation already looking like the strong candidate you are. The number is easier to defend when everything around it is solid.