“In an interview, how do you answer ‘What is your desired salary?’ without seeming too cheap or too expensive to get the job?” originally appeared on Quora–the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Answer by Molood Noori, career coach at BreakYourBarriers.com, on Quora:
You should not answer this question. I’ll give you a scenario that is likely to happen.
An interviewer asks about your desired salary, and you say, “I prefer not to answer that question at this point” or something similar.
He then asks you the same question a few times in a few different ways to try to get you to give in and quote a number. That would be a big mistake! You have to do everything in your power to refuse answering this question. The rule of the negotiation game is that the first quoted number has to come from the employer. Never from the candidate.
Let’s continue the scenario. When you said, “I prefer not to answer right now,” then the interviewer said, “Well, I really need to put a number on this form to be able to proceed. It’s just our standard process.”
