"What's your salary expectation?" - how to answer this interview question

Winning a remote job is hard. Whether you like it or not, your odds of getting into a new remote job are bleak as you’ll compete with top candidates globally. This contrast to physical job hunts where you're just competing with local talent.

In any case, once you dodge the barriers, you’ll get into an amazing employment opportunity with the freedom to work from wherever you want, and sometimes even whenever you want. After you position yourself towards a remote job and win an interview, the next step is to shine your way through the meeting.

“What’s your salary expectation?” - One of the commonly asked questions in remote job interviews

Irrespective of the job role, one of the most commonly asked questions is regarding your salary expectation. If you’ve been in multiple interviews for different companies, you will have encountered the key question “What’s your salary expectation?”.

Although it’s a simple question the employers ask, it’ll leave you confused and troubled. So it’s necessary that you prepare for it before the question hits you. Employers ask this to understand the pay you’re expecting, oftentimes to negotiate if you’re expecting too high of a salary.

Do your research before the remote interview

A key remote interview tip is to always do your research before showing up to the meeting. And in this case, you must understand your fair global salary for the job role you’re applying to.

The idea is to understand the average rate employers are paying globally for job titles similar to yours. You can calculate this using different job boards available on the internet. If you have no idea how to do this, here’s the fair global salary calculator.

Once you have the fair global salary researched, you’ll be safe to attend the interview.

"What's your salary range for this position?"

When you’re asked about salary expectations, try flipping the question and ask the salary range the employer is willing to pay for your position. In case you applied via a job board that lists salary ranges, you'll already know this.

Now, if you’re put under the ringer and the employer keeps asking you the salary expectations, then let them know the average rate your job position is paid globally. This is a great time to use the research you did earlier on the global market value of your digital skills.

Try not to give away your value in remote interviews

In some cases, employers will ask you your current salary. If there’s a big gap between your current salary and the global salary you researched, it’s better that you don’t mention it. You can certainly allow yourself some flexibility to negotiate down, but don't give your value away by mentioning too low of a salary figure. If you’ve been giving away your value, then this should be a remote interview tip to hold on to.

Backing up your expectations with research will let your employers know that you’ve done your research. This is extremely important as this will be the foundation for negotiation.

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