Your Salary: “What’s your expectation?” Answered Here

The problem:

What is your expected salary? Coming into my master’s program from a startup, I didn’t have one, but if I did, I can guarantee you it wasn’t very high.  

So how to handle this question when it comes up? The short answer is this: expect at least the “market rate”.

Mrs. Market (the job market) is not kind to people who feel like asking for less than they are worth.

The job market rewards winners.

When does this question come up?

It might occur right there on your application. It could come in an interview. 

How to respond to this question?

This is a very clever question posed as a test of your “street smarts”, a test of your maturity in negotiating professional or business topics. 

In traditional negotiation strategy, there is a saying: “the first person who says a number loses”.

Here’s how to apply that: answer this question in a way so that you don't give them a number right away. Instead, give them a rang...

Salary negotiation is scary.

But there’s a major reason why you need to push past the fear.

It’s called the law of compound interest. This refers to the ability of an asset to generate earnings that are then reinvested or remain invested with the goal of generating their own earnings. In other words, compounding refers to generating earnings from previous earnings.

Einstein called this the “8th wonder of the world”.

Now, let’s look at an example of why this is important:

Pam and Sam are starting at a new investment banking company in the same job position.

Pam negotiates her salary and ends up making $ 65,000 / year.

Sam doesn’t negotiate his salary and ends up making $ 59,000 / year.

After 5 years, Pam has made $ 325,000 and Sam $ 295,000.

That’s a $ 30,000 difference in 5 years and a $ 6,000 difference — per YEAR!

And that’s just the simple subtraction.

If we take the total sum of earnings over that 20 year period, by playing her cards right, Pam will potentially make mi...