How To Answer The Dreaded 'Salary Question'

By Skip Freeman

It's a question that you can expect to be asked sooner rather than later during a job interview. It's a question that seems to be a "loaded" one in every sense of the word, and usually that's in fact what it is. It's a "trick" question too. It's designed to quickly and efficiently eliminate as many candidates as possible from a hiring manager's "candidate pool." It's also a question that, if you're like many job candidates today, you absolutely dread having to answer. The question can be phrased in a variety of ways, but it's usually phrased something like this: "What salary are you expecting?"