How to Answer "What Are Your Salary Expectations?"

"What are your salary expectations?" is one of the most consequential questions in the whole process, and one of the easiest to fumble. Answer too low and you anchor your entire offer beneath your worth. Answer carelessly and you can price yourself out. Here is how to handle it with confidence.

Why this question matters so much

The number you give becomes the anchor for everything that follows. Negotiation tends to move within a range near your stated expectation, so if you anchor low out of nervousness, you cap your own offer before it is even made. Treat this question as the first move of the negotiation, because it is.

Do your homework first

You cannot answer well without data. Before any interview where comp might come up, research what the role actually pays at your level, the company's stage, and your location, base and total comp. Use sources like Levels.fyi, Glassdoor, LinkedIn Salary, and peers. Walk in with a researched range so you are never answering from a feeling.

The best answer: deflect early, then give a researched range

If the question comes early, before you fully understand the role's scope, it is reasonable to deflect briefly:

"I would love to learn a bit more about the role and scope first so I can give you a meaningful number. Can you share the range you have budgeted?"

Often they will share their range, which is exactly what you want, now they have anchored, not you. If they press for your number, give a researched range with the bottom at or above your real target:

"Based on my experience and what I am seeing for comparable roles, I am looking at something in the range of [X to Y]."

Set the bottom of your range at a number you would genuinely be happy with, because the bottom is what they will hear.

If you have to give a single number

Some processes force a specific figure (applications, screening forms). When you must, give a number at the upper-middle of your researched range, not the bottom. You can always come down slightly in negotiation; it is much harder to move up from a low anchor.

What not to do

• Do not give your current salary as your expectation. Your expectation is about the value of the new role, not your history. In many places, they cannot even ask your current pay.

• Do not lowball to seem easy to hire. It rarely helps and usually just leaves money on the table.

• Do not give a single, rigid number too early. A researched range gives you room and signals you have done your homework.

• Do not sound apologetic. State your range calmly and as a matter of fact. Confidence reads as competence.

Remember it is the start, not the end

Your answer to this question opens the negotiation; it does not close it. Even after you give a range, there is room to negotiate the full offer, base, bonus, equity, and more, once it arrives.

Handling this question well, and the negotiation that follows, is part of what we help senior candidates with. But the core move is simple: research first, deflect early if you can, and never anchor yourself low.