What type of salary should i be expecting?

allovertheshop

Hi,

I'm returning to a sector that i used to work in about a year ago and I'm going for an interview for a position next week. Only thing is, i've been hearing in the past while that it's an employers market, salaries have dropped significantly etc etc and now i'm not sure how much i should be expecting to get paid in this new position, or how much i should ask for in an interview.

I'm not as naive as to expect to be getting the money i was getting in my previous position, but on the otherhand, i don't want to sell myself short. I have worked out a "cannot survive below" ammount, but also don't want to ask for too much and price myself out of the job. I haven't had to do an interview for a job in almost 10 years and during the good times I always got whatever I asked for, salarywise.

I'm post-grad qualified in my sector and was on €45k+ with perks in my last position. I took some time out to persue a few bits and pieces that i'd wanted to do for a while.

Any help or suggestions about my prediciment would be gratefully recieved.

Thanks

Smoggy

im not sure how anyone can help without knowing the area of work or the job title.

Go asking for 45k + perks and see what happens ?

Lurching

Going to need a lot more specifics here.

allovertheshop

Sorry for being a bit vague but i know some people that i used to work with use Boards and I'm a bit wary of them seeing this post.
I was previously working in a sales rep position and will be returning to sales, but in a more administrative position, hence that probable salary cut.

tenchi-fan

It's an interview, try to avoid all mention of salary and perks. You're there to say why you're a good fit for the company, not to negotiate a salary.

It's fine to say you are open to them making you an offer if they decide to offer you the job.

If they push you for an answer, say "i understand a professional in this area earns 40-50k" (giving a really vague answer)

Irish_Elect_Eng

You are asking about probably the hardest question that comes up @ interview But it is a good sign because this one is usually omitted if the interview has gone badly.

The simplest thing is to bounce the question back to them, asking what they are offering, but really this should be left until an offer is on the table, but practice varies with industry.

Look at http://www.redgoldfish.co.uk/cvinfo/toughquestions.aspx for a whole lot of good answers to hard interview questions.

What Is Your Current Salary?

-
It’s a bit of a cheeky question this one and you want to give a non committal answer. You must try and remember that all companies want to save as much money on salaries as they can and if you are offered the job the chances are they are going to indicate a package either similar or slightly more than the one you’re on. If you go straight in with “I earn £ 23,000.00 plus expenses plus a car and free weekend tickets to the Manchester United games” you are setting a bench mark that you may find difficult to negotiate around. Therefore an appropriate answer to this interview question might be “it’s not really the salary that is important to me it’s the whole package that I would be more interested in”. By saying this you are being non committal and it will make negotiating an acceptable package far easier

What Salary Would You Be Expecting For This Position?

-
Again another cheeky one which, ideally, you don’t want to be too committal over. If you commit to a salary at this stage you won’t be able to negotiate later on and if you ask for too much they will think they can’t afford you. If you don’t know what level of salary a position pays you can do some research on the internet. There are several sites that collect data about average industry and job role remunerations. So you could ask the interviewer a question in response to his question such as “What level of salary would you be expecting to pay for this position?” If the interviewer doesn’t want to divulge this then it’s not unreasonable for you to decline to answer too. If your interviewer quotes you a salary of say £ 19,000 then try and come back with something like “Well I was looking for a salary in the region of £ 22,000 to £ 24,000”. Your employer will always start with their bottom figure first so by asking for a little more it sets you a slightly higher bench mark. It may be that your interviewer can only go to the level he quotes but it’s fairly unlikely.