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What's your Expected Salary? How to Answer Call Center Interview Questions

May 13, 2014 • written by Kevin Olega

From The Tip Collection

This is my best answer to the dreaded salary question.

What is Your Expected Salary?

I often find myself confused when trying to answer the salary question.

100% of my focus goes to “how I can help the company.”

When it comes to the salary question, I feel that I’m trying to take money from the company.

This conflict about who benefits sometimes confuses me.

Let’s discuss a few situations.

You should know how much you are worth.

Do you have any work experience?

How much did you earn previously?

How I answer:

I was previously earning ₱15,000 a month.

I’m aiming to get a job that allows me to earn ₱20,000-₱25,000 a month.

I shut up and wait for their counter offer.

Here’s an alternate answer.

My safest answer is..

I heard that the pay here (or in this industry) ranges from say 20,000 - 30,000.

I have X number of years of experience in this field.

I would be happy if I found a company that offers insert desired amount.

I’ve also done salary negotiations when it comes to the hiring process.

As an interviewer, all I did was hope that the applicant’s asking salary matches the budget that my boss gives me.

I try to bring the salary down by a few thousand pesos if needed.

Several answers that I found online about the salary question is vague.

Many advice that you need to get the interviewer to disclose the company’s budget.

Lifehacker writer Mihir Patkar shared an answer that totally blew me away.

It’s absolute genius and I intend to add this to my answers in case I’d need to get another job.

“Look, I’m not sure what the fair price here is, but you probably know that. And it’s in your best interest as much as mine that I get a fair price. If I get hired and find out that the price is unfair, I’ll try to jump ship and you will have to go through this process again. It means more job-hunting for me, more employee-hunting for you. So if we can just do a good, fair deal right now, it helps us both.”

They talked among themselves and came up with a new price that was fairer than the initial offer.