Are You Ready For The Question, "What Are Your Salary Requirements?"
Engineering Career Blog
Are You Ready For The Question, "What Are Your Salary Requirements?"
Engineering Career Blog
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Are You Ready For The Question, "What Are Your Salary Requirements?"
Written by Diane Karch-Osowski on Jun. 5th 2021
What Are Your Salary Requirements?
In this post, I want to talk about how not to get caught off-guard when that first question comes asking “What are your salary requirements?” This is a good one to get prepared for, and actually before you even say anything, that's my advice for you today, get prepared. This is what I call “know your three”. Know your three numbers that are your salary requirements.
"Know Your Three"
Prepare Your Low, Mid, and High Salary Number
What Are The Three?
Let's see, we have your low salary number, your mid number, and your high number. It's important to note that this exercise is just about getting prepared and getting to know what you're looking for. You are creating a salary range that is acceptable to you and to give you guidance during salary negotiations.
Low Salary Number
On one end of your salary scale is the low end. This equates to your bottom dollar number that you can accept and still survive.
Your Low Number Should Cover All Of Your Financial Obligations
To determine this, I want you to take into consideration all your bills, student loans, apartment, your car, your gas, a little bit of fun money because you don't want to be strapped because then that's no fun and you're gonna resent things.
Mid Salary Number
Now, number two is your mid-number. Ideally, this is where you want to be, his is the comfort zone. It is a combination of doing research on different websites to find out what average salaries are in this location for this type of job and of course, covers your bills, those bills you need in order to survive. This mid number should also provide plenty of extra cash for saving and spending.
The Mid Number Is A Combination Of:
Average Salary For A Particular Job In A Particular Location &
Covers All Of Your Financial Obligations PLUS Saving/Spending Money
So that's your midpoint, that should be your comfort zone because if you were to land there, all is well.
High Number
All right, now we get to the third number of "Know Your Three." The high number. This would be the awesomely high number, the number that will make you do "a happy dance". This number not only covers your bills and gives you spending/saving money, but it also gives you more financial room to be in an extremely comfortable position!
The High Number Provides The Greatest Financial Comfort For You
Bonus Tip: Beware Of "But It's For The Experience..."
Imagine a scenario where if you accepted a number lower than your break-even because you're thinking “Well you know, at least I can get my foot in the door and get some experience. Because then I will have, at least something, on my resume because I can always move on to another job later.”
In theory that's good, as long as you have savings to fall back on. But consider if you don't, and you're out there and you're living by yourself, you will be your sole provider. If you take that job you're going to find that in a month or two, you're not making bills, you can't make ends meet, and you're going to start getting stressed out.
Shortly thereafter you're probably going to resent the job because you're going to think “You know what, I'm not even getting paid what I'm worth, I spent tons of money on this degree, I should be making more. Now I can't make my bills, I'm getting stressed.”
You may start thinking, "what, do I get a second job, do I move back in with family or friends?" There are all these things and it's just going to be stressful, stressful, stressful! Eventually, you will get to a breaking point. At the breaking point you're going to think ”Oh my gosh, I just need to get a different job” which I agree. You will need a different job or you could renegotiate your current salary which I don't think they're going to be open to at that point.
Don't Allow Yourself To Be Underpaid!
Ok, so now you have come to terms with this and you’re probably thinking “I need to get a new job.” Here's the problem, you've only been at this job for two months, three months, maybe six months, you don't have enough experience there.
When you start your job search, the next hiring manager will see your resume and look and go “Oh my gosh, this person has only been there six months, how come? What's going on there, is there something wrong with this person?” It's a red flag that you don't want to be tied to your resume. The interview process is already hard enough, you don't want to make it harder on yourself.
By taking that job thinking that “Oh, I'll do it just for the experience,” you may want to reconsider. If that's your only source of income that you will be making, I highly caution you taking the position.
Here's Your Take Away
Do your homework and know your three before any opportunity comes up for them to ask you the question of “What are your salary requirements?” Because once you say something, it's really hard to backpedal because if you say something too low and you wish you had said something higher, it's really hard to move from there.
Until next time,
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