I always get stumped on the salary expectations question early in interviews. How do you deflect or respond without lowballing yourself, especially if no range is posted?

My go-to is asking for their budgeted range first, but sometimes recruiters push back.

Does anyone here have experiences they would like to share that led to better offers?

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I come in with a range that is a bit above my bottom number. At this point, I want to get numbers out in the open as soon as possible.

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Yeah, I totally get that; there’s something comforting about just ripping the band-aid off and getting the numbers on the table early so you’re not wasting weeks interviewing for something that’s way off financially. Giving a range that starts a bit above your true minimum is smart; it gives you room to “meet in the middle” without ending up at your absolute floor. I do the same thing. My range is usually my realistic target to target +15% or so.

It's a mix of doing your research and knowing what you're comfortable accepting. I use Glassdoor and Google/Chat GPT to get an idea of what the market rate is, then compare that with what I'm making at my current job. I'm not going to leave for anything less than a 10% increase, so when I'm asked for a range, my current salary + 10% is the floor I give.

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That's such a solid, no-nonsense strategy—I love it. Setting that hard 10% minimum rule is smart because it filters out the lateral moves disguised as "opportunities" and saves everyone time. I've done something similar: my floor is usually current base +15% because after taxes, benefits differences, and any commute/gas costs, anything less feels like a wash

I always tell them my expectations and usually much higher that what I really intend. I'm worried that if I leave it to thrm they offer me very low so I'd rather to ask myself so they know where I am standing.

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Haha, I totally get that mindset; anchoring high to protect yourself from getting lowballed is super common, and honestly it makes sense when you’ve been burned before or heard horror stories. I’ve done the exact same thing early in my career: they’d ask expectations, I’d throw out a number like 15-20% above what I actually wanted, thinking “okay, now we’ll meet somewhere in the middle.” Sometimes it worked fine, but a couple times it backfired. They either pulled the “that’s above our range, sorry” and ended the process right there, or they just offered exactly what I named

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