Don’t bring up salary in a first interview
The salary a person makes is important. It’s how you pay your bills and support your family. When looking into a new employment opportunity the salary offered is going to play a role in your decision to accept or reject an offer. However, your first interview with a company is not the time to ask about salary.
You’ll probably find many web sites and experts who will disagree with me and tell you that it’s fine to talk salary during an interview. Of course it’s your decision to make. I’d just like to present a few reasons why you might not want to bring up salary during an interview.
- You will seem to be motivated by money only. The hiring manager is trying to sell you on an opportunity. He/she might think the only reason you’d take a job is because it paid more than your previous position.
- You might price yourself out of the position. Many companies have strict salary ranges for positions. No matter what, they can’t go over the top figure in the range for any candidate. You might exclude yourself from a position based on a few dollars.
- You might “lowball” yourself. What I mean is this – the hiring manager might be planning to pay you more than the salary you stated in the interview. You could deprive yourself from money in your pocket.
- You don’t know how much it costs to work for the new company. Hiring managers don’t usually bring up specific information on the cost of benefits until the offer stage. The cost of benefits for the new company might be higher or lower than the cost at your current company (maybe their health insurance is a lot more expensive than what you pay now). A lateral salary move would actually end up costing you money out of pocket.
Given this, what do you say in an interview when someone asks “what do you want to make”? I would suggest you say something along these lines:
I currently make $47,500 a year. I would want to look at the entire package before making a decision.
If pressed you can mention that you’d like to compare the cost of benefits and that the opportunity is what is most important, not salary.
Of course it’s up to you whether or not you bring up salary in an interview. I merely wanted to present a few arguments why you might not want to do this.