when applying for your first job in the US and are asked for expected salary, how do you respond?

Try not to.

That is a question I try to avoid until an actual offer is in the works or on the table. I usually just write in "negotiable" if possible. If they say that it is required to give a number, generally quote a number or range based on what you know employers usually pay for that particular job. Salary.com is a good tool along with reading other job ads for the same type of job to get an idea of what to ask for if you don't know.

In paper, I wrote negotiable. During the interview, I said something on the lines of "my main priority right now is to gain local experience, at a job I feel comfortable with and that allows me to grow professionally...(yada yada)...so if those conditions are met, anything in the range of (X) would be good"
Where x= the average salary being offered in job ads for similar positions



Saludos,
Caro

Another way you could say it would be: "Dependent on Responsibilities"
Something I read a couple of years ago was when they ask: "What type of salary are you expecting?" is to answer with: "What does the department have budgeted for the position?" I have found that they will usually tell you, if you ask it right.

I am not sure what type of positions you are looking for, but if I could do it all over again, I would have always asked for 2-5 dollars an hour more than what they offered me. In the sense that my first jobs were always something along the lines of retail or labor type jobs. There was always a group of us making 8 dollars an hour at these jobs, and then some guy would get started at $10-$12 because that is what he asked for.

Now a days I am in a more professional, skilled position and I just put what I want/need to make. Sometimes I am specific and sometimes I give a range. I do a little research on the company before I answer, and I know my market rate.

Good luck!

back in the phils, i was never really asked about the expected salary so i'm clueless as how to deal with this one.

thanks for all your ideas!

Happy Easter!

That's a good question. I would go with negotiable to the average they say on salary.com just like Wacken said, cuz if I am to answer how much I think I'm worth, it would be more than they're willing to pay, I'm sure.

I used salary.com among the many many sites. I also researched the company's annual report. The HR manager told me the rate that I mentioned was within their range. I tried to avoid the negotiation during the preliminary interviews.

If you can avoid preliminiary negotiations, try doing so. After I went through the panel interviews and got a tour of the facility, then I had the strong positive feeling they were interested with me. Try to see if you get called back or if they are willing to negotiate by asking the right questions at a proper time, because negotiating too early and too high can lead to losing the offer. You have to prepare what you will say, carefully choose your words. It helped me a great deal. I made a series of possible questions the HR, the director of the department, and the rest of the interviewers would ask. I praticed answering them, with my husband as the interviewer haha. Preparation is the key.

So my story goes, the HR manager tried to finalize the negotiations and I was ready.

They ended up giving me a rate higher by $10. Once you get substantial experience and your performance review is excellent, you may negotiate for a raise, which I will do on my 9th month. There's no harm in trying. If you're getting good reviews from your superiors and you're exceeding the goals set for you, you may be allowed to "negotiate" a raise.

So good luck to you, claim what you think you deserve but within the market value.

I have a book that suggests that you just don't answer this... when you're applying for the job. But if you're asked it in an interview then that's a completely different situation.

when applying to some jobs sometimes u just don't have the option not to answer. like this job I applied a week ago, if you don't fill in the salary field with actual numbers, like 20000, it won't accept. so what am I supposed to do? you know?

Yeah, I had that with an online application. I put in a range that was around about the salaries I'd seen for similar/the same jobs.