Career Negotiations Podcast

What to Put for Desired Salary on Application Forms - The Right Desired Salary Answer

• Brandon Bramley

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Do you know what to put for desired salary on application forms? Here’s my proven guide to navigating salary expectations on job applications. In this episode, I break down exactly why companies ask for your desired salary, what they’re really looking for, and how this info fits into their internal hiring process.

That way you have negotiation advice that is based on hundreds of salary negotiations and actually work for job seekers.

SALARY NEGOTIATION TOOLS MENTIONED

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WHO AM I

I'm Brandon, the Founder and Lead Negotiator at TheSalaryNegotiator.com. As a former corporate negotiator, I now help employees increase their compensation. Through hundreds of salary negotiations, I've helped career professionals secure over $200 million in additional compensation. My expertise is backed by more than 150 five-star reviews from career professionals on Google and Trustpilot.

Brandon Bramley:

Most companies now ask you to share your salary expectations on applications, but what do you put when a company requests this? In this episode, my goal is to cover everything you need to correctly navigate the salary expectations questions on job applications (https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/resource-center/salary-expectations-answer-on-application). I'm first gonna cover why job applications ask what your decided salary is so you know more about their internal application process and what information this gives the company. That way you know exactly why the company wants this information. Then I'm gonna walk you through why I recommend not sharing your expected salary answer on an application form. And I'm gonna close the episode out by sharing what to put for salary exploitations on application forms. That way you don't risk the opportunity and you do actually secure competitive compensation. So let's get into it. Hi everyone, welcome back to the channel. If you're new here, my name is Brandon Bramley and I'm the founder and lead negotiator at https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/. I provide professional job offer negotiation coaching, salary negotiation courses, and tools to help professionals navigate the negotiation process and secure competitive compensation. I'm not just a career coach or recruiter giving out generic salary negotiation advice. There's already enough bad advice floating around online. Instead, I personally led hundreds of salary negotiations across various roles, helping my clients secure millions of more in compensation. My background is actually in strategic negotiations, and my goal is to debunk some of the bad advice out there and give you proven negotiation strategies that are actually going to work and help you earn more. So if you are a career professional and you're looking to earn competitive pay, subscribe here for actionable tips. And when you're ready to take your negotiations to the next level, visit thesalarynegotiator.com for coaching courses and tools that are designed to help you negotiate the best possible offer in your next role. Now, before we dive into what salary expectations answer to put on an application form, let's talk about why recruiters and companies want this information. Companies are often looking for your desired salary answer for several reasons. The primary purpose is usually to filter out applicants whose salary requirements are either too low or too high, narrowing down the pool of their candidates for interviews. Look, employers want to ensure that they can afford to hire you and they don't have an endless budget. So recruiters are unlikely to invest their time in interviewing candidates whose pay expectations are far beyond their reach. So it's just not worth it. The what's your expected salary question also helps employers assess if your priorities align with theirs. Are you actually interested in the role itself or are you only focused on a high salary? If someone has unrealistic salary expectations for the position that doesn't offer such compensation, it's likely not a suitable fit for the role, if you think about it. Employers also may use what's your expected salary as a way to validate if they're hiring the right skill set. Compensation expectations, including your current salary, can sometimes correlate closely with the seniority level and job title. So keep that in mind. And lastly, they use it to find out how much they need to pay you and if they can bring you in at a lower rate. Okay, this is a very common tactic that usually works against most job candidates when in search of competitive compensation later on in the interview process. So you want to be careful. Okay, now that you know why recruiters and employers want your salary information, let's talk through why I recommend not sharing your salary expectations. There are a few salary negotiation mistakes people make, and this one is at the top of the list. Okay, so sharing your salary expectations or current pay of the recruiting team is only gonna work against you in most cases. Plus, you haven't even made it to the interview yet, so it's impossible to share your salary expectations on an application form when you haven't learned more about the role, responsibilities, the compensation structures and benefits, and even if it's a right fit for you. Okay, so think about it. If you throw out a number on the application that's lower than what they could offer, you'll likely get less competitive compensation package at the low end of their pay range, or you run the risk of actually being downleveled, which is very common for roles at tech companies if you're in that industry. On the flip side, right, if you throw out a number that's higher on your job application thinking that it's gonna help you, they might think, shoot, not sure if we can afford this person. So let's go in a different candidate instead. So it's not a good strategy and it might not even get you the interview. And if you think about it, I want you to remember they know exactly what they can pay for the role. And you unfortunately don't decide this because they have set pay structures. So don't get downleveled or tied to a low compensation by accidentally providing your salary expectations answered on application forms. It's way too early in the process, so hold that until you have an offer package. Okay, so what should you put when asked for salary expectations answer on application forms? When a value went to put for salary expectations on application forms or interview questionnaires (https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/store/salary-expectations-scripts-and-email-templates), we suggest you recommend from providing specific numbers until you have actually progressed through the interview process and have a job offer in hand. On the job applications, you're typically going to come across either a free text field where you can provide a written response or a numerical field where only numerical values are allowed. If you encounter a free text field, I recommend using phrases like industry standard for this role or market average for this role as your response. If a numerical value is required and text is not allowed, entering zero or zero zero one is usually the best approach. Following this simple strategy is usually the most effective way to respond when asked what is your desired salary because during the interview, you might still be asked about your salary expectations by the recruiter. And my suggestion is still the same that you should always withhold that information. The only difference in those cases are that you should turn the question back on the recruiter since they know the pay ranges. They're always gonna know the pay ranges. You can either use my salary expectations responses and scripts in my job offer negotiation course or on our templates page to handle those situations if needed, because that way these are gonna help you avoid disclosing your pay expectations so that you can actually earn competitive pay and you don't fall into some of these recruiter tactics before you even interview and before you get the job offer. This wraps up the episode on what to put for salary expectations on application forums. I hope this breakdown of why employers and recruiters want this information, how it can work actually against you in this process, and our proven expected salary answers help you feel more confident in this process. But honestly, if you're serious about getting the best possible offer, I highly suggest you don't go into the salary negotiation alone. Head over to thesalarynegotiator.com to either work with me directly as your salary negotiation coach or check out my salary negotiation courses (https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/job-offer-negotiation-course) and tools (https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/salary-negotiation-templates). You'll find all the links in the episode notes below, and they're all designed to help you get better pay at your future company. And honestly, if you found this episode helpful, make sure to subscribe, leave a comment, and share it with someone who could actually use this advice in their career. Thanks for tuning in and good luck negotiating. https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbramley/

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Brandon Bramley

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