Companies often ask you for a salary history or your salary requirements up front. If you are working through a recruiter they will ask you early on what you’re currently making and what you’d like to make. You may also be asked this question again at the end of an in-person interview.
Some people think it’s a mistake to reveal your desired salary, but I think they’re wrong. Fact is, virtually all companies have a salary range in mind when they open a job req. Even if the salary is listed as ‘open’, there are limits that the company won’t exceed. So before you waste your time and the company’s time (and the recruiter’s time), the parties involved need to know whether you fall within the company’s expected pay range.
If you really do not want to commit yourself, just let the company know of your current or most recent salary and say that you’re looking for a competitive offer. Presumably your old salary will be something of a floor and the company will be challenged to work off of that. If you are willing to go even below your current pay, you can note that you’re ‘flexible’.
Some of you might feel that you are currently underpaid, and that revealing that information might put you at a disadvantage and hamper your efforts to get a market rate. You could try not revealing your current pay, but chances are the company will find out one way or another. So the best strategy in this case is to say that you are looking to leave your current job because you feel underpaid and are looking to obtain a fair market salary. That will implicitly discourage the company form trying to lowball you.
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In my experience, applicants are at a real disadvantage in salary negotiation because they don't really know what their skills are worth, but the company does.
Fix this: go visit a variety of sites like salary.com and learn what your skills are worth this year in your city. If you're underpaid, aim for median pay. If not, aim for a small increase over what you're making now.
And always remember that any response you give to "what salary are you looking for?" is your opening asking price in a negotiation: that is, the price will never go up from there.
If you know what you're worth it's easy to ask for a bit more than that, to give yourself some negotiating room without giving a number that's too high and scares off the company.
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