mediumHrEntryMidSeniorStaffLead
What are your salary expectations?
3 min readUpdated 2026-08-15
Answer
Short answer
Deflect once to ask for the budgeted range, since whoever names a number first sets the anchor and the recruiter already has one; if pressed, give a researched range with your target near its bottom and tie it to market rather than to your current salary.
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Likely follow-ups
- What is your current CTC?
- That is above our band for this role. How flexible are you?
- Do you have other offers in progress?
- If we matched that number, would you sign today?
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