Are you staring at the field in the job application that requires you to input your salary — especially numerically — so you can’t even get away with writing “negotiable”? Don’t know how to answer?
I have a better way for you to apply to jobs that require this of you:
Don’t.
At least not directly within the Applicant Tracking System (mostly useless anyway).*
*(Please note, the rules are slightly different if you are applying for nonprofit jobs or jobs with companies that are more price-inelastic with respect to their compensation structures. Scroll to the bottom for more information about how to handle those.)
This is an antiquated practice, and this information asymmetry should be rejected, en masse, by job applicants until it is discontinued. Companies are collecting data points from individuals, but the information does not flow back down. In fact, you are actively discouraged from sharing it with your peers, and often do so only at professional risk to yourself.
It’s bad practice. When I see this on applications, I gently suggest that my client not apply.
Instead, I encourage the client to use LinkedIn's powerful search to identify the hiring manager, contact the person directly, and attach the cover letter and resume as a PDF. The client can write in the email: “If you believe I am qualified and a good fit for your team, I would love to learn more about the role and discuss my salary expectations.” Your resume should speak for itself and a hiring manager will not refuse a phone call if he or she finds your qualifications to be an asset to the position, regardless of personal views on ATS input fields.
Here’s a video on how to identify the hiring manager for almost any role using nothing but LinkedIn and your fingertips:
Two reasons to do this:
It gets you a direct line to the hiring manager and bypasses the ATS (and you should be doing this anyway with all your applications).
It speaks poorly about the company, but often the hiring manager is neither party to nor in control of HR policies, so this gives you, the hiring manager, and the company an opportunity to improve its practices. You should not penalize the hiring manager for shortsighted HR behavior on the part of the company.
Asymmetrical information creates market failures, including adverse selection, moral hazard, and monopolies of knowledge.
The point: Discuss your salary expectations only during the interview process, when it’s a fair negotiation.
Should you choose to apply within the ATS anyway, here is what to do:
Companies in general have more market information than job applicants to determine realistic salary ranges. And they are wisening up to the vast pay disparities between people who know how to negotiate, and those who have not had similar access and exposure. Companies are increasingly taking robust steps to write inclusive job descriptions that do not discourage people — often women and minorities — from applying, by focusing on aspirational qualities rather than requirements.
Furthermore, according to an individual with access to thousands of tech employee salaries:
A 2018 Hired report found that men in tech are offered higher pay than women for the same role in the same company 63 percent of the time. Fifty-four percent of women in tech have reported that they were paid less than a peer of another gender in the same role.
Do your part to close the pay gap by leveling the playing field in your favor.
Instructions
In the salary range, input the lowest reasonable number, even if it’s somewhat below your range. This ensures you will not be preemptively disqualified by naming a number that is higher than the company’s preset range for the position.
(Side note: This is super important, because you do not always know your own range. What if the position is insanely awesome and you’d learn a lot? What if the impact you’d have supersedes the salary you’d forego? What if there’s equity or restricted stock in the mix? Your salary expectations are a function of multiple factors, including the overall benefits package, the future trajectory of the position, and your emotional commitment to the role. Your salary expectations are often fluid, so do not discount future value for present reward. I once quit my super cool job at NBC Universal to go work in Rwanda for $750/month. I once also applied to and accepted a position as Communications Associate at a company I cared deeply about, despite more than a decade of experience in communications. In short order, I became that organization’s Communications Director and subsequently its Chief Information Officer. You never know, so don’t take yourself out of the running until you gather sufficient information and a more complete picture about the company and role upon which to make an educated decision.)
Your job at the application stage is to get the recruiter to contact you about the job.
It is not to negotiate your salary — at least not yet.
Once the recruiter does call, he or she will confirm your salary expectations to ensure that yours align with the company’s.
At this point, you should inform the recruiter that your salary expectations are pending more info about this role.
Here’s what to say:
“I would like to learn more about the role and your salary range for this role, and I’ll be happy to let you know whether that range aligns with my expectations.”
“Your job at this stage is to get the recruiter to contact you about a job. It is not to negotiate your salary — yet.”
If the recruiter then says:
“In your application, you put in $75,000. Is that accurate?”
You should say:
“I input a response because the job application required it. The fact is, my salary is a function of my interest in the role, the overall benefits, and the potential to have real impact — and is not a fixed number. I would like to learn more about the role and your salary range for this role, and I’ll be happy to let you know whether that range aligns with my expectations.”
This forces the question, and puts the ball in the recruiter’s court to disclose a number, since he or she cannot at this point reasonably say, “No, you speak first! I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.”
The recruiter will respond with a range, and you can either confirm that you fit that range and would love to proceed to next steps, or move on. But where you fit within that salary range should be determined by your performance during the interview process, and not before you’ve had a chance to make a case for yourself. If you name a number on the low end of the range before having all the facts, you make it unnecessarily harder for yourself to negotiate a better deal.
The takeaway: Companies already have ranges predetermined for all their positions, based upon realtime market data on millions of job seekers. These ranges are set after expensive market compensation surveys and research, which give companies far more information than you are able to access. Please tip the balance of power in your favor and show your influencing and negotiation chops by not allowing employers to play games.
Never be the first to disclose a number. Believe me, you will come off as savvy, impressive, and experienced. And they need savvy negotiators like you, because all success in business is a function of negotiation, grit, and intelligence.
But employers are not expressly out to disadvantage you when they request that you disclose a number. They are trying to avoid wasting YOUR time — and theirs — by not focusing on applicants whose salary expectations are out of line with their salary bands. They simply don’t want to needlessly string you along, and wish to respect you.
Their goal, and yours, is to confirm that expectations are mutually in line. So of course you’ll want to agree on ballpark numbers before progressing beyond the recruiter stage to first-round interviews. This is in your interest as well as the company’s. But because employers almost certainly have more market compensation data at their fingertips than you do, get them to name a number first, and then confirm it, rather than the other way around. Perpetuating the information asymmetry helps absolutely no one.
Just as often, employers have very little room to negotiate salary anyway. This is especially true during economic downturns. Please read the below, as it may apply to you:
If You’re Applying to Nonprofits or Smaller Companies
The negotiation rules still mostly apply — provided that you handle your counteroffer with informed market data and numbers that respect the operating budget of your target employer. But you should handle the job application stage differently.
Nonprofits and impact-sector organizations are ipso facto less able to pay market price for your talents. And you know that going in already. So be a realist.
Just as stated above, input your lowest acceptable salary range at application stage, so as to not prematurely remove yourself from candidacy before you’ve had a chance to properly educate yourself about the role, the organization, and your own unexpected excitement about it. Include in your cover letter (and if possible, in the job application software itself) the caveat that your passion for position supersedes your salary priorities, which are negotiable.
If the recruiter calls and asks to confirm the stated range, reiterate the above, and take this invaluable opportunity to underscore your passion for mission and commitment to cause. This goes a long way and makes it impossible to disqualify you based on a number until such time as you gather enough information to make your own informed decision.
During the interview process, do everything possible to demonstrate your exceptional value in order to put yourself in the best position to negotiate a fair market rate when you’re looking at an offer.