We all dread the “salary question”. You’ve finally made it into an interview with the employer you really want to work for and they ask you the worst interview question of them all: “What kind of salary are you looking to earn?” Your heart beats faster, your mind races, and your palms get sweaty as you start to panic and think “What should I say?” If you give a salary figure that is too high, maybe they won’t be interested in you anymore. But if you give a salary figure that is too low, then you’ve just underpriced yourself. What to do? Stop and take a deep breath! Contrary to popular opinion, there actually is a right answer to this question- you just have to have the right information. What if you were interviewing at Microsoft for a Marketing Manager position and you knew exactly how much Microsoft paid their Marketing Managers? Then you would be able to judge exactly how much of a salary you should ask for. Well now you can find out the salary information for almost any company. It’s a new site called Jobnob www.jobnob.com. The answer for the Microsoft Marketing Manager salary question is: at Jobnob, based on 22 salaries for people working at Microsoft as a Marketing Manager, the average salary is $98,000 with a range from $74,000-$121,000. So if you want to play it safe, you can tell the interviewer that you would expect to make a salary of at least $98,000. If you feel that you are particularly qualified for this position, then you may want to go toward the high end of the market, say maybe $120,000. Or if you are just graduating from college, then maybe the right answer is to go with the lower range salary closer to $75,000.

Microsoft Salaries

What about throwing out a salary number that is higher than the range? You could certainly try to bump up your starting salary, but before you throw out a number that is too high, keep a few things in mind. First, many companies have official salary ranges or bands that they cannot go above, no matter how badly they want a candidate to join. So you may say that you want to earn $175,000 as a Marketing Manager at Microsoft, but that salary range may be associate with a different position level, such as a Director of Marketing (note: this is just an example, I don’t know what Microsoft’s bands are- or if they even have them). The second thing to keep in mind is that you want to appear reasonable. If you ask for a particularly high salary, the interviewer or hiring manager might get the impression that you are either unreasonable or that if you accepted their offer at a considerably lower salary that you would be dissatisfied. Of course you want to get the maximum salary offer that you can from a new employer, but just make sure that you give a compensation number within reason.

What about giving a salary figure that is too low? Well now you don’t need to worry that you’ve sorely underpriced yourself just because you had no idea what to say. Now you know that as long as you are armed with the right information, you can ace any salary question in an interview. Do your research before you go, see what the company is actually paying for the position you’re interviewing for, decide how much you want the job and what you’re willing to accept as a salary, and maybe push the boundary a little with your initial salary request. As long as it’s reasonable, even if it’s high for them, you can still be in the game and land the job you want at the right price!