Many companies in their announcements about vacancies They ask applicants to indicate their expected salary on their resume, which often causes uncertainty among candidates. In this article, you will learn the best language to use when describing a salary view.
If a job posting asks for an expected salary, you will in any case need to take a stand on the matter so as not to create the erroneous impression that you have not read the entirety or inattention of the advertisement.
How high should the expected salary be?
Before you write a certain amount on your resume, you should in any case compare the salary you currently receive, your own expectations and qualifications, or the requirements for the candidate, with the salary generally accepted for this field and position in order to prevent you from being excluded from the list applicants from the very beginning due to too high or too low requests.
View salaries offered on job portals
Some job search portals, such as monster.de, offer tables and overviews of salaries for various industries and positions, which will be especially useful for you if you are applying for your first job after training or education, and if you are currently working temporary employment contract, for which the payment is usually slightly lower than that of full-time employees.
In addition, in economically difficult times there will always be individual enterprises that offer salaries and salaries that diverge significantly from industry averages. To give an example: while apprentice workers earn on average between 16,000 and 25,000 euros per year, depending on the company and industry, you can find enterprises that pay salaries of more than 35,000 euros per year to unskilled or trained employees, i.e. an amount that already exceeds the initial salary of most graduates higher schools in demanded professions and industries. It is for this reason that it is advisable to inquire about generally accepted salaries in advance.
Formulation of the salary representation in the resume of the applicant
If your previous salary was neither too high nor too low for your position and industry, the following wording is appropriate: "My idea of salary is based on my actual annual salary of 36,000 euros." Alternatively, you can also use the phrase: "My idea of a salary is 36,000 euros per year." When defining your idea of salary, indicate whether you set this annual salary based on 12 or 13 months.
If the vacancy announcement is not very informative (for example: "Required a secretary with at least five years of experience in the specialty with good knowledge MS Office") and does not provide more details regarding the required qualifications or requirements for the applicant, it is often difficult to determine whether your salary expectations for a particular position will be considered too high or too low. In such cases, it is recommended not to specify a specific amount and enter the subject "Expected salary" in the final resume formula, for example in the following form:
- I would be very happy to meet you in person at the company where we can discuss/consider together my expected salary.
- I would be very happy to speak with you personally. On occasion, we can also consider together the question of my expected salary.
- The question of my expected salary, I would like to discuss with you in person, which I would be very happy about.
By using language like this, you make it clear that you have read the salary expectation request, but before negotiating with your potential employer on the issue of your income, first you would like to know specifically what exactly this position includes (scope of responsibility, the presence or absence of responsibility for the actions of management, duties, correlation within the hierarchical structure of the enterprise, etc.).
When you don't need to state your expected salary
Announcements of vacancies in public institutions in most cases, they already contain information about what tariff and what category tariff scale payment will be made. In this case, indicating the expected salary in the resume will be redundant.
If you want to know in advance how much you will receive according to the specified category wages To make sure that the salary offered is more than enough to cover your living expenses, you can search for such data on the Internet or consult professional information centers.
Expected salary in the job posting
In a free-enterprise economy, vacancy announcements most often do not provide or contain only general data, which can be expressed, for example, in the wording: “pay for performance” or “decent salary”, that is, the employer already imagines a certain amount , which is willing to pay a new employee who takes position. In such cases, you also should not report the level of expected salary, so as not to be in the pile of unpromising applicants even before it comes to a face-to-face interview.
The question “should I indicate the desired salary in the resume?” Always remains open. Some applicants indicate a specific figure, others write “by agreement”, and some leave the field blank. But which one is correct? We will tell!
If you correctly compose your resume, the likelihood of success in finding a job will increase significantly - after all, this is a kind of self-promotion of the candidate. One of her criteria is the salary indicated in the resume. This document should be written in such a way that the employer has a desire to consider you as a possible candidate for a specific vacancy, so it should be short, competent, specific, original and reliable.
Whether to indicate a salary in a resume is a personal matter for everyone, but any tactics you choose can have both pros and cons - before making a final decision, carefully weigh and analyze everything. As a last resort, you can conduct such an experiment: when sending resumes to different companies, indicate the desired salary in some, and write “by agreement” in others. And see what offers employers respond best to.
How to indicate the salary level in the resume?
Experiments are experiments, but it is better if you are aware of the possible reactions of employers in advance. Let's consider several options.
You have indicated a specific figure of the desired salary.
According to statistics, employers respond more readily to such resumes. It just so happened that we all love specifics, and the company's management would also like to know about the expectations of the applicant. But in this case, further events can develop in your favor only if the opinions of both parties regarding the salary level coincide. Otherwise, the situation may be different.
- You specified lower salary than you could be paid.
Of course, the employer will gladly respond to your resume and invite you for an interview. After all, he may have a chance to save on an employee with underestimated requests, and at the same time you will lose some of the money that you could receive. Or the employer will think that you underestimate yourself, that means something is wrong with you, and throw your resume in the trash.
It is difficult to predict how events will develop in reality. But if you decide to indicate a specific salary figure for which you are applying, find out in advance how much they pay on average for this particular position.
- You have indicated a salary more than you are willing to pay.
This can only be justified if, in parallel, your additional professional quality- then the manager will see that you are a high-level specialist who deserves to be paid more. If you do not differ in any additional unique talents, but require too high salary: most likely, your candidacy will be ignored.
Advice: realistically assess your professional capabilities.
- You said "by appointment" in your resume.
In this case, the reaction of the personnel manager may also be unforeseen. If there are many applicants, preference will be given to more specific resumes that indicate the salary level. In other cases, the emphasis will be on the experience and knowledge of the applicant. And if a person meets these criteria, he will be invited for an interview.
If you decide to indicate a salary in your resume, but do not know how to estimate its level, be guided by the income that you had in your previous job. This option is optimal, but, of course, only if you are applying for the same position that you previously held.
Talking about salary in an interview
Whatever you write about your expected salary on your resume, this question will still be asked at the interview. Therefore, we recommend that you prepare carefully.
If you indicated a salary level higher than provided for this position, justify this. The employer needs to see that you really have the unique abilities that were listed on your resume. If you represent for a specific company valuable employee, you can meet halfway and pay a little more. But for this you need to prove your competence and high professionalism.
If you refrained from answering the salary question in your resume, you will still have to dispel all doubts in this regard at the interview. There are also several options here, how you can answer:
- Living wage calculation.
- Calculate in advance how much money you need to live comfortably. In this case, everyone will receive their own figure, which will depend on specific financial costs:
- utility bills, loans, expenses for a child, food, Internet, mobile communications, travel, etc.;
- additional important costs: purchase of shoes, clothes, medical expenses, etc.;
- other financial needs depending on the situation.
As a result of all these calculations, you will get a specific amount. Of course, all of us may have different requests, so it’s worth checking if the “living wage” you calculated does not exceed the average market salary for the vacancy you are applying for. If everything is fine in this regard, we recommend adding another 10% to the amount received - this is a kind of “safety net” in case of inflation.
- Landmark for official duties.
When asked by an employer about how much you would like to earn, you can answer that everything will depend on the tasks assigned to you. Find out what requirements will be placed on you and what job responsibilities you will have to perform. With this in mind, you can determine, at least approximately, the level of your salary.
Indicating in the resume the desired income or not is purely your decision. In any case, you must personally determine for yourself what salary will be optimal for you, because not only companies are looking for competent employees, but you also choose a job that should suit you in every way.
It is important to make your resume complete so that you can clearly answer the employer's main questions before the interview. People have difficulty filling in the column about their preferred monthly salary. Let's clarify how to correctly report this information, and when it is not necessary to indicate the desired RFP.
The expected monthly salary is the amount of money equivalent by which the employer evaluates the level of work and the potential of the future employee. By naming the desired payment, you report the cost, by which you mean the quality of your work.
Don't deliberately underestimate your value, as you will be mistaken for an incompetent person who just wants to get a job for any money. It is better to write "by agreement"
Should I include salary requirements on my resume?
To reduce the time for the selection of candidates, the recruiter excludes a resume with a salary that does not match the company's offer. In any case, you will have to decide on income and focus on it.
There are two positions for an employee in employment:
- Applicant knows salary for the position - indicate the appropriate salary level, or do not indicate it at all.
- Applicant does not know salary for the position - write average level payment for your specialty.
According to statistics, the number of responses to resumes is 38% less if there is no desired salary.
Average responses per job
Statistics taken from the summary of the IT field, in other areas it may differ
Publication date 23.05.2016 St. Petersburg
This question often confuses the applicant. On the one hand, it’s scary to miscalculate and I want the employer to be the first to voice their proposals. Therefore, it is tempting to indicate in the resume: “Salary: by agreement” and thus demonstrate my loyalty, they say, I am a modest employee and I am ready to negotiate, I don’t dictate anything to anyone. On the other hand, the applicant wants a decent salary and does not want to waste time on those employers who are not ready to meet his salary expectations. And the employer does not want to waste time on a presumptuous applicant who wants to get too much. So should you include salary on your resume? And if so, which one? Here is how an experienced recruiter, head of the recruitment and staffing department of the Arsenal machine-building plant Matvey SLOBODYAN answered these questions.
It is highly desirable to indicate the salary in the resume, unless, of course, the applicant wants to increase the number of responses from employers. According to statistics from a popular job search site, the more comprehensive information a candidate provides about himself in a resume, the higher his competitive advantage. This is due to the fact that the employer saves his time and, first of all, selects resumes of more understandable and suitable applicants.
According to the salary “fork” of the candidate, the recruiter will understand how objectively he evaluates himself in terms of experience and knowledge, how much he knows the market and the cost of specialists in it. When both parties roughly represent each other's expectations, then it is easier to negotiate a salary level.
If the salary is not indicated in the resume, the recruiter himself will assess what the applicant can expect based on the labor market and is unlikely to offer more in the future, even if the candidate asks for it. Actually, your salary is your price tag. Anyone who brings his product to the market is obliged to indicate its price.
And most importantly, if the candidate did not indicate the salary in the resume, there is a chance that he will not be included in the selection of resumes on the job site at all. After all, when setting search criteria, the employer almost always indicates the salary “plug” into which the applicants he needs will fall. But this is the case if there are many specialists in this area on the market and the recruiter has a large choice.
If you are a unique specialist and you know that people like you are rare - do not hesitate, the employer will find you regardless of whether you indicated your salary level or not.
And what level of salary to specify? After all, reasoning can be very different. For example, if you indicate a low salary, then the candidate may be considered insufficiently qualified, if too high - too “expensive”, and if you indicate the one that was at the previous job, then this can be interpreted as follows: the candidate has nothing more to count on.
I can offer to indicate the level of salary, similar to what was at the previous place of work, plus 10-15% if the position is similar, and plus 30-40% if the candidate is counting on career. In the first case, the desired increase in wages can be explained by inflation, and in the second case, in addition to inflation, an increased level of responsibility.
Of course, if a specialist migrates (moving to another region, moving to a larger structure), it is necessary to conduct at least basic monitoring of the level of salaries for the desired position in order to be “in the market” when specifying the salary.
Of course, there are cases when the employer forms salary proposals based on the qualifications of the candidate, i.e., does not have a ready-made offer, but discusses it during the interview process. Such cases do occur if professional sphere narrow. In such a situation, the candidate is invited only based on his qualifications, and then the employer's task is to attract the candidate with a personal offer.
If we talk about the positions of top managers, then the salary discussion does not take place at the first interview, but, as a rule, at the final stage. When inviting a candidate for such positions, the employer preliminarily evaluates his capabilities, correlating the “scale” of the candidate, his merits, and approximate income from previous jobs. In extreme cases, the employer before the meeting can clarify the procedure for remuneration, which is potentially interesting to the candidate.
It is possible to indicate “by agreement” in the salary level only if the applicant is a specialist in a narrow field and applies for the position of a top manager. In other cases, the employer will ask you at the first call: “What level of wages are you targeting?” - so that there are no cardinal discrepancies and do not waste the time of both the applicant and the employer. I advise you to answer directly, while immediately clarifying what kind of earnings you are talking about. It is important that your terminology and the terminology of the employer match. Explain, for example, that the desired 50 thousand rubles for you is the total income (salary + bonus) after taxes.
Good luck in finding a job and a decent salary for you!
Prepared by Lydia BEREZNYAKOVA
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The question of whether to indicate the desired salary in the resume is decided by itself if at the end of the vacancy announcement it says: “Please indicate salary expectations in the resume.” Everything is very simple and clear here. Such vacancies this moment a lot.
What if it's not in the ad? This topic excited the guests of our forum very much, and Rabota.Ru decided to ask HR managers of large companies what they think about this.
Alexey Romanovsky, ABBYY Human Resources Manager Our homeland:
To declare or not to declare in the resume the level of one's own salary claims - this choice depends on the level of the specialist and the position for which he claims. If the vacancy and specializations are massive, then it is better to indicate expectations. If the vacancy is at the level of a top manager, then the final salary is the result of negotiations and, as a rule, candidates do not indicate expectations.
From our practice over the past few years, I can say that candidates have begun to indicate their currency expectations in their resumes more often. Almost all of this is due to the many different job banks on the Web, for which the standard field when filling out a candidate's questionnaire is the “desired salary” field.
If the candidate has decided to indicate his wishes for compensation, the only recommendation is to rely on what the market offers for this position. Naturally, for a number of specialties, the knowledge of a foreign language is separately assessed, in some places it is important to master certain programs, but in general, the wage range for each position has been formed by the market. The exception is, perhaps, the rarest best positions.
Maria Zhukova, HR manager at Begun:
The need to indicate the expected level of payment in the resume has two fundamental aspects. First, you cut off companies in this way that need a specialist who is paid more or less. In other words, your expectations simply do not match the company's budget for this position. On the other hand, the level of salary, as a rule, directly depends on the professional level of the candidate. In this way, you attract the enthusiasm of companies that are ready to make you an adequate offer.
Natalia Matveeva, Head of HR Department, Masterhost Group of Companies:
Salary expectations should be indicated, since it will be easier for the applicant and the employer to sort ads and resumes. For example, if a person suits us according to all characteristics, but shows a salary of 40,000 rubles, and we can only offer 25,000. Naturally, we will not even call the candidate. The most balanced option is to indicate the lower bar of your own expectations. Upper limit it makes no sense to indicate, because the more they offer the applicant, the better for him.
Evgenia Zvonova, HR Manager of RBC Holding:
My worldview and the worldview of my colleagues is absolutely accurate: you should indicate your salary expectations. At least a fork. Naturally, we also consider resumes without indicating the desired salary, but they are the least presentable, since we can already imagine what the candidate is counting on. And even in the case when the applicant shows a higher amount than we can offer, our HR manager still calls him back - there is a great possibility that the candidate will be intrigued by our offer, since, in addition to funds, he may be attracted by a number of prizes offered by the company.
Boris Rezapov, HR Director, Rosinter Restaurants Holding OJSC:
At the current time, the salary market is characterized by great variability, and salaries for the same position sometimes differ significantly. I believe that if an applicant shows a salary in his resume, then he risks either miscalculating by setting a low salary bar for himself in advance, or significantly exceeding this bar and not getting a good job in an exciting company for him. In my opinion, it makes no sense to write about your own salary expectations in the resume itself, because. it is not uncommon for a candidate to get a job at the lowest wage, and after a few months he begins to receive even more than he expected at first. Therefore, you do not need to set limits for yourself that can only interfere with getting the job you want.
Many HR professionals, seeing salary expectations in their resumes, tend to think that the main requirement for an applicant is only the salary level, and not the job itself. In my opinion, working conditions and payment should be discussed after we see that the candidate suits us. Only in this case, the company can go for an increase entry level payment, meeting the wishes of the applicant. Although at the stage of obtaining a resume, this candidate could be put aside because of the immensely high, in the eyes of the HR, salary expectations.