What is your salary expectation?- I

When you find a probable good fit in your selection process, one of the questions that you ask, without which the interview is incomplete, is what your salary expectation is. There are different kinds of answers I get, some realistic and many unrealistic and in this posting, I am going to share some of my interview experience on this. Let us check it out.

Scenario - 1 - Freshers - Let us check the salary related conversation with a Fresher

HR: What is your expected salary?

Fresher: I expect CTC of 4.00 lakh per annum

HR: What is your rationale behind this CTC and how do you justify it?

Fresher: One of my classmates is getting the same CTC and my cousin with same educational qualification is also getting the same CTC

HR: Does it mean that you should also expect the same salary? May be they are more knowledgeable than you.

Fresher: May be, but not that much.

Points to think through:  No employer decides on your CTC based on what your classmate or cousin has got. That is not the basis on which compensation policies are framed. So don’t compare and rather be prepared justify why you expect what you expect.

Qualification is a passport to get an interview and the salary that you aspire to get depends on how you perform in the interview and how employable are you ie., whether you are an employable or trainable candidate.  

You need to take a realistic call on your skills and competencies. For instance, not all the MBAs in a class will get the same CTC. It will differ from one person to the other in the group and the gap could be huge between the highest and lowest offer.  Being in cloud nine without self-awareness will not help.  However, the good part of the story is reality orientation does take place for the candidate after few interviews. When reality does strike hard, one has to fall off the cloud nine.

Moreover, when you start your career as a fresher, you need to be little flexible on the salary front and check out the learning opportunities that can help you build your foundation for a good career.

CTC discussions with experienced candidates: There are candidates who switch over from one company to the other every year and there are candidates who get promoted without any promotions just by hopping jobs.  It may sound funny but I’ve seen such candidates. Cutting the story back to salary expectation, I’ve given below couple of interesting scenarios.

Scenario - 1 (Experienced candidates)

HR: What is your current CTC

Candidate: 5.00 lakhs per annum

HR: What is your expected CTC

Candidate: 10.00 lakh

HR: Do you know your expected CTC increase in terms of percentage?

Candidate: I guess 50%

HR: What is 50% of 5.00 lakh?

Candidate: 2.5 lakhs per annum

HR: So what is your CTC expectation in percentage?

Candidate: I am not sure

HR: That's fine. How do you justify this increase?

Candidate: Because I have 5 years’ experience

HR: But your skill set is not equal to 5 years. You are not working on any niche technology? How do you justify 10 lakhs?

Candidate: My friends with similar experience are getting the same CTC. Why not me.

HR: What is your minimum expected CTC below which you will not join?

Candidate: 10 lakhs per annum

Scenario-2 (Experienced candidates)

HR: What is your current CTC?

Candidate: 5.00 lakhs per annum

HR: What is your expected CTC?

Candidate: 30 -40 % increase

HR: But you've joined your current organization just few months ago and you are quitting now. How do you justify 30-40% % increase within this 5-6 months?

Candidate: It is an industry practice to get minimum 30% when you move from one company to the other company

HR: Where have you heard this from?

Candidate: Of course I know it!

HR: But, out of 6 months, you were on training and bench for almost 3 months. What have you learnt in just 3 months to expect 40% increase?

Candidate: As I said, this is the industry practice. What is wrong in expecting this increase?

HR: OK. So, assume that we hire you with 40% increase and you are leaving us in 5-6 months’ time. Would you expect another 40% increase from your next employer?

Candidate:  Yes. Why not. That's what the industry practice is.

In my next posting, I would write about how one should ideally look at their salary increases.  Do stay connected and watch this space! Happy weekend. 

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