Attorney shares the one interview question you should ‘never ever answer’
If you ever end up in a job interview, which you probably will do at some point in your life, then there's one question an attorney says you should 'never ever answer'.
To really emphasise the point that you shouldn't ever answer this interview question, attorney Jeremy Rosenthal said 'never ever' about a million times in the prelude.
He said: "It's very predictable and it's very foreseeable, and the fact that you answer it when you're interviewing with me makes me know that you really didn't do a lot of research and work coming into this.
"It's not something I would ask you, it's something anybody would ask you. That goes profession-wide, not just for lawyers. It could go for anybody looking for a job, anywhere.
Advert
"The question is this: 'Tell me about your salary expectations'."
As for why you should never answer this question anyone could ask you, Rosenthal said that's because if you do try and answer it, 'you're negotiating against yourself'.
So if you're in an interview where you're trying to convince someone you deserve this wonderful job, then you don't want to get stuck in an argument against yourself.
If you're going for a job and it's time to discuss how much you're actually going to be paid for your efforts, Rosenthal said an employer already has a 'set range' in their head of how much they'd be willing to pay you.
Sometimes this will be on the job posting already, but even if it's not, they'll know what kind of salary range they'd be willing to offer you.
The lawyer said he'd sometimes throw it into a conversation with possible candidates 'to see how stupid you are', and the responses he'd get would have people lowballing themselves to the point they'd be paying '$15,000 less than what I was willing to pay'.
"All you've done there is make me think you don't value yourself," he said.
"The second part of it is that I'm like 'yeah, we'll do it your way', we saved $15,000, and I give myself high fives, to my partners. So great work."
If you are asked this question, you can hardly refuse to give an answer or draw attention to their attempts to get you to lowball yourself, so instead you should redirect the focus.
The attorney said the 'right answer' was to say it was 'something I have to discuss with my family' or to say 'that's going to depend what I learn about this job based on what you tell me'.
"Whoever you're talking to will dig the s**t out of that answer because they know you're not a dummy and they're gonna appreciate you for it. It makes it more likely you get the job," he said.
Joe Harker