Answering "What's Your Expected Salary?"

It usually comes in the first fifteen minutes, from a recruiter, in a tone suggesting it is a formality. It is not a formality and it is not a negotiation — the person asking cannot approve any number you say. It is a filter.

What the filter is for

The recruiter has a band and a screening job. Your answer sorts you into three buckets: comfortably inside, above the top, or low enough that they can bring you in cheap. Two of those three outcomes are bad for you, which is why answering with a single number this early rarely helps.

The answer that works

Turn it around once, politely and without evasion: "I want to make sure the role is a fit before I anchor on a number — what range is budgeted for this level?" Many jurisdictions now require them to tell you, and most recruiters will regardless, because they also want to avoid wasting four rounds.

If they press, give a range whose bottom you would genuinely accept, because the bottom is what you will be offered. Set it from market data for the level and location, not from your current salary — the single most expensive habit in tech compensation is pricing your next role off your last one.

If you are asked what you currently make

In several US states and a growing number of countries, that question is illegal. Where it is not, you are still not obliged to answer it. "I would rather focus on the value of this role" is a complete response, and a recruiter who escalates from there has told you something useful about the company.

• Research the band before the first call, not after the offer.

• Never give a number you have not decided you would accept.

• Ranges get read as their bottom. Price accordingly.

• Total compensation is not base. Ask what the mix is.

You are not being difficult by declining to name a number first. You are declining to bid against yourself in an auction with one bidder.