Dear Lawcrossing,
Every interviewer has asked the same questions, and I'm stumped. What is the correct response to, "What are your salary expectations?" and "What is your salary history?" The problem is that I'm 37, an evening division student with significant business experience, but I recognize that if I get the legal employment I'm looking for, I won't be starting in the $75,000 range where I am currently. What should I say?
Sincerely,
JN
DEAR JN,
LawCrossing loves the salary question, because it's quite obvious what the honest answer is: "I want to make a million bucks a year." Who doesn't? Of course, you already know, JN, that you can't say that.
Let's take a look at the rock and the hard place which are behind the salary question. On the one hand, if you say, "Oh, I'll be happy with anything," you worry about undervaluing yourself, you imagine that the employer is secretly laughing at you for your apparent lack of self--esteem, and-worst of all-ultimately fear you might actually receive an offer that would rival the take-home pay from the drive-thru window.
On the other hand, if you name a figure three standard deviations above what the employer intends to pay, you run the risk of losing an offer for being unrealistic- or not getting an offer at all, because the employer figures you won't accept the salary that goes with the position.
Fortunately for LawCrossing, it is very easy for you to get around the salary issue. It requires about five minutes of advance research. What you want to do is to contact the career services office at your law school (or make friends with the career services office at the nearest law school to you right now), and ask for the National Association of Law Placement ("NALP") salary statistics covering the kind of job you're looking for. Fortunately for you, JN, NALP breaks down its statistics into almost block-by-block detail, covering not only what you ought to make as a starting point for any given kind of legal job and size of legal employer anywhere in the country, but also what you can anticipate making in year two, year three, and so on.
Once you are armed with these statistics, what you want to do is to throw a $10,000 range around the average figure, so that when you are asked what your salary expectations are, you can offer the following answer: "My research shows that starting salaries in this city for employers like you is in the $65,000 to $75,000 range, and I'd be happy with that." What does this do? A whole flock of brilliant things for you. First of all, it shows off the fact that you've done some research on the employer, and that is always applauded. It also alerts the employer to what others of their size and general makeup offer, and so if this particular employer was thinking of offering less than that, it will make them think twice and perhaps goose up their offer to fall into line with their competitors. And it gives them some wiggle room for a specific figure.
The second part of your question, about your salary history, seems a bit trickier, but in fact you've already taken much of the sting out of it if you give the answer on salaries that LawCrossing has just provided for you. After all, what is the interviewer thinking if you mention your current $75,000 annual haul? "Holy cow, this guy is never going to accept a job making less than that. And if he does, he's going to quit the moment he finds a job that pays more!" If your answer suggests that you've researched salaries ahead of time, you have removed much of the worry for the employer. You can cement that even further by adding something along the lines of, "I thought long and hard about taking a pay cut, but frankly, I went to law school because I wanted to be a lawyer, and I wouldn't be wasting your time if I weren't dedicated to doing exactly that." Then immediately follow up your answer with a question about something unrelated to salary, so that you aren't sucked into a long back-and-forth on a topic that doesn't further your goal of selling what you bring to the table for this particular employer. After all, the skills you learned gathering your valuable business experience is what makes you so attractive, not the money you made learning it.
Incidentally, JN, and you didn't ask it, but LawCrossing realizes that there are many people with your concerns who would have asked this-never bring up the salary issue before you have an offer on the table. LawCrossing has heard of more than one hapless interviewee who punted a sure job offer by asking the seemingly innocent question, "So what's the salary?" Set the hook and get the offer first, and worry about the money afterwards.
Click Here to View the 2015 Salaries of the Top Law Firms.
See the following articles for more information:
- 21 Major Interview Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs
- The Best Way to Prepare for a Job Search and Interviews
- How to Talk About Other Interviews in Your Interviews
- How to Answer the Tell Me About Yourself Interview Question
- How to Answer the Do You Have Any Questions for Me Interview Question
