When applying for a job, you will be required to fill an application form in which you will need to provide answers to series of questions. One of such questions will be about salary. This particular question bothers many job applicants and they are just too confused about how to answer this question. Many even leave the space blank because they do not know if the answer they provide will be acceptable to the employer or not. If you have found yourself in this situation before and you do not know how to scale through, we will provide helpful tips in this write-up that will help you to answer the salary question correctly when filling an application form.
Facing the facts
Salary is one of the main reasons why many people look for jobs. You need to first accept this reality when applying for a job. Even at that, you must be very careful when supplying answers to this question. This is because your answer can determine if you will get to the next stage of the interview or not. Employers are aware of how important salary is to the potential employee, but they still want to push the question to you and use your answer to determine your fate. The answer you provide to the salary question may look outrageous to the employer or give them the impression that you are some desperate person that is ready to sell himself short. How can you avoid being caught in such a trap while filling the application form? Continue reading for helpful tips.
How to answer the question
You can use any template you find acceptable to you to answer the question about salary. When filing the space for salary, you can write a particular amount you think is right for the job and put a short phrase in bracket in front of your answer. Examples of such short phrases you can include are highlighted below:
- Negotiable
- Open for discussion
At other times, you may decide to not write any figure but just put the short phrase in the space provided; examples of such short phrases you can put in this situation are:
- Negotiable
- To be discussed during the interview
- Entry level
- Open for discussion
You will be putting the ball in the court of the interviewer if you go for this manner of answer. However, you can only include such phrases in situations where the application form allows you to write such things.
If you do not have the freedom to write such phrases while filling the form, why not simply put an average of the amount generally paid to people in the same category by other companies in the same category as the one you are applying to? You can also put a range of salary in the space provided to be on the safer side.
