Canadian Salary Expectations
You have finally gotten an interview for your dream job. The interview goes well. The Hiring manager likes your credentials and more importantly likes you. Then the question comes; if hired what are your salary expectations. This is the point where you will either be glad you did your homework or wish you had.
If the company doesn’t state the salary range in the job description you can definitely expect it to come up at some point. You may be asked to provide your expectations in your cover letter or be asked during the interview but you will be asked and this is a make or break question.
Price yourself to low and it may show a lack of confidence and could cost you money for years to come.
Price yourself to high and you may come off as arrogant or price yourself out of contention all together.
If you really don’t where to start in your research, relax and keep reading, we are here to help.
There is no magic formula for determining the salary range of particular position. There are simply too many variables such as local cost of living, both job and business market conditions, company structure, company size and your own qualifications and experience level to be considered. The best that you can do is to use a variety of sources to try and get as accurate a picture as possible.
Some places to start are:
Similar advertised positions on career sites, professional association sites (we’ve provided some starting points at the end of this article).
Visit a local Human Resource Centre of Canada Office.
Talk to people in similar positions, if you don’t know any check out our Guide to Information Interviewing
Check newspapers local to the jobs geographical location for similar positions.
The worst possible answer you can give, to this all important question, is no answer at all. It makes you look desperate or unprepared. Neither one is attractive to HR types. You can avoid these pitfalls by beginning with the salary search links provided below.