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What to Say When a Recruiter Asks for Your Salary Expectations
by Rose Farrell on Aug 11, 2026
“What salary are you targeting?” Seems like a simple question, right? Go too low and you risk underselling yourself. Go too high and you worry about ruling yourself out. Refuse to answer and the conversation becomes needlessly awkward. The reason we ask it is because usually, a client won’t accept a CV from us without a salary target. They’ll push back on us and will be reluctant to interview without knowing at least a rough range.
Ask for the salary range first
You don’t need to produce a number immediately. Try:
“Before I give you a figure, can you tell me the budget?”
The recruiter should know the range. It’s one of the first questions we ask a client, because salary isn’t an afterthought. I hate recruiting for a role without one, so I annoy the absolute face off clients until they give me something. Any client who has dealt with me can confirm this.
If the range matches your expectations, you can say: “That range is in line with what I’d consider. I will know more once I have learned more about the role.”
That keeps the conversation moving without revealing the absolute minimum you would accept.
If they insist on a number
The odd time, we’ll get a client that says “Send us CV’s along with what they’re asking for and we’ll see” If this is what is going on, the recruiter should just tell you that.
Give a range rather than one figure:
“Based on my experience and the roles I’m considering, I’m targeting €85,000 to €95,000, depending on the scope and overall package.”
Make sure the bottom of your range is a salary you would genuinely consider. If I send your CV to a client with a salary of €85K, they’ll expect you to be ok with an offer of €85K
Don’t say €85,000 to €95,000 if you already know you would reject anything below €95,000. Recruiters and employers tend to hear the lowest number.
If you don’t know the market rate
Maybe you’re relocating or moving from a role in an NGO to one in big tech and you aren’t sure what the going rate for your skills is.
“I’m still getting a sense of the market for this type of position. Could you share the range and explain how the company determines where someone sits within it?”
Salary depends on more than a job title. A Platform Engineer could be maintaining CI/CD pipelines in one company and designing a business-critical internal platform in another. The difficulty of the work, on-call duties, work life balance, benefits, all these will feed into your internal salary maths.
Recruiters might not always know 100% of the details of benefits or know internal compensation calculations but we will be able to give you some guidance.
If your current salary is lower
Your current salary doesn’t determine your value in a new role. I almost never ask someone their current salary and I almost always push back on clients when they ask for this info. Feel free to refuse to say what you’re currently on.
Previous underpayment can follow someone from job to job when employers base offers on salary history. This can compound existing pay gaps, particularly for women and people whose work permission limits their options. Your current salary should not automatically become the benchmark for your next one. You don’t need to apologise for wanting a meaningful increase..
Equally, a 40% increase isn’t justified simply because you want one. Your expectations still need to make sense for the role, the market and the evidence you bring. Explaining to someone that the range goes up to €110K but that their experience doesn’t support the top end is always super awkward.
Consider the full package
Base salary matters, but so does the benefits package. A benefit only has value if it benefits you.
Free office snacks do not compensate for a €10,000 salary gap. Even the really good and tasty ones!
The answer I’d recommend
For most situations:
“I’m targeting a base salary in the region of €X to €Y, depending on the responsibilities, working arrangements and overall package. Is that aligned with the budget for the role?”
The first conversation is about establishing whether both sides are operating in roughly the same territory. I don’t want to send your CV to the client, put you through interviews, all the rigmarole to find out that the role will never pay what you need to see.
Know the lowest figure you would genuinely accept, and don’t undersell yourself just to stay in a process you’ll eventually have to leave.
If you’re considering your next move in tech and want an honest conversation about salary, market rates and what your experience can realistically command, talk to us at nineDots.io. We’ll tell you what we know, what we don’t and whether a role matches your expectations.
