Answering the Dreaded Question

There are a lot of tough questions to answer in the interview process. "What are your biggest weaknesses" is one of my least favorite. "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" is the one I find the most annoying. But, by far, the most dreaded question for me is "What was your last salary (or what do you expect to make in this job?" That last question is not just one of the hardest to figure out how to ask, but also the least advantageous according to LinkedIn:

Employers will have the upper hand in your job search as long as you give them it to them. When you decide that you have something valuable and unique to bring to your next organization -- when you really believe it, and act out of that conviction -- you'll quickly move past the managers who don't deserve you, and focus on the ones who do. You won't hand over confidential information about your past salaries, because that's nobody's business but your own.

LinkedIn always has great advice from CEOs and other executives and this time is no exception. And if you needed a way to get away from giving that information while also not totally avoiding the question and not being rude, the author, Liz Ryan, has a script to be able to get you to the right position in the conversation.

For the employers, it's important to have the upper hand in the negotiation but don't you want to make sure once you hire this employee, they're going to be happy and stay around a while? Maybe being upfront about how much the position pays is the best way to make sure that you get that high quality candidate to come on board and stay.