How do you answer "what's your expected CTC" on the very first screening call?
Recruiter call, four minutes in, before I know anything about the scope or the team. "So what number are you looking at?"
I froze and said current plus a bit, which I regretted instantly because I have no idea whether that's under market for this role.
Do you give a range? Deflect and ask what's budgeted for the position? I keep reading that whoever says a number first loses, but that feels like advice written by people who already have leverage. Genuinely asking what has worked for people here.
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AnonymousAnon Counter view: deflecting cost me a round once. The recruiter had a hard band and needed to know I was inside it before booking four people's calendars, and me being cagey read as a waste of her time.
So now I ask what's budgeted first, and if they won't say, I give a deliberately wide range rather than nothing at all. Nothing is the one answer that actually hurts you.
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AnonymousAnon I give a range now and always attach "depending on the overall package and the scope of the role." Anchors you without boxing you in, and it's let me move up twice when the job turned out to be more senior than the screening call made it sound.