Salary expectations: what number to give

"What are your salary expectations?"

In Tunisia it arrives early — often in the first interview, sometimes on the phone before anyone has met you. American guides tell you to bounce the question back to the recruiter. That rarely works here: the budget for the role is usually already fixed, and a candidate who refuses to place themselves wastes everyone's time.

So you need a number. Here is how to find one and how to say it.

Net or gross?

Say which, every time. In Tunisia a good share of salary conversations happen in monthly net, while the contract itself is written in gross. A misunderstanding on that point surfaces at the offer stage, which is the worst possible moment.

The safe form: "I think in monthly net — tell me if you would rather talk in gross."

Find your range before the interview

Do not guess. Three sources, in order of reliability.

People one or two years ahead of you, at the same kind of company. By far the best source, and the only one that accounts for sector. A developer at an offshore services company, at a bank, and at a local startup are not on the same scale — the spread can be double for the same profile.

Your school's alumni groups. Recent cohorts talk numbers among themselves far more readily than you would expect.

Postings that publish a range. Rare, but they exist, and they give you the market floor.

What you are looking for is not a number but a range: the bottom is what you would accept without hesitating, the top is what you can defend with what you have.

How to say the number

Give a tight range, anchored a step above your minimum, and justify it in one sentence.

"Based on what I see for someone with my internship and my certifications, I am between X and Y net. That obviously depends on the exact scope of the role and what the package includes."

Three things happen in that sentence. You give a number, so you do not stall the process. You anchor it to something checkable rather than to a wish. And you leave the door open on the rest of the package, which is often where the room actually is.

Never follow it immediately with "but that's negotiable". You have just announced that your number is not one.

The package matters as much as the base

Benefits vary far more than base salaries do, and none of them show up on the payslip. Ask about all of these as a matter of course:

• transport: an allowance, or a company shuttle
• meal vouchers or a canteen
• the annual bonus or thirteenth month, and what it depends on
• group health insurance, and whether it covers family
• remote work, in days per week, and whether it is written into the contract
• training and certifications paid for by the employer — a real asset early on

Two offers with identical salaries can differ by several hundred dinars a month once those lines are added up. It is also the ground where a recruiter with no room left on base pay can still say yes.

The awkward cases

A first job. You have no previous salary to defend, and that is good news: your number rests on the market rather than on your history. Stay inside the range for the role, and do not undersell yourself for being new.

They ask what you earn now. You are not obliged to say. "My current salary reflects a different scope; for this role I am between X and Y" redirects to the only question that matters.

The number they name is far too low. Say so calmly, once, with the reason: "That is below what I can accept for this level of responsibility." Then let the silence sit. A lot of room appears at exactly that moment.

After the offer

Negotiate in writing, once, on one main point. A clear, reasoned counter-proposal often lands; three successive asks suggest no agreement will satisfy you.

And do not resign from anything before the offer is signed.

Practising saying the number out loud

This is a question people prepare in their head and fumble aloud, because it turns on tone and the absence of hesitation. Saying it once to someone who will answer "that's too much" changes everything.

Talk2Hire asks it the way a real recruiter asks it, and the report tells you whether your answer sounded certain or approximate.

Read next: the ten questions that come up every time and what changes when you interview in Tunisia.