What people get wrong about posted salary ranges

More job postings carry a salary range than at any point in my career, and most candidates are using that information badly.

There are two failure modes I see constantly. The first is anchoring to the ceiling. The posting says $70,000 to $95,000, so the candidate asks for $95,000 with nothing behind the request. Ranges are usually built with the top reserved for someone who has done this exact job before, at scale, somewhere harder. Asking for the ceiling without that history reads as unserious, and it costs you credibility in the conversation that follows.

The second is anchoring to the floor out of relief. Someone seven months into a search sees the range and quietly hopes for the low end, because asking for more feels dangerous when you need the job.

A range is market information. It tells you what the organization believes the work is worth and how wide the band is. It does not tell you where you belong inside it, and neither does what you were paid last.

Do this instead. Sort the job into the parts you have already done and can prove, and the parts you would be learning on the job. That ratio is your position in the range, and it is the actual conversation to have.

Then, ask the question almost nobody asks. What would someone at the top of this range have that I do not? The answer gives you a development plan, whether or not you get the offer.

Look at a posted range as an invitation to a real conversation about value instead of treating it as a number to react to.