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There is one, and only one, time to discuss salary in any detail: when they say they’re ready to make you an offer. In other words think of this and keep it in mind. It is what I call this the First Commandment of Salary Negotiations: Thou Shalt Not Speak Too Soon.

“But,” you say. “If I start the job with an ‘argument’ about salary, don’t I risk being passed up? Discarded?” No! It’s precisely this First Commandment that prevents that. If you start negotiating before they’re ready to make an offer, then they can go shop around. But if you wait until they’re ready to play “let’s make a deal,” then you’re in a position to negotiate.

Perhaps as a minority you’re always worried, “Will they cut me out and hire someone else with my skills but not me?” Well, this commandment says, “Wait until they say, ‘We want to hire you,’ and then picking someone else is no longer a worry! They just picked YOU.

What if the employer asks about it before they’re ready to hire you? You’ll feel like answering because we are all rewarded in school for answering questions. We eagerly raise our hand and offer whatever information we can. But in Salary Negotiations, if you give the “right” (factual) answer, you’ll often be giving the “wrong” answer - the answer that costs you money.

Why wrong? The usual outcome of talking too soon about salary is that you get screened out, or you get screened in but low-balled.

Until you know you’re on the short list, it is advantageous to delay disclosing your salary expectations.

• At the start of the interview process you don’t have enough information to know what the job’s worth or what its potential could be. You could end up agreeing up front for a smaller salary than the job is worth.

• Later on, it’s still a strategic error, because you could lose out to a “cheaper” candidate and never know it was your salary number that knocked you out of the running.

So, wait until they’re serious about you. And when are you sure they’re serious? When they make you an offer.

Postponing without upsetting your interviewer requires tact. To put off answering the salary expectations question, you’ll need your own personalized phrase. Something you can say with confidence and that sounds like you. Having that statement well prepared and rehearsed can gain you thousands of dollars.

For complete details on the strategy described in this article see Salary-Making Rule 1 in my book, Negotiating Your Salary: How To Make a $1000 a Minute. You will find this strategy and four other critical Salary-Making Rules there.