For the conversation you are actually dreading: the record, the gap, the accommodation you need, the first job with no history. Build your answer in your own words, then practice it from your chair and from theirs, because fear sits on both sides of the table.
Built from 21 branching scenarios across five situations, each choice graded against the disclosure and desistance research (Maruna 2001; Pager 2003; Ali, Lyons & Ryan 2017; SHRM 2021; EEOC 2012), and a story builder built on the three-part answer from Invest Hamilton County's re-entry research
Deterministic and device-only: nothing writes your answer for you and nothing you type is sent anywhere. Alex Plus members can choose to send a draft to the coach for one reply, which is not stored. Written at a sixth-grade reading level on purpose.
Gratitude is not a wage rate. Know your number before they ask.
People re-entering the workforce reliably underprice themselves, and every future raise compounds from the number set today. The fix is not boldness, it is homework: know the real market range for the role in this region before you walk in. The Career Pathway Report prices your experience against actual wage data for this region, free. Do that first. Then this conversation is just reading your own research out loud.
Hiring manager: “So what kind of pay are you looking for?”
Strong move
A range shows flexibility, research shows seriousness, and the question at the end puts the next number in their mouth. Anchoring your bottom above your true minimum leaves room to say yes gracefully. None of this requires nerve. It requires the homework, done the night before.
Costs you something
Total flexibility reads as either desperation or inexperience, and it invites the bottom of the band. You can be easy to work with and still have a number. If naming one feels dangerous, name the market instead: 'I have seen this role posted in the area between X and Y.' The market said it, you just brought it.
Depends on the room
A legitimate move, and many employers will answer it. Have your researched range ready anyway, because 'we were hoping you would tell us' is a common counter, and the person with no number defaults to accepting theirs.
Now you, out loud
Before your next interview, write three numbers: your walk-away, your researched market range, and the number that would make you say yes on the spot. If you do not know the middle one, get it for free before you guess.
One way it can sound
“Walk-away: seventeen. Market for this role in this region: eighteen to twenty-two. Say-yes-today: twenty and a schedule that works with my bus route. Now the question in the room has three prepared answers instead of one nervous one.”
Keep these
Every future raise compounds from today's number.
A researched range beats a brave number and beats a grateful shrug.
The homework is free. Do it the night before, not in the parking lot.
The Table, part of Alex for Workforce and Alex for Business · alexhamiltoncounty.com · Free practice, both chairs · In crisis, call or text 988
Practicing for a particular job rather than a
particular conversation? Get
interview-ready drills the questions that role actually gets.
The Table gives general information and coaching
support. It is not legal advice and creates no attorney-client relationship.
It never screens, assesses or treats anything. For your own situation,
including expungement, licensing or what you must disclose in a regulated
field, talk to a licensed attorney. Free and low-cost help:
Indiana Legal Services,
the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic,
and your local public defender's reentry program. In danger now: 988, 911,
or the Indiana Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-800-5556. Facts current as of
October 2026.
Talk it through with your Alex coach
A conversation, not a form. Your coach knows Hamilton
County's numbers and programs, and it will point you to the right tool
for anything it can't answer. It's an AI coach, your chats are private,
and they are never used to train anything.
