How to Answer Salary Expectations Questions in Uzbekistan and Central Asia

“What are your salary expectations?” is the question that separates the candidates who walk away with a fair offer from the ones who spend the next year regretting a number they blurted out in panic. It is also, consistently, the question candidates in Uzbekistan and across Central Asia handle the worst — not because the local market is harder to read than others, but because most candidates answer it before they have done a single minute of research.

This guide walks through exactly what to say when that question lands, how to anchor a number that reflects the real 2026 market in Tashkent, Almaty, Bishkek, and the surrounding region, and the specific mistakes to avoid along the way.

Why the salary question is a negotiation, not a trivia question

Most candidates treat “what are your salary expectations” as a fact-finding question, like “what is your current job title.” It is not. It is the opening move of the negotiation, and whoever says the first number is usually the one who gets anchored to it. The recruiter on the other side of the table has a budget range — often a wide one — and their job is to find out whether you will take the bottom of it.

Treat it that way. The goal is not to “answer the question.” The goal is to arrive at a number that reflects what you are actually worth in the current market, with enough cushion to negotiate down if needed.

Step one: do the research before the interview, not during it

Before you ever sit down for a Central Asian tech interview, you should know three numbers cold:

• The 25th–75th percentile salary range for your role, seniority, and city. For Tashkent IT Park residents, Uzum, Click, TBC Uz, EPAM, and similar companies, ranges for middle software engineers in 2026 typically sit somewhere between 15,000,000 and 35,000,000 UZS per month, with seniors and specialized roles going higher. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan ranges differ — do the research for your specific city.
• Your walk-away number. The minimum at which you would accept the offer, leave your current role, and not resent it six months later. If the final offer comes in below this, you say no and move on.
• Your target number. What you would be genuinely happy to accept. This should be near the 60–75th percentile of the market range, not the median.

Sources worth mining: recent job postings with published ranges, Glassdoor (sparse but growing for the region), LinkedIn Salary, private Telegram channels for your stack, and — most valuable — direct conversations with two or three engineers working in similar roles at similar companies. Ask them, plainly, what the range for your level looks like. Most will tell you.

Step two: delay the answer when you can

The first and best move, when a recruiter asks your expectations early in the process, is to politely defer. Something like:

“I’d like to understand the role in more detail before I give a specific number — the scope and the team will affect what range makes sense. Could you share the band you have budgeted for this position?”

You are not being difficult. You are asking a legitimate question, and about half the time the recruiter will answer it. If they do, you now have their anchor instead of giving them yours. If they push back and insist you go first, move to step three.

Step three: give a range, not a number, and anchor it high

When you can no longer defer, give a range with three properties:

• The bottom of your range is your target number — not your walk-away, not the median market rate. Your target.
• The top of your range is about 25–30% above the bottom, which signals that you are aware senior-adjacent work may be on the table.
• You tie the range to market data, not to what you personally want. This changes the conversation from “you asking for a lot” to “you quoting the market.”

Example phrasing for a Tashkent middle-level engineer:

“Based on what I’ve seen for similar roles at IT Park product companies in 2026, I’m targeting a base of 25,000,000 to 32,000,000 UZS per month, depending on scope, equity, and the overall benefits package. I’m flexible if other parts of the offer are strong.”

Notice what this answer does. It gives a concrete range. It references the market, not personal desire. It leaves room for the recruiter to come in below the top and still feel like a win. And it keeps the door open for non-salary negotiation — remote days, signing bonus, vacation, equity, learning budget — which is where a surprising amount of real value lives.

The Central Asia currency question: local currency or USD?

Increasingly, Tashkent and Almaty tech roles at international-facing product companies are quoted in USD (or tied to the USD exchange rate), while purely local roles quote in UZS or KZT. This matters enormously in a region where local currencies can move 10–15% against the dollar in a year.

A simple rule: if the company earns revenue in USD or EUR, negotiate in USD. If they earn in local currency, negotiate in local currency but ask for an annual inflation review clause. If they offer you a local-currency salary that only makes sense at today’s exchange rate, ask directly what happens if the som moves 15%. Their answer tells you whether they are a serious employer.

Three mistakes that cost candidates money every single week

1. Answering with your current salary

Never, ever say “I currently make X, so I’d like Y.” Your current salary is irrelevant to what this role is worth. If asked directly, redirect: “I’d rather focus on what this role is paying in the current market — my target range is…”

2. Undershooting because you’re afraid of losing the offer

Candidates routinely quote 20–30% below market because they are afraid the recruiter will disqualify them for asking too much. In almost every case, the recruiter’s budget was higher than what the candidate asked for, and the candidate left that money on the table forever. A recruiter who disqualifies you for quoting market rate was not going to pay market rate. You wanted to know that in round one, not round five.

3. Accepting the first offer

In Central Asia specifically, there is a cultural pattern of accepting the first number out of politeness. Don’t. Even a small counter — “thank you, I’m very interested, could we look at moving the base to X?” — moves the needle more often than not. Recruiters expect a counter. Not countering is the unusual move, not countering is what gets flagged.

A one-minute script you can memorize

If you remember nothing else from this post, memorize this shape:

“Thanks for asking. Before I give a number, could you share the range you have budgeted for the role? … If the recruiter presses: based on the market for similar roles at [company type] in [city], my target range is [target] to [target + 25%]. That said, I’m flexible on the total compensation package if other parts of the offer are strong.”

That is the entire script. It works in English, it translates cleanly into Russian and Uzbek, and it holds up whether you are interviewing at a local startup, an IT Park resident, a Kazakh fintech, or a remote role paid in USD.

The underlying principle

Candidates lose money on the salary question because they treat it as a test they have to pass. Prepared candidates treat it as the negotiation it actually is, arrive with research, and let a small amount of friction sit in the conversation. The friction is where the extra money lives. Get comfortable with it.

Want to rehearse this conversation out loud before your next interview? Practice the salary question, and twenty others, with our AI interviewer — real-time voice feedback, in English, Russian, or Uzbek.