I'm 20 years old or so, and I'm dating this beautiful blond girl. It's our first date. We speak about unimportant stuff but quickly, we do a bit of a reality check all with humour. I say: "I'm sure you're the kind of girl who wants to have a family the size of a football club!". She answers, making fun of me: "No 4 kids would be plenty enough for me!".

In between the jokes, we understand if this relationship has any chance to work out. We define expectations from the start, even if we are just at the dating stage.

Years later, I'm starting an experiment called servicedesignjobs.com (1). The goal for me is to collect every open service design job position I can find on the internet. But there is one thing that irritates me again and again: most of the job posts don't show what salary you can expect.

It's as if you're dating someone and never speak about what really matters and could be a deal breaker.

Of course, it's not always possible to define exactly the final salary (2), but as some employers do, you can still show a range and explain that the final salary will depend on the experience level and what the person brings in.

(1) The website is today maintained by the lovely Marc Fonteijn
(2) For more service design principles on salaries, explore this one called "Match my salary to the newcomers"