| November 26, 2008 | Posted By: Trevor Wilson | Category: Offers |
Rarely.
While everyone loves a great story about the person who successfully negotiated for a higher starting salary/bigger bonus/more vacation, the truth is that you likely don’t have many bargaining chips at this stage in your career.
Given the number of new graduates who are looking for work, the competition between equally qualified candidates is extremely high. Why, if you don’t have anything that sets you apart from other candidates, would a company pay more for you than the next person?
The reality is, they won’t. This means that you are more likely to lose the offer altogether than you are to gain anything from trying to negotiate. Are you willing to take that risk? In most situations, you won’t have any leverage in negotiations until after you have been in the work force for a few years.
The only time that I might recommend negotiating is if you are at the top of your class and you are being sought after by multiple companies. If this is you, you may have some success in your negotiations. However, if you are anything like me (and most of the other new graduates out there), you likely don’t fall into this category.
That being said, I am not advocating taking a job if they are paying you less than you require to live on. All I am saying is don’t try to make a good offer great and end up losing it altogether.
Agree? Disagree? Feel free to make your case on the comment boards!
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I think that if you are given an offer that is lower than the median (for your area/experience level/industry) and feel you bring more to the table than the average qualified candidate, you have 2-3K of negotiating power. NO MORE. You of course need to state your caser: stellar Intership(s), above average skills, grades). It needs to be presented carefully and honestly.
However if you have evidence from salary websites that you are given a very low offer and they don’t budge, it probably isn’t the job for you. Employers often take advantage of new college grads.
I agree completely, but you have to be very sure that if you are going to negotiate, that you have a solid case for what differentiates you from other new graduates.
I was in this situation twice where I was given a seriously lowball offer that was not one that I was willing to consider (given what the job involved). When I really looked at the opportunities, these companies weren’t for me.
Thanks for the comment!