Ask HN: Being New Grad. Negotiating your first salary offer: Good or Bad Idea? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Being New Grad. Negotiating your first salary offer: Good or Bad Idea?

5 pointsaeurielesn10 comments

I'd like to know what you guys think about it. Personally I am in this situation and really don't know what to do about it. Whether I should go with it or not.

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Are you asking whether you should negotiate your salary or not? Then the answer is a yes every time. Unless the offer made is higher than I was going to ask, I always ask for a higher salary. For example, a few years back (my first full time job in programming), I was offered $50k and I really wanted $55k. So I asked for $60k and let them offer to "meet in the middle" at $55k. I negotiated a 10% raise in a 5 minute phone call. That is the easiest raise you'll ever get. Most people don't get a 10% raise after being on the job for a while unless it comes with a promotion (and additional responsibilities). If you think being a new grad is a negative, try to spin it in a positive light. Since you are fresh out of college, you are used to working with little sleep, meeting deadlines, and following instructions, and by definition you are still in "learning mode" so you can get up to speed quickly. More experienced workers may be a little harder to mold into what they need. In fact, they should pay more for these qualities.

"More experienced workers may be a little harder to mold into what they need. In fact, they should pay more for these qualities." - This is a misleading way to talk about ramping up time. Not to discourage the OP but in my experience new grads are never faster to get up to speed than candidates with job experience. Aside from that, I agree that salary should always be negotiated.

I worked for a large internet company that would not consider anyone with too much experience. It was part of their business model to hire new grads or interns still in school and train them in-house. Sure veterans make great senior devs or architects, but I assume the OP is looking for an entry level job in which case the new grad is the better choice for many reasons.

That's because new grads will work for $55k and experienced folks can demand double that amount.

Absolutely. Do your research to make sure your expectations aren't completely ridiculous (your school's career office should be helpful here), but negotiate every job offer, fresh out of school or not.

In my experience, there's always something more you can get beyond the initial offer (why wouldn't try to get you at a discount if they can?). And as your future compensation packages (both at this employer and at future ones) are influenced by where you start, doing what you can to maximize that will pay off handsomely in the long run. The trick is giving them a reason beyond "I want more money" to give you that "something more".

Sometimes that reason can be credentials / experience / skills they're not taking into account (e.g. when I was graduating, one of my offers didn't take my Masters into account), but the best reason is having one (or more) other offers. Having other offers should also give you the confidence to do a better job negotiating. You've probably heard it is best to look for a job when you already have one. One of the reasons for that is that you have a default "other offer". When you don't have that advantage, you have to work harder to create something similar.

Good luck.

Yeah, you should always negotiate your salary. I'm still in college and about to start my first development job (an internship) and I negotiated my hourly rate for that. You're a talented developer. People like you are in short supply in this industry, so I see no reason to just take what they offer, without at least trying for more.

Do it. Easily the easiest $7k I ever made was the result of a (carefully crafted but not difficultly formulated) 60 second email requesting more money in response to the engineering job offer that I accepted out of college.

Remember to include some examples of why you deserve it--this way, the hiring agent can use the same reasons to make an easy decision.

i agree with byoung2. you should always negotiate. If you don't ask, then they will never offer. BUT as others said do your research to see what the average salary is and when negotiating don't throw in an unreasonable amount.

For example if they offer $60,000 don't counter with $100,000! Most corporations have a budget for each FTE they hire and they almost ALWAYS bring that down by a lot and start the negotiating with that. If the person takes it then good for the corporation and if not, they have some room to get the best price for both parties.

when it's at the point of negotiating a salary, it's almost guaranteed you have the job so just be reasonable and they'll meet you half way. When i was a new grad (5 years ago) they offered me $50K. I countered with $60K. they came back with $55 and based on my performance the first year they would push it to $60 the following year.

Apply for multiple jobs to get a sense of the monad you can find. Then negotiate above the top. And if an employer raises their offer after you negotiate, never forget how they tried to rip you off, and never feel guilty about slacking off at work.

Thanks you so much. I did negotiate the initial offer and they improved it a bit. But the point is that I learnt today the lesson that all offers are negotiable. A great lesson for life. Your experiences read here have been helpful for me.

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