New grads can be intimidated by salary negotiation. If you don’t have much experience, you might think you have no leverage or could risk making your manager dislike you. But negotiation is not only normal–it’s expected. Employers would be just as likely to judge you if you don’t even try to negotiate salary!
Data suggests it’s especially important to negotiate salary as a new grad–your salary out of college can define your career. While you’re not a statistic and can always grow your career, the salary you make as a new grad is the starting point for your salary going forward. Like high earning college majors, new grad salary is a good indicator of lifetime salary.
That’s why you should negotiate as high as you can as a new grad. This involves experience, networking, confidence, and last but not least, cold hard cash. An income stream is the crucial other half of the negotiating process.
Avoid Negotiation “Gotcha Questions”
As a new grad, the salary negotiation process starts before your first interview. Recruiters will almost certainly ask you about your expected salary. And if not a recruiter, the job application will ask your expected salary. This is a trap. It is easy to lock yourself into the base salary they offer you. Some interviewers have salary negotiation gotcha questions to force you into talking about salary before you are ready. Knowing when and how to negotiate salary as a new grad helps keep the conversation going. Especially at a first job, there is pressure to accept the position as it is because, well, “you should be grateful for the opportunity.” This mindset is a mistake that could cost you hundreds of thousands over your career.
Recruiters are banking on eager new grads to propose a low number. But If you tell the recruiter an exact salary number or range, it becomes very difficult to negotiate salary later. Never give the recruiter a number or range when asked for an expected salary. If the job application asks for your expected salary, say “Negotiable, within reason” or “competitive based on the market”. If a job application form requires a number, put 0.
When should you Negotiate as a New Grad?
The short answer is always. Negotiation, especially at a young age, feels very strange. There’s something about getting your first job offer and asking for more that seems wrong. Not knowing how to negotiate salary is not, however, a phenomenon limited to new grads. Only 39% of professionals even try to negotiate their salary according to a recent poll. Most companies leave room in their budget for negotiations, and the worst-case scenario is that they just say no. They will not rescind your offer because you asked.
Do your research
There are two items to put high on your research list:
- Your own value
- The salary range of your position. Somewhere like the Bureau of Labor Statistics is a good place to start!
Knowing your own value is a tough prospect as a new grad. Before your first big job, you may have had internships and part-time jobs in the summers and during the semester, but a job after getting a degree is an entirely different ball game. You deserve a fair salary for your position and a benefits package to match. If a company is offering something that’s well below your best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA), pursuing that position might not be worth your time.
You can use sites like Glassdoor, Paysa, and Payscale to find the average salary for your target role based on your area and experience. Salary can range widely based on the market. The salary of a software engineer in San Francisco can be twice the salary of a software engineer in Montana.
Your skills and education also impact your expected salary. Do you have any prestigious bootcamp certifications or technical certificates? Any of these most in-demand technical skills or top programming languages? Find the average salary based on your specific skills, education, and experience.Once you know the salary range of your position, take some time and research the company. Take a deep look at the job description and prepare points about how you will go above and beyond certain tasks and how you desire a fair salary in relation to the value you will add to the company.
Prepare Three Different Salaries
Once you’ve researched and prepared your target salary, you should also prepare for your target salary to be rejected. Start negotiation with a number a little higher than the average based on your skills. Also prepare the lowest number you’d accept. Specifically, you can prepare three different numbers:
- Your stretch number
- Your ideal number
- Your minimum number
In your initial negotiation email, you can ask for your stretch salary (with data and a compelling argument of course). Then if this number declines, which is likely, you can come back with your ideal number. And if they don’t accept that offer, then as long as the final salary offer is above your minimum, you have still come out ahead. If they refuse to budge on the salary in the offer, you can still negotiate big ticket benefits such as relocation, signing bonus, equity, work schedule, or vacation and PTO. Attempting to negotiate now could also make it easier to ask for a raise later.
How to Negotiate Salary as a New Grad Over Email
Once you’ve researched and identified your target salary, it’s time to craft a salary negotiation email. Respond to their initial offer with gratitude, but present a case for why you can make the impact you’ll make deserves a higher salary.
Don’t just list education and in-demand skills–focus on impact. When highlighting a skill, make sure you’re tying it into a tangible benefit for your employer and how it can specifically make you better at your job.
If you are looking for a sample negotiation request, use this annotated negotiation email template to make sure you hit the right points to sell yourself in the negotiation.
While you can link to average salary ranges in your email, we also recommend you commit a rough range to memory. That way you can back up your task with data if you have to negotiate your salary over the phone. It’s easy for a recruiter to dismiss a request for a salary increase because you “need it” or “deserve it”. But recruiters can’t easily dismiss hard salary data.
Choosing Between Multiple Job Offers as a New Grad
Money is great, but there are a lot of confounding variables that might make a slight pay cut worthwhile. Take these two examples:
- Job #1 pays 100K with standard benefits and vacation and you will, say, stamp papers all day.
- Job #2 pays 80K with standard benefits, a signing bonus, extra vacation, and you will work in your desired field with room for advancement while making connections and learning an expert field.
The idea behind this silly example is this – there are jobs that are not worth your time. Some of them are not worth it because they don’t pay enough while some are not worth it because they are not going to make you happy. Working should net you money, experience, and connections. Especially in your first job, negotiating as a new grad can pay some serious dividends. Enough of one can make up for a lack in the other two (getting paid a million dollars at Job #1, maybe) but all three are important. You should ask, either in your interview or at the beginning of negotiations, if there is a plan for advancement or networking in your position.
Negotiation is An Art (Backed by Data)
Knowing how and when to negotiate as a new grad is a good place to start, but becoming a skilled negotiator won’t happen overnight. Without the proper etiquette, negotiations can go sour, leaving a bad impression on the interviewer. Mistakes in negotiation can close doors, leaving you unable to leave with the offer you deserve.
Recent polls show that only 44% of employees even attempt to negotiate salary. Eighty-four percent of employers in that survey reported they expected a negotiation attempt from their candidate. Yet salary negotiation can mean a difference of hundreds of thousands over your career.
Pathrise can match you with an experienced negotiator to help you negotiate 10% to 20% more money on average, no matter your work experience or competing offers.
Apply today.
