You just graduated from college. Thankfully, you received a job offer relatively quickly - what a relief! However, the salary the company is offering you isn’t as much as you expected. So, you’re probably going back and forth wondering, “Should I negotiate salary or would they laugh in my face?” So, is it ever appropriate for a recent grad to negotiate salary? The answer is: it depends. If you’re applying for an entry-level job with a set salary, then no, you don’t want to try to negotiate salary. The company was very clear about what it was willing to pay you and you have to be willing to accept that. However, in many cases, companies don’t talk about the salary in the initial stages of the hiring process. In this case, you would need to do your homework. Go to Glassdoor, look up this company, and check out the estimated salary ranges for this particular position. This will give you an idea of what to expect. You can also use Glassdoor to look up competitors to see what they’re paying employees in this type of role so you can compare salary rates. If the company you’re interested in isn’t paying the market rate for the role, you can go back to the organization after getting the job offer and ask for more money... BUT you NEED to have a game plan if you’re going to do this, according to career expert J.T. O’Donnell. “If you think about it, no company is going to pay you more money just because,” said O’Donnell. “You have to give them some valid reasons why.” If you feel like you can’t prove that you’re worth the additional income, then you can propose a six month review (instead of an annual review). If you can prove your value during that time, then they might be open to paying you more money at that point.
