<p>I would not negotiate, grab the job and be happy. Do not like the job/compensation, look for another one later. I actually have never negotiated. Sometime I was offerred substantially less than my previous position and sometimes I was offerred about 50% more. I just wanted a job and I was able to get it over and over again in very bad economic times in extremely depressed region of the country that considers Detroit (out of all places) as a job heaven for comparison.</p>
<p>BC, hopefully we don’t go anywhere. Fortune 100 so pretty strong.</p>
<p>Not everyone gets to make their own hours… My team is one of the few. We obviously have to work it out amongst ourselves so that we have enough people working each day. We can’t all work four day work weeks with Mondays off. ;)</p>
<p>The rest of my team has all been there 25 years so they currently have two more weeks off each year then me. Plus they buy a week and actually use it as opposed to me who sells hers back.</p>
<p>Flexible hours are more common than not anymore along with the option of working from home if needed or in severe weather situation. We are required to have our lap top with us all the time except for vacation.</p>
<p>I’d kill for the flexible hours. My fiance can come and go at his work as he pleases, and he does, but the trade off is that he is on call and has to work a lot of evenings and weekends-- he works in IT and if the servers are down, he is working. I wouldn’t mind working those kind of hours at his company, though. His job is much lower stress than mine, and the extra hours are only because there is an emergency.</p>
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<p>I think that this is true for certain professions.</p>
<p>Half of our group works remotely. The half in my building typically comes into the office about 60% of the time. I’m in every day. One co-worker that I play tennis with comes into the office once a month to do expense reports. It’s all over the place but I’d say that at least half work from home at least one day a week and some non-trivial percentage come in once a month or less.</p>
<p>OH, our Global support (I mean world wide) is really nothing, very little bit to pay for flexible hours. And as we do not have kids in a house any more, it is mostly a weekend entertainment for me that happens very very few times / year, I would say 2 -3 times or so. There are pushy times, when project has to be completed in unreasonable time, but the fact is I can additional work in my kitchen with my TV on, it does not even feel like work at all, more like playing a game on computer, but you got to win, cannot let the stupid machine to take over…</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your responses. This has certainly given me and my sons some great insight!</p>
<p>I get 3 personal days a year. And 8 sick days. My husband reports that entry-level applicants are often screened out by their interest in benefits or negotiating, as if they are entitled to do so in such a competitive market. He works for a very large research/engineering firm and they don’t have time for 20- somethings whose main questions are directed at fewer hours, more vacation, and/or more money. DH has had prospective interns ask if it were possible for them to work starting at 10am instead of 8. They were not hired :)</p>
<p>Negotiating before you have a job offer seems like a bad idea. I’m surprised if his company does this for people that have been offered a position. It seems naive to believe a company isn’t trying to hire you for as little money as possible, so shouldn’t the future employee do their best part to show they understand the game as much as HR?</p>
<p>^This is exactly how I have been feeling at the many of interviews that I was invited ever. If one has a potential to be hired, make sure to sell yourself with the most positive impression, then you might have a chance to be chosen for the position. Even if they ask about your desired compensation, I have never ever given them the number, I would say I am open to your offer, state “negotiable” in application, whatever… Getting the job is a goal, how much $$ is a secondary consideration, which should not even cross the mind of college graduate who has no or close to no job experience.</p>
<p>…in addition, it is NOT in the best interest of any company to hire you for as little as possible, nope, not at all. the goal is to hire you at the level where you are more likely to stay and not start looking for another job ring away. They are going to invest huge amount of $$ training you, even if you have 20+ years of experience, every single place is different from another (even in the same industry). They do not want you to get trained (so that you can add this experience to your resume) and start looking for another place. They want to get a lot out of their initial investment in you, they want to retain you for as long as possible or at least to be in a position to decide if you are worth to keep or should go. They do not want you to leave because of insufficient compensation, not in their best business interest at all.</p>
<p>Ok, so I overstated it. Their goal is to hire you for the minimum amount that would be able to demotivate you from seeking better compensation elsewhere. Why should an applicant assume this value is in line with the value they feel they’re worth? If you can do research and find they’re offering you a below market value, why shouldn’t you ask for more? If you’re an exceptional candidate (and since you’re being offered a job, one would hope the company would feel you are), then shouldn’t you be better than the average candidate?</p>
<p>I think people should feel free to ask for more as long as they have other things to fall back on. You could make them mad and wind up with no job. Don’t ask for more if this is a possibility.</p>
<p>At my work they start everyone the same, entry level or not. It’s up to you to differentiate yourself from the pack. Example being in eight years my salary has gone up by 70 percent through various raises and promotions.</p>
<p>If you have five job offers and there’s one that you really want for the work but the others all pay better, you could certainly state that to the one that you really want.</p>
<p>A friend negotiated of mine recently negotiated an incredible work arrangement. He works half-time (2 days and 3 days a week alternating), gets to pick his projects and can work from whereever he wants to. He’s paid a full-time salary with benefits. To say that he’s a critical employee would be an understatement.</p>
<p>“Why should an applicant assume this value is in line with the value they feel they’re worth?”
-For a single reason, no other reasons are needed: to obtain the employment.
If one is negotiating, assumption is that she does have a leverage in negotiations. The only leverage the unexperienced (or in fact ANY) applicant has is ANOTHER OFFER in her hands. Well, if so and in addition, you do not care much about working at this particular place, go ahead negotiate as much as your hear desires, and make sure to be careful not to get into situation when you are chasing 2 rabbits with both of them slipping out of your reach.<br>
If you do not have another offer, negotiating might result in loosing this one rabbit that you have alreayd caught, it stil has a chance of excaping you.</p>
<p>For all those negotiating salary. Try the following: "I want to start at $… (Don’t be a afraid to start high as long as its reasonable) but leave a little wiggle room with the qualifier-"But I might consider a little less in return for a challenging work environment and future promotions.</p>
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<p>We are talking about a fresh college grad here with his first job offer.</p>
<p>I would not try to negotiate a higher salary unless you have other offers that have a higher starting salary and you really want the lower salaried job.
I think it is perfectly acceptable to ask for a 90 day review and perhaps a raise then. You’ve got to prove that you are worth a raise.</p>
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<p>You do have leverage. You’re the most qualified applicant for the position. They would, assumably, have to take a less desirable candidate if you choose not to work there. They also run the risk of making their hire feel undervalued, which could cause them to start looking for alternative employment sooner than they would otherwise.</p>
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<p>I’ve never heard of an offer rescinded from a candidate (including all of my friends that negotiated their first job’s salary/benefits) because they wanted to try and negotiate.</p>
<p>Heck, a year or two ago my mom had been unemployed for over a year. Her previous company had gone under, but nobody wanted to hire someone that’s unemployed. She needed the first offer that came to her, and had to take about a 20% pay cut to get it. She was, however, able to negotiate a guaranteed pay raise to over her previous salary after six months if her work met certain requirements. Six months later, she was making more than her previous job. Without that negotiation (without a second job in hand) she’d still be working for well under the industry standard.</p>
<p>A headhunter just called me to find out how much it would take for me to move, I said, “It would really depend on the stress level of a job.”</p>
<p>I know a lot of employers do not like to change the salary once an offer is made, therefore it is smart to give a ballpark without actually stating a number before an offer is made. We generally give the same starting salary to all new hires without experience, unless we find someone who is truly outstanding and has an offer from a competitor. </p>
<p>Salary is NEVER secondary, it is part of whole package. If the salary is too low, it should tell you something.</p>
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<p>One of my friend’s son had a coworker offered near $200K several years ago (he took it). He hadn’t finished high-school at the time. My friend’s son was offered a position there too but for quite a bit less but still what would be considered a professional salary.</p>
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<p>That’s my experience too. They also want to know that you will accept the offer if it is made. There’s a fair amount of paperwork that goes into making an offer where I work and we don’t like to go through that if the person doesn’t accept. Of course we don’t always have the luxury of being sure when we have high-quality candidates.</p>