Salary negotiations are always difficult no matter what level of position you are seeking. Until you reach the 20 year experience level, in one particular profession, you are never going to be quite sure exactly what you are worth. Even then, studies show that money is the fourth or fifth “motivator” for professionals.

As a relatively inexperienced person, with a new degree, keep in mind that you really don’t have a lot of bargaining power. You don’t have a lot of “performance” to leverage. You are selling your “potential” as a professional based on very little experience.

If you have graduated, with an engineering degree, cum laude from MIT, you know what you are worth in the market. Even if you have a new degree in engineering or technology and decent grades from even a less than top 10 university, you have a pretty good idea of what your starting salary might be. If companies and industry have been recruiting (i.e. really hiring) from your school, you have a good bench mark for what your starting earnings might be.

But for the rest of us mortals, knowing what to ask for salary-wise, in your first job, is very difficult. After you have had a number of interviews in the particular part of the country you wish to work and in a number of different professions or industries, you are going to have a pretty good idea about what your skills and market value are.

Do lots of research. The web offers many comparative salary formulas and surveys. However, employers don’t read those things. In fact, very few people really know how the research used for these surveys is done. There is often a vast difference between what some Human Resources Manager puts down on the survey sent to him or her by the state university and what the company really pays. I have known investment banking firms to publish starting salaries when they hadn’t hired anyone in two years. So, don’t put all of your faith in the most recent survey you have read or found on the web. They can mislead you.

Whatever you do don’t go into an interview and, when asked about the salary you desire, say something stupid like, “Well, the last salary survey I read stated that I should receive $XXXX to start.” Or, something like, “The University Placement office told me I should be getting $XXXX to start.” A smart employer will tell you to go let the University Placement office hire you. When asked about salary, you have to state, “At this point, I am more concerned about the job, the company and what I am going to learn. I’m sure whoever hires me is going to make a fair offer.”

Here are some valuable tips:

• Remember that 69% of the companies in the U.S. have less than 100 people in them. The hiring authorities, owners and managers don’t read salary surveys.

• Benefits should be part of your consideration. But keep in mind that you are not likely to be at this job more than 2.5 to 3 years. Employers will often make a big deal about the fact that their benefits are an additional 30% of an employee’s salary earnings. That is the way a “traditionalist” and/or “boomer” might think. Of course, you need to know what the benefits are, but it is not likely that the benefits of a company are going to make a difference in which job you take.

• The experience you are going to get in your first job is more important than the initial money you will earn. Not that you shouldn’t consider the money you will earn, but it should take a back seat to the experience you will gain, kind of company, culture of company, etc.

• None of us has any intrinsic “worth.” No matter where we start, we still have to prove ourselves. If you are grossly overpaid or slightly underpaid both you and your employer will know it real quickly. If you are grossly overpaid and don’t perform, you will be fired. If you are underpaid and perform, the competition will come after you within two to three years or you will catch on that you are underpaid and change jobs.

• You are going to “take home” 28% less than your gross pay.

• Good news…The Department of Labor says that college graduate hiring is increasing 13% this year over last and will continue to increase over the next few years. Technology grads are getting the highest pay, up 4% to 6% over last year.

• Size of company, the industry/profession they are in and location will all have a significant impact on the starting salaries. Don’t expect a bank in New York, one in St. Louis, one in Omaha, and one in Bozeman to pay the same.

• Do your homework. No one can tell you what percentage of your decision should be made regarding money. It is a personal decision. Don’t rely on anyone but yourself.

• Save specific salary or earnings discussion until the very end of the interviewing process.

Remember, the better you sell yourself, the better the monetary offer will be. The more and better reasons you give an employer to hire you, the more reasons he or she will give you to go to work there…and money is one of them. The outcome has to be a win/win deal for both of you. Practice, practice, practice selling yourself and interviewing well!

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With that in mind, other than the intangible, “I’m smarter than most, I’ll work harder than most, with more passion, commitment…etc.,” you don’t really have a strong position from which to negotiate. Don’t let the job offer go to your head. You need the best job you can find so that you will gain experience that can be leveraged in a future job negotiation. So, do your best at negotiating, don’t get greedy, know your limits, and accept a good offer.

The second key is a tactical approach to negotiating. It requires that you simply ask the question, “Is that the best you can do?” When you get down to the final offer, and you know everything there is to know about the opportunity, you look the hiring authority in the eye and say, “Is that the best you can do?”This is a “we are all in this together, but I would like a better deal” type of statement. It doesn’t threaten or push the hiring authority into a corner. It simply asks if that is the best they can do. Practice this before the final interviews. It is one of the best tools you will have.

The third key is to recognize and remember that this is your first formal job opportunity. The odds are really great that you will only be in this job and, most likely, this company for a year or two. The days of life-long employment with one company are history.

You should accept every job thinking, “where can I leverage this experience two or three years from now?” (Note – you are probably going to change careers 7 or 10 times!)

This is a very hard question to answer because, as I have described, companies change their complexion every two to three years. You probably can’t advance your career as an accountant if you start with a sales job. However, after interviewing with a number of companies, you will get some idea of where the experience can take you.

I discuss mentors in another portion of this site, but it isn’t a bad idea to discuss a job offer or opportunity with people you are close to – i.e. parents or relatives, people with whom you have interviewed that took a liking to you, or any knowledgeable person in business you respect. Even though you may get a number of different opinions, you are still the one who has to show up every day at work. You are the one who has to live with the decision. So, don’t be afraid to make a commitment. Life, after all, is a wonderful risk!

You risk making a mistake with your job decision. That is part of life. But the world won’t end. And, if you make a mistake and learn from it, you will be better for it. Fortunately, the job market is the best it has been for almost ten years and it appears that it will be strong for some time. You will be able to reinstate your search if you have to.

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Over the years, I developed a 10-question formula to help people decide if an opportunity was good for them. These are simple questions with basic “yes” or “no” answers.

I have edited the questions to apply to a college graduate seeking their first professional job.

1. Do I like the nature of the work that I will have to perform?

2. Can I do the job? Is there a good balance of risk/challenge to the job?

3. Am I going to be in a learning environment with good mentors?

4. Is there a reasonable progression from the position that I’m excepting within the firm?

5. Is the chemistry with my prospective peers/managers appropriate?

6. Is the opportunity for growth in line with my personal goals?

7. Is the location or territory appropriate?

8. Is their philosophy of doing business compatible with my personal philosophy?

9. Will all of my abilities be pushed and challenged?

10. Is it likely that this experience will advance my future goals?

My rule of thumb is:

If you can answer “yes” to eight of the 10 questions, that’s about as good as you’re going to get. If you can answer “yes” to five to seven of these questions, the opportunity may very well be a reasonable one, but you need to think about what kind of compromises you might have to make. If you answered “yes” to less than five of the questions, the opportunity is probably a questionable one.

The purpose of this approach is to make you think. It is mostly a quantitative exercise and does not take into account the qualitative aspects of how you feel about the entire situation. There’s no way I can speculate about that for anyone. I will tell you that if you have, say, six ‘yes’ answers in this exercise, and you don’t feel emotionally attracted to the opportunity, you should not take the job because you probably will not be very successful. If you have a total of 5 ‘yes’ answers to the survey and you feel tremendously passionate and enthusiastic about the opportunity, plus you have a “failure is not an option” attitude about the situation, you may very well be able to be successful.

Another way to evaluate an offer is the “Ben Franklin” approach, which means to simply balance the pros and cons. If you have ten to twelve reasons why you ought to accept the job and only two or three reasons why you shouldn’t, the decision is fairly obvious. The idea is to make you think about every aspect of the position.

Forcing yourself to write down the pros and cons is also great catharsis. Talking it out with a peer, or even better, a mentor, is also of value. Hearing yourself talk about what you think and feel about an opportunity will clarify your perspective.

At the end of the game realize that there’s always risk in taking a new job. Do the best you can to analyze all the factors that are involved. Then, follow your gut.

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