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Job Offers: Negotiating an Offer
Evaluating a Job
Offer | Choosing between Offers
Negotiating | Cost
of Living Index | Accepting/Declining
an Offer
Most employers do not consider a salary offer to new college graduates, to be negotiable. Some make identical offers to all college new hires or will differentiate slightly within a salary range, based on the caliber of the university attended, relevant experience, major, GPA, etc. An employer does not know which new hires will be successful and will often prefer to start all recent graduates at the same or very similar salaries and reward them later with raises or promotions based on performance.
Employers do not want to get into a bidding war and keep increasing the salary offer so as not to lose a candidate to an employer who has made a higher offer. Employers expect students to base their acceptance decision on the job responsibilities and opportunity for advancement in addition to entry salary. Still, it is possible that the salary offer from your first choice organization is substantially lower than other offers you have from similar organizations. If this is the only obstacle to your acceptance, you may want to discuss it with the person making the offer. You may say something to the effect of , "I'm very excited about this opportunity, but I have higher offers for the same type of position. Is there a possibility that you might match the offer?” If told that the organization cannot do that, you might then say, “Of course, salary is only one of the factors I'm using to make a decision. Could you give me more details about the salary package? With good performance, when would I be eligible for my first increase, and what amount might I expect?" This gives the employer an opportunity to tell you about rapid salary progression or to explore whether the salary can be increased.
If
you have questions about the reasonableness of your offer or negotiating
an offer, see a UCS counselor. The counselor can help you to review
salary averages of recent UNC-Chapel Hill graduates and graduates nationwide.
These averages often are available by position or type of employer.
The
counselor will also encourage you to take cost of living differences
into account.
Questions, comments? Email us
at ucs@unc.edu
919-962-6507
Campus Recruiting & Job Listings
Networking: It's Easier than You Think
Diversity in the Career Search: Resources for Specific Populations
