Accepted Low Salary; 2 Late 2 NegotiateI am a currently a graduate student and just got my first real job offer. The average salary for the job in my area is 35K, but out of excitement I accepted the 30K presented by the job contact. I recently read that people in my position (recent graduates) accept low offers and don't negotiate enough. Is there anyway to increase or negotiate the low salary without alienating myself? Even though I am a recent graduate, I am more than qualified for the job and have several years of relevant job experience. Do I just suck it up and take the job, or see if I can more for what I feel I'm qualified for? Thanks! If you've already accepted the job, it's too late to go back and ask to negotiate salary. If you can afford to be without a job a while longer and have other prospects, then I would, if I were you, call them back and simply rescind your acceptance, saying that, after thinking it over more thoroughly, you cannot afford to take the job at $30k, you're sorry you accepted in the excitement of the moment, but it just isn't workable for you. But, better be damned sure you can go out and get a job at $35k. Whatever the "average" salaries are for jobs like this one is irrelevant to your situation. The real question is how much you need or want this job and the chance to get your foot in the door and demonstrate, through your performance, that you' re worth more over the next 6 months or so. If you still think $30K is too low, I don' t think you can go back now and try to negotiate more. About all you can do, as Anne Marie suggested, is withdraw your acceptance of their offer and continue your job search. But there is another alternative, however, you could take the job and quietly continue a job search - which is probably a better alternative than having no income at all - until something better comes along. It is never too late to negotiate. If you know the lowwer salary range in the company is 35ks and you have been offered 30k, you sould enter a salary negotiation process and base your request on the fact that you have been offered too little. You don' t have to explain that you need the money to pay your rent or something like that. Just motivate you think the appropriate payment for your services is the higher one. Question: have you signed the contract? I have not signed any contract, as the intitial offer was just verbal. I still have to undergo application and background check, but they are in a HURRY to get me working in the next few weeks. I don't have the luxury of really turning down the job due to financial stresses. It is probably in my best situation to accept the job, keep looking for others, and go full-ahead with my commitment to them. I respectfully disagree that one can ask to negotiate once one has accepted an offer. Verbal or not, an acceptance is an acceptance. The time for negotiations is prior to saying "yes" to the offer. One of the fastest ways to start off on the wrong foot with a company, or to lose the job altogether, is to renege on your acceptance by trying to get more money. The more gracious and, IMHO, ethical thing to do is to simply say you are sorry and you made an error in judgement in accepting the job as offered, and withdraw your acceptance. I would not want an employee on board who tried to negotiate after he or she had already accepted the terms of the offer. Nothing at all wrong in trying to do so prior to acceptance--very bad to try and do so after accepting it. | |
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