Tips for Grads: Navigating job negotiations
Career Development
By Lydia Gandy-Fastovich, PhD student
Job negotiations are intimidating, but they are also important to securing salary and benefits that accurately reflect your values and the career market. Understanding that negotiations might be unfamiliar or uncomfortable, Sarah Schaefer from the Career Center in the School of Education shared tips on negotiating job offers that might be helpful in preparing you to negotiate. So, let’s break it down into these three sections: prepare, research, and evaluate.
Prepare: Practice what you want to say, practice how you will phrase your negotiations. A helpful way to practice is in a mock interview. To prepare the content behind the conversation, hold a couple informational interviews with folks in the field. Practice using the company’s language and probe current employees about the work climate and appropriate pay for the position you're applying to.
Research: Check out this Tips for Grads column on “How to boost your value on the job market” to try out some of the tools you can use to look up salaries, benefits, cost of living, and more. This type of research empowers you with knowledge and allows you to negotiate in a manner that is feasible to the company and agreeable to you.
Evaluate: Allow yourself time and space to process a job offer. You don’t have to accept the position on the spot. You’ll want to ensure you’re asking for everything you need in a job and make sure the position is a right fit for you.