Job offers

[tcar]

Ok, so I'm going to draw on the experience of our grads again. I just
got my first job offer today, and it was a bit disappointing to say the
least. They offered me a full 25% less than I'd asked for. In your
experience, is this normal? I'm sure that they offer less than they
are willing to pay, because they expect you to come back with a request
for more. It just seems unlikely that I can get them up even close to
what I was asking. So I guess what I'm asking is how much more your
final offers were when compared to you initial offer.

Thanks,

Tejay Cardon

[Clint Checketts]

This is a big 'It depends'

1) It depends on how much they need and and how much you need them.

2) It depends on how experienced you are

3) It depends on whether you think your first position will have any growth potential

Frankly businesses hiring college guys are taking apretty big gamble considering we usually just know the generic Java and database stuff. In fact in college I resisted getting to know the intricacies of Oracle because I disliked aspects of the company. However, companies are interested in specialists.

Once again all I said applies to a big company. A small company would be totally different.

If you really like the company then you'll take whatever they offer. $20,000 a year working for Google might be worth it for some folks.

-Clint

[Brobble]

Some other things to consider are location, and going rate. If you are
a full-timer for a company you are going to make less than you would
consulting. Also, remember that the cost of living near the company
affects your salary. If you were going to live in LA, I'd say you need
to ask for oodles of cash, but if you're going to live in say... Idaho
or Montana then you can expect less. One other thing that affects
salary you can expect is size of the company. The larger the company
the more they pay (usually). Try figuring out what you are worth in
their area at salary.com or monster or something like that.

The really big question is - what do you need to be happy? If you are
going to be happy on 20G a year because the work is engaging then why
not? If you think you'll need something more to be happy then haggle
more aggressively. Remember too that you can negotiate more vacation
if they aren't willing to pay your expected salary, or other
compensation packages (maybe they pay for your home internet).

Hope that helps!

[John Martinson]

The big depends. My first offer was much less then I expected. I turned it down flat based on research I did on Salary.com.  Look at the location find the role you would be filling and if the offer is not near the median feel safe in turning down that job.  My other advice is to get all the offers you can. Don't cut the interview process short.Just because you go to the final interview and they fly you out does not mean you have commited to them. They still have not committed to you. If you have one offer with Comany A and another with company B, comapany B may increase your offer based on knowing you have an offer with company A. One Recruiter frankly asked me if an increase in Salary would change my mind.  I frankly told him no, because my descision was based on salary + other factors that would not likely be made up by a slight hike in salary.