Your career is your most valuable financial asset, offering you many financial benefits. You can make the most of it by getting a college degree and managing your career to its full potential. Doing this well can earn you millions of dollars in extra income throughout your lifetime.
One of the keys to making the most you possibly can is starting with the highest possible salary (it can mean almost an extra $1 million throughout your lifetime) . In other words, when you're considering a new job, do all you can to make the starting salary as high as possible.
Thankfully, it seems that employers are willing to negotiate and increase salaries from their initial offers. This piece from Career Journal gives the details as follows:
CareerBuilder.com's survey of 875 hiring managers revealed that about 60% leave room in the first offer for salary negotiations, 30% say their first offer is final, and 10% say it depends on the candidate.
Meanwhile, four out of five corporate recruiters said they are willing to negotiate compensation, according to a study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management.
The piece also gives tips on how to negotiate:
- Arm yourself with information. Research the company's pay scale, the job's fair market value, the industry average and the region you'll be working in.
- Delay salary and benefit discussions until you actually have an offer.
- Prove what you're worth.
- Other benefits count. If a salary isn't negotiable, you may be able to get other perks such as increased vacation days, tuition reimbursement, moving expenses, stock options or profit sharing.
My experience shows that once you're with a company, your annual raises will be rather small (just a bit over inflation) other than the occasional promotions you receive. As such, having a high initial salary is vitally important and is very much worth your time, effort, and energy needed to make it happen.
Other ways of making the most of your salary increases are listed in these posts:
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