Lately I have been getting a lot of questions from user and friends in college and entry level positions on how to get raises and what kind of a raise is acceptable. Now there are several topics that need to be addressed in this question so I am going to address them in parts This being part 1 on how much should you ask for salary wise coming out of college.
So how much do I ask for when getting a new job?
(part 1 the student looking for their first job)
Well the answer to this depend on your skill set and your experience, so I’ll assume that you have some form of technical training in either database development/management, web development, software development, network security, or any other form of specific IT work.
For those right out of college this is one of the biggest questions you have. I know because it was for me and I made the classic mistake of low balling myself. Now how to avoid the same mistake
- Don’t be afraid to ask for a high salary. Now there will be those who tell you that $65,000 is a good number out of college. Well I say hat nice but ask for no less then 75,000 and a signing bonus (the hiring process is the only time you get to feel like a first round draft pick)
- If you made the choice while in college to get certification or two know that you can ask for more money
- If you had meaningful internship where you did a considerable amount of coding and have a reference on hand to back that up then take that into account too.
- If you were in a co-op program, which is a program were you work for a company every other semester and then school every other semester, then you can use that as full time experience. That would make you a college student with a year or more of actual experience so then you should look at the next section
- If you went and got a co-op or internship that gave you a clearance, secret or top secret, and you decide to go into the private sector know that that clearance is golden. With that clearance you can ask for at least $15,000 more then the average college computer scientist.
- Don’t jump at the first opportunity that comes your way. You should take the first offer you get and use that for leverage to get a larger offer from the next opportunity. You might be surprised how far some companies will go to beat out a competitors offer.
- If you have started your own projects/applications/websites while in school then you can use those as work experience too. That is as long as you can show off that project and it is along the lines of the kind of work you would be done in the position you are pursuing. If it’s not along the same line then use is as example of you entrepreneurship and creativity.
These are all thing to consider when applying for that first job out of college, and my advice weather any of these points apply to you or not is to ask for $70,000 or more. Remember not to be afraid to ask for more because all companies can say is that that’s too high and then start a negotiate you. If you follow that advice you won’t fall into the trap of low balling yourself like I did. If you are reading this and have more questions or are looking for advice then send me your questions at me_conwell@compscistuff.com
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