OK, I’m a new college grad, looking for my first “real” job. I don’t want to jinx myself, but I think I may have found one. I really think I will be offered the position, although I haven’t been offered it yet.
According to the advertisement for the positon I replied to, the salary would be 27k - 33k. I would be willing to work for the low end of that range, and be able to support myself and everything, but of course I still would like to make as much as possible.
The job itself is in the mortgage industry, the title would be “mortgage specialist”. I feel confident that I can already do this job well, or definiltely learn to do it well. I don’t have any work experience in the area of finance, although I do have some customer service experience that I think would benefit me. I do have a college degree, and the position doesn’t require one (although it is “prefered”).
Can I expect to get more than the 27K low end salary of this position to start? How could I maximize my salary? Could I hurt myself by asking for too much money? Like I said I’d be willing to take the 27K to start.
Thanks for any input. I will provide more info if needed.
I don’t know the mortgage industry, so I’ll stick to general career-related knowledge that I’ve acquired from my own experiences since I finished Uni in 1999…
With your first real career job, the most important thing is to pick a good employer and ‘get your foot in the door’ to start your career. Money is not all that important at this early stage, and inspite of what you may think you know from college, you’ve got a LOT to learn about your chosen profession - there’s a big difference between ‘learning’ and ‘doing’.
That said, in the interview, when the conversation heads towards negotiating salary, the best tactic for you is to ask them (based on your skills and experience) what they believe you’re worth to them, and take it from there. If it’s less than what you’d ideally like, then try to talk the salary up a little by focusing on your key strengths and what you can bring to the company - always ask yourself “If I was the boss, what would I want in an employee?”. If that doesn’t work and there’s a measely salary, then you have to make a decision about whether the company/position is going to help you in the long term.
If the range is 27-33k that means they are willing to pay 33k (and maybe really a little more) to someone with all their qualifications and experience. As your first job out of college, it is unlikely that they will pay you at the top of the scale.
What are the qualifications. If college grad is a requirement - you are looking at the low end of the scale. If other mortgage specialists aren’t college grads, you can expect more based on your education.
However, if offered the job, you should ask for 33k. Get the job offer first, though.
(Urban Ranger has a good point, mortgage specialist is sometimes a sales job where your base salary might be minimal and they expect you to make much of your money in bonus and commission.)
Thanks for the replies, it is greatly appreciated.
Here’s a bit more info.
The job doesn’t require a college degree, only a HS one. It does say that an associate’s or bachelor’s degree would be “preferred but not required”. My degree is MIS and not finance however, but it is still considered a business degree.
I think I meet all of the requirements of the position, but I just don’t have work experience in the industry. I have dealt with customers in most of my previous jobs while in school, which I think would be considered indirectly related experience to this position.
Like I said, I am definitely willing to take the job for 27K if there are advancement/promotion opportunities (which it looks like there are).
My main concern is ending up messing up the job opportunity by asking for too much money. If I were to ask for 33K could that lead to them just telling me I won’t get the job? I’d assume they’d counter offer before they just told me to take a hike, right? Will asking for a high salary end up hurting me in the long or short run?
Avoid talking salary until you have the job offer in hand.
They will ask - you smile and say “I saw the range in the paper and the range was fine with me, I’m sure that if you make me an offer it will be fair.” They will press, and you say again, “Discussing salary is premature at this point, I’d rather discuss this once an offer is made.”
Once you have the offer in hand (and you’ve smiled and told them you expect them to be fair), they have “face” invested in you getting the job. Then you can evaluate what you’ve been offered and up the ante if appropriate.
Once you have an offer, asking for more money will not result in them telling you to take a hike. Its expected you will negotiate. They may meet your price, counter offer, or say “no, this is what it pays.” Then its your decision.
Well, they offered me the job and I’m pretty sure I’d take it (at least for now). It took an extra week for them to get back to me because one of my refereneces was out of town, but once they got a hold of him they offered me the position the next day.
Basically, I got a phone call yesterday and the HR person said they’d like to offer me the position, and that it pays 29K. I was on a cell phone and it was during the middle of the NCAA tourney, so I asked if I could call her back on Monday and she said that was fine.
So, I have to call her back on Monday. Like I said, I’d be willing to take the job at 29K, at least short term. But, of cousre I’d like more money if it was possible too.
Will I have a chance to negoiate salary? If so, how? Over the phone it sounded more like a “this is what we pay” offer, but would there be a legit way to ask for more. I’m not even sure I would be talking to anyone in HR again if I accept the job over the phone, I think they may just tell me when and where to show up to start the job. Any additional advice?
A potential employer calls to discuss offering you a job.
You are watching a sporting event.
[Assumption on my part: whatever you were watching was loud enough to be heard on the phone]
You decline to continue the conversation in order to avoid missing the sporting event.
Is this an accurate chain of events?
If so, your balls are not just brass, they are some hitherto undiscovered alloy so hard they are defying several laws of physics by their mere existence!
I HAVE to be missing something here. You basically told a potential employer “I don’t care enough about your company to turn off my tv for ten minutes to discuss the job offer you are calling me about.!”?
Maybe I’m totally misreading this but back when I was hiring carpenters and such, if I offered someone a job and they were too busy watching a game on tv to talk to me about it, I can assure you I would have said “Oh sure, call me on Monday”.
Then I would have called the next person on my list and hire them on the spot. When SportBoy called on Monday I probably would have said something like “I’m watching Oprah right now, maybe I’ll call you in oh…1000 years!”
YMMV, but a job offer is so much higher on my priority list than anything on tv I can’t even put them on a scale together.
It wasn’t quite like that, MikeG. I wasn’t at home when I took the call on my cell phone. Basically I was on a real bad connection in a loud place, so I couldn’t really talk effectively over the phone. I wasn’t in a posiiton to carry on a good conversation. So, I stepped outside, away from the noise and took the call as best I could. I still couldn’t hear very well, but I was able speak briefly.
The HR person told me that they had checked my references and everything was in order, so they wanted to offer me the job. She also said that I could either accept the offer on the spot over the phone, or I could get back to her. So, I asked her if I could call her on Monday with an answer and she said that would be no problem. I don’t think she was necessarily expecting a firm yes or no right away on the spot.
The main reason I said I’d call back on Monday was so I could have some time to think it over, not because of the game. I would have asked for the time to think about it, even if I had gotten the call at home with free time.
So, as of right now I’m planning on calling her back on Monday and accepting the job. I am definitely willing to start the job for the 29K they offered. My only problem/question is that I would of course like to make as much money as possible. I don’t know if the salary they offered me is negotiable, or how to go about negotiating it.
I don’t know much about salary negotiation, but if the range starts at 27K and they offered you 29K, I’d go for it. As far as a starting position right out of college, that’s not so bad at all (I started out 3 years ago at $23,750). I’d just remember that as you work there, they will probably give you annual raises, possible promotions and before you know it, you could be at that 33K range sooner than you thought. I sure make a lot more than I started at (31K+), and I never expected to make this much at the company I’m currently with (also my first out of college).
Also, as your salary goes up, it’s good for negotiations as you move onto your next job.
