I am a manager and a local working in a mid-big size company. My employee just handed in his letter last week and I was out interviewing fresh grads hoping that it will reduce my department’s overhead.
However, the first person that HR called to come for the interview made my blood boil.
So this fresh grad was talking about his skills and etc, but that was not what I’m looking for. I don’t care if you don’t have the skills. I want a person that has an interest to learn. It was simple as that.
However, when it came down to the part of salary negotiation I wanted to smack him straight in the face.
I said our company is paying $3,000 for his position and the interviewee said “I am looking for $5,000”.
I was shocked, I said the job ad did say that the position is only $3,000 right and I asked why he deserves so a high salary.
These were his literal words: “The reason is simple, I graduate from a local university and I am considered an elite”.
My next words were “Get out of my office, we will not contact you”. What arrogance!
Netizens’ comments
It really depends on your leverage and how savvy a negotiator you are. New grads have little to no leverage (aside from potential counteroffers) though most are given fair, standardized offers regardless.
Interns are in an even weaker position, so negotiating from that position on any offer that isn’t unreasonably low (“reasonable” would mean one that completely covers the cost of living with a bit left over) is borderline obnoxious. In most cases, an intern is literally being courted and paid to prove that they’re worth a real investment, or at least not screw up.
I’ve heard of instances where companies will retract their offer if you pitch a ridiculous amount. Unless you can back that figure up with another competitive offer, you run that risk. There are also some companies who aren’t interested in getting into bidding wars either, they may reconsider as well after a single round of negotiations.