Always, ALWAYS negotiate your starting salary . Plus, more stuff no one actually teaches you in college.
DO: Negotiate your starting salary, even if you're afraid.
Most people don't negotiate, both because of fear and because no one teaches you how to negotiate in the first place. A report by Salary.com showed that 18% of job seekers never negotiate their salaries, 44% negotiate occasionally, and only 37% of prospective employees will always become an active participant in determining their salary. Many recent grads, so grateful to land a job in today's sluggish economy, accept their first salary offer without question because they're nervous. But if you don't ask, you're leaving money on the table! Think of all the Chipotle that could buy (and, you know, rent).
This is especially important for women, who statistically negotiate their starting salaries less often than men do. A recent Pew study found that in 2012, hourly earnings for younger women aged 25 to 34 were 93% of what men earned, compared with a national average of 77%.
Here are some tips from Forbes on how to negotiate a salary early in your career. Remember: NOW is the time to get your money, because as every employee will testify, it's harder to bump up your salary once you're in your position and have to try to do it incrementally with raises and promotions.
DON'T: Text or Gchat on your personal account while you're on the clock, if you can help it.
This varies company by company, and some office workers dread the thought of getting through the day without IMing friends who are just as miserable at their desks. But even if your company is A-OK with you indulging in some personal Gchatting, you have to admit: It's pretty darn distracting. And if you work for a stodgier organization, it can be hard to completely tear yourself away from your iPhone and instant message sidebar during business hours, but David Lewis, CEO of Operations Inc., recommends doing everything you can to suppress that urge. "Personal matters are for before 8 and after 6," he says. "You're there to work."
But...what if you sneak your phone into the bathroom stall? (Not that you would ever do such a thing.) Lewis says that's also a distraction. "Doing so in the bathroom stall is not disconnecting."
DO: Learn how to network, even if you think you have no connections.
I mean, what new graduate really slides out of college or grad school with a bustling Rolodex? (Or whatever the 2014 version of that is.) But even if networking terrifies you, and you feel like you have no contacts or connections, you can still work it like everyone else. To start with, writes Terri Tierney Clark at the New Careerist, you "know" every single alumnus from your university in your prospective industry. Email them! Go out of your comfort zone and message them on Facebook or LinkedIn. You can also reach out to any contacts from previous internships, or friends of friends of friends; don't be embarrassed about hitting up family connections, either. The worst that can happen? They don't return your emails. And you can live with that.
If you're not the "gregarious" type, sometimes the best way to leap that hurdle is to tell yourself, Well, I'm going to be gregarious [when I'm at this conference][for the next 10 minutes of sending emails] or [after this presentation, and introduce myself to the speaker]. Fake it until you, you know.
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DON'T: Spill personal details to Mandy the PR girl just because she sits next to you.
When you're a young person at an office filled with lots of young people, it can be tempting to cross the friend–colleague line and talk to your co-workers just like you would your pals at a bar. But even if you just went through a heart-wrenching breakup AND you just got in a fight with your mom AND you're stressed because you just bounced a check, it might be best to save the cathartic chat for your BFF.
"Leave your life at home," says Stefany Fattor, director of Career Services at Fordham University. "Yes, I know that girl in marketing is such a good listener. But it’s not the time or place."
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