Negotiating First Year Compensation

How common or realistic is it to negotiate your first year compensation coming out of undergrad? Does your GPA or graduating with honors have any effect? Can you bring other offers from different companies into consideration?

Also, say you interned with a company your sophomore and junior summer - should you expect to earn more than somebody new to the company in the same position? Mostly asking for traditional corporate finance roles (I don't assume it changes with LDPs?) And also corporate development.

 

I don't mean to sound rude but you literally add almost nothing of value. A trained monkey could likely do your job (more realistically, a decently smart high schooler could pull it off). Be grateful that you're even getting offers during COVID.

 

The only way you're negotiating on salary is if you have a far better offer somewhere else and the company really wants to win you. But even then it may be extremely hard because most entry-level roles have pretty strict paybands, if not an exact number that won't be budged on. The likelihood goes down even more if you're coming in with a cohort because in that case, everyone typically starts at the same level.

 
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So, I had a pretty different experience. Definitely agree with some fo the above so take what I say below with a grain of salt. When I was going through college recruiting I was fortunate enough to have a handful of corporate finance roles lined up before ultimately accepting an IB offer that came later on. Among all of them I did express how there were other offers on the table and asked if there was flexibility on compensation. I didn't give specific numbers or anything like that. Some of them bumped me up $5-$10k base, others politely said no. At the end of the day I went with an IB offer, but to me it didn't seem like there was any harm in asking before or after.

That being said read the room and determine if it's worth the risk to you. If it seems like the the offer is a "take it or leave it" and it's your only offer then probably just take it. Also, if management seems pretty rigid, maybe it might not be worth asking / rocking the boat and potentially starting off on the wrong foot. That's something you'll have to weigh yourself and decide if it's worth it or not. For me, I thought it was worth the risk since I had several offers, all the interviewers seemed approachable, and I was still holding out for an IB offer. Ultimately, if they want you they want you and that's going to based on you fitting with their team and not honors, GPA, etc. that have less of a direct impact on how you work.

Also, if you decide to ask I would be careful on how you ask. I think it'd be offputting to phrase it as "this is lower than other offers" and leave it at that. I think asking if there's flexibility on compensation is a polite way, but I'm sure there are other / better ways to subtly ask without coming off too strong. 

In terms of your last question on internships, etc., I probably wouldn't bring it up. I'd tread carefully as you don't want to come off as entitled / rude. 

 

It cannot be much of a negotiation...but more of a begging. You can certainly explain to the hiring manager that you have high interest in the role but the offer is below your expectation so if they can do something about it. Maybe you can get 4-5 grand bump (which shouldn't be a big deal for them).

I was taught to negotiate every time there's an offer. I did that with the first job out of college and received a few grands more. But sometimes it's worth to take the offer, put on a show in year 1, and then ask for a substantial raise at the performance review. I use both strategies based on my gut feelings of how much the hiring managers like me.

 

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