I am officially available for employment, and excited to tune up my resume and begin a focused search for the next step in my career.

If you are a recruiter or hiring manager and would like to reach me, I am available as follows:

Rick Maher – 623-565-9398 – E-Mail Me

Also check out How to Compare Job Offers:

1. How To: Compare Job Offers
2. How To: Negotiate Salary Out Of College

Great, you are graduating from college soon and have a (some?) job offers already lined up.Do you feel like because you are getting a job straight out of college and have limited experience that you are a dime a dozen? If so, I think I can convince you otherwise and prove to you that you can (and should) be demanding a top rate in terms of your job offers.

The key to being able to actually do this is to be prepared. Here are a few things that helped me increase my offers by an average of 19% on first year salary + signing bonus alone!

First, know “how it works.”
In my recent experiences, all four of my job offers came in a very similar fashion and followed a common process. I would interview on campus or over the phone, then be asked to interview on site often including travel to their corporate headquarters and some whine/dine, then be called with general details of an offer and a promise that I would be receiving in either the mail or e-mail the full details of the offer. *Be sure to have a pen and paper ready when this call comes in! During my recruiting periods if I wasn’t at home I carried a note card and pen in my pocket.

Second, know “what to say.”
It is very important on this phone call to be careful with what you say. Here is a fairly common sample of how it generally flows, and how you should try to approach it:

Recruiter: Hi, I wanted to call to let you know that we are excited to make you an offer!

You: Excellent! That’s great…

Be excited! They will appreciate that you are still interested in the position. But at the same time do not go into your victory dance here! Be fairly short and leave it hanging as if you are waiting for the recruiter to go on with the details of the offer.

Recruiter: Yeah, well I will be overnighting the official offer to you today, so look out for that tomorrow, but to summarize, we have an opportunity which we think fits you great in (some location). Your first year salary will be $tt,hhh.00.

What you say next is key!

You: OK…

Again, leave it hanging as if you are expecting them to continue on. I have read and heard that recruiters will start off with the base salary as the offer then depending on the reaction include a signing bonus or stock options or other benefits if you make them feel it is necessary and you expect it.

What they say next can start to vary a bit, but the main point here is to make them feel like you are genuinely interested in the offer, but that you are definitely going to have to think it over… they didn’t offer you enough to make you jump for joy and accept right then and there. There is a possibility that they will try to get you to show some of your cards here, but with careful word choice you can easily buy yourself some time.

Recruiter: Does that sound like a great opportunity or what?

You: Well, thank you so much for calling, I am going to have to think this over and decide what my best option is, when do you need to know by?

Here you have to make a decision. If you are still waiting for other offers, you will want to take whatever date they tell you and say OK, and hang up as quickly as possible. This will buy you a few days at least because you can call back (BEFORE the date given) and say you need some more time to make the best decision. On the other hand, if you already have all the offers that you are expecting, this is a good time to test the negotiating waters without diving straight in.

Whether you decide to test right then or if you decide to wait, a great way to “test the negotiating waters” is to say:

You: I am very interested in your opportunity, but am hoping that I can give you my final answer a little later (give a date if possible) which better aligns with my other offers.

This serves numerous purposes. First, based on their reaction you can get a feeling if they are flexible at all. If the recruiter says, “sorry we blahblahblah so we need to know by (date)” then you can probably bet they will be fairly rigid in their salary/compensation negotiations. On the other hand if the recruiter says “yes, of course” or starts asking about your other offers, there is a good chance that you have a bit of an upper hand! This leads to another purpose that this specific line accomplishes, that of making the recruiter aware that you are entertaining other offers. In fact, the recruiter will very likely ask about your other offers.

Recruiter: Would you mind if I asked about your other offers?
(some recruiters may be much more direct by jumping right to “Who else has made you offers?” or similar… Either way, you will want to sound very accommodating, but give out as little information as possible)

You: Sure, I will gladly tell you as much as I can, but like you they have all asked that I keep details confidential.

Recruiter: Of course, I was really just wondering who else you have offers from and what types of positions they are for.

You: Well actually, I think they would rather I not name them specifically, but they are all very respectable firms for positions that match my skills in many of the same ways your position does.

Recruiter: Okay, I appreciate you telling me that blahblahblah, how many other offers do you have?

This one sometimes takes some embellishing… generally if you have 3 or more offers, just be honest with them, if you have theirs plus one, or only theirs, remember that you always have an offer to not take a job at all, and you might also have an offer to stay at your current part time job as a waiter or whatever…

You: Three.

Say your number and leave it at that. If you have any other legitimate questions, you can drop it in right here to try to casually get off of the subject of your other offers, but don’t force a question…
The recruiter will either give you the extra time you asked for or try to convince you right then that you should take their offer. If they try to convince you to take their offer you are at another decision. Are you ready to completely accept or completely turn down this offer? If not, tell the recruiter that you are “very interested in your offer, but coming out of school I really want to make a great informed decision.”

If you are ready, let the negotiating begin! Take a deep breath, be confident and go for it:

You: I am very interested in the opportunity with your firm, and I especially like (choose one: the location, the job content, the company values, the industry, the people you met, basically anything except the $$$), but my other offers are MUCH more competitive, and to accept your offer I would need you to at least close the gap a bit.
These are key words again. You always want to make them feel like you genuinely want to take their offer, AND that you are not just trying to be greedy and get more money. You want them only for them to increase their offer to the point where it is
Once you are in this territory every recruiter is going to be different. However, they will generally follow one of a small number of routes:

1. They will tell you sternly and flat out that they do not negotiate. To this, you can prod at them a little bit by saying something like “I think my (choose one: internship experience, excellent gpa, technical certification, etc) make me more qualified than most, and I really am interested in the opportunity with (insert company name).” Then if they still will not budge, give it one last try by saying “Are there any areas in the offer where you might be able to work on, such as (choose one… choose one that will actually sweeten the offer for you: a signing bonus, stock options, vacation days, a 6month review, a yr end bonus, etc). If they are still saying they can not negotiate, either tell them that you are unfortunately going to have to go with another option or that you appreciate their time and will get back to them as soon as possible with your decision.

2. They will ask you what your other offers are, or what would convince you, or any number of other wording that is essentially trying to get you to say a number. The key in responding to this is being prepared for it and knowing what you are worth, and what it will honestly take for that company to convince you to accept their offer right that moment. Depending on what type of job you the offer is for, there are numerous ways to get an idea of what you are worth including Salary.com, Vault.com, job boards, the campus career center, or probably the most accurate – your friends graduating with you and looking at similar jobs. What you do not want to do in response here is say one specific number. Rather, decide on your magic number (the number that if they match you will accept with them immediately) then make a range out of it. For example if they’re current offer is $45,000 and you pick $50,000 as your magic number, say “My competitive offers are in the range of $50,000-$58,000.” Notice that this is a pretty wide range. What you want here is for them to here the top number and think to themselves that the range is too big to just match the bottom number and that they will need to come somewhere into the lower-middle portion of the range.

Again, here recruiters can really vary in how they approach the situation. They may pick a number right within your range (way to go!… you should have aimed higher.), they might propose an increased offer still below your range, or they might say “let me talk to my manager and call you back,” (usually a good sign). The most common result that I encountered was them making an increased counter offer still below my range. If you have other offers and are willing to walk away from this one, this is where you can really lay it on thick.

You: I really appreciate your help in trying to balance your offer out, but it is still hard for me to justify such a significant gap. In fact, your position is of great interest to me, especially after talking in our interviews about how (my previous experience, excellent gpa, technical certifications, etc) would fit so well with your company. If you absolutely cannot increase the salary any further, can we talk about the possibility of (choose one: a (increased) signing bonus, stock options – only use stock options if you know the company does offer these and know the difference between stock options and an employee stock purchase plan, an early review – ie potential for a raise at 6months instead of a year, more vacation time, etc).

3. They will try to deflect the salary negotiation to much “softer” aspects of the job such as which location you will work at. Depending on the type and size of the company they may suddenly / conveniently have an excellent opportunity in a much lower cost of living area. Or, they may go with something like “have you compared our benefits program to your other offers, our medical insurance is great and will save you big bucks!” Use honesty in response to any of these soft benefit comparisons / counter offers and continue to bring the conversation back to what matters most to you in the negotiation… meaning, if location is a large factor in your decision, stay with it and talk it out… if location and medical insurance are much less important to you, be confident and focus the recruiter on “the first year compensation.”

Congratulations, you have negotiated your job offers!

Now the hard part, how to decide which job to take! For some pointers on how to do just that, read the final post in this series, How To: Accept and Decline Job Offers.

This is the first of a three part series. Check out all three posts regarding the post interview job hunt process:

1. How To: Compare Job Offers
2. How To: Negotiate Salary Out Of College
3. How To: Accept and Decline Job Offers

If you are reading this, congratulations! Aren’t choices great?

Actually, if you are anything like me, than you’re probably thinking this is a bittersweet circumstance. Of course it is great to know that you are wanted by more than one company, but at the same time, the rest of your life is on the line, and generally this is going to be a tough decision.

With some careful and logical thought, you can make this decision and know that you made the best decision you possibly could. After going pulling my hair out trying to narrow my decision in my head alone I realized that I had to go about this using a methodical process. I think you may also benefit from this process, so read on to see how I did it.

Where I went wrong in the beginning is that I tried to make decisions based on the salary of Company A compared to the benefits package of Company B compared to the job content/title of Company B compared to the company name of Company C.

Do not compare job offers based on the positives of each!

1. Preferrably at the beginning of the job hunt, but certainly before you start making decisions, get a physical piece of paper and a pen and right out some of the things that you want from your job. Try to get specific, i.e. “at least $50k/yr” as opposed to “good salary,” and try to think about all of the factors that might affect your decision. Here are a few that particularly effected mine:

• Salary
• 401(k)
• 401(k) company matching (this varied much more than I expected… from matching 50% of your contributions up to 5% of your annual salary up to a 2% of your annual salary contribution regardless of your contribution and dollar for dollar contribution matching up to 6% of your annual salary.
• Tuition reimbursement for a graduate degree (and the process necessary to receive it, and the limits and restrictions associated with it – ie is there a maximum annual dollar amount, do you have to study a certain subject, do you have to attend a certain school, etc)
• Geographic location (in your backyard, across town, across the country, or on the other side of the world)
• Relocation package (some companies arrange everything and pay everything up front, some companies reimburse you up to a certain amount, some companies give you a certain amount of cash up front, and some do otherwise)
• Job description (this one was particularly difficult for me because there are many things that I am interested in, but ended up being a very deciding factor)
• Health care (I really had to do some digging on what is good, what is bad, and what would fit my needs on this one, but there is tons of info on the net)
• Stock options (as a signing bonus and / or as performance bonuses)
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan aka ESPP (know the difference between ESPP and stock options… ESPP means you can buy stock in the company at a discount through regular deduction of your paycheck (a 15% discount is pretty standard), and stock options are shares of stock that are given to you as a signing bonus or performance bonus or part of your compensation (there can often be some pretty serious restrictions on these, so find those out too))
• Company name and image… (i.e. companies like Enron and Halliburton have had very serious trouble hiring in the recent years because of the scandals that they have been involved in… does this matter to you?)
• Company Culture… Very closely related to company name and image, but more on the side of do you like the recruiters, do you mind working with a group of co-workers much older than you, does the company value and promote diversity, etc.
• Advancement opportunities
• Vacation time
• Is the offer negotiable (see my post on How To: Negotiate Salary Out Of College)

This list can go on and on, and it is important that as early in the process as possible you write out what you want out of each of these that are important to you. Warning: if you are making this list after you have begun the job search or offer evaluating, do not include company specific benefits… that will come later!

2. Once you have received all of your offers, make sure you have accurate information on each of the factors that you listed for each of your offers. Before comparing your job offers, verify all of the information. Do not let yourself make assumptions – for example, I assumed at first that one of the companies which made me an offer would have a competitive 401(k) matching program because it was a Fortune 500 firm… wrong! Try to find your information on your own (ie the company website) then verify it over the phone. You will be amazed at how fast things change within companies and how easily you will be able to tell if the information on the website is something the company is serious about or if it was just to fill up the webpage (ie the website says they offer tuition reimbursement, but in fact only a select few actually get it). Do not be afraid to make multiple calls to your recruiter with questions. They will respect that you want to know all the details of their offer, and depending on how much they want you, your asking of questions may make them think they need to sweeten the offer (ie if they don’t offer stock options and you don’t ask… you won’t get em!… if you ask… you just might).

3. Write down the details for each offer on a list in the same order that your needs/wants list is written in. Do this one offer at a time, with all your information about other offers away from you. You should be trying to stay open minded still at this point as you are still at a point where you might find or think of more important factors to you.

4. Look for any easy decisions. If you have one or more job offers that you know you are not interested in (even if they sweetened their offer considerably), set it aside, and rule it out completely. Do not let yourself bring it back in to the picture as it will just cause you stress and you will start to compensate in your head for the reasons why you ruled it out originally.

5. Find someone who knows you well, is a good listener, and who’s input you value. Tell them you are trying to make the best decision and you need to talk it out. Then, with your lists and information in front of you talk it out. First read over and talk about each of the factors that you wrote down on your original needs/wants list. Then talk over each offer point by point comparing their offer to the needs/wants that you mentioned first. In this step do not intermix the offers. Do one company completely, than move on to the next.

6. Once you have gone through your needs/wants and each of your offers, mention any extra company specific benefits (ie company car, free laptop, company credit card, expense account, etc). Realize that these can be flashy benefits, but don’t be .

7. By now your listener will likely know exactly which one you should take, but because they want you to make the decision, you will have to coax their opinion out of them. Questions to ask them that might shine some light on things you emphasized, even subconciously, might be “what do you think should be a deciding factor,” or “which offer do you think is best for me?” Then take their advice… with a grain of salt.

8. Make your decision. Use reasoning, logic, and your personal needs and wants to narrow job offers down one by one.

By following these 8 steps, you can be sure that you have done all of your due diligence, and that you made the best decision possible based on the circumstances that you could control. I am of the feeling that whatever decision you make, you will get what you make of it. If you hold confidence in your decision, then go to that job and do your best, you will have no regrets.

Next, read up on How To: Negotiate Salary Out Of College…

Two weeks after wrapping up my final interviews, I came home to find a few pieces of the day’s mail addressed to, yours truly, Rick Maher.

Inside the manilla envelopes I found offers from each of the three companies kind enough to let me stroll around in their ivory tower headquarters for a final round interview.

All in all, three companies are offering me a combined $138k first year pre-tax salary to work as a logistics manager, operations manager, or supply chain specialist in rotational programs that combined will take me through 7 different locations inside 2 years. Further, just for being kind enough to sign on, one of the companies would gladly hand me a shiny crisp $3500bill, and each of the 3 companies will also make sure I have more than enough money to handle any expenses related to any relocations… Each of the positions starts off as a 2 year rotation, one including three 8 month rotations (in three locations), one including two 1 year rotations (in two locations), and 1 including four six month rotations (in one location then immediately after to a second location). Each promises to pay for my continued education though under a few different stipulations each ranging from a payback period of 2-10 years to a required 10% commitment out of pocket to post-graduation commitments. Each includes a generous 401(k) matching program ranging from matching dollar for dollar on 3% of my salary up to 6% of my salary. Two of the three include pension plans. One includes $5k cash down for the purchase of a house. Two of the three include seemingly well thought out and developed mentorship programs. One has seemingly clear and realistic very high upward mobility potential. Two of the three operate almost entirely in geographic locations only attractive to those who enjoy the excitement of grass growing. Two of the three are Fortune 100 companies. All three have a Six Sigma or Lean Enterprise initiative underway, and all three are at various stages of the initiative’s implementation.

And on and on…

I have to say that I have outdone even my own expectations, and am pleased with my results thus far. I have yet to decide which offer to take, or if any of these three. I’ll be sure to post as the situation develops.