New Graduates: How Much Can You Negotiate Your First Salary?
17 March 2015
Read by 3109 persons
The issue of compensation highlights the gap between employers - forced to recruit at low cost due to overhead - and today's new graduates, who are open, frank, direct... and unconcerned. By avoiding this issue and focusing on your choice of first experience, you will best negotiate your salary... and especially, that of your second position, and those that follow.
Graduates of Grandes Ecoles are not experiencing a crisis
New graduates from a business school (HEC, ESSEC, EDHEC, EM Lyon, etc.) or engineering school (X, Centrale, Ponts, Mines, etc.) of rank A, you have chosen the royal road that makes you extremely sought-after profiles and even better paid than ten years ago. Normal (open and close quotation marks), you have the diploma and the brain that reassure the company. "Once again in France, we see an inequality, it is real in the market," points out Charles de Lauzanne, manager of commercial, marketing and sales functions at Mac Allister. The question of negotiation hardly arises for you, as salary scales are in your favor. But the reality of the market is elsewhere. While those with Bac+5 degrees have less difficulty than others in selling themselves, the current context is worrying for the very many young graduates who are competing for the few permanent positions.
Choosing your path is also choosing your salary
The question of salary is decided well before the job interviews. At a carefree age, it is crucial, and difficult, to choose a training program, a specialization, to aim for a diploma, and then, even more than before, to think in terms of position and sector - we say it, we repeat it, we harp on it but recruiters always complain about dealing with poorly oriented and poorly informed young people. For example, know that the excess of marketing profiles in the market lowers their salaries. "In the current economic context of overall supply, specialists in each sector are needed. Specializations are therefore valued. The same goes for apprenticeships. Instead of a Bac+5, why not opt for a Bac+2 or 3 with an apprenticeship?" advises Charles de Lauzanne.
Knowing where you're going
Since internships and specialization now strongly influence the beginning of a career, use them to develop a clear, logical discourse that shows you are projecting yourself into the future. A discourse that will make the company want to attract you. "Also focus on your personality, recruiters pay close attention to it, looking for young people with potential who are able to talk about what they want to achieve," notes the recruiter.
Overturning preconceived notions
Integrity, respect, professionalism... these are values that companies hope to find in candidates, at all experience levels. Companies that do not understand that young people are looking for different values, and who see Generation Y as a generation of spoiled or lost children. It's up to you, young graduates, to show them the opposite, that is, that you have a framework, a career vision, that you can argue your choice of company, a sign that you have informed yourself. "If your motivation is only financial, it scares the company," emphasizes Charles de Lauzanne - employers can rest assured, compensation is not the main driver for this generation... In short, distinguish yourselves from the crowd of young graduates who don't know where they're going, who seem to have arrived there (at the interview and then at the company) by chance.
Objective: second position
The goal of your first position is experience and a calling card, which can be transformed into an open sesame, not the salary. "Going for the highest bidder can be dangerous. In the French market, which needs references, think rather in terms of a 'good' company in relation to your project. The vision and coherence between the university course and the first position are valued and can be capitalized on," points out Charles de Lauzanne. The good first company in France is often a large company, which, from the internship stage, adds weight to the resume. Give yourself time with a first job to be in the configuration that will allow you to negotiate a good salary. It is rarely when leaving school that one can position oneself as an expert in a profession or sector.
Monster.fr
Posted online March 17, 2015.
Graduates of Grandes Ecoles are not experiencing a crisis
New graduates from a business school (HEC, ESSEC, EDHEC, EM Lyon, etc.) or engineering school (X, Centrale, Ponts, Mines, etc.) of rank A, you have chosen the royal road that makes you extremely sought-after profiles and even better paid than ten years ago. Normal (open and close quotation marks), you have the diploma and the brain that reassure the company. "Once again in France, we see an inequality, it is real in the market," points out Charles de Lauzanne, manager of commercial, marketing and sales functions at Mac Allister. The question of negotiation hardly arises for you, as salary scales are in your favor. But the reality of the market is elsewhere. While those with Bac+5 degrees have less difficulty than others in selling themselves, the current context is worrying for the very many young graduates who are competing for the few permanent positions.
Choosing your path is also choosing your salary
The question of salary is decided well before the job interviews. At a carefree age, it is crucial, and difficult, to choose a training program, a specialization, to aim for a diploma, and then, even more than before, to think in terms of position and sector - we say it, we repeat it, we harp on it but recruiters always complain about dealing with poorly oriented and poorly informed young people. For example, know that the excess of marketing profiles in the market lowers their salaries. "In the current economic context of overall supply, specialists in each sector are needed. Specializations are therefore valued. The same goes for apprenticeships. Instead of a Bac+5, why not opt for a Bac+2 or 3 with an apprenticeship?" advises Charles de Lauzanne.
Knowing where you're going
Since internships and specialization now strongly influence the beginning of a career, use them to develop a clear, logical discourse that shows you are projecting yourself into the future. A discourse that will make the company want to attract you. "Also focus on your personality, recruiters pay close attention to it, looking for young people with potential who are able to talk about what they want to achieve," notes the recruiter.
Overturning preconceived notions
Integrity, respect, professionalism... these are values that companies hope to find in candidates, at all experience levels. Companies that do not understand that young people are looking for different values, and who see Generation Y as a generation of spoiled or lost children. It's up to you, young graduates, to show them the opposite, that is, that you have a framework, a career vision, that you can argue your choice of company, a sign that you have informed yourself. "If your motivation is only financial, it scares the company," emphasizes Charles de Lauzanne - employers can rest assured, compensation is not the main driver for this generation... In short, distinguish yourselves from the crowd of young graduates who don't know where they're going, who seem to have arrived there (at the interview and then at the company) by chance.
Objective: second position
The goal of your first position is experience and a calling card, which can be transformed into an open sesame, not the salary. "Going for the highest bidder can be dangerous. In the French market, which needs references, think rather in terms of a 'good' company in relation to your project. The vision and coherence between the university course and the first position are valued and can be capitalized on," points out Charles de Lauzanne. The good first company in France is often a large company, which, from the internship stage, adds weight to the resume. Give yourself time with a first job to be in the configuration that will allow you to negotiate a good salary. It is rarely when leaving school that one can position oneself as an expert in a profession or sector.
Monster.fr
Posted online March 17, 2015.
