Grad school is a great way to increase your skills and bump yourself into a new pay bracket in the bargain. Unfortunately, just graduating usually isn’t going to be enough to earn yourself araise. You have to know how to advocate for yourself.

In this article, we take a look at how you can negotiate a higher salary right out of grad school.

Highlight Ways You Add Value

Businesses don’t get points for hiring people with graduate degrees. They do it because they are hoping to benefit from their advanced knowledge and enhanced skill set. Your job isn’t simply to say “I learned things. Pay me more.”

If you really want to turn your graduate degree into money in the bank, you need to think about ways you can communicate your skills to excite your boss or a potential hiring manager.

One of the best things about being fresh out of graduate school is that you have a very modern skill set. For example, if you just graduated with an MBA, you may have advanced knowledge about data implementation, search engine optimization, and other skills that didn’t even exist fifteen years ago.

Businesses may be willing to pay more for someone that has these skill sets because they are a key component of staying competitive in the modern business world.

Learn More About the Company

You should also get an idea of what the company you are interested in values. What are their goals? What skills and paths of action do they prioritize? Once you figure out what direction the business you are interested in is going, you can figure out what you can do to help get them there.

Remember: if you really want to be marketable, you need to be able to frame yourself as an answer to a problem they are having.

Don’t Go In Blind

You can’t just walk into an interview and expect to name your own price. To be an effective negotiator, you should already have an idea of the general salary range people make for the job that you are applying for. Say that the average range for a first-year employee is $50-70k.

Naturally, it would be absurd to go in and ask for $90k. However, you may be able to bargain for the higher end of the normal range by emphasizing that you are more skilled than the majority of first-year employees.

Be Upfront

You won’t get very far playing coy. Don’t awkwardly bring salary expectations up as you are getting ready to leave. Instead, work it into the conversation naturally, and with confidence. There will probably come a moment in your interview where the person you are speaking with will ask if you have any questions. This will be a great opportunity to start discussing salary expectations and find out what they are willing to pay.

Be tactful, be respectful, and be sure of yourself.

Be Reasonable

Unfortunately, even the wisest of college graduates is not necessarily a natural-born negotiator. It’s easy to get lost in the negations process and blow a good opportunity over what is ultimately an inconsequential amount of money.

Set reasonable expectations for yourself going in. If the company offers you $50K the chances of you getting $60K are very unlikely. Trying for it may easily set you off on the wrong foot with your future employer.

As a general rule of thumb, most experts advocate for negotiating within a 5% range. If you really want to be bold, you might even try for 7%–if only so that you can gratefully accept when they try to talk you back down to 5%.

Bottom line? If you’re really unhappy with the initial number they give you, you’re probably going to be better off just looking for another company.

Benefits:

Salary is just one part of a larger compensation package. There is also retirement, vacation days, insurance, etc. While your salary is probably what you will feel the most on a month-to-month basis the rest of your compensation will add up over time.

Be calm and comfortable as you ask for what you want. You probably won’t get all of it, but it’s also true that people rarely receive what they don’t ask for.

Practice

Go into your interview with a sales pitch in mind, and practice until you’ve got it right. The rehearsed speech is an art form in that you don’t want to sound practice, but you also don’t want to sound unsure of yourself.

The goal is to be natural and conversational. Keep in mind that showing up to the negotiations table a nervous, stammering mess isn’t a very good look. Consider this another part of the interview process, and bring you’re a-game.

Remember: Salary Isn’t Everything

Not to be paradoxical, but it is important to keep in mind that starting salary is not the only thing you should be thinking about as you go in for a new job. Even with that shiny new graduate degree, an entry-level employee is an entry-level employee.

It’s unreasonable to expect everything to be perfect about a new job right out of the box. Rather than looking exclusively at what your new employer can offer you today, think about that annoying question you were probably asked at some point in your interview:

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

If you like the company you are negotiating with, if you think they can offer advancement potential, and a comfortable lifestyle for you and your family, that can be at least just as valuable as a high starting salary.

Being able to advocate for yourself is certainly important. However, you also need to know how to think about the future. Ultimately, getting a few years on the job under your belt will do a better job of increasing your salary than any degree could so think about the future.