Know your worth!
(Like a pro! Shirt: Burberry, Trousers: Aventura, Shoes: Prada)
This businesswoman put her foot down. There will probably not be a move to Oulu. As I am a serious young professional, I had asked for the contract in advanced so I would have enough time to study it properly. There was some quite remarkable things that I prepared to address. It turns out the meeting was a very brief one.
First things first, I have earlier already mentioned that I am somewhat of an …achiever… and therefore my grades are higher than average, I have exceptional experiences, I speak at least two more languages fluently than the average person in my age, and I got a smashing recommendation letter from my professor. This comes in handy when it is time to actually put a value on what my efforts are worth. I know that my market value should be slightly higher than the average, but how do you really know what you’re worth?
I was very inspired when reading Maria’s column in the newest Trendi number. She’s damn right – we women should not be shy to actually ask for money! Why do we do that? Also my professor wrote a piece in HS saying something that is a bit similar (http://www.hs.fi/raha/a1433474318857). So, I looked at the syndicates website, and with my two advisers texts’ in my head, I adjusted the amount. I had to rethink it once more after my male classmate asked for my opinion on his cover letter, and I noticed that he had asked for about 350€ more than I had planned to. To me it seemed like an unreal amount, but hey, maybe we women are to damn rational?! I mean, if he asks for 350€ more than I would, the probability that he will have a higher salary than me is quite huge!
Anyway. As soon as I was greeted today, my potential employer let me know he was in quite a hurry; he had to catch a plane within 30 minutes. I expressed a concern since I had a lot that I wanted to discuss about the contract. We did not get in to many of my concerns, as soon as I sat down, he let me know that he salary they offer me is two thousand euros less than what I had expected. I can tell you, my expectations were not the unreal ones – the salary was ridiculous. I referred to the syndicate, and his response was simply ”They don’t have anything to do with us”. This statement stunned me. I shook my head and said, ”No, no, no. There is no way”. I tried to get some answers to the other problems, but there was not much of a negotiation going on. I asked how with all the above named attributes that I got, they can offer me so little, and he said that they can’t give me more because “the other employees with this same salary would not be happy about it”. I tried to explain that what they value themselves, should have nothing to do with me – but all in vain. He did mention that he is sad that we are on such different pages, since they think my job application was one of the best they’ve seen. Uhm, maybe that should be seen in the salary then, don’t you think?
Despite all, I have not totally given up on the company. I will make them a last proposal where I try to make them give me another title. This is something genius that I figured out in the bus on the way home. This proposal would also address the issues in the former contract. I figure, it is better to try something a bit outside the box than to let the opportunity completely fade away. I will keep you updated.