Your first salary will determine your career earnings. Should you negotiate?

Your starting salary determines all your future raises and bonuses — meaning it will have a long-term impact on your career earnings. Still, most companies have fixed pay ranges for entry-level positions with little to no scope for negotiation. 

You are new. You don’t have years of experience. You probably went to a decent college. But you have very little bargaining power even if you have to negotiate. You also risk losing your job in an ultra-competitive employer’s market. 

There’s a good chance that you want to say “yes” immediately and skip the negotiation process entirely. What do you stand to lose? Should you negotiate? Where is the line? 

On this episode of TFTY, host Akshaya Chandrasekaran invites Mansee Singhal, Partner, Mercer, and Roopank Chaudhary, Partner, at Aon India to help us decide when to negotiate and when to not.

If you like this episode, share a note with the host at [email protected] or take this form and let us know. We might have you on the show! The First Two Years is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive business stories, deeply-reported newsletters, and a whole lot of stuff.

P.S. Check out the most recent episode of Two by Two, our brand new business podcast, where the hosts ask: why has all the disruption and joy gone out of startups? Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or other platforms!