A reader writes:
I have a question about job searching as a new grad. I’m currently in the interview process for a job I’m really not so sure about. I haven’t received an offer or anything, but I wanted to ask a question about the standards I should have for my first job out of college just in case.
I’ve researched the company, and based on salaries people have disclosed publicly, the position I’m in the running for pays much less than market value. I’m also pretty sure it’s a fair amount less than I’m worth, since my technical field of study provided me with a lot of hard skills. Most importantly, I’m concerned the pay might not be enough for me to live on. The public reviews also make me worried about the office culture.
Should this company offer the job to me, my parents say I should take it. They argue that as a young single person with minimal debt (I only have student loans), I would be able to make a low salary work. I’ve been out of the workforce since graduation recovering from a mental health issue (all better now!), so they say it would be good just to get something on my resume on this point, even if I have to sacrifice a comfortable living situation for it. Finally, the job is in the location I’m looking to move to, so they say it would be worth taking it to get established in the area.
From my perspective, this looks like a bad job. The pay isn’t fair, people seem overworked, and it sounds like there’s a lot of petty office politics at play. I’m actually sort of worried that a bad job paired with bad living conditions would exacerbate my currently stable and well-managed mental health issues. But as someone just getting into the working world, I’m not sure what I should really expect from my first job. Is it worth it to just take the first crappy job I’m offered and try to jump ship as soon as possible? Is my first job just supposed to be crappy, or is this how people get taken advantage of?
It’s true that most first jobs aren’t super awesome. They’re often low paid (often less than you think you’re worth) and involve not-terribly exciting work, and you usually don’t have the standing to be very picky yet.
But there are some things that go beyond the typical dues-paying of a first job. You shouldn’t expect to have to put up with pay that’s wildly of out sync with market rates, labor law violations, or an abusive environment, no matter how inexperienced you are.
The problem is that I can’t tell whether any of those things are in play with this job.
Let’s take salary first. When you evaluate salary, you need to look at the market rate for this particular type of job at this particular level (so entry-level, not what they’d pay someone in a similar role but with more experience) in this particular geographic area and often in this particular field. You can’t base it on things like “my technical field of study provided me with a lot of hard skills.” Market rate is what counts. So, if you haven’t already, the first thing to do is to get a really solid understanding of the market rate, taking all those factors into account.
When you do that, you might find out that the amount you can expect to earn right now doesn’t line up with the amount you think you’ll need to live on. (Hopefully not, but it could happen.) If that’s the case, you have a few options: You can see if you’re qualified for different types of jobs that pay more — possibly in other fields, in which case you’d have to decide if you’re willing to make that trade-off … or you can see if you can cut expenses, like by living at home, getting roommates, etc. … or you can decide you’re willing to work a part-time job in addition to the main job (I think that’s tough to do, but lots of people do it).
Now, office culture. People being overworked isn’t terribly unusual, but whether it should be a deal-breaker depends on what that looks like in practice. “We never have time to get everything done” isn’t outrageous in a lot of fields. “We’re expected to work 70-hour weeks” generally is (with some exceptions where you know up-front that insane work hours are part of the deal, like big law). So details matter here. The same is true of “it sounds like there’s a lot of petty office politics at play” — you’ll find office politics everywhere you go, so that on its own isn’t prohibitive, but the details will matter. (And complicating this is that as someone new to the work world, you don’t yet have a finely tuned barometer for what’s a big deal and what isn’t. Read this.)
The really important thing to factor in here is what your other options are. If you’re easily getting interviews and are confident that you can get other offers, it makes sense to walk away from a job that you have serious doubts about. But if you’ve been searching for a while and this is the only offer that’s materialized, that might be the market telling you that you’ll need to take it in order to build up a work history that eventually will give you more options. Sometimes you have to go with something not ideal in order to get the experience that will help you get a better job later.
Your parents aren’t off-base* when they say that since you haven’t worked since graduation, it would be good to get something on your resume now. That’s a real concern, because the longer you go without a job after graduation, the harder it will get to get a good one. Again, that brings us back to the question of what type of options you have. If this is the only one, I’d lean toward agreeing with them, unless you think the job will cause you real harm.
* possibly the first time I have written those words here
You may also like:
to get hired, will I have to take a job outside my field?
how can 20somethings know if something is worth complaining about or leaving a job over?
the reality check post: does your job suck or are you being too picky?
is my first job supposed to be crappy? was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.