The Final Investment Every Parent Should Make For A Graduating Student

Graduation

When a couple decides to have children, the sacrifices start early. Perhaps they look around their cramped city apartment and think about the spontaneous days when they’d hop on the back of a motorcycle and speed off to wine country for the weekend.

motorcycleSuddenly, the conversation turns to selling off the Honda CB77 Super Hawk for a Honda Odyssey EX-L with third row seating, and researching suburban towns where you get the most room for your money.

A smart couple continually weighs the cost of an investment vs. the potential payoff down the line:

Cost-of-SAT-Tutor

  • Investing in a more expensive house in a good neighborhood, knowing that the (free) public school system is highly-rated.
  • Investing in piano lessons or sports equipment or computer camp, with the goal of a more well-rounded life, but also helping the odds for a scholarship down the line.
  • Investing thousands of dollars on SAT training, providing their children with personal tutors to boost their scores to get into the best college.

And then there’s the big whammy: College Tuition.

This is potentially $50,000 a year for the next four years! And yet, parents (and hard-working students) alike make this massive investment — even knowing that a decade of student loan debt might follow – because they see it as a path that will ultimately lead to a better job, a better career, and a better life.

But as freshly minted graduates walk down the aisle with a new diploma in hand, and their graying parents look at each other and smile proudly, there’s one last, simple thing they should invest in before kicking them out of the nest:

Teach them the importance of salary negotiation.

backpack-europeLearning this crucial skill will pay dividends for a lifetime. In fact, it will be more valuable than that backpacking trip to Europe, that new car to get them to interviews, and even that generous $10,000 gift from Uncle Sherman.

Why? Over the course of a career, whether they’re a social worker or a stock broker, if a professional continually negotiates for what they are worth, they’ll literally earn millions of dollars more over the course of their career vs. someone that doesn’t negotiate.

salary_negotiation_infographic_800

According to a study by Nerdwallet, there’s no reason not to.

  • Won’t they lose the offer? Probably not. 84% of companies said entry-level candidates would not be putting the offer at risk.
  • Can companies afford it? Most likely. 74% of employers leave room for a 5-10% increase.
  • Will it actually work? Only if you try. 80% of students were at least partially successful.

So if you have a son or daughter graduating this spring, congratulations. There’s no doubt that they can thank part of their success on your sacrifice and the smart investments you’ve made in them.

But before you pop the champagne, make sure they have that final skill to set them on the path for a prosperous career. Soon enough they’ll be paying off their loans, moving to the city, and (over your dead body) checking out a new motorcycle.

Where to get started? It’s simple:

I help ambitious students negotiate their first job offer by giving them confidence, guiding them through the hiring process, and teaching them exactly what to say — without risking losing the offer.