re: Millennials: Not Negotiating Your First Job Offer Will Cost You (up to $0.5M)

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The average annual raise for professionals is around 3% (for simplicity’s sake, we’ll assume that’s the only pay increase you get).

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Except for many people, is just not true. Pay raises come in fits and spurts, especially in careers that have a natural career progression to higher and higher levels.

Further, as several others on here have said, many companies that hire large amounts of college grads pay them all essentially the same amount for the same job (with possible geographic adjustments). Moving from company to company tends to ensure that your salary is always around "market" - assuming you know how to negotiate for it.

It's like the NFL... you make your money on the second contract.