Stacking Pennies . . .

Common knowledge is to always try to negotiate your starting salary. In most cases, the worst that can happen is they will say no. There is a possible exception for entry level positions at large companies, when it is hard to distinguish yourself from the next person holding a similar degree. You hear entry level people claim they are special because they have good grades, an internship or two, and extracurriculars. Well, great, but so do most people (good) companies interview. It isn't that you aren't special, it is just that the company probably doesn't know it yet. The company I worked for right out of school had a standard "new hire" offer, and it was basically take it or leave it. Smaller companies probably are more flexible. It still might not hurt to ask if the offer is negotiable, but be prepared to back up your request with reasons why you deserve more.

When I was job shopping for my relocation, I was in a unique position. In my industry you typically are moved up from Engineer 1 to Engineer 2" after roughly two years, if you are a good performer. (While I was almost certainly doing Engineer 2 work by the end of my last job, HR had strict rules about minimum amount of experience.) I was job shopping with 1.5 years of experience, so I still had to look for Engineer I jobs. Yet I didn't want to be caught by a "standard new hire offer", since I did have some experience and some graduate coursework.

I think that my first job offer was a standard new hire offer. I easily negotiated an extra 2k and a 3k signing bonus. The second job offer seemed to take my experience into consideration, and came in 2k than negotiated first offer, and a similar signing bonus. I chose the second, not entirely for monetary reasons.

With the salary being just 1k below my hope of 70k-75k range, I was faced with the decision of whether or not to ask for more. I thought the offer was fair. I thought they took my experience and graduate coursework into consideration. If I were to ask if it was negotiable, I'm not sure what I'd say when they asked "why do you think you deserve more?" So I didn't negotiate.

Now that I'm on the inside, I have acess to their salary tables. Here they are for my job category:

Level Low Mid High
1 $42000 $62000 $78000
2 $49000 $72000 $90000
3 $60000 $88000 $110000
4 $72000 $105000 $132000
5 $88000 $129000 $162000
6 $102000 $150000 $187000

So, you can see that my offer was above the middle for Engineer 1, and poised quite nicely to be moved into an Engineer 2 position, provided I perform well. Could I have asked for more? Yes. Would they have given it to me? Maybe. Maybe not. The range I was hoping for more closely lines up with the middle of the Engineer 2 range.

While maybe I could have squeezed out a few more dollars, I do feel very fortunate to be here. It's a top company, and has many graduates from top universities. There are lots of brilliant people here. I went to a state school with a good regional reputation (at best) and no reputation in this area. I now have an opportunity to finish my MS degree at a top ten university in my field. On their dime. I should be done in less than two years if they accept my transfer credits. Nice. The competition here is more stiff than at my last company--I would have easily been a star at my last company--but that will be good for me. Always surround yourself with people smarter than you are.

I read a lot of personal finance blogs. I've read many great articles from young women my age who talk about how to build a quality professional wardrobe.

I've sort of lucked out with my current job. The standard dress code is "business casual" but it definitely leans much further towards casual than many companies. There is a loose policy of "jeans Friday" but many many people in our department wear jeans every day. While I did have to buy new clothes for a new job (my college gear really couldn't even stack up to business casual), I didn't have to invest in business suites or expensive shirts and trousers.

To top it off, I work in in a midwestern city with terrible shopping. We have Gap and Express (which both occasionally have decent work clothes), but no Banana Republic, no J. Crew. There are also some upscale department stores, but they just aren't worth going to. (And that is just my complaints about work clothes, don't get me started on finding stylish outfits.) I'm not saying everyone at my work place lacks style... But come on, we are engineers and there is exactly one other girl under 30 on my team, so I really don't have a lot of competition.

Where is my wardrobe from? I have two nice pairs of dress pants from Gap outlet, one from express, and two that were handmade for me when I studied abroad in Hong Kong. My jeans come from Old Navy, American Eagle, or Gap. My shirts are mostly from Old Navy, H&M, Target, or Kohls. My shoes are from all over, but none were very expensive.

The great thing is, I've gotten complements on my wardrobe more than once from my coworkers. "You don't shop around here, do you? You always have such cute clothes and shoes." It's flattering--I can pick out stylish and work appropriate clothes without spending a lot of money. But, like I said, our office is pretty casual. Most people won't wear sweatshirts (note that i said MOST), but you don't really see ties either.

Will I be able to get away with this wardrobe at my new job?

Maybe, at least some of it. When I interviewed the dress seemed pretty casual, but I think that since the shopping will be much better, it might be wise (or fun) to invest in a few nicer pieces. I still will look for good deals, but I'll definitely focus a more on quality for non-trendy items. (For example, Forever 21 is off my list of stores I'll buy things from. I know they are cheap, but the only two items I purchased from them broke. The strap on a cheap party dress broke and the buttons on a cute dress shirt all fell off.) I'll try to survive on what I have initially, and get a feel for what the other young women in my department are wearing, then if necessary, purchase some new things.

I had my last day at my old job yesterday. Mapgirl, a blog I read regularly, also recently switched jobs. She put together a series of posts on how to leave your job, financial and non-financial aspects. I had planned to do the same, so here are my tips from my last days on the job.

General

• Give appropriate notice. Two weeks is minimum, longer if you think you can. I told my boss about a month in advance, and we told the rest of the group about a week later. For your own sanity, don't tell them TOO soon. I've been plotting my move for well over six months, but I didn't want to end up on a "short timers" list, given crappy assignments and having my work affected by knowledge I was leaving. So I kept my mouth shut for quite some time.
  

• Consider timing. I chose to leave in mid-January for several reasons. First, I wanted to be reimbursed for my tuition from the semester ending in December. Second, we have holiday shutdown from December 23rd-January 1st, and I thought being paid for my Christmas break would be nice. Also, bonus are given in December, though I only would have had to stay through the end of the fiscal year to be eligible for it. It isn't always worth waiting for things like this, but sometimes it is.

• Stay motivated up until the end. This is much easier said than done! While I met my commitments and did my best to transfer knowledge to my coworkers, I have to admit that I was a little less of an achiever in my last few days. It is hard to ignore that little voice in your head saying "Well, what are they going to do, fire me?"

Staying in Touch

• Be sure to get any contact information of people who you may later want as references. The boss I had for the majority of my time at the company recently transfered to a new location, and I emailed him and requested a personal email address, in case I need it in the future.
• Leave your contact information with anyone who might want it. I wrote a quick email to my group thanking them for making my time with my company be pleasurable, and included my gmail address at the end.
• Say your goodbyes! You likely will not see most of these people again
  

Benefits/Money

• Ensure that your last paycheck will find you, either through direct deposit or however else they do it.

• Ask about your vacation hours. I believe companies are required by law to pay them out to you, but that may vary state by state. My company said they would include them in my last paycheck. All 10 hours of it, ha. (I use up my vacation as soon as I earn it!) If that isn't the case, then talk to your boss about the possibility of using most of it before you leave.
  

• Check on your 401k. If you have a really small balance, they can require you to take it out of the plan. In most cases, you can leave it there at least for awhile. I plan to roll mine over eventually, just not right away. You my have some funds that require a waiting period to avoid fees.

• Make sure you know what portion of your retirement is vested. I became fully vested after three years of service. Luckily, the count the start of that from the first date I did my internship. Even though I only have worked there full time 1.5 years, I got to keep the company match. It amounts to about $6000.
  

• Your medical plan will likely go through the end of the month. After that, you may need COBRA or other insurance if your new job doesn't offer insurance on day one. Consider using your insurance, if you already haven't. I was sure to order contacts (my company pays for $120 if you do a buy-up on the vision plan.) If you have a flex spending account, you also can use it, even if you haven't contributed it yet. It may be a bit unethical to knowingly do this, but it is legal.

I've never left a full time job before. When I left my internships, it was a given that I'd be heading back to school, so there were no explanations needed. I felt a little guilty "abaondoning" my team, especially as we were kind of at a make or break stage of our program. However, my reasons were mostly personal, and I left on good terms.

I'm relocating from an inexpensive Midwestern city to Los Angeles. I have received two very similar job offers.

The first offer came in at $65k with a relocation package that included a $2000 tax assisted lump sum. I thought the offer was a little low, so I negotiated $67k and a $3k signing bonus. The pay includes up to 7% in 40k matching/contributions by the company and 12.5 days of vacation the first year. Bonuses were not explicitly mentioned, but I would imagine they do some kind of incentive bonus.

The second offer came in at $69k with a very similar relocation package (except $1000 non tax assisted lump sum rather than the $2000), a $3k signing bonus, and 10 days of vacation the first year. They also explicitly mentioned sick leave, at 8/hrs a month. They match up to 6% of 401k contributions, and have some sort of pension plan. I assume you have to work there some minimum amount of years to be vested in the pension. They mentioned bonuses when i was on-site, which this year was "ten days of pay."

My current job will be paying about $58k as of next year. I get 15 days of vacation per a year, and sick leave is not really an issues. You are encouraged to make up any hours that you are sick, but it is not an absolute requirement. I get 6% in a 401k match. I also got a 9% bonus this year.

All things considered, my current job is really the best financial deal, taking the cost of living into consideration. The pay increase is nearly a 20% raise. However, my rent is going to MORE than double, and I will be paying an extra $9,600 a year in rent. That practically wipes out the entire raise! The vacation is better, the bonus is better, and I would most certainly get promoted to "Grade 2" next year. I'm not sure how long it will take me at my next company.

However, the whole point of the job search is to relocate. So, which of the other two is the better offer?

Despite the extra relocation money from the first company (and the extra 2.5 days of vacation) the hard salary numbers will be what my future salary will be based off of. I think the second offer is better, though I'm going to miss that extra week of vacation. Is vacation negotiable? The second offer is only slightly better, but the job itself is more appealing, which really seals the deal.

My next thought is, should I negotiate the second offer? Am I worth more? I don't want to come across as arrogant to the company--I'm not even two years out of school, and I didn't go to a fancy big name engineering school. But if I am worth more than what they offered, I don't want to sell myself short. I don't know. I think it is a fair offer. I liked the company a lot. But the boyfriend insists it doesn't hurt to ask. Thoughts?

I accepted a job for January 2008 back in early September. This may come as a surprise to anyone who noted that I was in Los Angeles last weekend interviewing for a (different) job.

To my credit, I did stop applying for jobs when I accepted my first offer. Company A just moved very quickly, while Company B moved very slowly. I sought advice of those in industry (an experienced mentor) and others who love me (parents) and was told that I should go on the second interview, and really, do what was best for me. If nothing else, I could use the weekend to find an apartment.

I have not received the formal offer from Company B, but notification that HR is putting something together. I anticipate it will be similar to the other offer--at least as good, maybe slightly better.

Here is the thing: I want to work for Company B significantly more. I met a lot of great people and liked the atmosphere a lot more. However, I have committed to Company A with a start date of late January.

I do know it is unethical to back out of my first offer, but I think I will do it anyway. I will allow myself this mistake in my career, and will never do anything like this again. I will keep myself out of this position. It is a bad place to be in. At the same time, I have to do what is truly best for me. If the company lost a contract tomorrow, they wouldn't feel bad about calling me up and saying "Never mind, you aren't hired". Still. It is not something I am proud of. I just want to say, I'm not asking advice over whether or not to do this, just HOW to handle it.

I'm drafting a letter of "resignation" (or rather, "renege-ation"). For the sake of getting the information to them as quickly as possible I probably will man up (woman-up?) and call them, as unpleasant as that may be. Ok, let's be realistic--I probably will send them an email? I will also send a formal letter (I think). I don't know how to handle this situation, because it is not the types of situations I usually get myself in.

Please offer any suggestions on how to handle this. Here is my first draft:

With great apologies and regret, it is necessary to inform you that I will not be starting employment with Company A this January 2008. I understand that backing out of my commitment is disrespectful to you, and I have wasted the time of you and your company. I am truly sorry for this and will not make this mistake again with any company.

I do not wish to start my career with Company A only to leave for something that is better fit after a short period of time, and waste more of your time invested in me as an employee. With this in mind that I have chosen a different path. My choice was not for monetary reasons, but simply I felt that the job was a better fit for me. Of course, I stopped applying for jobs at the time of my acceptance, however the process moved very slowly with the second company and I'm only now finalizing my decision. I understand that accepting an offer that I was not entirely confident in was a poor choice on my part. I should have, at the very least, requested more time to consider all my options, before making a commitment that I could not keep. Again, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience I have caused for you.

Thank you for the time you have already spent on me as a candidate and for your gracious offer of employment. I can not apologize enough for backing out of my commitment.

Sincerely,
Me

This was not only the most satisfying thing to put on my to do list, but also the most satisfying to check off!

Actually, I really like my job. They don't discriminate based on age and experience--if you are good, you will be given good tasks and responsibility. In my short time there (1.5 years), I was able to be recognized as a "high performer" and given a key role on my team. Which is really great--you don't have people forcing you to "pay your dues". If you can do the task, your dues are considered paid and you are thrown in there. There are several young employees (under 30) that have really big leadership roles in our group, and I don't think I am too far behind. Besides that, I have gotten to work on challenging and rewarding projects and like my coworkers.

I'm resigning because I'm relocating to Los Angeles (for personal reasons) and the branch in that area really doesn't do any interesting work. I was very nervous about putting in my notice, until my manager informed us all that he had been promoted and would be moving to a branch in Texas. That made it easier for me. I set up a meeting with my manager, which I titled "Short Discussion", which I assume made it obvious what it was about. I don't usually schedule meetings with my manager, and a vague title usually means the employee is quitting. He said he knew when he got the invite.

So, I resigned, effective January 11th. I gave them about a month's notice, which maybe is more than "standard" but I felt it was appropriate, considering we get a week and a half off for Christmas.

Today my manager presented me with the idea of working remotely from Los Angeles, with a salary differential for cost of living figured in. I was really surprised by the idea, and felt it showed they really appreciate my work. Ultimately, it probably won't work out. I don't think I'd do well working in isolation. At this point in my career it is best for me to be surrounded by really brilliant people and learn as much as possible from them. Not to mention, how would I meet new people if I worked alone? I expressed my concerns, and really, I don't think it would be best for the company either. He was fine with that, but said he just had to discuss it with me.

Tomorrow, we can tell the rest of my team.

Many people fret about asking for their first raise at work. My company is fairly large and structured with raises, so I didn't have the issue of how to begin the process.

Performance reviews are given in October. Prior to the review, each employee is required to fill out a self review, stating accomplishments and noting how we met our "goals" of the performance review. This year we also had to name 3 coworkers that we wanted to fill out evaluations for us, and we also filled out at least 3 reviews of others (I did five!). Our managers then compile the information into an overall "score card", and we are given an overall rating of 1 to 3 in two categories. They roughly are "what you do" and "how you do it", but they have some HR-type names. HR imposes rules that disallow managers from rating everyone too high or too low.

The process is structured, and seems very fair. Good raises don't just go to those who gather up the courage to ask. They go to those who can list accomplishments, whose peers speak highly of their work, and who's manager is impressed with them.

My review went really well, I was rated a 3 and a 2.9 in the two categories, and my manager talked about getting me into some leadership classes in the coming year. I was hoping to be promoted to the next grade, but I do not have the 2 years of full time experience that they generally require. So I wasn't. I received a great review this year, yet still got "only" a 4.5% raise. It isn't bad, but it isn't great. I really need to get moved up to the next pay grade level in order to get a larger raise, which would probably happen next year.

The best advice I heard about reviews was to step up your level of effort a bit for the two months before the review. People's memories are short, and that is what they will remember. I didn't do this. However, not long before my review I was in a meeting with my manager (along with about 7 others) and was speaking up and questioning why we were doing something, if it was "value added" (no I didn't use that jargony word!). In my review, he specifically commented that he had noticed that I was speaking up and expressing my opinions and questioning the process when necessary. I didn't do it to impress him, but I don't have a lot of direct interaction with my manager, so this probably helped give me a slight boost.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, perhaps) there is nothing that takes the place of solid hard work. If people are requesting you to work on projects, leaving you good feedback, and entrusting you with responsibility, you should make sure your manager knows it. But if they aren't, no amount of effort on a self evaluation review will make a difference. Perhaps some clever wording and bragging can separate those in the middle a bit, but they can't separate the good from the great.

My company came out with a new policy this year. We are required to either take a online personal health assessment and fill in data from our "biometrics" (cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.), or pay an extra $125 (per person) in health care premiums. They offered several sessions at work where they would take them for free, and the numbers were self reported.

Being young and relatively healthy, I wasn't opposed to the idea. Some of my middle aged co-workers were much more wary. Wasn't this a little bit too "Big Brother" for the USA? One could speculate where they are going with this approach. Next year, they might require those who have high cholesterol to reduce it, or else pay $125. Get your BMI within the healthy range, or else pay $125. Commit to exercise three times a week, or else pay $125.

If they do charge more for people who refuse to make an active commitment to improving bad health, is it fair? No one seems to dispute smokers surcharges anymore. The difference is that some of this is genetics, and can't be helped. I have naturally high cholesterol, and while I can improve it with diet and exercise, 2/3 of the number is made up by genetics. I would hate to be charged extra for something I have little control over.

The premise of the approach makes me a bit uneasy. However,it also seems like, done the right way, it might be something that will help alleviate health care costs for the country as a whole. You can't force people to chose healthy lifestyles, but one way to persuade people is to hit them where they will notice--their pocketbooks. If you could lower your premiums by improving your health, or having a legitimate reason why you can not improve, would you? Doesn't it seem fair that taking care of yourself would lower your premiums?

One immediate benefit of the program was that some people were made aware of their health status. This was particularly helpful for us young people who hadn't had our blood work done yet, but also for those who are a little afraid of the doctor. Sometimes seeing the numbers is enough to make a small difference.

I'm leaving my company shortly, so I won't know how this all will play out long term. Still, I wouldn't be surprised to see this trend continue in my future employer.

This is a money making trick that doesn't work except in a very special circumstance--negotiating a job offer.

I'm in the process of relocating to California, primarily for personal reasons. I had an interview last week and received the official offer today. My current salary in a low cost of living midwestern city is about 56k. I was offered 65k to move to California (plus relocation costs!). I was excited to get the offer, but I immediately asked if that was negotiable. I had anticipated an offer in the 70-75k range. (Some random cost of living calculator states: To maintain the same standard of living, your salary of $56,000 in XXXX should increase to $103,122 in XXXXX, California. I think that is a bit high, and certainly less than I would expect them to offer me, but at least, a point of reference.)

The HR rep seemed surprised (which surprised me!), and said something like "Well, it is a 15% percent increase, but if you have justification, I can talk to the hiring manager."

Luckily, I wasn't negotiating for the sake of negotiating--I had my reasons ready to go:

• The position is typically entry level, I have 1.5 years of directly related experience and am on the verge of a raise/promotion at the end of the year
• I am 1/3 of the way done with my Masters Degree
• I already have my security clearance (something that costs them several thousand to get!)
• The cost of living is significantly different

The HR lady then called the hiring manager, and then called me back about 10 minutes later. She only could offer me an increase of salary to 67k, but they would throw in a 3k signing bonus. She reminded me that performance reviews happen early in the year, and that there would be tuition reimbursement.

The offer is much more attractive. I got enough money to fully fund a 2008 Roth IRA, just by listing a few reasons.

I have a phone interview tomorrow with another company for a different type of position. I think that the offer I already have seems like a more appealing job, but I want to see what this other position really entails.

This is the first time I've negotiated salary, and I'm quite proud of myself!

Common knowledge is to always try to negotiate your starting salary. In most cases, the worst that can happen is they will say no. There is a possible exception for entry level positions at large companies, when it is hard to distinguish yourself from the next person holding a similar degree. You hear entry level people claim they are special because they have good grades, an internship or two, and extracurriculars. Well, great, but so do most people (good) companies interview. It isn't that you aren't special, it is just that the company probably doesn't know it yet. The company I worked for right out of school had a standard "new hire" offer, and it was basically take it or leave it. Smaller companies probably are more flexible. It still might not hurt to ask if the offer is negotiable, but be prepared to back up your request with reasons why you deserve more.

When I was job shopping for my relocation, I was in a unique position. In my industry you typically are moved up from Engineer 1 to Engineer 2" after roughly two years, if you are a good performer. (While I was almost certainly doing Engineer 2 work by the end of my last job, HR had strict rules about minimum amount of experience.) I was job shopping with 1.5 years of experience, so I still had to look for Engineer I jobs. Yet I didn't want to be caught by a "standard new hire offer", since I did have some experience and some graduate coursework.

I think that my first job offer was a standard new hire offer. I easily negotiated an extra 2k and a 3k signing bonus. The second job offer seemed to take my experience into consideration, and came in 2k than negotiated first offer, and a similar signing bonus. I chose the second, not entirely for monetary reasons.

With the salary being just 1k below my hope of 70k-75k range, I was faced with the decision of whether or not to ask for more. I thought the offer was fair. I thought they took my experience and graduate coursework into consideration. If I were to ask if it was negotiable, I'm not sure what I'd say when they asked "why do you think you deserve more?" So I didn't negotiate.

Now that I'm on the inside, I have acess to their salary tables. Here they are for my job category:

Level Low Mid High
1 $42000 $62000 $78000
2 $49000 $72000 $90000
3 $60000 $88000 $110000
4 $72000 $105000 $132000
5 $88000 $129000 $162000
6 $102000 $150000 $187000

So, you can see that my offer was above the middle for Engineer 1, and poised quite nicely to be moved into an Engineer 2 position, provided I perform well. Could I have asked for more? Yes. Would they have given it to me? Maybe. Maybe not. The range I was hoping for more closely lines up with the middle of the Engineer 2 range.

While maybe I could have squeezed out a few more dollars, I do feel very fortunate to be here. It's a top company, and has many graduates from top universities. There are lots of brilliant people here. I went to a state school with a good regional reputation (at best) and no reputation in this area. I now have an opportunity to finish my MS degree at a top ten university in my field. On their dime. I should be done in less than two years if they accept my transfer credits. Nice. The competition here is more stiff than at my last company--I would have easily been a star at my last company--but that will be good for me. Always surround yourself with people smarter than you are.

I read a lot of personal finance blogs. I've read many great articles from young women my age who talk about how to build a quality professional wardrobe.

I've sort of lucked out with my current job. The standard dress code is "business casual" but it definitely leans much further towards casual than many companies. There is a loose policy of "jeans Friday" but many many people in our department wear jeans every day. While I did have to buy new clothes for a new job (my college gear really couldn't even stack up to business casual), I didn't have to invest in business suites or expensive shirts and trousers.

To top it off, I work in in a midwestern city with terrible shopping. We have Gap and Express (which both occasionally have decent work clothes), but no Banana Republic, no J. Crew. There are also some upscale department stores, but they just aren't worth going to. (And that is just my complaints about work clothes, don't get me started on finding stylish outfits.) I'm not saying everyone at my work place lacks style... But come on, we are engineers and there is exactly one other girl under 30 on my team, so I really don't have a lot of competition.

Where is my wardrobe from? I have two nice pairs of dress pants from Gap outlet, one from express, and two that were handmade for me when I studied abroad in Hong Kong. My jeans come from Old Navy, American Eagle, or Gap. My shirts are mostly from Old Navy, H&M, Target, or Kohls. My shoes are from all over, but none were very expensive.

The great thing is, I've gotten complements on my wardrobe more than once from my coworkers. "You don't shop around here, do you? You always have such cute clothes and shoes." It's flattering--I can pick out stylish and work appropriate clothes without spending a lot of money. But, like I said, our office is pretty casual. Most people won't wear sweatshirts (note that i said MOST), but you don't really see ties either.

Will I be able to get away with this wardrobe at my new job?

Maybe, at least some of it. When I interviewed the dress seemed pretty casual, but I think that since the shopping will be much better, it might be wise (or fun) to invest in a few nicer pieces. I still will look for good deals, but I'll definitely focus a more on quality for non-trendy items. (For example, Forever 21 is off my list of stores I'll buy things from. I know they are cheap, but the only two items I purchased from them broke. The strap on a cheap party dress broke and the buttons on a cute dress shirt all fell off.) I'll try to survive on what I have initially, and get a feel for what the other young women in my department are wearing, then if necessary, purchase some new things.

I had my last day at my old job yesterday. Mapgirl, a blog I read regularly, also recently switched jobs. She put together a series of posts on how to leave your job, financial and non-financial aspects. I had planned to do the same, so here are my tips from my last days on the job.

General

• Give appropriate notice. Two weeks is minimum, longer if you think you can. I told my boss about a month in advance, and we told the rest of the group about a week later. For your own sanity, don't tell them TOO soon. I've been plotting my move for well over six months, but I didn't want to end up on a "short timers" list, given crappy assignments and having my work affected by knowledge I was leaving. So I kept my mouth shut for quite some time.
  

• Consider timing. I chose to leave in mid-January for several reasons. First, I wanted to be reimbursed for my tuition from the semester ending in December. Second, we have holiday shutdown from December 23rd-January 1st, and I thought being paid for my Christmas break would be nice. Also, bonus are given in December, though I only would have had to stay through the end of the fiscal year to be eligible for it. It isn't always worth waiting for things like this, but sometimes it is.

• Stay motivated up until the end. This is much easier said than done! While I met my commitments and did my best to transfer knowledge to my coworkers, I have to admit that I was a little less of an achiever in my last few days. It is hard to ignore that little voice in your head saying "Well, what are they going to do, fire me?"

Staying in Touch

• Be sure to get any contact information of people who you may later want as references. The boss I had for the majority of my time at the company recently transfered to a new location, and I emailed him and requested a personal email address, in case I need it in the future.
• Leave your contact information with anyone who might want it. I wrote a quick email to my group thanking them for making my time with my company be pleasurable, and included my gmail address at the end.
• Say your goodbyes! You likely will not see most of these people again
  

Benefits/Money

• Ensure that your last paycheck will find you, either through direct deposit or however else they do it.

• Ask about your vacation hours. I believe companies are required by law to pay them out to you, but that may vary state by state. My company said they would include them in my last paycheck. All 10 hours of it, ha. (I use up my vacation as soon as I earn it!) If that isn't the case, then talk to your boss about the possibility of using most of it before you leave.
  

• Check on your 401k. If you have a really small balance, they can require you to take it out of the plan. In most cases, you can leave it there at least for awhile. I plan to roll mine over eventually, just not right away. You my have some funds that require a waiting period to avoid fees.

• Make sure you know what portion of your retirement is vested. I became fully vested after three years of service. Luckily, the count the start of that from the first date I did my internship. Even though I only have worked there full time 1.5 years, I got to keep the company match. It amounts to about $6000.
  

• Your medical plan will likely go through the end of the month. After that, you may need COBRA or other insurance if your new job doesn't offer insurance on day one. Consider using your insurance, if you already haven't. I was sure to order contacts (my company pays for $120 if you do a buy-up on the vision plan.) If you have a flex spending account, you also can use it, even if you haven't contributed it yet. It may be a bit unethical to knowingly do this, but it is legal.

I've never left a full time job before. When I left my internships, it was a given that I'd be heading back to school, so there were no explanations needed. I felt a little guilty "abaondoning" my team, especially as we were kind of at a make or break stage of our program. However, my reasons were mostly personal, and I left on good terms.

I'm relocating from an inexpensive Midwestern city to Los Angeles. I have received two very similar job offers.

The first offer came in at $65k with a relocation package that included a $2000 tax assisted lump sum. I thought the offer was a little low, so I negotiated $67k and a $3k signing bonus. The pay includes up to 7% in 40k matching/contributions by the company and 12.5 days of vacation the first year. Bonuses were not explicitly mentioned, but I would imagine they do some kind of incentive bonus.

The second offer came in at $69k with a very similar relocation package (except $1000 non tax assisted lump sum rather than the $2000), a $3k signing bonus, and 10 days of vacation the first year. They also explicitly mentioned sick leave, at 8/hrs a month. They match up to 6% of 401k contributions, and have some sort of pension plan. I assume you have to work there some minimum amount of years to be vested in the pension. They mentioned bonuses when i was on-site, which this year was "ten days of pay."

My current job will be paying about $58k as of next year. I get 15 days of vacation per a year, and sick leave is not really an issues. You are encouraged to make up any hours that you are sick, but it is not an absolute requirement. I get 6% in a 401k match. I also got a 9% bonus this year.

All things considered, my current job is really the best financial deal, taking the cost of living into consideration. The pay increase is nearly a 20% raise. However, my rent is going to MORE than double, and I will be paying an extra $9,600 a year in rent. That practically wipes out the entire raise! The vacation is better, the bonus is better, and I would most certainly get promoted to "Grade 2" next year. I'm not sure how long it will take me at my next company.

However, the whole point of the job search is to relocate. So, which of the other two is the better offer?

Despite the extra relocation money from the first company (and the extra 2.5 days of vacation) the hard salary numbers will be what my future salary will be based off of. I think the second offer is better, though I'm going to miss that extra week of vacation. Is vacation negotiable? The second offer is only slightly better, but the job itself is more appealing, which really seals the deal.

My next thought is, should I negotiate the second offer? Am I worth more? I don't want to come across as arrogant to the company--I'm not even two years out of school, and I didn't go to a fancy big name engineering school. But if I am worth more than what they offered, I don't want to sell myself short. I don't know. I think it is a fair offer. I liked the company a lot. But the boyfriend insists it doesn't hurt to ask. Thoughts?

I accepted a job for January 2008 back in early September. This may come as a surprise to anyone who noted that I was in Los Angeles last weekend interviewing for a (different) job.

To my credit, I did stop applying for jobs when I accepted my first offer. Company A just moved very quickly, while Company B moved very slowly. I sought advice of those in industry (an experienced mentor) and others who love me (parents) and was told that I should go on the second interview, and really, do what was best for me. If nothing else, I could use the weekend to find an apartment.

I have not received the formal offer from Company B, but notification that HR is putting something together. I anticipate it will be similar to the other offer--at least as good, maybe slightly better.

Here is the thing: I want to work for Company B significantly more. I met a lot of great people and liked the atmosphere a lot more. However, I have committed to Company A with a start date of late January.

I do know it is unethical to back out of my first offer, but I think I will do it anyway. I will allow myself this mistake in my career, and will never do anything like this again. I will keep myself out of this position. It is a bad place to be in. At the same time, I have to do what is truly best for me. If the company lost a contract tomorrow, they wouldn't feel bad about calling me up and saying "Never mind, you aren't hired". Still. It is not something I am proud of. I just want to say, I'm not asking advice over whether or not to do this, just HOW to handle it.

I'm drafting a letter of "resignation" (or rather, "renege-ation"). For the sake of getting the information to them as quickly as possible I probably will man up (woman-up?) and call them, as unpleasant as that may be. Ok, let's be realistic--I probably will send them an email? I will also send a formal letter (I think). I don't know how to handle this situation, because it is not the types of situations I usually get myself in.

Please offer any suggestions on how to handle this. Here is my first draft:

With great apologies and regret, it is necessary to inform you that I will not be starting employment with Company A this January 2008. I understand that backing out of my commitment is disrespectful to you, and I have wasted the time of you and your company. I am truly sorry for this and will not make this mistake again with any company.

I do not wish to start my career with Company A only to leave for something that is better fit after a short period of time, and waste more of your time invested in me as an employee. With this in mind that I have chosen a different path. My choice was not for monetary reasons, but simply I felt that the job was a better fit for me. Of course, I stopped applying for jobs at the time of my acceptance, however the process moved very slowly with the second company and I'm only now finalizing my decision. I understand that accepting an offer that I was not entirely confident in was a poor choice on my part. I should have, at the very least, requested more time to consider all my options, before making a commitment that I could not keep. Again, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience I have caused for you.

Thank you for the time you have already spent on me as a candidate and for your gracious offer of employment. I can not apologize enough for backing out of my commitment.

Sincerely,
Me

This was not only the most satisfying thing to put on my to do list, but also the most satisfying to check off!

Actually, I really like my job. They don't discriminate based on age and experience--if you are good, you will be given good tasks and responsibility. In my short time there (1.5 years), I was able to be recognized as a "high performer" and given a key role on my team. Which is really great--you don't have people forcing you to "pay your dues". If you can do the task, your dues are considered paid and you are thrown in there. There are several young employees (under 30) that have really big leadership roles in our group, and I don't think I am too far behind. Besides that, I have gotten to work on challenging and rewarding projects and like my coworkers.

I'm resigning because I'm relocating to Los Angeles (for personal reasons) and the branch in that area really doesn't do any interesting work. I was very nervous about putting in my notice, until my manager informed us all that he had been promoted and would be moving to a branch in Texas. That made it easier for me. I set up a meeting with my manager, which I titled "Short Discussion", which I assume made it obvious what it was about. I don't usually schedule meetings with my manager, and a vague title usually means the employee is quitting. He said he knew when he got the invite.

So, I resigned, effective January 11th. I gave them about a month's notice, which maybe is more than "standard" but I felt it was appropriate, considering we get a week and a half off for Christmas.

Today my manager presented me with the idea of working remotely from Los Angeles, with a salary differential for cost of living figured in. I was really surprised by the idea, and felt it showed they really appreciate my work. Ultimately, it probably won't work out. I don't think I'd do well working in isolation. At this point in my career it is best for me to be surrounded by really brilliant people and learn as much as possible from them. Not to mention, how would I meet new people if I worked alone? I expressed my concerns, and really, I don't think it would be best for the company either. He was fine with that, but said he just had to discuss it with me.

Tomorrow, we can tell the rest of my team.

Many people fret about asking for their first raise at work. My company is fairly large and structured with raises, so I didn't have the issue of how to begin the process.

Performance reviews are given in October. Prior to the review, each employee is required to fill out a self review, stating accomplishments and noting how we met our "goals" of the performance review. This year we also had to name 3 coworkers that we wanted to fill out evaluations for us, and we also filled out at least 3 reviews of others (I did five!). Our managers then compile the information into an overall "score card", and we are given an overall rating of 1 to 3 in two categories. They roughly are "what you do" and "how you do it", but they have some HR-type names. HR imposes rules that disallow managers from rating everyone too high or too low.

The process is structured, and seems very fair. Good raises don't just go to those who gather up the courage to ask. They go to those who can list accomplishments, whose peers speak highly of their work, and who's manager is impressed with them.

My review went really well, I was rated a 3 and a 2.9 in the two categories, and my manager talked about getting me into some leadership classes in the coming year. I was hoping to be promoted to the next grade, but I do not have the 2 years of full time experience that they generally require. So I wasn't. I received a great review this year, yet still got "only" a 4.5% raise. It isn't bad, but it isn't great. I really need to get moved up to the next pay grade level in order to get a larger raise, which would probably happen next year.

The best advice I heard about reviews was to step up your level of effort a bit for the two months before the review. People's memories are short, and that is what they will remember. I didn't do this. However, not long before my review I was in a meeting with my manager (along with about 7 others) and was speaking up and questioning why we were doing something, if it was "value added" (no I didn't use that jargony word!). In my review, he specifically commented that he had noticed that I was speaking up and expressing my opinions and questioning the process when necessary. I didn't do it to impress him, but I don't have a lot of direct interaction with my manager, so this probably helped give me a slight boost.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, perhaps) there is nothing that takes the place of solid hard work. If people are requesting you to work on projects, leaving you good feedback, and entrusting you with responsibility, you should make sure your manager knows it. But if they aren't, no amount of effort on a self evaluation review will make a difference. Perhaps some clever wording and bragging can separate those in the middle a bit, but they can't separate the good from the great.

My company came out with a new policy this year. We are required to either take a online personal health assessment and fill in data from our "biometrics" (cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.), or pay an extra $125 (per person) in health care premiums. They offered several sessions at work where they would take them for free, and the numbers were self reported.

Being young and relatively healthy, I wasn't opposed to the idea. Some of my middle aged co-workers were much more wary. Wasn't this a little bit too "Big Brother" for the USA? One could speculate where they are going with this approach. Next year, they might require those who have high cholesterol to reduce it, or else pay $125. Get your BMI within the healthy range, or else pay $125. Commit to exercise three times a week, or else pay $125.

If they do charge more for people who refuse to make an active commitment to improving bad health, is it fair? No one seems to dispute smokers surcharges anymore. The difference is that some of this is genetics, and can't be helped. I have naturally high cholesterol, and while I can improve it with diet and exercise, 2/3 of the number is made up by genetics. I would hate to be charged extra for something I have little control over.

The premise of the approach makes me a bit uneasy. However,it also seems like, done the right way, it might be something that will help alleviate health care costs for the country as a whole. You can't force people to chose healthy lifestyles, but one way to persuade people is to hit them where they will notice--their pocketbooks. If you could lower your premiums by improving your health, or having a legitimate reason why you can not improve, would you? Doesn't it seem fair that taking care of yourself would lower your premiums?

One immediate benefit of the program was that some people were made aware of their health status. This was particularly helpful for us young people who hadn't had our blood work done yet, but also for those who are a little afraid of the doctor. Sometimes seeing the numbers is enough to make a small difference.

I'm leaving my company shortly, so I won't know how this all will play out long term. Still, I wouldn't be surprised to see this trend continue in my future employer.

This is a money making trick that doesn't work except in a very special circumstance--negotiating a job offer.

I'm in the process of relocating to California, primarily for personal reasons. I had an interview last week and received the official offer today. My current salary in a low cost of living midwestern city is about 56k. I was offered 65k to move to California (plus relocation costs!). I was excited to get the offer, but I immediately asked if that was negotiable. I had anticipated an offer in the 70-75k range. (Some random cost of living calculator states: To maintain the same standard of living, your salary of $56,000 in XXXX should increase to $103,122 in XXXXX, California. I think that is a bit high, and certainly less than I would expect them to offer me, but at least, a point of reference.)

The HR rep seemed surprised (which surprised me!), and said something like "Well, it is a 15% percent increase, but if you have justification, I can talk to the hiring manager."

Luckily, I wasn't negotiating for the sake of negotiating--I had my reasons ready to go:

• The position is typically entry level, I have 1.5 years of directly related experience and am on the verge of a raise/promotion at the end of the year
• I am 1/3 of the way done with my Masters Degree
• I already have my security clearance (something that costs them several thousand to get!)
• The cost of living is significantly different

The HR lady then called the hiring manager, and then called me back about 10 minutes later. She only could offer me an increase of salary to 67k, but they would throw in a 3k signing bonus. She reminded me that performance reviews happen early in the year, and that there would be tuition reimbursement.

The offer is much more attractive. I got enough money to fully fund a 2008 Roth IRA, just by listing a few reasons.

I have a phone interview tomorrow with another company for a different type of position. I think that the offer I already have seems like a more appealing job, but I want to see what this other position really entails.

This is the first time I've negotiated salary, and I'm quite proud of myself!

Common knowledge is to always try to negotiate your starting salary. In most cases, the worst that can happen is they will say no. There is a possible exception for entry level positions at large companies, when it is hard to distinguish yourself from the next person holding a similar degree. You hear entry level people claim they are special because they have good grades, an internship or two, and extracurriculars. Well, great, but so do most people (good) companies interview. It isn't that you aren't special, it is just that the company probably doesn't know it yet. The company I worked for right out of school had a standard "new hire" offer, and it was basically take it or leave it. Smaller companies probably are more flexible. It still might not hurt to ask if the offer is negotiable, but be prepared to back up your request with reasons why you deserve more.

When I was job shopping for my relocation, I was in a unique position. In my industry you typically are moved up from Engineer 1 to Engineer 2" after roughly two years, if you are a good performer. (While I was almost certainly doing Engineer 2 work by the end of my last job, HR had strict rules about minimum amount of experience.) I was job shopping with 1.5 years of experience, so I still had to look for Engineer I jobs. Yet I didn't want to be caught by a "standard new hire offer", since I did have some experience and some graduate coursework.

I think that my first job offer was a standard new hire offer. I easily negotiated an extra 2k and a 3k signing bonus. The second job offer seemed to take my experience into consideration, and came in 2k than negotiated first offer, and a similar signing bonus. I chose the second, not entirely for monetary reasons.

With the salary being just 1k below my hope of 70k-75k range, I was faced with the decision of whether or not to ask for more. I thought the offer was fair. I thought they took my experience and graduate coursework into consideration. If I were to ask if it was negotiable, I'm not sure what I'd say when they asked "why do you think you deserve more?" So I didn't negotiate.

Now that I'm on the inside, I have acess to their salary tables. Here they are for my job category:

Level Low Mid High
1 $42000 $62000 $78000
2 $49000 $72000 $90000
3 $60000 $88000 $110000
4 $72000 $105000 $132000
5 $88000 $129000 $162000
6 $102000 $150000 $187000

So, you can see that my offer was above the middle for Engineer 1, and poised quite nicely to be moved into an Engineer 2 position, provided I perform well. Could I have asked for more? Yes. Would they have given it to me? Maybe. Maybe not. The range I was hoping for more closely lines up with the middle of the Engineer 2 range.

While maybe I could have squeezed out a few more dollars, I do feel very fortunate to be here. It's a top company, and has many graduates from top universities. There are lots of brilliant people here. I went to a state school with a good regional reputation (at best) and no reputation in this area. I now have an opportunity to finish my MS degree at a top ten university in my field. On their dime. I should be done in less than two years if they accept my transfer credits. Nice. The competition here is more stiff than at my last company--I would have easily been a star at my last company--but that will be good for me. Always surround yourself with people smarter than you are.

I read a lot of personal finance blogs. I've read many great articles from young women my age who talk about how to build a quality professional wardrobe.

I've sort of lucked out with my current job. The standard dress code is "business casual" but it definitely leans much further towards casual than many companies. There is a loose policy of "jeans Friday" but many many people in our department wear jeans every day. While I did have to buy new clothes for a new job (my college gear really couldn't even stack up to business casual), I didn't have to invest in business suites or expensive shirts and trousers.

To top it off, I work in in a midwestern city with terrible shopping. We have Gap and Express (which both occasionally have decent work clothes), but no Banana Republic, no J. Crew. There are also some upscale department stores, but they just aren't worth going to. (And that is just my complaints about work clothes, don't get me started on finding stylish outfits.) I'm not saying everyone at my work place lacks style... But come on, we are engineers and there is exactly one other girl under 30 on my team, so I really don't have a lot of competition.

Where is my wardrobe from? I have two nice pairs of dress pants from Gap outlet, one from express, and two that were handmade for me when I studied abroad in Hong Kong. My jeans come from Old Navy, American Eagle, or Gap. My shirts are mostly from Old Navy, H&M, Target, or Kohls. My shoes are from all over, but none were very expensive.

The great thing is, I've gotten complements on my wardrobe more than once from my coworkers. "You don't shop around here, do you? You always have such cute clothes and shoes." It's flattering--I can pick out stylish and work appropriate clothes without spending a lot of money. But, like I said, our office is pretty casual. Most people won't wear sweatshirts (note that i said MOST), but you don't really see ties either.

Will I be able to get away with this wardrobe at my new job?

Maybe, at least some of it. When I interviewed the dress seemed pretty casual, but I think that since the shopping will be much better, it might be wise (or fun) to invest in a few nicer pieces. I still will look for good deals, but I'll definitely focus a more on quality for non-trendy items. (For example, Forever 21 is off my list of stores I'll buy things from. I know they are cheap, but the only two items I purchased from them broke. The strap on a cheap party dress broke and the buttons on a cute dress shirt all fell off.) I'll try to survive on what I have initially, and get a feel for what the other young women in my department are wearing, then if necessary, purchase some new things.

I had my last day at my old job yesterday. Mapgirl, a blog I read regularly, also recently switched jobs. She put together a series of posts on how to leave your job, financial and non-financial aspects. I had planned to do the same, so here are my tips from my last days on the job.

General

• Give appropriate notice. Two weeks is minimum, longer if you think you can. I told my boss about a month in advance, and we told the rest of the group about a week later. For your own sanity, don't tell them TOO soon. I've been plotting my move for well over six months, but I didn't want to end up on a "short timers" list, given crappy assignments and having my work affected by knowledge I was leaving. So I kept my mouth shut for quite some time.
  

• Consider timing. I chose to leave in mid-January for several reasons. First, I wanted to be reimbursed for my tuition from the semester ending in December. Second, we have holiday shutdown from December 23rd-January 1st, and I thought being paid for my Christmas break would be nice. Also, bonus are given in December, though I only would have had to stay through the end of the fiscal year to be eligible for it. It isn't always worth waiting for things like this, but sometimes it is.

• Stay motivated up until the end. This is much easier said than done! While I met my commitments and did my best to transfer knowledge to my coworkers, I have to admit that I was a little less of an achiever in my last few days. It is hard to ignore that little voice in your head saying "Well, what are they going to do, fire me?"

Staying in Touch

• Be sure to get any contact information of people who you may later want as references. The boss I had for the majority of my time at the company recently transfered to a new location, and I emailed him and requested a personal email address, in case I need it in the future.
• Leave your contact information with anyone who might want it. I wrote a quick email to my group thanking them for making my time with my company be pleasurable, and included my gmail address at the end.
• Say your goodbyes! You likely will not see most of these people again
  

Benefits/Money

• Ensure that your last paycheck will find you, either through direct deposit or however else they do it.

• Ask about your vacation hours. I believe companies are required by law to pay them out to you, but that may vary state by state. My company said they would include them in my last paycheck. All 10 hours of it, ha. (I use up my vacation as soon as I earn it!) If that isn't the case, then talk to your boss about the possibility of using most of it before you leave.
  

• Check on your 401k. If you have a really small balance, they can require you to take it out of the plan. In most cases, you can leave it there at least for awhile. I plan to roll mine over eventually, just not right away. You my have some funds that require a waiting period to avoid fees.

• Make sure you know what portion of your retirement is vested. I became fully vested after three years of service. Luckily, the count the start of that from the first date I did my internship. Even though I only have worked there full time 1.5 years, I got to keep the company match. It amounts to about $6000.
  

• Your medical plan will likely go through the end of the month. After that, you may need COBRA or other insurance if your new job doesn't offer insurance on day one. Consider using your insurance, if you already haven't. I was sure to order contacts (my company pays for $120 if you do a buy-up on the vision plan.) If you have a flex spending account, you also can use it, even if you haven't contributed it yet. It may be a bit unethical to knowingly do this, but it is legal.

I've never left a full time job before. When I left my internships, it was a given that I'd be heading back to school, so there were no explanations needed. I felt a little guilty "abaondoning" my team, especially as we were kind of at a make or break stage of our program. However, my reasons were mostly personal, and I left on good terms.

I'm relocating from an inexpensive Midwestern city to Los Angeles. I have received two very similar job offers.

The first offer came in at $65k with a relocation package that included a $2000 tax assisted lump sum. I thought the offer was a little low, so I negotiated $67k and a $3k signing bonus. The pay includes up to 7% in 40k matching/contributions by the company and 12.5 days of vacation the first year. Bonuses were not explicitly mentioned, but I would imagine they do some kind of incentive bonus.

The second offer came in at $69k with a very similar relocation package (except $1000 non tax assisted lump sum rather than the $2000), a $3k signing bonus, and 10 days of vacation the first year. They also explicitly mentioned sick leave, at 8/hrs a month. They match up to 6% of 401k contributions, and have some sort of pension plan. I assume you have to work there some minimum amount of years to be vested in the pension. They mentioned bonuses when i was on-site, which this year was "ten days of pay."

My current job will be paying about $58k as of next year. I get 15 days of vacation per a year, and sick leave is not really an issues. You are encouraged to make up any hours that you are sick, but it is not an absolute requirement. I get 6% in a 401k match. I also got a 9% bonus this year.

All things considered, my current job is really the best financial deal, taking the cost of living into consideration. The pay increase is nearly a 20% raise. However, my rent is going to MORE than double, and I will be paying an extra $9,600 a year in rent. That practically wipes out the entire raise! The vacation is better, the bonus is better, and I would most certainly get promoted to "Grade 2" next year. I'm not sure how long it will take me at my next company.

However, the whole point of the job search is to relocate. So, which of the other two is the better offer?

Despite the extra relocation money from the first company (and the extra 2.5 days of vacation) the hard salary numbers will be what my future salary will be based off of. I think the second offer is better, though I'm going to miss that extra week of vacation. Is vacation negotiable? The second offer is only slightly better, but the job itself is more appealing, which really seals the deal.

My next thought is, should I negotiate the second offer? Am I worth more? I don't want to come across as arrogant to the company--I'm not even two years out of school, and I didn't go to a fancy big name engineering school. But if I am worth more than what they offered, I don't want to sell myself short. I don't know. I think it is a fair offer. I liked the company a lot. But the boyfriend insists it doesn't hurt to ask. Thoughts?

I accepted a job for January 2008 back in early September. This may come as a surprise to anyone who noted that I was in Los Angeles last weekend interviewing for a (different) job.

To my credit, I did stop applying for jobs when I accepted my first offer. Company A just moved very quickly, while Company B moved very slowly. I sought advice of those in industry (an experienced mentor) and others who love me (parents) and was told that I should go on the second interview, and really, do what was best for me. If nothing else, I could use the weekend to find an apartment.

I have not received the formal offer from Company B, but notification that HR is putting something together. I anticipate it will be similar to the other offer--at least as good, maybe slightly better.

Here is the thing: I want to work for Company B significantly more. I met a lot of great people and liked the atmosphere a lot more. However, I have committed to Company A with a start date of late January.

I do know it is unethical to back out of my first offer, but I think I will do it anyway. I will allow myself this mistake in my career, and will never do anything like this again. I will keep myself out of this position. It is a bad place to be in. At the same time, I have to do what is truly best for me. If the company lost a contract tomorrow, they wouldn't feel bad about calling me up and saying "Never mind, you aren't hired". Still. It is not something I am proud of. I just want to say, I'm not asking advice over whether or not to do this, just HOW to handle it.

I'm drafting a letter of "resignation" (or rather, "renege-ation"). For the sake of getting the information to them as quickly as possible I probably will man up (woman-up?) and call them, as unpleasant as that may be. Ok, let's be realistic--I probably will send them an email? I will also send a formal letter (I think). I don't know how to handle this situation, because it is not the types of situations I usually get myself in.

Please offer any suggestions on how to handle this. Here is my first draft:

With great apologies and regret, it is necessary to inform you that I will not be starting employment with Company A this January 2008. I understand that backing out of my commitment is disrespectful to you, and I have wasted the time of you and your company. I am truly sorry for this and will not make this mistake again with any company.

I do not wish to start my career with Company A only to leave for something that is better fit after a short period of time, and waste more of your time invested in me as an employee. With this in mind that I have chosen a different path. My choice was not for monetary reasons, but simply I felt that the job was a better fit for me. Of course, I stopped applying for jobs at the time of my acceptance, however the process moved very slowly with the second company and I'm only now finalizing my decision. I understand that accepting an offer that I was not entirely confident in was a poor choice on my part. I should have, at the very least, requested more time to consider all my options, before making a commitment that I could not keep. Again, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience I have caused for you.

Thank you for the time you have already spent on me as a candidate and for your gracious offer of employment. I can not apologize enough for backing out of my commitment.

Sincerely,
Me

This was not only the most satisfying thing to put on my to do list, but also the most satisfying to check off!

Actually, I really like my job. They don't discriminate based on age and experience--if you are good, you will be given good tasks and responsibility. In my short time there (1.5 years), I was able to be recognized as a "high performer" and given a key role on my team. Which is really great--you don't have people forcing you to "pay your dues". If you can do the task, your dues are considered paid and you are thrown in there. There are several young employees (under 30) that have really big leadership roles in our group, and I don't think I am too far behind. Besides that, I have gotten to work on challenging and rewarding projects and like my coworkers.

I'm resigning because I'm relocating to Los Angeles (for personal reasons) and the branch in that area really doesn't do any interesting work. I was very nervous about putting in my notice, until my manager informed us all that he had been promoted and would be moving to a branch in Texas. That made it easier for me. I set up a meeting with my manager, which I titled "Short Discussion", which I assume made it obvious what it was about. I don't usually schedule meetings with my manager, and a vague title usually means the employee is quitting. He said he knew when he got the invite.

So, I resigned, effective January 11th. I gave them about a month's notice, which maybe is more than "standard" but I felt it was appropriate, considering we get a week and a half off for Christmas.

Today my manager presented me with the idea of working remotely from Los Angeles, with a salary differential for cost of living figured in. I was really surprised by the idea, and felt it showed they really appreciate my work. Ultimately, it probably won't work out. I don't think I'd do well working in isolation. At this point in my career it is best for me to be surrounded by really brilliant people and learn as much as possible from them. Not to mention, how would I meet new people if I worked alone? I expressed my concerns, and really, I don't think it would be best for the company either. He was fine with that, but said he just had to discuss it with me.

Tomorrow, we can tell the rest of my team.

Many people fret about asking for their first raise at work. My company is fairly large and structured with raises, so I didn't have the issue of how to begin the process.

Performance reviews are given in October. Prior to the review, each employee is required to fill out a self review, stating accomplishments and noting how we met our "goals" of the performance review. This year we also had to name 3 coworkers that we wanted to fill out evaluations for us, and we also filled out at least 3 reviews of others (I did five!). Our managers then compile the information into an overall "score card", and we are given an overall rating of 1 to 3 in two categories. They roughly are "what you do" and "how you do it", but they have some HR-type names. HR imposes rules that disallow managers from rating everyone too high or too low.

The process is structured, and seems very fair. Good raises don't just go to those who gather up the courage to ask. They go to those who can list accomplishments, whose peers speak highly of their work, and who's manager is impressed with them.

My review went really well, I was rated a 3 and a 2.9 in the two categories, and my manager talked about getting me into some leadership classes in the coming year. I was hoping to be promoted to the next grade, but I do not have the 2 years of full time experience that they generally require. So I wasn't. I received a great review this year, yet still got "only" a 4.5% raise. It isn't bad, but it isn't great. I really need to get moved up to the next pay grade level in order to get a larger raise, which would probably happen next year.

The best advice I heard about reviews was to step up your level of effort a bit for the two months before the review. People's memories are short, and that is what they will remember. I didn't do this. However, not long before my review I was in a meeting with my manager (along with about 7 others) and was speaking up and questioning why we were doing something, if it was "value added" (no I didn't use that jargony word!). In my review, he specifically commented that he had noticed that I was speaking up and expressing my opinions and questioning the process when necessary. I didn't do it to impress him, but I don't have a lot of direct interaction with my manager, so this probably helped give me a slight boost.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, perhaps) there is nothing that takes the place of solid hard work. If people are requesting you to work on projects, leaving you good feedback, and entrusting you with responsibility, you should make sure your manager knows it. But if they aren't, no amount of effort on a self evaluation review will make a difference. Perhaps some clever wording and bragging can separate those in the middle a bit, but they can't separate the good from the great.

My company came out with a new policy this year. We are required to either take a online personal health assessment and fill in data from our "biometrics" (cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.), or pay an extra $125 (per person) in health care premiums. They offered several sessions at work where they would take them for free, and the numbers were self reported.

Being young and relatively healthy, I wasn't opposed to the idea. Some of my middle aged co-workers were much more wary. Wasn't this a little bit too "Big Brother" for the USA? One could speculate where they are going with this approach. Next year, they might require those who have high cholesterol to reduce it, or else pay $125. Get your BMI within the healthy range, or else pay $125. Commit to exercise three times a week, or else pay $125.

If they do charge more for people who refuse to make an active commitment to improving bad health, is it fair? No one seems to dispute smokers surcharges anymore. The difference is that some of this is genetics, and can't be helped. I have naturally high cholesterol, and while I can improve it with diet and exercise, 2/3 of the number is made up by genetics. I would hate to be charged extra for something I have little control over.

The premise of the approach makes me a bit uneasy. However,it also seems like, done the right way, it might be something that will help alleviate health care costs for the country as a whole. You can't force people to chose healthy lifestyles, but one way to persuade people is to hit them where they will notice--their pocketbooks. If you could lower your premiums by improving your health, or having a legitimate reason why you can not improve, would you? Doesn't it seem fair that taking care of yourself would lower your premiums?

One immediate benefit of the program was that some people were made aware of their health status. This was particularly helpful for us young people who hadn't had our blood work done yet, but also for those who are a little afraid of the doctor. Sometimes seeing the numbers is enough to make a small difference.

I'm leaving my company shortly, so I won't know how this all will play out long term. Still, I wouldn't be surprised to see this trend continue in my future employer.

This is a money making trick that doesn't work except in a very special circumstance--negotiating a job offer.

I'm in the process of relocating to California, primarily for personal reasons. I had an interview last week and received the official offer today. My current salary in a low cost of living midwestern city is about 56k. I was offered 65k to move to California (plus relocation costs!). I was excited to get the offer, but I immediately asked if that was negotiable. I had anticipated an offer in the 70-75k range. (Some random cost of living calculator states: To maintain the same standard of living, your salary of $56,000 in XXXX should increase to $103,122 in XXXXX, California. I think that is a bit high, and certainly less than I would expect them to offer me, but at least, a point of reference.)

The HR rep seemed surprised (which surprised me!), and said something like "Well, it is a 15% percent increase, but if you have justification, I can talk to the hiring manager."

Luckily, I wasn't negotiating for the sake of negotiating--I had my reasons ready to go:

• The position is typically entry level, I have 1.5 years of directly related experience and am on the verge of a raise/promotion at the end of the year
• I am 1/3 of the way done with my Masters Degree
• I already have my security clearance (something that costs them several thousand to get!)
• The cost of living is significantly different

The HR lady then called the hiring manager, and then called me back about 10 minutes later. She only could offer me an increase of salary to 67k, but they would throw in a 3k signing bonus. She reminded me that performance reviews happen early in the year, and that there would be tuition reimbursement.

The offer is much more attractive. I got enough money to fully fund a 2008 Roth IRA, just by listing a few reasons.

I have a phone interview tomorrow with another company for a different type of position. I think that the offer I already have seems like a more appealing job, but I want to see what this other position really entails.

This is the first time I've negotiated salary, and I'm quite proud of myself!

Common knowledge is to always try to negotiate your starting salary. In most cases, the worst that can happen is they will say no. There is a possible exception for entry level positions at large companies, when it is hard to distinguish yourself from the next person holding a similar degree. You hear entry level people claim they are special because they have good grades, an internship or two, and extracurriculars. Well, great, but so do most people (good) companies interview. It isn't that you aren't special, it is just that the company probably doesn't know it yet. The company I worked for right out of school had a standard "new hire" offer, and it was basically take it or leave it. Smaller companies probably are more flexible. It still might not hurt to ask if the offer is negotiable, but be prepared to back up your request with reasons why you deserve more.

When I was job shopping for my relocation, I was in a unique position. In my industry you typically are moved up from Engineer 1 to Engineer 2" after roughly two years, if you are a good performer. (While I was almost certainly doing Engineer 2 work by the end of my last job, HR had strict rules about minimum amount of experience.) I was job shopping with 1.5 years of experience, so I still had to look for Engineer I jobs. Yet I didn't want to be caught by a "standard new hire offer", since I did have some experience and some graduate coursework.

I think that my first job offer was a standard new hire offer. I easily negotiated an extra 2k and a 3k signing bonus. The second job offer seemed to take my experience into consideration, and came in 2k than negotiated first offer, and a similar signing bonus. I chose the second, not entirely for monetary reasons.

With the salary being just 1k below my hope of 70k-75k range, I was faced with the decision of whether or not to ask for more. I thought the offer was fair. I thought they took my experience and graduate coursework into consideration. If I were to ask if it was negotiable, I'm not sure what I'd say when they asked "why do you think you deserve more?" So I didn't negotiate.

Now that I'm on the inside, I have acess to their salary tables. Here they are for my job category:

Level Low Mid High
1 $42000 $62000 $78000
2 $49000 $72000 $90000
3 $60000 $88000 $110000
4 $72000 $105000 $132000
5 $88000 $129000 $162000
6 $102000 $150000 $187000

So, you can see that my offer was above the middle for Engineer 1, and poised quite nicely to be moved into an Engineer 2 position, provided I perform well. Could I have asked for more? Yes. Would they have given it to me? Maybe. Maybe not. The range I was hoping for more closely lines up with the middle of the Engineer 2 range.

While maybe I could have squeezed out a few more dollars, I do feel very fortunate to be here. It's a top company, and has many graduates from top universities. There are lots of brilliant people here. I went to a state school with a good regional reputation (at best) and no reputation in this area. I now have an opportunity to finish my MS degree at a top ten university in my field. On their dime. I should be done in less than two years if they accept my transfer credits. Nice. The competition here is more stiff than at my last company--I would have easily been a star at my last company--but that will be good for me. Always surround yourself with people smarter than you are.

I read a lot of personal finance blogs. I've read many great articles from young women my age who talk about how to build a quality professional wardrobe.

I've sort of lucked out with my current job. The standard dress code is "business casual" but it definitely leans much further towards casual than many companies. There is a loose policy of "jeans Friday" but many many people in our department wear jeans every day. While I did have to buy new clothes for a new job (my college gear really couldn't even stack up to business casual), I didn't have to invest in business suites or expensive shirts and trousers.

To top it off, I work in in a midwestern city with terrible shopping. We have Gap and Express (which both occasionally have decent work clothes), but no Banana Republic, no J. Crew. There are also some upscale department stores, but they just aren't worth going to. (And that is just my complaints about work clothes, don't get me started on finding stylish outfits.) I'm not saying everyone at my work place lacks style... But come on, we are engineers and there is exactly one other girl under 30 on my team, so I really don't have a lot of competition.

Where is my wardrobe from? I have two nice pairs of dress pants from Gap outlet, one from express, and two that were handmade for me when I studied abroad in Hong Kong. My jeans come from Old Navy, American Eagle, or Gap. My shirts are mostly from Old Navy, H&M, Target, or Kohls. My shoes are from all over, but none were very expensive.

The great thing is, I've gotten complements on my wardrobe more than once from my coworkers. "You don't shop around here, do you? You always have such cute clothes and shoes." It's flattering--I can pick out stylish and work appropriate clothes without spending a lot of money. But, like I said, our office is pretty casual. Most people won't wear sweatshirts (note that i said MOST), but you don't really see ties either.

Will I be able to get away with this wardrobe at my new job?

Maybe, at least some of it. When I interviewed the dress seemed pretty casual, but I think that since the shopping will be much better, it might be wise (or fun) to invest in a few nicer pieces. I still will look for good deals, but I'll definitely focus a more on quality for non-trendy items. (For example, Forever 21 is off my list of stores I'll buy things from. I know they are cheap, but the only two items I purchased from them broke. The strap on a cheap party dress broke and the buttons on a cute dress shirt all fell off.) I'll try to survive on what I have initially, and get a feel for what the other young women in my department are wearing, then if necessary, purchase some new things.

I had my last day at my old job yesterday. Mapgirl, a blog I read regularly, also recently switched jobs. She put together a series of posts on how to leave your job, financial and non-financial aspects. I had planned to do the same, so here are my tips from my last days on the job.

General

• Give appropriate notice. Two weeks is minimum, longer if you think you can. I told my boss about a month in advance, and we told the rest of the group about a week later. For your own sanity, don't tell them TOO soon. I've been plotting my move for well over six months, but I didn't want to end up on a "short timers" list, given crappy assignments and having my work affected by knowledge I was leaving. So I kept my mouth shut for quite some time.
  

• Consider timing. I chose to leave in mid-January for several reasons. First, I wanted to be reimbursed for my tuition from the semester ending in December. Second, we have holiday shutdown from December 23rd-January 1st, and I thought being paid for my Christmas break would be nice. Also, bonus are given in December, though I only would have had to stay through the end of the fiscal year to be eligible for it. It isn't always worth waiting for things like this, but sometimes it is.

• Stay motivated up until the end. This is much easier said than done! While I met my commitments and did my best to transfer knowledge to my coworkers, I have to admit that I was a little less of an achiever in my last few days. It is hard to ignore that little voice in your head saying "Well, what are they going to do, fire me?"

Staying in Touch

• Be sure to get any contact information of people who you may later want as references. The boss I had for the majority of my time at the company recently transfered to a new location, and I emailed him and requested a personal email address, in case I need it in the future.
• Leave your contact information with anyone who might want it. I wrote a quick email to my group thanking them for making my time with my company be pleasurable, and included my gmail address at the end.
• Say your goodbyes! You likely will not see most of these people again
  

Benefits/Money

• Ensure that your last paycheck will find you, either through direct deposit or however else they do it.

• Ask about your vacation hours. I believe companies are required by law to pay them out to you, but that may vary state by state. My company said they would include them in my last paycheck. All 10 hours of it, ha. (I use up my vacation as soon as I earn it!) If that isn't the case, then talk to your boss about the possibility of using most of it before you leave.
  

• Check on your 401k. If you have a really small balance, they can require you to take it out of the plan. In most cases, you can leave it there at least for awhile. I plan to roll mine over eventually, just not right away. You my have some funds that require a waiting period to avoid fees.

• Make sure you know what portion of your retirement is vested. I became fully vested after three years of service. Luckily, the count the start of that from the first date I did my internship. Even though I only have worked there full time 1.5 years, I got to keep the company match. It amounts to about $6000.
  

• Your medical plan will likely go through the end of the month. After that, you may need COBRA or other insurance if your new job doesn't offer insurance on day one. Consider using your insurance, if you already haven't. I was sure to order contacts (my company pays for $120 if you do a buy-up on the vision plan.) If you have a flex spending account, you also can use it, even if you haven't contributed it yet. It may be a bit unethical to knowingly do this, but it is legal.

I've never left a full time job before. When I left my internships, it was a given that I'd be heading back to school, so there were no explanations needed. I felt a little guilty "abaondoning" my team, especially as we were kind of at a make or break stage of our program. However, my reasons were mostly personal, and I left on good terms.

I'm relocating from an inexpensive Midwestern city to Los Angeles. I have received two very similar job offers.

The first offer came in at $65k with a relocation package that included a $2000 tax assisted lump sum. I thought the offer was a little low, so I negotiated $67k and a $3k signing bonus. The pay includes up to 7% in 40k matching/contributions by the company and 12.5 days of vacation the first year. Bonuses were not explicitly mentioned, but I would imagine they do some kind of incentive bonus.

The second offer came in at $69k with a very similar relocation package (except $1000 non tax assisted lump sum rather than the $2000), a $3k signing bonus, and 10 days of vacation the first year. They also explicitly mentioned sick leave, at 8/hrs a month. They match up to 6% of 401k contributions, and have some sort of pension plan. I assume you have to work there some minimum amount of years to be vested in the pension. They mentioned bonuses when i was on-site, which this year was "ten days of pay."

My current job will be paying about $58k as of next year. I get 15 days of vacation per a year, and sick leave is not really an issues. You are encouraged to make up any hours that you are sick, but it is not an absolute requirement. I get 6% in a 401k match. I also got a 9% bonus this year.

All things considered, my current job is really the best financial deal, taking the cost of living into consideration. The pay increase is nearly a 20% raise. However, my rent is going to MORE than double, and I will be paying an extra $9,600 a year in rent. That practically wipes out the entire raise! The vacation is better, the bonus is better, and I would most certainly get promoted to "Grade 2" next year. I'm not sure how long it will take me at my next company.

However, the whole point of the job search is to relocate. So, which of the other two is the better offer?

Despite the extra relocation money from the first company (and the extra 2.5 days of vacation) the hard salary numbers will be what my future salary will be based off of. I think the second offer is better, though I'm going to miss that extra week of vacation. Is vacation negotiable? The second offer is only slightly better, but the job itself is more appealing, which really seals the deal.

My next thought is, should I negotiate the second offer? Am I worth more? I don't want to come across as arrogant to the company--I'm not even two years out of school, and I didn't go to a fancy big name engineering school. But if I am worth more than what they offered, I don't want to sell myself short. I don't know. I think it is a fair offer. I liked the company a lot. But the boyfriend insists it doesn't hurt to ask. Thoughts?

I accepted a job for January 2008 back in early September. This may come as a surprise to anyone who noted that I was in Los Angeles last weekend interviewing for a (different) job.

To my credit, I did stop applying for jobs when I accepted my first offer. Company A just moved very quickly, while Company B moved very slowly. I sought advice of those in industry (an experienced mentor) and others who love me (parents) and was told that I should go on the second interview, and really, do what was best for me. If nothing else, I could use the weekend to find an apartment.

I have not received the formal offer from Company B, but notification that HR is putting something together. I anticipate it will be similar to the other offer--at least as good, maybe slightly better.

Here is the thing: I want to work for Company B significantly more. I met a lot of great people and liked the atmosphere a lot more. However, I have committed to Company A with a start date of late January.

I do know it is unethical to back out of my first offer, but I think I will do it anyway. I will allow myself this mistake in my career, and will never do anything like this again. I will keep myself out of this position. It is a bad place to be in. At the same time, I have to do what is truly best for me. If the company lost a contract tomorrow, they wouldn't feel bad about calling me up and saying "Never mind, you aren't hired". Still. It is not something I am proud of. I just want to say, I'm not asking advice over whether or not to do this, just HOW to handle it.

I'm drafting a letter of "resignation" (or rather, "renege-ation"). For the sake of getting the information to them as quickly as possible I probably will man up (woman-up?) and call them, as unpleasant as that may be. Ok, let's be realistic--I probably will send them an email? I will also send a formal letter (I think). I don't know how to handle this situation, because it is not the types of situations I usually get myself in.

Please offer any suggestions on how to handle this. Here is my first draft:

With great apologies and regret, it is necessary to inform you that I will not be starting employment with Company A this January 2008. I understand that backing out of my commitment is disrespectful to you, and I have wasted the time of you and your company. I am truly sorry for this and will not make this mistake again with any company.

I do not wish to start my career with Company A only to leave for something that is better fit after a short period of time, and waste more of your time invested in me as an employee. With this in mind that I have chosen a different path. My choice was not for monetary reasons, but simply I felt that the job was a better fit for me. Of course, I stopped applying for jobs at the time of my acceptance, however the process moved very slowly with the second company and I'm only now finalizing my decision. I understand that accepting an offer that I was not entirely confident in was a poor choice on my part. I should have, at the very least, requested more time to consider all my options, before making a commitment that I could not keep. Again, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience I have caused for you.

Thank you for the time you have already spent on me as a candidate and for your gracious offer of employment. I can not apologize enough for backing out of my commitment.

Sincerely,
Me

This was not only the most satisfying thing to put on my to do list, but also the most satisfying to check off!

Actually, I really like my job. They don't discriminate based on age and experience--if you are good, you will be given good tasks and responsibility. In my short time there (1.5 years), I was able to be recognized as a "high performer" and given a key role on my team. Which is really great--you don't have people forcing you to "pay your dues". If you can do the task, your dues are considered paid and you are thrown in there. There are several young employees (under 30) that have really big leadership roles in our group, and I don't think I am too far behind. Besides that, I have gotten to work on challenging and rewarding projects and like my coworkers.

I'm resigning because I'm relocating to Los Angeles (for personal reasons) and the branch in that area really doesn't do any interesting work. I was very nervous about putting in my notice, until my manager informed us all that he had been promoted and would be moving to a branch in Texas. That made it easier for me. I set up a meeting with my manager, which I titled "Short Discussion", which I assume made it obvious what it was about. I don't usually schedule meetings with my manager, and a vague title usually means the employee is quitting. He said he knew when he got the invite.

So, I resigned, effective January 11th. I gave them about a month's notice, which maybe is more than "standard" but I felt it was appropriate, considering we get a week and a half off for Christmas.

Today my manager presented me with the idea of working remotely from Los Angeles, with a salary differential for cost of living figured in. I was really surprised by the idea, and felt it showed they really appreciate my work. Ultimately, it probably won't work out. I don't think I'd do well working in isolation. At this point in my career it is best for me to be surrounded by really brilliant people and learn as much as possible from them. Not to mention, how would I meet new people if I worked alone? I expressed my concerns, and really, I don't think it would be best for the company either. He was fine with that, but said he just had to discuss it with me.

Tomorrow, we can tell the rest of my team.

Many people fret about asking for their first raise at work. My company is fairly large and structured with raises, so I didn't have the issue of how to begin the process.

Performance reviews are given in October. Prior to the review, each employee is required to fill out a self review, stating accomplishments and noting how we met our "goals" of the performance review. This year we also had to name 3 coworkers that we wanted to fill out evaluations for us, and we also filled out at least 3 reviews of others (I did five!). Our managers then compile the information into an overall "score card", and we are given an overall rating of 1 to 3 in two categories. They roughly are "what you do" and "how you do it", but they have some HR-type names. HR imposes rules that disallow managers from rating everyone too high or too low.

The process is structured, and seems very fair. Good raises don't just go to those who gather up the courage to ask. They go to those who can list accomplishments, whose peers speak highly of their work, and who's manager is impressed with them.

My review went really well, I was rated a 3 and a 2.9 in the two categories, and my manager talked about getting me into some leadership classes in the coming year. I was hoping to be promoted to the next grade, but I do not have the 2 years of full time experience that they generally require. So I wasn't. I received a great review this year, yet still got "only" a 4.5% raise. It isn't bad, but it isn't great. I really need to get moved up to the next pay grade level in order to get a larger raise, which would probably happen next year.

The best advice I heard about reviews was to step up your level of effort a bit for the two months before the review. People's memories are short, and that is what they will remember. I didn't do this. However, not long before my review I was in a meeting with my manager (along with about 7 others) and was speaking up and questioning why we were doing something, if it was "value added" (no I didn't use that jargony word!). In my review, he specifically commented that he had noticed that I was speaking up and expressing my opinions and questioning the process when necessary. I didn't do it to impress him, but I don't have a lot of direct interaction with my manager, so this probably helped give me a slight boost.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, perhaps) there is nothing that takes the place of solid hard work. If people are requesting you to work on projects, leaving you good feedback, and entrusting you with responsibility, you should make sure your manager knows it. But if they aren't, no amount of effort on a self evaluation review will make a difference. Perhaps some clever wording and bragging can separate those in the middle a bit, but they can't separate the good from the great.

My company came out with a new policy this year. We are required to either take a online personal health assessment and fill in data from our "biometrics" (cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.), or pay an extra $125 (per person) in health care premiums. They offered several sessions at work where they would take them for free, and the numbers were self reported.

Being young and relatively healthy, I wasn't opposed to the idea. Some of my middle aged co-workers were much more wary. Wasn't this a little bit too "Big Brother" for the USA? One could speculate where they are going with this approach. Next year, they might require those who have high cholesterol to reduce it, or else pay $125. Get your BMI within the healthy range, or else pay $125. Commit to exercise three times a week, or else pay $125.

If they do charge more for people who refuse to make an active commitment to improving bad health, is it fair? No one seems to dispute smokers surcharges anymore. The difference is that some of this is genetics, and can't be helped. I have naturally high cholesterol, and while I can improve it with diet and exercise, 2/3 of the number is made up by genetics. I would hate to be charged extra for something I have little control over.

The premise of the approach makes me a bit uneasy. However,it also seems like, done the right way, it might be something that will help alleviate health care costs for the country as a whole. You can't force people to chose healthy lifestyles, but one way to persuade people is to hit them where they will notice--their pocketbooks. If you could lower your premiums by improving your health, or having a legitimate reason why you can not improve, would you? Doesn't it seem fair that taking care of yourself would lower your premiums?

One immediate benefit of the program was that some people were made aware of their health status. This was particularly helpful for us young people who hadn't had our blood work done yet, but also for those who are a little afraid of the doctor. Sometimes seeing the numbers is enough to make a small difference.

I'm leaving my company shortly, so I won't know how this all will play out long term. Still, I wouldn't be surprised to see this trend continue in my future employer.

This is a money making trick that doesn't work except in a very special circumstance--negotiating a job offer.

I'm in the process of relocating to California, primarily for personal reasons. I had an interview last week and received the official offer today. My current salary in a low cost of living midwestern city is about 56k. I was offered 65k to move to California (plus relocation costs!). I was excited to get the offer, but I immediately asked if that was negotiable. I had anticipated an offer in the 70-75k range. (Some random cost of living calculator states: To maintain the same standard of living, your salary of $56,000 in XXXX should increase to $103,122 in XXXXX, California. I think that is a bit high, and certainly less than I would expect them to offer me, but at least, a point of reference.)

The HR rep seemed surprised (which surprised me!), and said something like "Well, it is a 15% percent increase, but if you have justification, I can talk to the hiring manager."

Luckily, I wasn't negotiating for the sake of negotiating--I had my reasons ready to go:

• The position is typically entry level, I have 1.5 years of directly related experience and am on the verge of a raise/promotion at the end of the year
• I am 1/3 of the way done with my Masters Degree
• I already have my security clearance (something that costs them several thousand to get!)
• The cost of living is significantly different

The HR lady then called the hiring manager, and then called me back about 10 minutes later. She only could offer me an increase of salary to 67k, but they would throw in a 3k signing bonus. She reminded me that performance reviews happen early in the year, and that there would be tuition reimbursement.

The offer is much more attractive. I got enough money to fully fund a 2008 Roth IRA, just by listing a few reasons.

I have a phone interview tomorrow with another company for a different type of position. I think that the offer I already have seems like a more appealing job, but I want to see what this other position really entails.

This is the first time I've negotiated salary, and I'm quite proud of myself!