Achieved Biostatistician Dream: New Job Begins Next Monday

[YChromatic]

I finally got a job as a biostatistician in a hospital in the downtown area.
I just graduated from a local college 2 months ago. Any advice you could offer this brandnew employee is welcome. The job will start next Monday

Thanks a lot

By the way, Happy Haloween to everyone !
Carve me a pumpkin please !

 

[sinosino]

in this society,if we haven't knowledge,it's very hard to hunt a good job.I was very regret .

 

[lisab]

Great going, congrats on your new job!

A bit of advice, since you asked .

It's very important to have good http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_skills" . Some people have these skills naturally but they can be learned.

 

[YChromatic]

Great going, congrats on your new job!

A bit of advice, since you asked .

It's very important to have good http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_skills" . Some people have these skills naturally but they can be learned.

Thanks for your advice,
But an assistant just called me that the employer didn't accept the salary I rposed , Instead he offered a lower one
What do you think I sould do now ? Refuse the offer and look for a new one or accept the job and seek another at the same time ?

Also, I think I am brave and always want to be sincere to you lisab and everyone else, unless you want to not to.

 

[fasterthanjoao]

Thanks for your advice,
But an assistant just called me that the employer didn't accept the salary I rposed , Instead he offered a lower one
What do you think I sould do now ? Refuse the offer and look for a new one or accept the job and seek another at the same time ?

Well, how different is the salary? It sounds like you're taking this lower salary as a deal-breaker but if this is your first job in the field you might want to re-think that. Everyone has to start somewhere, and when jobs are hard to come by employers can afford to be more picky, too. You need to consider that as a fresh graduate you don't have a whole lot of pulling power - obviously you need to stand up for yourself and you have the right to make reasonable demands but, if the lower salary isn't an outrageous insult then I would settle for it and see how you enjoy the job.

A lower salary is better than no salary, but having the mindset that you want to look for something else before you've even started isn't good. How much lower is this salary compared to the median for entry positions in your area? Are you really being cheated, or is it simply that you'd like more money?

 

[Borek]

Thanks for your advice,
But an assistant just called me that the employer didn't accept the salary I rposed , Instead he offered a lower one
What do you think I sould do now ? Refuse the offer and look for a new one or accept the job and seek another at the same time ?

Also, I think I am brave and always want to be sincere to you lisab and everyone else, unless you want to not to.

Don't get me wrong, but if you want to be treated seriously, stop abuse colors in your posts. It looks childlish.

 

[proof]

personally i liked the use of colors

 

[fizziks]

Don't get me wrong, but if you want to be treated seriously, stop abuse colors in your posts. It looks childlish.

His name is YChromatic for a reason. At least he's not typing in Internet slang with terrible grammar.

About you job, keep it. Finding a day these is hard, especially if you just finished college recently. It took me over a year to find work. What just happened to you was nothing less than a miracle. Just take the offer.

 

[Locrian]

His name is YChromatic for a reason. At least he's not typing in Internet slang with terrible grammar.

Looking at Borek's avatar, I'm thinking maybe he's kidding? Surely?

But yea I agree with fizziks - as long as their counter offer isn't a real low-ball, take it. Maybe even if it is, depending on how many other offers you're getting . . .

 

[Shackleford]

Don't get me wrong, but if you want to be treated seriously, stop abuse colors in your posts. It looks childlish.

Yeah, don't be so monochromatic. lol.

 

[lisab]

I'm going to have to agree with Borek, the colors are distracting.

If they won't meet your offer and you think you deserve better compensation, try negotiating other issues. For example, see if you can get extra vacation time. Or, get them agree to provide training in some skill you'd like to learn.

 

[twofish-quant]

Well, how different is the salary? It sounds like you're taking this lower salary as a deal-breaker but if this is your first job in the field you might want to re-think that.

Yes. A lot depends on whether you have any other offers on the table and what the market salary looks like. If this is the only offer on the table, then it's likely to be a bad idea to turn it down. If it looks likely that someone else will hire you then, try to wind that up ASAP so that you have another bid. If you come back and say that you have another offer and they are willing to pay $X+$10K, then this gives you negotiating power.

Also for future reference, always try to have the employer make a the first proposal as far as salary goes. If they ask you for a number, say "market rates." They have much more information than you do, so they are in a better position to know what's reasonable. If you give a number, it could be totally crazy, but if the employer gives a number, they might end lowballing you, but they'll know that they are lowballing you.

You need to consider that as a fresh graduate you don't have a whole lot of pulling power

Also consider the fact that the unemployment rate right now is 9% and it's not trending down.

 

[twofish-quant]

Refuse the offer and look for a new one or accept the job and seek another at the same time ?

It's too late to start looking for a new job. The idea situation would be if you had two or three pending offers so that you could see whether what's offered is reasonable. Also if you take the job, you should plan on staying around for about six months to a year before looking for something else.

If you just started a new job, and then you send out a resume saying that you've worked for two weeks but are looking, most employers will just toss your resume. Moving from job to job very rapidly looks really bad on the resume.

 

[twofish-quant]

For example, see if you can get extra vacation time. Or, get them agree to provide training in some skill you'd like to learn.

I've found it almost impossible to get a company to commit to extra vacation time in writing. The problem is that if they give you more or less money, no one else in the company will know, but if you have extra vacation time in writing, then everyone will know and then demand that also.

However, I've been in places where people were able to take extra vacation time "informally." What would happen is that no one really kept track of vacation so that if you wanted an extra few days off, you'd just ask the boss nicely and they were rather flexible about this. However, it worked the other way. If the boss needed for you to work on the weekends, he or she'd ask you nicely, and you'd be expected to be rather flexible about this.

But you couldn't negotiate this straight up.

The other thing is that it makes a very big difference if you are dealing with a small company or a big company. If you are dealing with a small start-up of 20 people, then you can talk to the CEO of the company and get anything flexible done. If you are dealing with a 200,000 person company, then everything is set up with extremely rigid rules, and the person you are talking with can't change it, and might hate the rules as much as you do. The hiring manager generally can't offer more money even if they wanted to, since salary is set by HR, and HR isn't going to make an exception for you since you are just one of 500 new hires.

Finally, never forget that you are in a semi-adversarial relationship with your employer. Your employer's goal is to squeeze as much work out of you as they can get away with and pay you as little as they can get away with. The only real recourse you have is if someone else is willing to give you a better offer, which poses a major problem if that's the only thing on the table. With a big company,