Hopefully you’ve come to this post after reading my first post: Recent graduates, you can negotiate your salary too. And hopefully, if you’re reading this, you’ve determined what your salary range is for a potential job offer. If you’ve made it that far, let’s dive into how to negotiate the salary.

Let’s say, for example, your range is $45,000 to $55,000.

Step 2: Get the job offer and salary in writing

If a newsroom wants to hire you, you can tell the recruiter/manager to formally email you an offer. The offer will contain their initial salary. If the employer e-mails you and the letter says the salary is $59,000, you don’t really need to negotiate. You can accept it and get to work. If they send you the offer and it’s for $49,000, then you can decide to accept or you can try to negotiate up to $55,000.

Step 3: Start negotiations

If your range is $45,000 to $55,000 and a newsroom offers you $39,000, but you want more, you can negotiate. From the offer e-mail, hit reply and say something like:

“Hi ‘so-and-so’ thank you so much for this offer. I’m really excited to start working for ‘so-and-so company’ because I think I can be a huge asset to you and the rest of the team. But I was also wondering. I see that the starting salary is $39,000. Just wondering if there’s any wiggle room on that number. I was hoping for something closer to $55,000. Thoughts?”

After that e-mail is sent, you’ve started the negotiation. After that, one of two things will happen. Option 1, the recruiter will respond to you with a new number and you get to decide yes or no on that. Option 2, the recruiter will say there’s no wiggle room. If a potential employer ever asks a reason for why you want a higher salary, be vague and say that you’ve done your own cost of living research for that new city and/or that you’ve researched what other people in that same position make and you want to be in line with co-workers.

Negotiating gets easier once you get more years under your belt. Still, just because you’re fresh out of college, don’t think you have to take whatever a new employer gives you.