Students are sometimes too eager or have unrealistic desires when discussing salaries with employers. The Office of Career Development recently held a workshop informing students when and how to address this issue.

The workshop titled “Discussing Salary with Future Employers” took place on Oct. 13 in the Lee Nursing Building auditorium.

Presenter Dollie J. Newhouse, director of the Office of Career Development, strongly believes that it is very important for students to know how to address salaries with employers. Not knowing how to address salaries can potentially decrease the likelihood of receiving a job offer.

“It is very important that students know how to address salary with employers so they won’t misrepresent themselves,” Newhouse said. “It is important not to address salary first because employers interpret that as you are only interested in what you are going to get out of the job and not what the job entails.”

The workshop was focused around the standard way of addressing salary with an employer.

The ways discussed included letting the employer address salary first, researching the salary range for your geographical area, being realistic, and successfully giving a salary range.

Students that attended the workshop were informed about how important it is to know the level of the job position and the salary of the geographical area. Salary wages that are often given via the internet are national salary averages.

“Students have unrealistic expectations of entry level salaries,” Newhouse said. “Students often look foolish when they tell an employer an unrealistic starting salary. The starting salaries that students are expecting are wages that often have to be earned through hard work, experience, and promotion.”

Websites that can assist in finding a realistic salary range include the South Carolina Department of Labor website, www.llr.state.sc.us and the Department of Labor website, www.dol.gov. The Career Office of Development provides Discover accounts that offer information on salary wages for thousands of jobs.

Senior Brittany Stephens found the workshop very informative and helpful.

“After attending the workshop, I have an overall understanding of how to address salaries and will apply these suggestions when I do encounter this situation with an employer,” Stephens said.

Senior T’Kara Richardson also found the information provided to be very informative.

“The information provided was very helpful, but I expected more from the workshop,” Richardson said. “It did not go into depth about the topic but the information provided is something that I will use when discussing salary with a future employer.”

The Office of Career Development will have its next workshop, “Surviving the First Four Minutes of an Interview,” Tuesday, Nov. 9, at 2:30 p.m. in the Lee Nursing Building auditorium. The workshop will address the pitfalls that students can encounter during interviews.

The Office of Career Development provides resume critiques, mock interviews and career counseling for students. They also maintain an online job resume service for students at www.collegecentral.com/fmarion.

Anyone interested in learning more about the Office of Career Development or how to create a Discover account can visit their office in the University Center, suite 210.