<p>Hey, This is my first time posting here, and I wanted to see what other people would do in my situation.</p>
<p>Here's the story:</p>
<p>I am an architectural engineering student going into my senior year. I have been planning on getting an internship since I was a freshmen at a structural engineering firm during the summer between my junior and senior year. Well that time has come, and I found a sweet internship that I think that I would really enjoy doing. The firm is located in a very high priced area to live. It's located in the rocky mountains, about 15 miles from aspen, co. The interview went great, and it is something that I would really look forward to doing. Here's the catch though, i just got the official job offer and they are offering me $12/hr. I had anticipated being offered at least $15/hr with the higher cost in living, having to relocate for the summer, the position being in engineering, and me having a high 3.83 gpa, so I was very dissipointed in seeing the lower wage. The past few summers I had been working in the same place at my home, with a wage of $12.34 and I rack up annual and sick leave, plus I got to live at home free of charge, so I was pocketing all the money for school. So I would definately be making a pay cut. Other internship offers didn't work out, because it wasn't really what I was looking for in a firm, but they were paying higher wages.</p>
<p>So I guess I just want to know what some of you people would do in my situation?</p>
<p>I could accept the position and just deal with it, because I would be getting a great experience in my field of study, but I wouldn't be making as much money as I would expect with high cost of living. I am estimating that 1/3 of every paycheck will be going just toward living expenses. The other option is to respectfully decline and work my $12.34/hr job back home and pocket the cash, but I wouldn't recieve the engineering experience that could help me land a sweet job out of school, and/or increase my starting wage right out. </p>
<p>I could ask for more money, but I don't want to really alienate the firm before I even start working for them. Do you think that could be an option though?</p>
<p>You should take the job....the IT department in a very major corporation in NJ is only paying between 15-18 an hour for interns this summer. The experience you get is worth way more than the $. You need to look at this summer as an investment into your future money earning potential.</p>
<p>There are really so many different disciplines of engineering that it is hard to compare them all. I know that petroleum/chemical engineering interns get much more than structural/civil engineers. </p>
<p>This firm may be counting in the experience that I would be recieving as part of the compensation. But I wouldn't even think twice about accepting if the job offered a few more dollars an hour more.</p>
<p>Quote: weird i thought engineering students got somewhat close to finance</p>
<p>I guess in a perfect world. However, I am talking about a major, major, major company in New Jersey paying that much. Maybe if it wasn't such a big company then they would pay more? I'm not sure. </p>
<p>I do know, however, that this company pays bigtime for MBA students who do summer internships. But, unfortunately, they have their own "select" B-schools that they usually go to for those candidadates. I don't think anyone from outside that realm of schools even has a slight chance of getting in.</p>
<p>I also think the experience is more important than a sweet pay rate. However, it is perfectly appropriate to discuss the salary rate. (And you will be beginning to develop your negotiation style and experience while you are at it ;)).</p>
<p>My advice on how to handle the salary discussion might vary depending on who you will be talking to - whether it is an HR person, one of the engineering managers or what. So if you want to post more info on that, we could help you brainstorm the conversation a bit.</p>
<p>In a nutshell, I would let them know that you really want the position but are afraid the pay rate <em>might</em> be a stumbling block. That you were actually getting more in previous summers in your lower cost of living area. That you really value the experience but don't want to have to turn it down simply because it would harm your savings for school costs. That if they could see their way to $xx.xx per hour, it would help you cover the travel and higher cost of living elements and enable you to accept the position. Leave the door open so that if you get a "no" you can still come back and accept, saying that you worked something out with financial help from parents, better finaid at school or whatever. Something like that.</p>
<p>Ok, so I accepted the position at the wage that they offered. Now I am going through the daunting task of finding a place to live that is not going to cost me an arm and a leg. This has proved to be hard...REAL hard, and now I am regretting not asking for a higher wage. All the apartments that I have had my eye on in my price range have all been filled, or just can't be worked out. The only two things to do now is to either spread out my options and find an apartment that costs a little more than I had anticipated and just bite the bullet, or ask for more money to compensate for having to afford more expensive housing. I wish I would've gotten the balls to begin with and ask for more money, but I feared they would withdraw the offer and give the position to someone else or something.</p>
<p>Would it be unethical or immoral to call them and tell them that the housing situation is going to be rough at the wage they are offering, and ask if they could help me out by upping it a bit???</p>
<p>Go ahead and ask. They aren't going to take away your offer. The worst (but perhaps most likely) outcome is that they say no. Not a lot of downside. Sell them on how excited you are about the opportunity (which shouldn't be too hard because you sound really excited about the opportunity).</p>
<p>You might also ask HR about housing options in the area. They might have some ideas about shares or rooms for rent. This can't be an unusual issue.</p>
<p>I had also thought of rooms for rent. Another possibility is if the company has an arrangement with a local college for interns to use the dorms.</p>