<p>First one from Siemens as a healthcare systems consultant. They hire from any major and you visit clients every other week consulting them on health care IT systems. Salary+bonus they offered me is close to 60k.</p>
<p>Second from AT&T as a solutions engineer intern. After 6 months of intern period I will become a solutions engineer 1. The pay for intern period is $20/hr and I hope the pay after 6 months will be a lot higher.</p>
<p>I am a recent engineering graduate so obviously I'm attracted to the at&t job but the pay is very bothersome to me. I mean I can deal with it for 6 months but the 60k Siemens offered me makes it very hard for me to accept $20/hr. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>P.S: I am going to try negotiating with the AT&T HR too.</p>
<p>I would absolutely negotiate with AT&T if that is the job you want. You would likely need to settle for less than the $30/hr that you would theoretically be getting at Siemens.</p>
<p>That said, an hourly rate is much different from a salary. Your $60k from Siemens includes all overtime, and you can bet that you will be working a lot of overtime for a consulting company (if you are traveling to client sites, expect to work at least ten hours a day). If you average 40 hours a week, $60k = $30/hr, but if you average 50 hours a week, that comes out to $24/hr. On the flip side, any overtime you work at AT&T is paid at $30/hr, so if you work 50 hours a week on average, your pay with AT&T rises to $55,000, much closer to your $60k offer from Siemens in the first place.</p>
<p>It’s hard to negotiate an internship wage, but with another offer in hand, you are in an excellent negotiating position: for you to take a job with less security, you need a higher wage. Doing an apples to apples comparison, the wage offered by AT&T is simply too low to accept over a $60k salary, assuming that both jobs are tolerable for you.</p>
<p>Ultimately the decision is yours, but you are right to negotiate.</p>
<p>Also consider which job will pay off in the long run aside from salary. It sounds like the AT&T job will progress your engineering career in the right direction, giving you experience in your field with a good company. Siemens however will take you in a different direction - and if you work there for a few years will it be difficult to move back into an engineering role if you decide to do so? And which job might you find more satisfying at the end of each week?</p>
<p>See if you can do some research on what AT&T might start you at once you come out of the internship period. It might be worth the 6 months of lower pay. Also try to negotiate as you stated. You are in a good position to have more than one offer to think about, so take your time to explore all aspects of the offers from salary to benefits, company atmosphere and career progression. Siemens might be the best option, but I wouldn’t base the decision on salary alone.</p>