Always ask for the very top of the range, or even very slightly over.

Agreed, especially in a college environment. They’ll tell you where they want to pay.

From what I've heard recently, Harvard is almost always taking new hires in at the bottom of the range. About 6 months ago I applied for a position and clearly stated that I desired a little more than the middle of the range. During the second round interview, I was asked about how much I expected and when I told them, they said "Oh, unfortunately, we're only paying (the exact minimum of the posted range)." I was pissed they wasted my time. Why ask salary expectations in the online application if nobody is going to look at it?

My experience interviewing with Harvard for a couple roles over the years and dealing with their HR has been that they pay new hires at the bottom end of the given range. It even says that on their website: “Typically a new hire can expect a starting salary somewhere in the lower part of the range.”

Especially if you’re a recent grad…if the 053 salary range is 50k to 78k you’re likely looking at an offer of sub 60kish unless you’re coming in with some highly relevant experience or a couple years under your belt. Again just my limited experience dealing with them. That said push for the highest you can get.

Expect the lower end of the range.

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If you want to live close to campus and are earning under ~$65K, you will 100% need to have roommates. Studio apartments are pretty much prohibitively expensive for people in your salary range, in that area.

If you want subway access & afford a studio apartment, maybe look around Field's Corner or Quincy. It's off the Red Line, so you won't need to make any transfers. A commute will be about 45 minutes.

If you don't mind biking/buses - you can probably afford 1BR in the nearby suburb of Belmont. A commute will take about 25 minutes.

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You will be offered at best $50k

As others have said, it will be near the bottom of the range. Also, as someone who worked for them for a while, consider this a stepping stone to better things. They don’t pay well, don’t promote often, and will burn you out unless you’re hot shit.

Would it backfire if I asked for 65k or would they just tell me they can’t do that. As much as I want good pay, the job itself is my priority so I don’t want to test them by picking a high number but I also don’t want to low ball myself.

Will it backfire though? As much as I want a good pay and don’t want to low ball myself. I need a job so I don’t want to give them a high number if it could affect the possibility for getting the job.

Not in this instance. OP will be out of contention in a heartbeat.

Terrible advice, clearly you don’t have experience with negotiating a higher ed salary within a set band. To most younger people, they will offer within the first third of the band, and will be reluctant to budge based on their own assessment of equity across pay within the same band.

Weird take. This is my actual profession. But you can stay at the bottom of the band if u want

Just because you work in HR somewhere, does not mean you have any knowledge of how salaries work in higher education, which is a highly specific field with different conventions than corporate America. Of course no one wants to be at the bottom of a salary band. But based on my experience actually working in this field I can tell you that an entry level candidate who asks for the top of the band will be removed from consideration.

Universities typically have fairly quantifiable criteria for where in the pay range you ought to be, e.g., years of experience. I don't think it will hurt you to try because they will just say whether they are able to accommodate it or not. The criteria are designed to limit discretion.

Is the role union? Compensation for Harvard's union positions can be inflexible based on some factors, but once you're in, you have a number of options and protections. If you want to stay at Harvard, there are processes to regrade or reclass positions after some time, and there's the internal candidate avenue for applying to other jobs later on.

it will never hurt you to ask for more and it’s great practice for when you change jobs in the future, all of your bargaining power is at the beginning. They’ll counter so you may want to ask for 68 and see if they come to 65. Even if they countered with 63-64, sounds like that would work for you. Good luck!!

>A commute will take about 25 minutes.

A 25 minute commute is amazing. Anyone complaining about that is spoiled.

Ask for what you want/ think you need. If they reject that, that's a them problem. Especially if what you are asking for is in the listed range. They will either say we think we can pay X, agree, or not hire you. If they actually wanted to hire you from the get go you'll see option 1 or 2.

It never hurts to ask for more. If you have to settle for less, ask for a review that is earlier than they would normally do. So if you get a 6 month review you probably won't get a raise but you will know what they are going to judge you on and be ready when you get your annual review. I used that trick a few times, it worked to my benefit. Wish you the best of luck

This is an important point. They don’t decide salaries arbitrarily. I spent years working in academia as a researcher and there was an annual equity review/adjustment for all employees. If an entry-level person, for example, was making significantly more money than their similarly qualified peers, the school provided a salary increase to the peers to keep it equitable; no one ever got a salary decrease for equity reasons. I remember my job interview where the hiring manager asked what I wanted to make, he laughed when I told him, and said HR authorized [low end of the range]. HR determines this based on what similarly qualified people at the same level make.

This isn't how it works in higher ed, unfortunately.

Worked there for 5 plus years, started at entry level (grade 52 or 53,a staff assistant position). As a new grad you don't have bunch bargaining power I'm sorry to say. They will start you at the lowest end of that range. You don't get to ask for earlier reviews, they have their system and you don't get to deviate from it: a review once a year with a salary increase determined by their contract with the union, which you'll almost certainly be in as a hire at this level. (You can opt out of the union but you still have to pay dues. Don't do this, you get a lot of$benefits by being in the union). Increases beyond that only come with changing to a higher grade position, which means either changing jobs entirely or making a tedious case that you're consistently doing work outside and beyond the pay grade you're currently in. Even then you can only do that if your manager is on board or you involve the union and make it a fight. HR is involved and I've seen it take more than a year to get something like a $3k raise. tldr: the university is rigid and they know people want to work there. If you try to negotiate they'll likely just say no unless you have some outstanding credentials. Somebody else will happily take what you think is not enough.

Is this a range in THEIR website or on indeed? Indeed just averages multiple jobs. Usually off.

Burnout is not a consideration for these cushy union jobs, but agree that pay and promotions aren't really there

Don't know about Harvard, but my wife works for BC. The pay isn't spectacular, but the benefits certainly are. Free education, crazy good health insurance.

What’s your prior salary history? If you have been making $60k, it’s a very fair ask.

If you’ve been making $40k…it’s gonna be tough.

Key to salary advancement in Higher Ed is change jobs every few years (it’s fine to stay at same school) and work under folks who are very ambitious. They will often take you with them as they progress up and into VP/Dean positions.

But if you sit in one job for 5+ years and accept the 3% annual raises…you end up being viewed as a potential “lifer” who is happy with the lower-end entry level pay. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but just saying that loyalty and good work won’t necessarily get rewarded with your department proactively giving you big raises and promotions.

I think with that range you could ask for 65 (just over the midpoint) and then they’ll offer you something in mid-high 50s and then you ask if they can go up at all and they might go up a little or say no but then in either situation I would also suggest asking if they would be willing to provide a sign-on bonus to help get you where you need to be. Almost everyone I know in a staff position at Harvard was able to negotiate a $1,000-2,000 sign on bonus (paid out after your first 90 days). This might depend on which school at Harvard your applying to so ymmv. Good luck!

Thank you so much for your response! Given that the range is 50-78, would asked for 60k be out of my reach as a new grad?

Folks with experience at Harvard -- we advise new hires to negotiate on things other than salary -- course releases, for example. Could OP ask for that?

I could but to be honest I’ve never negotiated so I’m a little nervous about bringing up anything other than what the hiring manager brings up. I’ll keep course releases in mind, is there anything else I can ask about? Additionally, are new hires strictly paid the exact minimum salary or is there a range?

New grad as in no years of experience? I think it would be a reach unfortunately. You can ask and they may come back at like 55.

No, not in higher Ed. It's very different than private industry. Usually there is a grid based on years of experience and level of education. The highest end is reserved for someone with a PhD and like 25 years experience.

Yeah graduated in December but I did do a very similar role at my university part time and also did an internship

Almost certainly going to offer $50K. I applied to a job there last year with a similar pay grade, something like $58k-$86k. I requested a salary in the middle of the band as it was the minimum I'd need to afford my apartment. The recruiter actually reached to to me and asked me if $58k was OK - the absolute minimum of the pay band and $30k lower than my absolute minimum survivable wage.

I didn't bother responding.

Asking for $60-65k is not unreasonable at all and will not come as a surprise to whoever is hiring you, but be prepared for them to come back with something around $55k (could be slightly lower/higher) and not budge on that number. You don't have a lot of bargaining power here.

It's good to understand two things here - 1. these positions turn over constantly, so they are always hiring for these positions, and a zillion people apply, and 2. the people applying for these positions, by and large, are extremely unqualified by the university's standards.

You might think to yourself - why not pay people more and then they'd get better quality candidates who would potentially stick around? And the answer is that they are largely still operating on a mentality from like 30 years ago when people would start as assistants and stay there for decades. But as the city has gotten more expensive, they have deluded themselves into thinking they can continue to pay below market rate and keep people around for long (this is, of course, true in tons of other sectors).

If you're young and new to the workforce, it's a solid foot in the door. Take the offer, scrape by for a year or so, get some experience, make some contacts, and have an exit plan at the 1.5 year mark. You should be interviewing for a new job no later than 2 years after you start, maybe sooner. Bounce to a different university (this is crucial), get a 20% pay bump, and repeat that in another two years. University gigs, on the whole, are fairly low stress and flexible (lots of work from home opportunities), with decent benefits. Some are worse than others, sure, but there's job stability and the pressure isn't as bad as working in a for-profit place. Some places will give you the chance to earn a free degree. You will never make as much money as the for-profit sector but if you're talented, you can definitely move up the ranks to a well paying job even by Boston standards.

Good luck on finding a studio you can afford on $55k a year, though. I'd get used to the idea of living with roommates for awhile.

Everyone is correct. As far as higher Ed staff roles, Harvard is a little better than peer institutions in the area. Benefits are strong--especially to support launching a career. If your field is related to higher Ed administration, it will open a lot of doors. If you are looking at staff research roles and aspire to go back to school, same. Otherwise, private industry will compensate you more appropriately for similar work.

Also, for context, the pay range is not what they are paying new hires, it's what they are paying people that currently work there, including people who have been in those roles for decades. There are likely very, very few staff assistants making $78k, and if someone is making that, it's because they have been there since the 80s.

When I was working at Boston University, I was shocked at how low the salaries were for my same position at Harvard.

When you work for Harvard, they assume you’re gonna do it for their name on your résumé and figure you’ll take the lower end for those credentials.

I was pretty happy working at Boston University. Also their days off schedule was about the best in the Boston area in an educational institution.

Ask for it but don't expect it. After five years there i was earning about 60. When you ask have reasons - any relevant work experience that makes you fit the position and environment and if you think you can "grow" the position at all (take on more responsibilities- this should be discussed with your would-be manager before you talk $ with hr).

Also to clarify the range isn't for starting pay. People earning the top of the range have likely been in that grade / position for a loooooooong time. 78k is the top of that pay grade, not the most they'll hire at.

A 1br in Belmont costs about what a 1br does in Cambridge. Definitely not the affordable answer. You might find something in Waltham.

I have some friends in Belmont, rent is considerably less than in Cambridge.

Not in the it's little town center though, but plenty of affordability all 'round.

I grew up in Belmont and have friends who rent places there. It's in no way considerably less. I'm happy your friends found a good deal though.

A studio near Harvard will be at least $1,800. Many landlords will require 3x the rent in monthly income, so $72k annually, unless you have a guarantor or savings. With no debt and minimal monthly expenses (e.g., no car) you could probably make it work if living alone is really important to you, but you’ll be much more comfortable if you find a roommate or two.

What grade is the job? A 53 won’t pay more than 50k, starting.

At what point are you asking for 60? If it’s before you’ve spoken to anyone your app won’t get read.

No. Course releases is a benefit that comes at the end of year two. There is no other negotiating power.

After 2 interviews

Well then I guess there’s no point in asking for a higher number when I’m asked for what salary I’m looking for

As much as I'd love to leave BU there's basically nowhere else that does 40 time off days a year (earned vacation + holidays) on top of sick time. Pay isn't great but the vacation and other benefits are pretty wild.

I work at Harvard Business School in the 53 pay grade. I was started at $53k and make $63k in the same job 5 years later. Currently looking for my next move.

There are tons of applicants... If you are a recent college grad with no relevant experience and ask for $65k, they will move on to the next recent college grad who'll take $55k.

Living by yourself in this area at that salary would be spreading it extremely thin. Get a roommate.

Agreed with everything said by hypnicjerk. I've been working at Harvard for more than a decade, growing through the ranks. My starting salary was btw $42k-$45k when I started and I had a Master's degree. I've stayed at Harvard because of the benefits to my family: time off, health insurance. Good luck!

I did, I recommend asking for $65 and settling no less than 60. Just come up with some numbers. BUT what you never want to do is the first one to give the number. So keep saying , we’ll let me know what you can offer. Then come back with a higher number. Because once they’ve decided they want you they are always willing to go 5-10% higher

if you get the job work six months and keep looking for another job. There are no pay raises.

Generally people leave those Harvard jobs because the amount of work is overwhelming. Just a little heads up.

That’s not what I’ve heard specifically about Harvard.

I'm sure everyone has a different experience but mine was that basically everyone below middle management was on easy street with occasional upticks in activity corresponding to important academic calendar dates, and most of the managers weren't killing themselves either

Working for harvard is awful and they underpay you because they consider the “prestige” of working for harvard compensation.

Asking the real question. It depends on the grade, not the spread. You'd have to be a 53 for over a decade to go above the middle.

Seriously. East Boston to Cambridge is over an hour via train.

I've known one person to successfully regrade their position and it took 6 months.

Does BC offer free tuition for children of employees?

I believe so

That's such an awesome benefit. Harvard doesn't do that.

$80k a year for 4 years! I’d say so!

Consider the full compensation package as well. Ex. Do you want to get a master's? You can easily do that without going into any debt either at the extension school or through TAP. Make this part of your consideration metrics.