
Ask HN: How to negotiate a summer internship salary? - Syntaf
Hi all, I recently applied, and was accepted, to work as an intern for a web development company here in town. I&#x27;m in my last year of college, and feel I need the internship experience to make transitioning out of school into a web dev position easier.<p>Problem is: they&#x27;re lowballing the salary really hard. I was just emailed I&#x27;d be making $12&#x2F;hr, which is waaaaay low because I make $22&#x2F;hr at my non-web related CS job right now. I have 4 years of summer internships &#x2F; side research work under my belt so I definitely feel I deserve a considerably higher salary.<p>How do I go about negotiating this? Do I send them an email saying I feel I deserve a higher salary? Or not mention a number and ask to meet in person to discuss salary?<p>Thanks for any tips
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curiouscat321
Just ask. You can use your other job as leverage.

The fact is, you specifically say that you "feel I need the internship
experience to make transitioning out of school into a web dev position
easier."

Considering this is your only offer (I assume), you don't have a ton of
leverage for getting more money.

As for logistics, email or phone is fine. In-person is just awkward for what
amounts to a 5-minute phone call. They'll be back and forth on their end.

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Syntaf
While this is my only offer, the internship I am currently at wishes to keep
me for the summer (they are unaware that I received this offer).

I simply would enjoy the work at this other company more, but not enough to
consider slashing my pay in almost half.

Do you think specifically mentioning my current pay is a good idea?

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pencilpup223
What state is the job in? Is it possible that $12/hr is actually under the
minimum wage?

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Syntaf
I reside in Las Vegas, so $12/hr is above the minimum wage.

The issue is that the university here has quite the poor CS curriculum, and
pumps out a lot of sub par programmers. This company is probably used to
taking in interns with zero web dev experience and paying them a low wage
(because the student doesn't know better)

My case is a bit different, I feel comfortable with web technologies and will
be able to give a lot more. Problem is their proposed salary is just toooooo
low.

