How to Negotiate Your Salary

Hey everyone, welcome to part two of 10 Things I Wish They Taught Me in College, How to Negotiate Your Salary. For many people, the past few weekends have been focusing on college graduation and with the finale of your college career came that feeling of panic of finding a job. While finding a job you love is your main focus, you would also like to avoid living out of a cardboard box, eating ramen, because you are unable to pay back student loans. Never fear, I have researched far and wide to help you negotiate a good salary for the job of your dreams!!

Research, Research, Research: Like many other things in life, negotiating your salary requires some prep work. Use websites like Glassdoor to look up the average income of people with the job title you are trying to achieve in your section of the country. Then look up the company itself on Glassdoor and find more about the amount people with titles similar to your potential job make. This will give a good idea on what kind of salary amount you can feasibly negotiate with for this specific position.

State Your Number Clearly: What do I mean when I say state your number clearly? I mean that you must tell the employer the amount you would like to make with a distinct number, instead of saying a general ball park. You should state this number in an assertive tone and make eye contact when you state your amount.

Counter Offer the Counter Offer: Remember, if the prospective employer gives you an opportunity to negotiate, then this means they want you, and are usually willing to negotiate further to get you. If the employer is adamant about being unable to pay you your goal salary, then negotiate for job perks, like extra vacation time, or a larger annual bonus. Just please keep your negotiations realistic.

Be Polite: This one should go without saying, but please be polite to the person you are negotiating with. The negotiator is a human being who is most likely not out to get you, so don’t be evil to them. Remember that you may be working with this person in the future.

I hope that these tips help those of you out there currently on a job hunt. Do any of you have any negotiating tips that you found helpful? If so, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

How to Choose the Healthcare That Is Best For You

Hello again everyone, and welcome to the start of my first miniseries: 10 Things I Wish They Taught Me in College, or TWTTC. Since most recent college graduates join the workforce in the summer months, I have decided to focus my first post on one of the most important decisions you must make when starting a new job, choosing the best health insurance for you. If you are anything like me, then you have probably never been taught what the differences between PPO coverage and HMO coverage, even though this is something that we will all need to know at some point in our lives. This is why I have decided to do the research for you guys.

According to the Humana and Medical Mutual websites there are a few key differences between a PPO policy and an HMO policy. Here are the main things that vary between PPO and HMO plans:

PPO:

·      PPOs do not require you to have a PCP (primary care physician) referral to cover the cost of seeing an specialist

·      You are still provided some form of coverage when you go to a medical facility outside of your network area, although you will pay a little more than if you go to a facility within a coverage area

·      If you go to an out of network healthcare provider, you may have to file a claim to get reimbursed for your expenses

·      Monthly Premiums tend to be higher than those of HMO plans and there is usually a sizeable deductible

HMO

·      PCP (primary care physician) referrals are required to receive coverage for a trip to a specialist

·      There is no out of network coverage for healthcare

·      Lower monthly premiums and deductibles than PPO plans

So which plan should you go with? Well, most of this will depend on the area you live in and which insurance company is your provider. If you live in a rural area or an area where you are considered out of network for most healthcare facilities, then I would recommend choosing a PPO plan because it provides you with more flexibility. If you live in a city or an area where the vast majority of healthcare facilities fall under your network, then I would recommend choosing an HMO plan.

I hope you guys have found this information helpful. Do you have any recommendations for choosing a healthcare plan? If so, please leave your advice in the comments.

10 Things I Wish They Taught Me In College

          Hello everyone, I’m very sorry that this post is so short, but I felt it was important to announce my new miniseries, the 10 Things I Wish They Taught Me in College. This series of posts will focus on all of the things that you need to know how to do in life, but were never taught in school. I will be discussing how to do your taxes, how to find a great apartment, and many other things. New posts will appear every week for the next ten weeks. Check it out!

3 Ways To Decorate You're Apartment Without Getting Evicted

Whether you’re getting ready to move into a new place or just want to change things, choosing how to decorate your apartment can be a daunting task. You don’t want to violate your lease agreement, but you also don’t want to sacrifice your sense of style. Never fear, here are 3 tips to help you decorate your apartment without getting evicted.

Take Advantage of Wall Decals: If you live in an apartment complex that doesn’t allow you to drill holes to hang up artwork but are tired of the same dingy, white walls, then invest in artwork that is easy to remove. They will transform you wall from drab to fab and are easy to assemble!

Throw Around Some Throw Pillows: If you want to add color to a room, but aren’t allowed to paint the walls anything other than white, then I recommend investing in throw pillows. They come thousands of different colors and designs and are easy to mix and match with each other if you want to change the theme of your room.

Show Off Your Statement Pieces: If you’ve been treasuring an adorably random paperweight in your bedroom because it doesn’t match your current décor, then just stop. Bring out that little statement piece and show it off in your living room, it’s a piece that means something to you. It shows off your personality and that alone will make your piece fit in with the room.

Are there any tips you would like everyone to know about decorating their apartment? Let us know in the comments and I might include it in one of my posts! I hope you’ve found these tips helpful, now go forth and decorate!

2 Social Media Trends to Watch For

Social media is an ever-changing medium, which can make it difficult to predict what will be the next big platform and what will be the next big flop. This makes it hard to choose what new platforms you should join immediately and what new platforms you can ignore when it comes to advertising. However, there are two general trends that you can use as a guide to help you predict what will be the next big social media platform.

1. Smaller Social Viewing Sphere: In the past few years, the new social media capabilities that have become popular have focused on limiting the number of people who can see personal messages. When Snapchat provided the option to send stories to only certain people Facebook and Twitter followed behind them by creating Messenger and Twitter direct messaging, both of which are used to create and send private messages to people.

2. Visual: With the rise in capabilities of taking high resolution images on your smart phone came the want to post and view pictures of everything on the internet. The most clicked content on social networks tend to have great photos, GIFs, or videos that convince users to pause their scrolling long enough to read the post. With the rise in popularity of different GIFs and memes, not to mention livestreaming, good visual communication will be a very important aspect to upcoming social networks.

I hope that this post helps you prepare for choosing your next social media platform. Do you have any trends you expect to see on social media in the future? Let me know and I may include them in one of my posts.

3 Tips to End Your Writer's Block

Writer’s block, the two words that every can make every student cringe with anxiety. It can creep up at the worst possible times, whether it be before a major assignment is due or when you just want to write for enjoyment, writer’s block disrupts your train of thought. That is why I have decided to dedicate this blog post to four ways to combat writer’s block.

1. Map it Out: If you are having trouble writing an assignment, but know the general things you need done, then make a map. When I am suffering from writer’s block, I create a bubble web of the main things that I need to accomplish. Then I connect some of my ideas for each section and mark out the ones that won’t flow in the finished project. (If you like going the more traditional route, then you can do a traditional outline like this one.)

2. Take a Shower: Yes, this may sound bizarre, but doing some menial task like showering can help get your creative juices flowing. If you just showered, are away from your bathroom, or just don’t want to take a shower at this time, you can try going for a walk, doing laundry, or another task that doesn’t require the majority of your focus.

3. Steer Into the Skid: If the project you’re working on lets you choose the subject, then you can write about your writer’s block or procrastination. This will allow you to express your unique perspective on the subject.

I hope you found these tips helpful. What do you do to combat writer’s block? Please share your answer in the comments and check back next week for how to decorate your apartment on a budget.

3 Tools to Help You Learn Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising has become very popular in the fast few years because of its affordability and its level of reach compared to traditional advertising. It can be a great resource for small businesses who don’t have the budget for traditional media, but correctly navigating the advertising capabilities on different platforms can be difficult to manage. That is why today’s post is on 3 different tools to help you learn social media advertising.

1. Hootsuite University: I’ve discussed the benefits of Hootsuite in one of my previous articles, but I feel the need to emphasize the importance of Hootsuite University. Hootsuite University offers and entire section of tutorials on commerce marketing and optimizing your reach on different social media platforms. They even include a social media performance worksheets to follow along with the tutorials. I will warn you that to have access to Hootsuite University you have to be part of the Hootsuite Pro Plan which is $9.99 a month. 
   
2. Facebook Blueprint: Another good tool to take advantage of is Blueprint, the new advertising school for Facebook. This option is free and includes 50 modules to help you familiarize yourself with Facebook’s advertising section and what best advertising practices you should follow.
   
3. Twitter Flight School: This tool, launched two months ago, is perfect if you are trying to figure out effective Twitter advertising. It’s free and gives you access to good advertising case studies to help you figure out how to project your brand voice on Twitter.

I hope these three tools help you and please be aware that there are many other resources you can use for learning social media advertising. Do you have any social media tools you would recommend? If so please tell us about your favorites in the comments.