We all know how salary negotiations work. The company wants to spend as little as possible, and you want to make as much as possible. When you’re a student or a recent grad, it feels like the company has all the leverage (they often do), and you’re stuck taking whatever they give you.

While it may be difficult to gain leverage very early in your career, that’s exactly what you have to do. In this writing, I’ll talk about how exactly you can do that, and how I did it.

First, let me set the stage:

Early in college I was a B to C student at best. I was focused on football and trying to scrape together enough money to pay for the next semester. In later years I was able to turn things around and pull my GPA up to something that I was proud of, and wouldn’t immediately turn away prospective employers. In the end, my first job out of college boasted the highest salary any graduate from my department had ever reported. I say this not to brag, but to hopefully gain some credibility in why what I’m going to explain to you below will work.