My internship ends beginning of June and my boss John has put in the request to move me from an intern to a full time position yesterday. John's boss, bob, has emailed me mentioning that in two weeks he will likely have an answer from upper management on whether or not the hire request is approved. Bob requested I setup a meeting with him to discuss any questions I may have, either now or after the two weeks.
After looking around, I understand it is generally a good idea to negotiate pay, even when moving from an intern to full time position. So I'm wondering how to proceed. Given that I intend to ask about pay:
- When should I set the meeting? (before or after the two weeks)
- How should I bring it up?
- If accepted, I expect some of sort response like: "You're an intern new to the profession so we'll start you $35/hr and based on your performance will proceed from there." Should I accept this since I am new (and this is my first real job) or should I push for the median $43.5/hr?
Additional Context:
I am a college student graduating in June and this would be my first real job
The position title is IT Class C (there are 3 tiers, A, B, and C)
Based on 2018 wage data, the going rate for IT Class C is $35 - $52 per hour. I assume these figures are true because the position is for government and all wage data is required to be made public. I looked up the values for IT Class C positions in the data table on the government website.
I currently do NOT have other offers to use as leverage, but I am still actively looking around / attending career fairs.