For many graduates, salary negotiations can be a difficult experience. Yes, you want the job and you need more money, but you are afraid to be more assertive with your prospective employer.

To add to this, how do you negotiate a higher salary or improved fringe benefits if, as a recent university or college graduate, you have little or no experience? The answer is that while you don't always get what you want, it is important to understand the negotiating process and how it works. Then, start integrating yourself into a more active role, if only to feel more in control and perhaps make more money in the process.

Let's start by understanding what negotiation is. Very simply, it's meeting and discussing a subject with another person in order to reach an agreement. The art of negotiation is based upon mutual agreement of issues, not confrontation. The end result should be a win-win situation for both parties.

While salary negotiation begins after the interview process, it really starts with the initial interview. Because it's what you tell the company about yourself, your accomplishments and what you can do for them that will increase your value when the time comes to offer you a job. Use active words in the interview to describe your accomplishments such as: I initiated, I oversaw, I created, I took charge of, I followed up on, I actively contributed to, and I developed. The ability to handle details, multiple projects or excellent time management and follow up skills will also contribute to your value.

Negotiating is not merely to tell them that you want more money. You will need to have answers to certain questions prior to discussing your salary, to know if there is even a chance to get more. Among the questions to which you should have answers are:

• What is the salary range of the job in question?
• What is the lowest salary that I will consider?
• What makes me worth a higher salary?

Some places you might go to get salary information are people who work in that industry or at that company, libraries, job hunting web sites on the Internet, trade associations and trade publications.

Even if you know the answers to these questions, there will most likely be some objections to your request for more money. Among those:

• you don't have enough experience
• other employees aren't making more
• the budget won't permit it and, of course, the ever popular
• that's what we're paying new hires.

Think about how you would respond to these objections in a way that continues the discussion on a positive note without backing yourself into a corner. Remember that you are asking questions, not delivering an ultimatum. For example, to answer the "other employees aren't making more" statement, you might say: "I see. (You pause a little.) What is the range for this position? What would it take to get to that higher level within that range?"

Remember you're looking for a way to reach a common accord and often you have to ask a few questions to see if there might be a way to reach an accommodation. In many cases, especially at this level, the person offering you the position has already gotten approval from someone else, so you have to give them a pretty good rationale to go back and ask for more money.