Internships to Jobs- Notes from the front

Parents go overboard to help college kid get job - Careers- msnbc.com: "Salary negotiation with candidate’s mom

Some parents also are sticking their noses into the salary negotiation process.

Late last year, Lisa Fedrizzi-Hutchins, a hiring manager for an environmental company in New York, made a job offer to an entry-level candidate and asked her to review it and call if she had any questions.

“The following day, I received a phone call from her mother because she felt her negotiation skills were far better than her daughter,” Fedrizzi-Hutchins recalled. “She had explained to me that the salary was far too low for her daughter to live comfortable in New York City and wanted to know what we needed to do to bring her salary up.”"

Job Prospects Improve Slightly for Graduates - NYTimes.com: "The study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 24 percent of 2010 college graduates who applied for a job have one waiting after graduation, up from 20 percent last year. But the average salary offered to graduates with a bachelor’s degree has slipped 1.7 percent from last year, to $47,673.

Salaries for finance majors rose 1.6 percent, to $50,546, while those for liberal arts majors fell 8.9 percent, to $33,540. For graduates with computer-related degrees, salary offers rose 5.8 percent, to $58,746.

Patricia Rose, director of career services at the University of Pennsylvania, said that students had more choices this year. “Last year, people found employment, but there was a sense of musical chairs, that if there’s an empty seat, take it,” she said. “This year, there’s a little more sense of ease.”"