Why Stanford Students Turn Down $150,000 Entry-Level Salaries

Why Stanford Students Turn Down $150,000 Entry-Level Salaries

Startups and tech companies will sometimes offer Stanford students as much as $500,000 in compensation right out of school.

But all the Stanford students we spoke with insisted that they would never take a job just because it pays more.

Hired.com CMO Tyler Willis says that 80% job applicants don’t end up accepting the highest offer.

So if it isn’t money, what do Stanford students care about?

Here’s what they told us:

  • They want to make an impact. Jessica Taylor chose to work at nonprofit MIRI instead of Google. “They only have like three full-time researchers and I feel like I might be able to do more good because it is not really crowded at all,” She says.
  • They want to do good. Taylor says the “primary goal in my career is to do the most good for the world.”
  • They want a mission. Myles Keating, a Stanford junior, says companies that are "going after a business opportunity because it'll make a lot of money,” are not that appealing. It’s better for them to say: "We really care about this problem and we want to make the world a better place by solving it."
  • They want to learn and grow. Stanford graduate student John Yang-Sammataro is running his own company. He says the only way he would join another firm is if it could “prove” to him that "for the next two years, you will learn and grow and be more prepared than if you did this thing on your own."
  • They want to work with interesting people. "You can talk about the grand vision all the time, but if the day to day is miserable then that's not going to matter,” says Keating. They key is the people you work with. "You have to trust them, you have to hopefully enjoy them and their company."
  • They want freedom. Ben Zheng, a graduate student who is going full-time at Facebook this summer, says he picked that company because when he interned there, he was "given freedom in terms of what kinds of things to work on."
  • They want to be nurtured. Vinamrata Singal, who will intern at Google this summer, says she is going there because there is a strong culture of mentorship there — a "nurturing environment."
  • They don’t want to be coddled. "I want to feel like I'm valued, but never that I'm being coddled," says Myles Keating. He wants to work somewhere that has high expectations of him.
  • They want to be allowed to take initiative. Keating wants a job where he can get his primary job done well and early, and be able to say: "All right, that was fun. Now I have a little extra time — what am I personally interested in?"
  • They want to work on interesting problems. Stanford senior Rafael Cosman interned at Palantir but decided he did not want to work there because "most of the people there are not actually working on interesting problems." "You need to fix the UI of something. It's not really what you want to do, but you got to do it." Cosman is going to work at a nonprofit after school instead.

SEE ALSO: The truth about life in 2015 at Stanford, where 21-year-olds are offered hundreds of thousands of dollars right out of school

Great for the students, but let's be real here. How many top notch straight As students could afford to go to a university like Stanford? If fresh out of college, a student is offered a job with a $150,000 starting salary, it is much easier to turn down because such new graduate would have no problem picking up such job in the future and is more confidwnt of finding another job with a six figure salary even if less than the initial offer. However, the reality for mostgraduates is that they have to take up minimum wage job to keep up with student's loan repayment. So while these Stanford students' ideals are commendable, they should not necessarily be held up as a standard. Most graduates in their shoes would probably do likewise.

Mary Kay Ziniewicz

Founder and CEO of Bus Stop Mamas, Motherhood Career Pathway™, 9to3Movement™, Sustainable Hiring Practices™, Mama Index™

8y

Yes! Mippie--a millennial raised with hippie values--hippie love in a suit. I believe Gen X'ers (like me) can learn a bit about the effect of positivity in the workplace from this charming love generation.

Dr. Sri Sai Sarvesh

CEO at Aayaskaantanu: Meditation, Body-mind alignment, Performance and Business Strategy Coach

8y

Very revelatory. Beyond a certain level, money loses it s lure. Burnishing one's identity with philanthropy and one's interests is what counts more. Money remains just a vehicle to achieve these ends, not an end in itself.

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Pratip Kar

Tea Evangelist , Education , BFSI , Consulting ~ Sales-Marketing I Communication I Strategy I Brands I Start-up I Organisation Development

8y

undoubtedly encouraging and perhaps this value broadens their path to future .

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Funminiyi Adedayo

Senior Consultant at International Management Training Consortium

8y

What a deep rooted learning process! It's great for upcoming youths to think in an exclusive progressive way rather than what is in it for me.

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