An article from careerbuilder.com featured on CNN.com:

1. Ponder reasonable expectations for an entry-level salary. Research your desired industry and the jobs you’re interested in within that sector. Use Web sites such as cbSalary.com to find the average salary for the job you want, in the location you’re looking for work. Use that knowledge when deciding if a salary offer will be enough to pay the bills.

2. Consider the entire benefits package. “A salary offer is only one part of the compensation package,” says Dwayne Keiffer, assistant director of career development at Messiah College in Grantham, Penn. Evaluate the entire benefits package. Does the company provide insurance? Will it contribute to a 401(K) plan? How much vacation do employees receive?

3. Reflect on company quality. Job content and the quality of the organization you’re going to work for should take a backseat to most other things, says Shawn Graham, author of “Courting Your Career.” After all, you want the job that gives you the most options for your next career move. Compare job content, fit within the job and organization’s culture, opportunities for advancement and compensation before saying “yes.”

Keep reading…

Here’s a great article for those recent college graduates who have started their first job after school, about how to handle money and prepare for investing and retirement.

To the hundreds of thousands of young people who have landed entry-level jobs that come with health insurance and a retirement plan, I offer my congratulations. Things are tough out there right now, so you must be doing something right.

To the employers who are about to put them to work, however, I urge you to take another look at the pile of employee manuals that detail all your fabulous benefits. They’re boring. They’re confusing. And they start in the middle instead of defining things from the beginning.