Two more ways family can help your career

Published by Ryan Healy on December 18th, 2007 in Career Development, Employment, Money | 21 Comments

I've written before about the benefits of moving home with your parents following graduation. Many people disagree, but I'm convinced that – as long as you do it for the right reasons – moving home after graduation is the most responsible thing you can do.

Of course, there are always those people who use mom and dad as a crutch and fail to grow up because they're living at home. But there are also a good amount of people that move home to payoff their $21,100 (on average) debt, and save a little cash before moving to a city and paying $1,000 plus per month for rent.

After discussing the issue with a few friends and hearing some interesting stories, I've found two more interesting ways to leverage your family connections following graduation.

The relative option

Matt Goldberg, of The Big Transition wrote an interesting post about "the relative option." Matt tells a story about his cousin, Jess, who graduated from college and wanted a job in PR. The problem was an entry-level PR job in New York would not cover rent and expenses. But her parents lived in Allentown, PA, and the commute to New York was not realistic.

So Jess called in a favor to her relatives who lived outside of New York City. She temporarily moved in with them and landed a job with the NBA. Not only did she score a great job, but she was near friends in New York, and she could actually enjoy a social life while paying off loans.

What a great idea! If mom and dad don't live in the most appealing city for a 22 year old, and your chosen profession doesn't pay enough to cover rent, figure out what relatives or family friends live in the area and ask if they can help.

I don't need this job, I live with my parents

A good friend of mine, we'll call him Pat, has been at his job for about two years now. The job started out great. He's been doing computer programming, learning new things every day, getting paid well and beginning to take on management responsibilities. What more could he ask for?

The problem is, Pat's been really bored recently. He's being assigned the same jobs now as he was eight months ago, but they're no longer interesting because he can do them blindfolded. He had his performance review the other day. Like usual, his boss told him he was doing a great job and to keep up the good work.

Pat replied, "Thank you, I appreciate it."

But then he decided to ask for some challenging work. He explained the situation and said that he was at the job to learn and get experience, and he feels like he stopped learning.

The company told him that it would take a lot of time to go through all the approval processes to give him some more challenging work. So Pat said,

"Ok, if I can't get new assignments, can I at least have a raise?"

Again, they told him no because it would take months to go through all the approval processes to get him a raise. Finally he replied:

"I live with my parents. I don't need this job. I want more challenging work, or at the least, I want some more compensation."

I don't think things are quite settled with the situation, but I would bet he's going to get a nice little raise or some new responsibilities.

The most interesting thing about this whole situation is that Pat was not being unreasonable. All he wanted was to continue learning! Since he couldn't do that, he asked for more money.

Sure, this tactic may sound immature or unfair to older workers who are responsible for a spouse, kids and a mortgage. But it's business, and just like your company will do whatever they can to keep your salary low, you do whatever you can to get the upper hand. Even if that means using the fact that you live with mom and dad as a negotiating tool.