ISU to host Start Smart training workshops geared towards women for job interviewing, negotiating pay

The American Association of University Women's Start Smart initiative will offer job behavioral interviewing and salary negotiating workshops geared towards women on March 7 and 8 at Idaho State University.

Participation is aimed at ISU women seniors or graduate students, but community members may attend on a space-available basis. Workshop participants will have an opportunity to hone their job interview skills and to learn salary benchmarking in preparation for their first jobs following college graduation.

The behavioral interviewing workshop will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. March 7 and a salary negotiating workshop will be held from 3 to 5:30 p.m. March 8 in the ISU Pond Student Union Salmon River Suite.

The workshop on behavioral interviewing provides information on a widely used technique that relies on questions aimed at discovering how the respondent's past experiences relate to a particular job's relevant knowledge and skills. 

The salary-negotiating workshop will train women to benchmark the salary of their first job and successfully negotiate pay that puts them on par with their male counterparts. The training is co-sponsored by the Pocatello Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and the ISU Anderson Gender Resource Center, and funded with a grant from Idaho AAUW.

There is no cost for the workshops, but seating is limited so pre-registration is required at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/98H8CRF.  

Although fair labor laws have been in place for many years, research published by the AAUW verifies that the gender wage gap continues to plague women. Studies show that the gap starts with the first job out of college and continues; a woman will likely earn $1 million less than her male counterpart over the course of her career.

As a result of the findings the national AAUW joined with the WAGE (Women Are Getting Even) Project to develop training to better prepare young women to join the workforce with a salary and benefit package commensurate with that of men with the same credentials.  The AAUW is joining with campus departments to sponsor the training at colleges and universities throughout the country. 

For more information, contact Linda Leeuwrik, 282-3974 or leeulind@isu.edu; or Asa Burlin, 208-282-2805 or www.isu.edu/andersoncenter.

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