You waited weeks to receive your offer letter, but after you tore open the envelope and scanned the form for the salary figure, your excitement was replaced by a wave of disappointment.
If this sounds familiar, you're one of the masses. There is often a disconnect between what workers think they should earn and what their employers are actually willing to pay them. It's also common for companies to intentionally lowball on the first salary offer. In fact, 58 percent of hiring managers surveyed by CareerBuilder.com say they leave some negotiating room in their first salary offers.
It pays, then, to negotiate with your employer to boost your starting pay. The key is to know your market value -- this will ensure that you accept an offer that's fair, but also prevent you from pricing yourself out of any position. (For example, if you're demanding $100,000 for an entry-level role, you may need to rethink your strategy.)
Also consider your industry when evaluating your salary offer. Working in a hot industry can catapult you into a higher salary range and give you more negotiating power. Health care workers, for example, are commanding higher salaries as employers struggle to fill their staffs.
If you're looking for a job with negotiation muscle, check out this list of 20 jobs with the highest salary growth in the fastest-growing industries, according to data from CareerBuilder.com and Payscale:
Industry: Accounting/Finance
Jobs with high salary growth:
Personal banker -- $37,700
Commercial loan officer -- $75,700Industry: Health Care
Jobs with high salary growth:
Clinical research associate -- $61,300
Anesthesiologist -- $225,000Industry: Information Technology
Jobs with high salary growth:
Webmaster -- $49,200
Senior database administrator -- $93,300Industry: Engineering
Jobs with high salary growth:
Civil engineer -- $57,200
Project engineer -- $65,200Industry: Sales
Jobs with high salary growth:
Sales assistant -- $35,800
Sales engineer -- $79,900Industry: Administrative support
Jobs with high salary growth:
Human resources coordinator -- $40,200
Financial controller -- $79,900Industry: Professional and business services
Jobs with high salary growth:
Paralegal -- $39,500
Financial analyst -- $70,500Industry: Retail
Jobs with high salary growth:
Retail store assistant manager -- $39,100
Buyer -- $47,900Industry: Hospitality
Jobs with high salary growth:
Restaurant general manager -- $49,800
Hotel general manager -- $56,600Industry:Customer service
Jobs with high salary growth:
Technical support specialist -- $49,100
Call center manager -- $53,800Richard Castellini is Vice President of Consumer Marketing at CareerBuilder.com. He is an expert in recruitment trends and tactics, job seeker behavior and workplace issues.