Your starting salary determines all your future raises and bonuses — meaning it will have a long-term impact on your career earnings. Still, most companies have fixed pay ranges for entry-level positions with little to no scope for negotiation.

You are new. You don’t have years of experience. You probably went to a decent college. But you have very little bargaining power even if you have to negotiate. You also risk losing your job in an ultra-competitive employer’s market.

There’s a good chance that you want to say “yes” immediately and skip the negotiation process entirely. What do you stand to lose? Should you negotiate? Where is the line?

On this episode of TFTY, host Akshaya Chandrasekaran invites Mansee Singhal, Partner, Mercer, and Roopank Chaudhary, Partner, at Aon India to help us decide when to negotiate and when to not.

If you like this episode, share a note with the host at akshaya@the-ken.com or take this form and let us know. We might have you on the show! The First Two Years is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive business stories, deeply-reported newsletters, and a whole lot of stuff.

P.S. Check out the most recent episode of Two by Two, our brand new business podcast, where the hosts ask: why has all the disruption and joy gone out of startups? Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or other platforms!

In his first few months at his first job, Arya had made some lifelong friends. Unlike many work friendships, his just happened to include a nearly three-decade age gap. It all began when Arya, a multimedia producer, decided to join a TV news company. Shy and new to the city, he looked around to see there was nobody in his age bracket except him. “Initially, it was a bit daunting,” Arya says. “But slowly, we became friends only to realize that, despite the age gap, we are all the same. That was a wonderful feeling.”

After all, as of 2024, there are four generations in the workplace - baby boomers, Gen Xers, millennials, and Gen Zs. It’s never been harder, or more essential, to forge intergenerational friendships in the workplace. There is a fascinating body of research that an ideal work friendship with someone senior can help you thrive by delivering honest assessments of how you come across on the job. Especially, without any competitive rivalry that you would otherwise experience with work friends of the same age group. It’s never been more essential to forge intergenerational friendships in the workplace.

On this episode of TFTY, host Akshaya Chandrasekaran brings to light stories of people who have formed deep relationships with coworkers across generations. Do you have a career question we can help you to solve? Share a note with the host at akshaya@the-ken.com or take this form and let us know. We might have you on the show! The First Two Years is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive business stories, deeply-reported newsletters, and a whole lot of stuff.

From over here at The Ken's newsroom, we have a very exciting announcement: our first premium podcast – India's first premium business podcast – is now live!

It's called Two by Two – and this podcast will be your personal investigative brain. Each week Two by Two will be where hosts Rohin Dharmakumar and Praveen Gopal Krishnan will be joined by a few interesting and opinionated guests to discuss some of the biggest questions from the world of Indian business.

But, why's it called Two by Two?

Here it is: each episode of the Two by Two podcast will feature an important story investigated and discussed and visualized as a 2x2. A simple matrix that's the purest form of conflict – that places the players and their motivations on both axes. Along with incredible guests, the hosts will discuss what is going on, why is it happening, who gains and who loses, and where is all of this leading to?

Two by Two is a premium podcast – but for now, the first episode is free for all listeners. On this episode, the hosts speak to Professor R Srinivasan and Srikanth Rajagopalan on the brewing rivalry between Flipkart and PhonePe, once parent and child, but now more like cousins. Flipkart, which is now venturing into FinTech with Super.money and Phonepe, which has launched the grocery delivery app Pincode are both stepping into each others turf.

What happens next?

Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple or YouTube – and if you like it, please leave a review, wherever you get your podcasts?