SoFi Blog

When it comes time to talk money at the negotiation table, there’s a new law that could affect your next job interview. Namely, starting in New York City, Philadelphia, and the state of Massachusetts, employers can no longer ask what income you made at your previous job. (And luckily, more cities and states are following suit.) For job seekers, this is great news, and should ease some of the anxiety of figuring out how to negotiate your compensation package. Withholding current salary information can be a good way to make sure you’re not pigeonholed into a particular range when asking for a higher number.

Is there a dream that you tabled years ago and having been meaning to revisit? Maybe you aspired to write the Great American Novel, but became accustomed to the office lifestyle. Or perhaps you’ve toyed with the idea of taking a mid-career break at 40 to lay on a beach in Ibiza or hike the Appalachian Trail. More people are taking a sabbatical or mid-career break in their 30s and 40s, whether to pursue personal passions, travel, volunteer, or consider a career shift.

Welcome to Hey Coach!, a career advice column hosted by SoFi’s Career Advisory Group, a team of expert career coaches dedicated to helping SoFi members reach professional success. Got a tricky career question of your own? Email [email protected].

Hey Coach,

My husband and I have made the decision to move across the country so we can live closer to our families in the Bay Area. We’ve been living in New York for the last ten years and have really planted roots—great friends, families and jobs—but we’re looking to start a family of our own soon and know being closer to loved ones is the right choice.

When it comes to negotiating and owning your career, Nicole Lapin has been around the block. She was one of the youngest anchors to ever join CNN, and went on to be business and finance correspondent for Morning Joe on MSNBC and The Today Show on NBC and Bloomberg Television. More recently, she’s published two New York Times bestsellers all about how she got to where she is today—Rich Bitch and Boss Bitch.

As part of Raise Week, which was launched to empower career professionals to promote themselves and negotiate for what they’re worth (more on that here), Lapin stepped in to offer her career advice to Twitter users during a Twitter chat hosted earlier this week. Here’s Nicole Lapin’s advice on how to step up and claim your raise as you navigate your career.

When I arrived at Harvard Business School to start my MBA, I remember manually closing my jaw every few minutes as I met my colleagues. There was the investment banker from Goldman Sachs. The war veteran who served in Afghanistan. The consultant who worked with 50 of the Fortune 100.

Then there was me. Little, 24-year-old-journalism-degree me who came to Boston with just two years of work experience in public relations.