This week’s blog contribution is based on how compensation can be a motivating factor and lead to specific behaviors that may be uncharacteristic or unusual for someone. If I am to be honest, I have been in this exact situation myself, where the attributed compensation made me behave differently or act upon a different opportunity based solely on the compensation and not about the experience.
The situation surrounding my first internship offers as a Sophomore here at OSU. I was just starting to take more detailed and upper-division CEM classes for my correlating major, and began to explore opportunities for a potential construction internship. I attended career fairs and really put myself out there, hopeful to get a summer internship opportunity. I had a couple of formal interviews, which led to me receiving multiple internship opportunities for the following summer. However, when deciding on which internship to take, it felt mainly based on the compensation (hourly wage) offered to me for the position. After meeting with these companies and getting to know them better about their industry, career opportunities, and more, I felt that I still took the offer with the most compensation.
Looking back on this, I can relate my decision to the total rewards system, which explains both intrinsic and extrinsic factors that affect employee behavior (Cieri, 2026, Intro to Compensation lecture) The extrinsic value of my decisions was based on the monetary value offered; however, there was still the intrinsic value that I think gave me the final push towards my ultimate decision. The intrinsic value was the psychological and social effects of the given offer (Cieri, 2026, Intro to Compensation lecture). Not only did I feel that the better the wage, the more valuable the position, but I also compared my new wage to those I had held in previous jobs. I felt that if I were to take an offer with the same pay as my previous job, I wasn’t continuing to grow in my career. In my mind, it felt that the higher compensation meant greater opportunity and a more valuable position. Now, I cannot speak on the lower compensated offer, but the higher compensation has led to a great amount of opportunity for me in my future career, as well as, a ton of opportunities to grow. But would I have had those same opportunities with the other company? Would they have given me a better full-time offer once I were to graduate? All questions that I am unable to answer. However, if you have had a similar situation or seen both sides of the coin, please comment and let me know, because I would love to discuss more about whether these behaviors lead to greater opportunities or hinder us in the long run of our careers.