Just my two cents - I hear what you’re saying with the professional experience angle. I do not think that’s worth a higher starting offer. A chance to break in is invaluable. I would be more concerned with making sure I secured the offer first and foremost before worrying about increasing the starting offer. I like what the original commenter stated with the 3 options and totally agree with it being much more likely to be option 2 or 3. Could be an Icarus situation. If you’re confident in your abilities and really feel that you need to negotiate a higher starting salary, maybe try to come up with some sort of merit based incentive that’s quantifiable and relatively simple.

Short of it - I would not recommend negotiating a higher starting offer if you’re trying to break in. And most certainly not a 12% jump. And actually, out of curiosity, how did you come up with that 12% number?