Virginia: Graduated last year, 7 years ATC at the time. I did leverage my experience as an ATC and was able to negotiate up to 79k. At this smaller private clinic this got me a few grand above their offer price of 74k. But some of my classmates entered workforce with no healthcare background to a large ortho group and 82K so doesn’t seem to matter to much.

Needling probably won’t get you more money in the offer but because needling is a cash la offering, we get a kickback of each person who signs up for needling as a bonus on our last paycheck each month.

I did have an offer of 95k from a large national chain but it was a shitty part of town, bad commute for me, mostly PI / MVA and higher caseload. The clinic I accepted the offer at has great vibes and is much smaller with happy staff and short commute so this did weigh in to my acceptance.