^Great job, Tay_CPA!
I'm also extremely delighted to report that a friend recently completed some advanced education and was looking for her first job in the new field. She is awesome and I knew she would got multiple offers if she just planned it out right, and I was nervous she would just say "yes" to the first thing someone offered without considering her own high level of awesomeness. I also knew that places might try to lowball her. We had a long conversation (almost a whole day) during which she made a long list of things she wanted in a job, target salary, etc. Then she did some extensive online research about salaries.
When the offers started to roll in, she did great! She got a whole bunch of the things she wanted, including a higher salary than the first offer, moving expenses that went through a couple of rounds of negotiation (from nothing, to $500, to covering her whole move), lots of other job perks. Proud of her effort!
She said it was surprisingly hard not to just jump gratefully for the first thing she was offered, because it was already sooo much higher than what she makes now, and that she was glad she had her research numbers ready to justify her ask when they initially said they couldn't go any higher . . . guess what: of course they could go higher!