Re: Pulling it slightly OT: TW Salaries--Is it me, or are people greedier (Mild Vent)

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>]

Melanie Shook wrote:
> 
> Bruce Byfield wrote:

> <<This sounds like a basic rule of negotiation: just because someone
> in authority asks doesn't mean that you have to give an answer. Once
> you do, of course, you've set limits.>>
> 
> I have to say this is my weak point. What exactly do you say when they ask
> you how much you want? This same situation came up with me the last time I
> was asking for a raise. My boss pressed and pressed for an answer, and I
> didn't give one, but it was very awkward. (I did get a great raise, so
> awkward or not, I guess it worked.)
> 
> Anyone care to share some graceful way to do it?
> 

You might see my previous reply to a similar question.

The real problem, I always find, is preparing for negotiation.
Personally, I always find negotiation difficult. I can do it, and
even do it fairly well at times (by which I usually mean that I can
get what I want and still be on good terms with the other side).
However, I can only do it well if I psych myself up and focus my
energies in the same way that I used to do when I was entering a
running race or teaching. If I don't prepare myself mentally, I can
be hopeless and let people walk all over me.

My preparations are usually a combination of meditation exercises
and planning. I use various mental techniques I've learned (no, not
during my youthful travels in the Orient) to make myself outwardly
calm and as relaxed as I can be under the circumstances. I try to
think of the image that I want to project. I also try to ready
answers to common interview questions - including salary questions.
Just before I go into the interview, I take a few calming breaths.

When I first started writing for a living, I made what I now believe
is a very common mistake: I entered an interview without a plan. As
a result, the interview generally went the way that the interviewer
wanted it to go. If I start an interview with my own ideas about
what ground I want to cover and the points that I want to emphasize,
I find that I am far more likely to get the job. 

Of course, I never have things entirely my own way - not unless the
interviewer is a complete novice. But, by trying to plan, I do seem
to give a better interview.


-- 
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
Contributing Editor, Maximum Linux
604.421.7189 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com

"To conclude,I'll tell you news that's right:
Christmas was killed at Naseby fight,
Charity was slain at that same time,
Jack Tell-Troth, too, a friend of mine."
- Anonymous 17th Century, "The World Is Turned Upside Down"

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