|
Negotiation for a job
Applying for a job? You'll need tricky negotiation tactics. Learning a few lessons from SPA & Maoist peace negotiations will always be handy.
If your negotiating skills are feeble so is your career future. There are a few jobs in the country for which you don’t have to negotiate a package. The post of the Deputy Prime Minister is one while others are the posts of advisors. But to get other jobs, you have to use innovative tricks. Learn some of them as given below
Put yourself in the other’s shoes
You are never yourself in a job as you have to work in a team. So, learn how to say ‘yes’ to everything as in the case of SPA & M peace talks, where the SPA always said “Yes Boss” to the Maoists and have reached so far. That way you can anticipate various issues and be prepared. However, to not get into a trap that the ‘yes’ may lead you into, first find out what the company’s consultants have in mind. It is similar to what happened in SPA & M negotiations, where it would be far easier for the parties involved if they first tried to find out what the UN consultants, India, the US and other donor communities had in their minds.
Be clear about what you want
Prioritise the elements involved. Which elements are really important to you and not negotiable? What can you be flexible about? But if you compromise on too many issues the job can lose its sparkle. However, if you don’t compromise, the chances that you lose are equally high. Therefore, you have to be tricky. The best trick is to ask for more than what you want. For example, if you need a mobile phone than ask for a private jet. Normally the company needs all the money they got so while negotiating always carry your pen but don’t forget the gun.
Buy time
Don’t decide anything in haste and repent in leisure, as G P Koirala, the guru of the Time Buying Concept, has been doing so effectively all along and brought the Maoists, the UML, the King and foreign powers up to this point. Good negotiators need to have a sense of timing from dancers or dacoits too.
Here are some time buying tips and the advantages:
When a company gets in touch with you, asking you if you would like to work with them, you sure should click your heels, shout “hooray” and go straight to the company within a few minutes.
Once there, ask for time before you meet the bosses and after the meeting ask for time to decide. Call them a few days later for clarifications, and then call for another appointment. After that meeting, take a little more time to decide. Now it’s time to move in.
Designation
If you cannot be comfortable with the offered designation, you can suggest creating new departments and a new genre of designations. Remember, jargon is the king. For instance, a PR recruit can be renamed Head-Corporate Communications. A receptionist could even be a Hospitality Specialist. The sweeper who comes in the morning and leaves after an hour of ‘work’ could be a Hygiene and Sanitation Consultant.
You need to decide, realistically though, what designation you should get. Clarify whom you want to report to - India , the US , the UN or others. It could be many seniors at various levels for different purposes. Also find out who reports to you. As SPA & M have taught us, you also need someone to blame, just in case.
Assignments
Some possible missions become impossible if you lose courage mid-way. If you are being given a mission-impossible kind of assignment, ensure beforehand that every support will be given by the company from budget, talent, equipment to free lunch and company transportation. This way again, you have something or someone to blame, just in case.
The message is that just like your career, negotiating too is a learning process. Everybody gets better with time. But if you know the above negotiating fundamentals it is always easy to find a good job and the rest is, as they say, in your own hands and feet. Congratulation in advance for your job search.
|
