Short rambling about the salary negotiations

Today we got a glimpse of negotiating in the form of a salary negotiation simulation. The premise was quite simple: as a team we (the recruitment managers) agreed upon some boundaries for the negotiation regarding the maximum salary, additional perks and bonuses, etc. Once we had an agreement over these, it was time for one-on-one furious negotiating action with the candidate person. From the very start it was clear that it would be difficult to get a win-win situation. I started with a fairly low offer but throughout the negotiation the before-mentioned boundaries were getting closer and closer. In the end, I had to give in to some additional bonuses in order to seal the deal. I have to admit that Sampo was a worthy adversary and a tough cookie to negotiate. Kudos to you.

As it turned out, the other members in the recruiter group were far better at negotiating than me. Almost everyone else recruited the candidate either with a lower salary or less perks than in my case. Had this been a real recruiting mission, I would imagine that my boss would have given me this look after the negotiation:

Nevertheless, I learned a lot about myself as a negotiator. And boy do I have lot to learn.

The first thoughts of the Jacuzzi man

Jacuzzis are awesome. Or hot tubs in general. Maybe that could work as a conversation starter? I mean, who doesn't like jacuzzis?

Who could resist something like this? (source)

Small talk is a difficult subject in Finland. We Finns tend to be quiet, keep to ourselves and we definitely don't like our personal space to be invaded. In other cultures this sort of behaviour might be considered rude. Nevertheless, small talk is a good way to break the ice and start a conversation with a stranger. Or getting to know the opposite sides of a negotiation.

Speaking of negotiations, I am pretty sure that I'll have a lot to improve as a negotiator during this course. I'm a text-book example of a stereotypical Finn: I don't speak a lot and when I do, it's short and to the point. So it's obvious that this course will be challenging for me. But that's why I enrolled in the first place: to learn.

And I did learn a few things already on the first group session:

• It is really difficult to come up with English words that start with the letter 'J'
• I am terrible at remembering names
• Small talk is a lot easier if you have some questions thought out before-hand (even if they are on a piece of paper) 

 Until next time. Cheers.