Evaluating and Negotiating Job Offers

Hand shake

Last week’s Career Services webinar was Evaluating and Negotiating Job Offers facilitated by Coach Judy Ozbun and Tech Host Maria Ramos. Highlights included benefits of negotiating, what is and is not negotiable in a job offer, how to evaluate your needs vs wants, how to evaluate your priorities and craft your negotiation strategy, and how to graciously accept/decline an offer.

We presented the key barriers to negotiating:

  • Fear of Rejection. Consider reframing this fear instead as a matter of fit. You, the candidate, are as much evaluating the job and organization as they are assessing you.
  • Fear of Conflict. Gaining buy-in can be a challenge, but only if you are unprepared. Fact is, you have the same end goal – to hire/get hired. So, reframe the conflict as an opportunity to practice your skillful negotiation, beginning with your common goal.
  • Fear of Negotiating Poorly. This is entirely within your control! Negotiation is a skill you can learn, and we are happy to help.

We shared the factors to consider when negotiating one or more job offers:

  • Company and Culture. In what environments do you thrive? What’s important to you in how a team and organization communicate, make decisions, evaluate performance?
  • Boss. What management style do you prefer? What qualities are important to you in a manager? What is your work style? What leadership style gets in the way of your success?
  • Job Content. What does this work require? What’s the percentage of travel involved, and where? How will your performance be evaluated? What are the opportunities for collaboration, creativity, learning? How will you be recognized and rGrowing a plant from a jar of moneyewarded?
  • Work/Life Balance. What are the priorities in your life right now? How will that change over time in the short-term and longer-term? How does this weigh against negotiables?
  • Compensation. Not just salary, what else factors into the total package of your job offer? How will you make trade-offs?

Most students who attended were interested in questions related to how to negotiate, how to leverage offers, how to ask for more time, and other questions. For answers to these questions and to learn more about the “How-to’s” of Negotiation, download the slides and/or schedule a one-on-one session with a Career Coach in CareerConnect. We are happy to help you plan and practice your job offer negotiation.

Our Essential TIPS TO NEGOTIATION infographic offers key take-aways from the presentation.

Workshop Slides and the Job Evaluation Workbook may be downloaded directly from the Document Library on CareerConnect.

To share your ideas for workshops and other programming, please email careers@hsph.harvard.edu or join us for our upcoming Ask-a-Coach Open Zoom Session scheduled Wednesdays, 1:00pm-3:00pm EST during April. For more information, check Workshops in CareerConnect.

 

Photo by Cytonn Photography on Unsplash