5 Secrets Of Salary Negotiations

Here are 5 secrets of salary negotiations:

Research is the Key

Start with some research, then perform some more research and then top it up with much more research. Make sure your research yields results and information from trusted sources. Just don't end up asking your friend or your friend's friend for advice. Understanding the industry benchmark, knowing the industry and the details of the open position will help a lot. Remember you are planning for a new job so your current job and current salary are not the right baselines. Determining the market value is significant.

Avoid the most common mistake

What is the most common mistake one can make in a salary negotiation?

Most common and biggest mistake is NOT realizing that the salary negotiation already begins as soon as the interviewer asks you for your current and desired salary. The question 'What's your current salary, and what's your desired salary?' usually comes up early in the interview process, so people are not aware that the negotiation has already begun.

The organization knows the kind of opening they have, they also know what are they willing to pay for that open position.

By asking you to mention your current and desired salary they are binding you within your own limits. This way you never come to know what was the real value of that position and that gets you into a position of disadvantage. To overcome such scenarios you may take a different stand and give a balance response, for example:

Question: What's your current salary, and what's your desired salary?

Answer: You know salary is just one of the aspect of this overall package, I would prefer to focus on the value that I would be able to add to the organization. I would not like to limit the discussion based on my current salary. I am sure the company will offer me the right salary, we can negotiate the numbers when we reach the right stage, at this point I believe it is too early to discuss.

This way you can have the company/ organization call out the numbers first and then disclose your numbers after you have heard what the company is willing to pay for the open position.

Learn to apply poker techniques

The research you did in step 1 will help you apply the poker techniques. This means you will know when to bluff, you will know when the other person is bluffing and you will know how long to hold your cards and when to show and move on. For example, you may want to call out that you have other offers in hand with better prospects and value. Similarly, the company may choose to mention that they are interviewing other candidates and may make a final decision based on certain condition(s).

Confidence matters, a lot

Make sure you appear confident even if you are not confident from within. Remember the game of chicken, the principle of the game is that each player prefers not to yield to the other so  your presence of mind and tact sensitivity in the given situation are also some of the key factors.

God is in the details

1. Ask about perks
2. Ask about other benefits, stock options etc.
3. Compare and contrast the responsibilities, benefits and long-term opportunities  inline with the package
4. Avoid sharing your bottom line
5. It is okay to push the HR
6. Show strong professionalism but avoid being aggressive
7. Don't be afraid, no amount is unreasonable. Its all in your mind
8. Never mention that you are underpaid in your current job or your current employer does not recognize your real worth
9. Never start the salary discussions yourself, let the company/ organization do it in the interview process
10. Last but not the least, remember that this is a painful process. Patience and good practice will make you perfect.

Here is a video on the factors impacting your salary:

6 Smart Features Of Gmail & Google

Here are some of the coolest google and gmail features that you may have not heard about earlier. Review the details below to see how you can utilize them.

Number 1:

Your gmail address has multiple aliases

1. If your email address is yourname@gmail.com then yourname+anything@gmail.com is also your email address, that is, if you send an email to yourname+test@gmail.com or to yourname+123@gmail.com then also it will appear in your email box (yourname@gmail.com).
2. If your email address is firstnamelastname@gmail.com then firstname.lastname@gmail.com is also your email address.

Number 2:Go to Settings ->Labs Here you can set cool features like:

1. Undo an email within 7 seconds after you sent it accidently
2. Set up canned responses
3. Auto-advance to next conversation in your inbox
4. Mark as read button
5. Pictures in chat
6. Move the chat box to the right side of the chat

Number 3:

How to switch from Google.co.in to Google.com?

Suppose you are in India and you try to open google dot com, your browser will automatically open google dot co dot in. It will happen every time. So how to open google dot com instead of google dot co dot in?

Its Simple.
Open google dot co dot in, now look a the bottom of the screen you will see an option to move from google dot co dot in to google dot com

Once you move to google dot com you will get an option to move back to dot co dot in

Number 4:

Play Videos in Google Chrome

Want to play a video. You don't need to have VLC or any other player, just CHROME. You can play video files in the browser itself. Just drag the video file in the browser window and enjoy watching.

Number 5:

Do you know what Google knows about you or your computer?Check it out!Go to http://google.com/ads/preferences on your browser, this will open the advertisement profile that Google created for your browser on your computer, this is linked to all those users who use that computer and browser.On the "Google Ads Across the Web" panel, you can see which gender Google guesses you are, which age it thinks you are, which languages it thinks you speak, and more importantly, what you are interested in!
So click the "Edit" button near your interest and see what Google knows about your interests :) You'll be surprised at how much more Google knows about you and your interests, and now you know how the ads you see online are chosen to match your interests.

Number 6:

Gmail can actually read and understand your email to find out that you have missed to attach a file, it throws a warning at you so that you can attach the file before the email is sent.

So the next time you draft an email use 'please see attached' instead of 'PSA'. It may save you a lot of Oops moments :)

Hope you found these features useful. Please feel free to comment and share more features that you may have come across. Thank You!


You may also want to read this post on 16 Top Social Networking Sites  of the world.

Psychological Phenomenons For Workplace

In this blog post we are going to talk about Psychological Phenomenons which can be applied or can be useful at workplace.

Diffusion of responsibility

Have you ever been part of meetings where there are 5 or more people in the room or on a conference call but only 1 or 2 of them are really taking the ownership or responsibility of the issue being discussed?

While taking ownership may be a leadership trait which everyone may not be able to display but what is seen missing is the participation. In meetings where there are large number of participants the Psychological Phenomenon of Diffusion of responsibility comes into play whereby a person is less likely to taking responsibility of action or inaction when others are present. Primary reason why this happens is because specific role and responsibility is not assigned to the individuals attending the meeting. This is less likely to happen when the group of people is comprised of 3 or less people and would rarely occur when the person is alone.

According to Wikipedia

The bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases in which individuals do not offer any means of help to a victim when other people are present. The probability of help is inversely related to the number of bystanders. In other words, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help. Several variables help to explain why the bystander effect occurs. These variables include: ambiguity, cohesiveness and diffusion of responsibility

 As a project manager or a leader of the group, one needs to take responsibility of identifying if such scenarios exist and then take action towards resolving such issues. This helps to improve overall productivity and creates an environment where people take ownership and responsibility of their action or inaction.

Contrast Effect

Accordingly to Wikipedia

A contrast effect is the enhancement or diminishment, relative to normal, of perception, cognition or related performance as a result of successive (immediately previous) or simultaneous exposure to a stimulus of lesser or greater value in the same dimension.

Lets understand it. 
For instance, if you are exposed to an object(X) of a particular value, after being exposed to an object of considerably lower value, you perceive X's value higher than its actual value.
OR
if you are exposed to an object(Y) of a particular value, after being exposed to an object of considerably higher value, you perceive X's value lower than its actual value.

Example 1:
At workplace, if you want to demand X amount of salary hike to your employer, you may instead want to ask for X + (10% of X) so that when negotiating X sounds a bit less than the amount you actually asked for. The inverse of it is also true and is widely used by the employers.

Example 2:
Boss: Your performance is not up to the expectations. You may be fired in this appraisal cycle.
Employee: Oh no! Boss, please don't fire me. Please find a way out.
Boss: Ah, okay. Let me see what I can do. But for now this 2% RAISE won't seem so bad.

Now that we have understood the tricks of the trade, what we need to do is focus on our mental strength. Understanding what we need and deserve as an employee or as an employer is of utmost importance. If we are genuine and smart we should be able to negotiate the right deal from either side of the table.

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