#133
Purpose: The purpose of this project is to learn about different types of negotiation and the strategies that can be used when negotiating.
Overview: Develop a 5- to 7-minute speech about a past or upcoming negotiation in your life. The negotiation must be one that you have participated in or will participate in. You may choose to reflect on the strategies you used or those that you believe would be the most beneficial in the future. Your speech can be persuasive, humorous, informational, or crafted in any style that appeals to you and supports your speech content.
Script:
“Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.” This quote by John F. Kennedy resonates with me every time I prepare myself for a negotiation.
Fellow TMs and guests, a very good evening to all of you. Today I'd like to share one instance of when I decided to negotiate and ask for something I believed was rightly mine and whether I got what I asked for or not, we'll get to that towards the end.
August 2016. Time for campus placements. Final week. We were 5 of us. We had to go to an onsite interview in a company. Here the HR had told us that due to shortage of interviewers, a VP and an SVP would be interviewing us, with each of us having exactly one round that would be the deciding factor. It was a little strange since the usual format was to have a panel of interviewers and each candidate going through at least 2 rounds of interviews.
We waited for our turn as we were called one by one. Turned out, I was the last one to be called. By then, the rounds went by so quickly and it was already made known that 4 of them got selected. Hearing this, I was quite hopeful. Finally my turn came. I went in with a broad smile and greeted the VP. He didn't ask me to sit down and answer his questions. All he did was give me a marker, pointed to the whiteboard, and said "Design a login screen".
I was thoroughly taken aback. What sort of interview was this? It's usually theoretical questions on programming and databases, and coding questions where the interviewer gives you a well-defined problem and you have to write the code for it. What was happening here? I went blank for what seemed like eternity. I took a deep breath and composed myself. For the next few moments which seemed like an hour, i tried to draw and describe the problem to the best of my ability. Because he was a VP, I feared I couldn't ask for a different problem or negotiate in my favour.
Within less than ten minutes I left the room feeling dejected. The HR came to me escorted me to a different room so that she could reveal the news to me in private. Shaking her head, she said that I didn't make it through. I'm usually a shy introvert person who is also a pushover who says okay to things really easily. Or at least I used to be until that moment. I don't know what came over me but I was outraged. I knew I had to fight back for this injustice. Fight for my right. I knew I couldn't give up and walk away that day from this opportunity. I looked her in the eye and said "in my interview I wasn't asked any coding questions." She said "oh really?" I said yes, well, the other 4 seemed to have gotten specific questions on programming while I was asked a random design problem and wasn't even told what the expectations were. there was no back and forth conversation either. I narrated to her what had happened and she seemed a little flustered, probably because of my tone and the conviction with which i said all this. She even tried to say 'no no everyone got only round one of interview. How can I make an exception for you?' I persisted. At the end of it I politely asked "Could I please have another round of the interview? I wasn't asked even a single technical question." After that I stood in silence and continued looking at her in an unwavering manner, waiting for her response.
Now it was her turn to be taken aback. She stared at me blankly for a second and then said, "oh okay let me talk to the SVP and get back." Thankfully, she said yes. I had an amazing round of interview with the SVP where he kept shooting questions and I was confidently and coherently answering each of them immediately and thoroughly, spitting out all the details i had studied. It felt like a rapid fire round, towards the end of which, the SVP looked at me, smiled and slightly nodded, seeming impressed. I came out of that room with my head held high and I knew this time around the HR would be back with good news. And she was. All 5 of us walked out of there with the offer letter in our hand and a big grin on our faces.
Fellow toastmasters, let us learn to fight for our right. ask and you shall get it. never fear negotiation. always try. even if it doesn't go in your favour, i'm sure you'll learn a lot about yourself in that process. As we learnt from my story, negotiation is the art of letting the other side have your way.
Thank you, over to you TMOD.
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