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On July 26, 2017, Women in Big Data presented a valuable workshop on negotiation skills, led by Bob Loftis of NowForward Coaching. IBM hosted the event at their Foster City, CA location, with Karmen Leung of IBM moderating.

Bob kicked off the 2+ hours training on negotiation with a few concepts:

• Most people stay at their current jobs 3-5 years–which implies transition.
• Transition implies the need to negotiate one’s next step.
• While men will apply to jobs if they meet only 50% qualifications, where women will apply to jobs only when they meet 100% qualifications.

Bob covered how to research your market value (Glassdoor.com and other sites can help) and how to handle salary questions. We walked through a number of helpful tools, such as networking, targeted resumes, LinkedIn profile, etc.

Then we worked through practice negotiations, and he gave us tips on negotiation behaviors (such as handshakes, etc.). One tip to use when preparing for interviews: Think SOAR. That is, be sure you cover the following: when outlining your accomplishments : Situation, Opportunity, Action, Results). Plus, remember that interviewers are evaluating candidates to answer three main questions: 1) Can they do the job, 2) Do they want to do the job, and 3) Will they fit into the company culture?

We also talked about best ways to handle the money conversation. Recruiters often target the mid-range of salary levels, on the theory that it allows a company to move someone up later. If you believe that the quoted salary is too low, don’t be intimated: feel free to ask what is required to get to a higher level.

A few simple interviewing tips:

• Asking for a higher salary than you need will leave you room to negotiate, if necessary.
• Remember that everything is negotiable, from sign-on bonuses to work-from-home opportunities.
• If you’re interviewing with a recruiter, consider asking to review any offer you receive with the manager you’ll be working for, who may be have more flexibility.
• Don’t be afraid to use silence in a negotiation.

For more information, we invite you to download the session handout. Studying it will boost your confidence and help you become the best negotiator you can be.

You can also review other information about Bob and the materials he offers by visiting his site.

 

 

In addition, Sam Davis, CEO of amplified.ai discussed his company, which is working with AI to bring new insights to the patent field. They are looking for ETL data, DL and app dev engineers (as well as advisors and investors) and will be posting jobs to the WiBD Job Board soon. Sam’s hiring mantra is “Build diversity from the beginning instead of fixing it AFTER it becomes a problem.” (The WiBD Forum agrees wholeheartedly.) Sam’s email is sam@amplified.ai.