Introduction | Your Interests | List | Power | Understanding the Employer

Your Interests

Lists of Interests

What you want will be some assesment of your interests and of the interests of those attached to you. Consider your own views, those of your significant other, of your children, if any, of other relatives, etc., whose concerns you want to take into account.

Start by making a list of all the people on your side whose interests matter to you in the upcoming negotiation.

Then, list what those interests are with respect to each person who matters to you.

Here is a list of items you might want to include - but please try to add several items to this list before you finish - make this list your own.

Interest Matrix

An interest matrix helps you weigh the different companies that you are considering against each other. It helps you stand back and see whether the companies you have chosen really meet your needs and which do a better job in some areas than others.

Now that you have developed your personal list of interests, rank order these items or at least re-order these items. Group at the top those which are the most important for your negotiations with each potential employer. Make a matrix with the items that matter most to you in a vertical list. In particular, think about what matters to you more and less than money.

List potential employers along the vertical axis. Now, fill in the boxes with respect to each job/employer that holds potential. If you can, create some kind of weighting system about what matters most to you - even if you change the weights, it is worthwhile to think through what is most important to you.

Below are two sample graphs, from different students, comparing different companies against the interests that matter most to the student who developed the graph. As you can see, two people may view the same company in a different light. Also, some people place numerical values in the graphs, based on scales which they developed, to help them measure companies against each other. This is helps people get a general idea of which company is best for them.

Student A

Student B

The values are in the parantheses, where the company with the highest total "wins." In this example, though, Student B will have to go back and, with her significant other, Pat, add a few more columns because the current values are too close.

Developing Options

If you know you are interested in only one employer, or if you are tied to one employer, see if there are several different jobs that might be available. Sometimes you can do a little bargaining within one company, if not for salary then with respect to other job possibilities and moves.

At least figure out where you stand, with respect to this list, for all possible jobs within the given company. The list may help you to develop new possibilities in talking with a mentor at the company. In addition, your responses to the list may convince you to begin to think about different employers sometime in the future.

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