You have worked hard at finding your next job. You have come through many obstacles and have reached your career objective. You have received a job offer. You’re thrilled. Mission accomplished. After all, what else is left to do?

A majority of job candidates do not negotiate their offer. They are happy just to have received it. They just want to start their new job and start getting paid again. Besides, there’s a myth that the process of negotiating could turn the employer off and cause the offer to be rescinded? Does this kind of thinking sound familiar?

Offer negotiations are certainly an optional part of the job search process. You don’t have to negotiate. Should you? Absolutely! In fact, when you don’t negotiate, negative ramifications can occur.

For example, you’re in Sales or Customer Support or any other profession that requires a persuasive style. As a final “test”, an employer may extend to you the position contingent upon how persuasive you are at negotiating the offer. If you don’t negotiate, or negotiate poorly, you lose. A runner-up may be offered the position on a similar basis.

Even if you are not in a profession that requires a persuasive style, you should seriously consider engaging in a negotiating process. Employers expect you to negotiate. There is always a higher amount that you can receive over and above the compensation you are initially offered. How much more will be a function of the bargaining chips you have, and the finesse used to negotiate them.

Let’s take stock of the bargaining chips you may have:

o Your educational degrees

o Being currently employed (assuming you are)

o Your level of expertise and number of years in the field

o The salary you currently command

o Your assessment of your true worth

Depending upon the type of position you are seeking, each of these areas has validity and relevance, and a specific “chip” value that can be called upon when negotiating. Probably the most esoteric yet most valuable of these is your own assessment of worth.

Your true worth is far greater than your current compensation, or what a salary calculator would reveal. Your worth can be defined by what you bring to the table that is unique and valuable. Look at the skills, strengths, core competencies, marketable assets and accomplishments you can declare as your own. This is what describes your uniqueness. It is what differentiates you from the crowd.

What number would you associate with your worth? If you’re having difficulty coming up with a figure, just ask your spouse or best friend how much they think you are worth. You’ll probably get a surprisingly high yet fairly accurate number. Let’s assume you came up with one million dollars. I know, that doesn’t even come close. The point is, can you expect an employer to pay you this amount as your compensation?

For sure, salary negotiations based on your true worth or unique gifts take on a whole new dimension. No, you probably won’t be compensated one million dollars; however, with the right blend of negotiating skills and patience, your efforts will be substantially rewarded!

I have seen up to forty thousand dollars added to starting compensation through diligent negotiations. It is common for signing bonuses, stipulations calling for substantial six-month performance-based increases, several weeks of additional vacation time, stock options, profit sharing, and more to be added as part of a negotiated package.

Negotiating is an opportunity to get what you truly want, and deserve. It is a way to significantly raise your standard of living and sense of self, simply by taking stock of what you have and then knowing how to use it for your advancement. Remember, what you receive now becomes your benchmark for future positions.

We all have choices. Some people would rather keep things the way they are. That’s ok. However, you have worked very hard to come to this point, so why stop short of getting what you truly want, and deserve. Wouldn’t you rather be compensated more on the basis of what you’re worth than on some arbitrary figure designed to keep the status quo? Go for what you are worth – your life will never be the same!

Copyright © 2005 TopDog Group All rights reserved.

How many times have you asked yourself during a presentation “wait a minute, how did we get here”? That question is the result of feeling lost in the presentation and not necessarily because you were dozing off. A well thought-out presentation structure will help you keep your listeners on track and make your presentation that much stronger.

One of the inherent problems with a slide-based presentation program like MS PowerPoint is that takes you visually from one picture to another, breaking up the various pieces of content. It’s easy therefore for inexperienced users (and even some old pros) to concentrate too much on the content of the individual slides and to give less thought to slide order and transition.

A good presentation is a logical progression of ideas that should build up to an ultimate statement, question or call to action. If you are not building good arguments step-by-step you will lose the listener and you will be less effective in your presentation.

So, how do we give our presentation a good structure, you would be correct in asking. Here are three things that I have learned and used successfully over the past few years in my consulting career. I hope that you consider them and that they will be equally successful in your presentations:

1) Ensure that you are using a uniform slide design template for your presentation. Most companies have proprietary PowerPoint template designs, a so-called CI (Corporate Identity), but if your company does not or if you are a student, it is fairly simple to make one (I have tutorial about this coming soon). In either case, company CI or self-created template, you should use it! This will, surprisingly, help to keep your listeners on track.

2) Always include a “goals” or “target” slide at the beginning of your presentation. This will tell you listeners immediately what your are hoping to achieve with the presentation (not dissimilar to writing a good paper) and helps keep you honest and on-track when doing the final checks of your presentation.

3) Separate main points with an agenda point slide. If your presentation is longer than 10 slides, I would encourage you to separate your main sections or chapters with a slide that introduces the fact that you are moving onto another section. It can be simply a blank slide with the name or purpose of the next section on it.

If you use these three tips in your presentation you are bound to have made an improvement. Remember, providing a good structure to your presentations will help you better make your point.

I remember clearly being ten years old, and given the “big reading” in my school play. I was genuinely shaking, nerve-wracked, blustering and so on. My teacher told me to plant my feet solidly, hold my script and read out loud and proud to the back of the row. Looking around now I see many professionals still addressing their audiences like that today!

Now I have written many articles, and continue to train many people in speaking publicly and there is one absolute basic that we all need to master when speaking and that is remembering to breathe. Simple of course, but when nerves get involved basics often go out of the window so I am writing this article to offer anyone who find their sentences tailing away a couple of techniques to help a nervous speaker find the space to breathe.

First, have a clear introduction, more than any other part of your presentation, super rehearsed. Knowing absolutely how you plan to start will really help your confidence levels, and increase the chances you will breathe at this point in the presentation.

Have a glass of water on stage. Use it as a prop, and dare yourself, again early on is good to get into the habit, to finish a sentence, and take a sip. Don’t say you are going to take a sip, don’t excuse yourself just do it and allow yourself to understand the audience will accept this. As you do this, you’ll be breathing.

When possible invite comments or questions during the session. Perfect timing to breathe as others talk. This is so easy to do when you know how… Pretty much any topic in many situations will allow you to ask the audience for their opinions first. Or you can invite your audience to discuss a question or a point of view you have given them, before taking their feedback. I do this often early in a presentation when I am sometimes particularly more energetic, and a “breather” is important.

Make use of natural breaks, whether for an exercise you are giving, or for comfort breaks, to get some air. It really helps. If you are a smoker you are probably used to dashing to the exit for your quick fix, but this is a great habit for speakers anyway. Go and get some air.

Our nerves kick in, and we often breathe not so well, in newer material, or those areas where greater discussion or audience disagreement is likely, so be kind to yourself and “wrap” these areas with material you know really well. And consider using a co speaker. Or decide to show a film.

Finally practice the pause. The pause is great because you don’t need more content, you just stop speaking. You allow yourself to calm. You help the audience to calm. You will transmit a really knowledgeable air of authority. Everything will just seem much easier. And during this time guess what? Yes! You are breathing. People usually worry about explaining every last pause. Trying to “keep the flow” of talking,but actually we appear so much more knowledgeable and informed when we allow the silence to speak for itself. Audiences have time to consider what you have said, they make more links on their own minds, and it helps with retention and comprehension too… Imagine stuffing a meal down, all seven courses with no pauses for anything – you would barely digest it would you? And that is how many speakers carry on. So pause and allow your audience to digest what you have been saying and you to breathe.

All the best… Keep bating because promise it’s better for your health than not!