赖小琪
Negotiation occurs frequently in our lives. For example, when you go to an interview, you need to negotiate your salaries, welfares, bonus, vacation, etc, with the interviewer; when you go to lease a house, you need to negotiate with your prospective tenants on the rents, length of the residence and so on; if you are engaged in sales work, you need to negotiate with your clients on the price, discount, and quantifies of the products. If you are doing international trade and exporting goods overseas, you also need to negotiate the shipments, ways of payment and so forth. Altogether, negotiation is everywhere and no one can live without it.
Before I came to UCD, I was studying Shenzhen University, China. Due to my excellent English, I undertook a lot of part-time jobs like teaching, translation and interpretation( but after I came here, I realized how poor my English is!). Before I took the jobs, I used to negotiate the pays and relevant rights with my boss. In the very beginning, I was not good at negotiating and had to accept whatever pay they gave me. Another reason for my embarrassing situation then was that I lacked experience in teaching and interpretation. A green hand tends to suffer a lot before he becomes experienced. But after half a year, I gradually accumulated ample experience in my job, especially in teaching. On top of that, I had reflected on my past experiences of negotiating and learnt a lot of lessons. Another important point that deserves my mention is that I got to know the ruling prices of various jobs relating to English. Therefore, I could often get the upper hand in the negotiation. At least I would not comprise beyond my bottom line set.
According to my past experiences, here I would like to summarize my strengths and weaknesses in negotiation. In terms of my strengths, they can be sorted as follows: first of all, I know to prepare well before each negotiation. To be more specific, I will search for the data I need and know the other party well. I will think carefully what counts most to me and what counts less. Then I will try my best to insist on my bottom line and try to gain more without being too aggressive. Secondly, I know to persuade the other party with rational reasons. I will not ask for something out of nowhere. I can often have my own reasons to back up my point and can often demonstrate that I deserve all these treatments. Last but not least, I know to strike a balance among all I am asking for. In other words, I know when to “go forward” and when to “go backward”. Sometimes comprise is a must if the interviewer does not go too far. When you get something greater than your expectation in this area, you may need to comprise a little bit in other areas. It is impossible for you to gain all you want in the whole negotiating process.
As with my weaknesses, I can also conclude them as follows: To begin with, I will feel a little bit nervous even panic when I am interviewed by some “tough” people. These people tend to be very severe and pose a “never-surrendering” attitude to you. At this moment, I may sometimes lose self-control and may probably make a big comprise at last. Secondly, when I come across some stiff issues that I did not prepare beforehand, I may tend to get stuck in my mind and have no idea how to respond appropriately. Then probably I will make a big comprise again at that time before I come to know the best response afterwards. So it is very vital for me to improve my quick thinking and apt reaction in unexpected issues.
To sum up, I find negotiation is a very interesting and challenging activity. That is why I would choose this course as my optional module. I believe this module can help me further sharpen my negotiating skills. And I will spare no efforts to engage in it! |
