I take the terms “professional” and “professionalism” very seriously: when I’m on the job, being paid for a service, I’m representing my team and my own personal brand, so I do everything I can to exceed expectations.
Put another way, I’m collaborating with my organization to make my clients happy, and while I enjoy the collegial atmosphere at the office and client sites, I always tell myself: “this isn’t fun and games, it’s business”.
That’s significant, because in business, most discussions come down to the bottom line, and that is very apparent when it comes to job offer negotiations.
At that point, there seemingly isn’t much collaboration going on between you and the company: you’re trying to get as much as you can for your services, and more than likely the company is trying to pay you as little as possible to get you to say “yes”.
It’s important to mention that this is totally rational behavior on both sides, and as I’ll show below, it helps to employ further rational behaviors to maximize the chances of both parties coming out of the negotiations satisfied.
One of the best parts about writing this column has been hearing from readers around the world, and this week I’ll share one such exchange to illustrate how a “good” negotiation should go.
Hi David,
I came across your articles “Starting your oil & gas career with a service company” and “HR personnel look away: using a service company as a stepping stone to an operator.” And then I thought why not ask you for some advice regarding my career plan.
I am a chemical engineer (co-op) graduate from a Canadian university. I have one full year of co-op and internship experience with several large service companies in the Middle East region. During my studies, I worked in the cementing labs, in yards for an equipment operator (couldn’t get the chance to get on a rig), drilling fluid labs, drill bit tenders, coiled tubing simulations, and coiled tubing equipment operator work.
I have a job offer in-hand and was seeking advice from you.
One of the “Big 4″ service companies just offered me a job for the position of Assistant Operator 1 – Cementing in the Middle East. This is strictly a field position which will require frequent visits to the rig. I am promised to be taught all operations regarding well cementing.
Unfortunately I am not being hired as an engineer, but I am told that I may be switched to an engineering position should it become available. Another drawback is that I am being hired locally, which means my wages will be 10 times less than what I would’ve been getting in Canada.
Now the benefits are clear to me that I can become an operational expert in a short time but I am afraid I will have “operator” stamped on my forehead after working as one for my first job. Will I always be considered an operator from this job onwards?
I want to move into sales at some point in my career and then business development, but after this kind of a start to my career, do you think it will be possible?
For general information about the way this company (note from David: many others as well) works: an assistant operator generally moves up to service coordinator at some point. But an entry level engineer would move up in the management side.
How would you advise I tackle this first big decision I have to make. I have to sign my contract in the next few days or it will be voided.
Thanks a lot for your support.
Here was my first reply:
I just had a long talk with the service coordinator (acting manager at the moment) that is wanting to hire me. During my previous internships he was my supervisor.
He told me that the position is just a door into the field and promised me rigorous growth and training internationally. It was the only way he could pull me in without HR bugging him. Apparently I will be treated as an engineer, and will be given all the training that any engineer takes.
He promises that because I have a degree I will move up quite fast and can move into the office very easily. He wants me to get solid field experience and sounds quite determined on building my future.
Any further advice from your side?
It turns out that I did have some further input:
That is good you are having an open conversation with your manager, but…
Business is business, and in business words only are meaningless. While I am sure they are being very nice to you now to get you to accept, once you do, you play ball on their terms not yours. While it would be nice that we could all trust each other verbally, contracts exist for reasons such as this one: there is no guarantee that whatever they tell you now will come true (and vice versa, for that matter).
So, if you really like where you are, and you really are pessimistic you’ll find anything else, make sure you’re getting everything you’re told now down on paper in your employment contract. For instance: “if I meet targets x,y,z I will be promoted in such and such amount of time, with such and such a pay raise…”.
Good luck, and let me know how it goes!
And here now is the final outcome:
Thanks for the priceless advice David. I really appreciate it. I never thought somebody that didn’t know me would answer my emails but you did and I’m very grateful. You probably went through the same kinds of situations and we need people like you to guide us through this tough part of our lives.
You were right about waiting a short while and trying to get the jobs to come to me. I had an interview at a local company in the Middle East last week and they offered me a trainee engineer position. I also was just emailed by a recruiting agency to interview for a coiled tubing technician position.
Everything looks like it’s going well now. Thanks a lot for all your advice again. Hope to meet you in person one day.
This is great news!
To tie this up and provide something that is relevant to the readership at large, I will go through what this candidate did right, and how you should use this exchange to approach your next important job negotiations:
Think things through carefully. This one seems totally obvious, but what I took away from the initial email was just how thoroughly this candidate thought about their choices, as demonstrated by the clarity of the email.
If you reach a point where you’re still undecided, ask for help. Once you’ve weighed up the pros and cons, if you still find yourself stuck, don’t feel you have to take a “leap of faith”: find someone you trust, talk it through with them, and see if that helps you find more clarity.
Be upfront yet professional with your concerns. This particular candidate absolutely did the right thing, and brought all of these concerns up with their management. Again, given the tone of the email, I can see picture this conversation as having been very calm and professional. That’s the most important aspect of these conversations: you MUST focus on the facts, and the value you feel you can deliver to the company. If you make things personal and allow the tone of the conversation to devolve, not only is it unlikely you will receive some or all of your requests, but it is also possible you will be “blacklisted” by future colleagues and management.
Always have a fallback. The conviction with which you can turn down one offer is directly tied to the strength of the backup you have (or don’t!) to that offer. It sounds obvious, but that statement really underscores how much you should work to get not just one offer, but several. Negotiations are about who has leverage, and the best thing you can do to increase your leverage is to have a solid plan B.
Whatever you agree to, make sure it is written explicitly in your employment contract. I want to highlight again how well I thought this particular reader handled the conversation with their manager, but if this was really something they had pursued further, I would have doubled-down on my advice to get all the manager’s promises recorded on paper.
You can negotiate as hard as you want, but once you strike a deal, professionalism dictates that you should deliver on the terms of that deal.
To make sure there are no ambiguities down the line that would get in the way of you delivering on those terms, make sure both parties spell them out.
Go with your gut. Ideally, job negotiations resemble something like marriage: a hard but necessary process that hopefully leads to a long, fruitful and mutually beneficial partnership…or at the very least a parting with minimal hard feelings before a serious commitment is made!
You wouldn’t ask someone to marry you if you weren’t 100% sure you could commit to them forever, right? Starting off the partnership with such uncertainty can only lead to disappointment, and the funny thing is that uncertainty isn’t always rational: it’s just that you “feel” the match isn’t right.
Follow that line of reasoning when it comes to settling on a job offer: if it doesn’t feel right, acknowledge that feeling and either renegotiate the contract terms or move on to another offer.
It is far better to leave the negotiating table on good terms than part ways acrimoniously later on…
Good luck to you all in your future job negotiations!
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