"You're one tough negotiator," concedes the car salesman to comic strip character Dilbert, after 4 hours of haggling. Negotiations can be tough, especially when you're negotiating a job offer and not bartering over your latest sport-utility vehicle purchase. But with realistic expectations and reasonable requests, you can improve your chances of reaching acceptable agreements as long as you commu...
That's the title of the Harvard Law School Negotiation Project's statement of principle, which is subtitled Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. And what it's about, in the words of a sage Rolling Stone, is how "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need." In the 1991 second edition of Getting to Yes (Penguin paperback, $14), Roger F...
DAVID G. JENSEN, A SCIENTIFIC RECRUITER AND SPEAKER ON CAREER ISSUES WORLDWIDE, IS THE FOUNDER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR OF CAREERTRAX INC., A BIOTECHNOLOGY AND PHARMACEUTICAL RECRUITING FIRM LOCATED IN SEDONA, ARIZONA. PREVIOUS COLUMNS Two months ago, I found myself knee-deep in one of those 2-day intensive courses on negotiation you see advertised in airline magazines. I have always loved to read a...
So you've been offered that coveted junior faculty research position with your own lab and staff. But making the transition from postdoc to faculty a smooth one depends on your negotiation skills and strategies. Do it well and you're off to a flying start, do it poorly and you could be hobbling along the academic career path. The phone call offering you a faculty position can signify the end of y...
Greedy Gus: Negotiating an Assistant Professorship " Can you believe it? Dr. Gus, the immunology faculty candidate with the curly red hair, has asked for season's tickets for the Braves in his start-up package," the chair of the new assistant professor search committee announces at the faculty meeting. "I heard that he is using our offer to up the ante at South-by-Southeast U, responds Dr. B. Lea...
We've all heard about the "leaky pipeline" for women in science. Some of the challenges and proposed solutions to this issue have been outlined in recent Next Wave articles (see sidebar). At issue is the alarming observation that as women move up the science career ladder, their numbers decrease dramatically. In the life sciences, women and men show near parity in undergraduate and graduate progr...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX The University of Waterloo Technology Transfer and Licensing Office (TTLO) is part of the University Office of Research and commenced operations in its present form in 1992. The office is relatively small in comparison to similar offices in Canadian universities and operates with three people--G.G.H. (Jerry) Gray as director, Scott Inwood as the commercialization associa...
Last summer, the postdocs at the University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC) voted narrowly to join a labor union. On 16 March they voted overwhelmingly--80 to 5--to ratify what is believed to be the nation's first collective bargaining agreement specifically for postdocs. Negotiated by UCHC and the union, University Health Professionals (UHP), also known as Local 3837 of the AFL-CIO-affiliate...
The goal of this article is to give a broad overview of the process of negotiating an academic job. Two principles should guide your negotiations: Be honorable and be strategic. If you are going to succeed professionally, your needs must be met. You will need to act ethically, work hard, and be smart to make that happen. Remember that you aren't just negotiating for yourself: Your students, your ...
A sk Dr. Clemmons is a monthly advice column for scientists and engineers who are seeking top-notch academic, career, and personal development advice. Please read the introductory article and my most recent article to see what the column is all about, and then send me a question of your own! Q: Dear Dr. Clemmons: I recently received an offer for employment from a biotechnology company located...
Tooling Up graphic (Kelly Krause, AAAS) What's Your Mission?. by Dave Jensen, 15 January 2010. Your unique life philosophy is the cornerstone of your success and job satisfaction. Presenting Your Technology. by Dave Jensen, 18 December 2009. Budding scientist-entrepreneurs must be able to present their company skillfully to potential investors and partners. The Project Management Career Track. by...
In Laurie Weingart's role-playing sessions, each member of the negotiating couple (in this case, a candidate for a junior faculty position and a department chair) scores points depending on how well they negotiate certain issues: lab space, teaching load, start-up funds, lab location, and salary, for example. Each negotiator has their own goals and priorities and they earn or lose points dependin...
Flame and glass job (Photos8.com) (Photos8.com) "The union would like guaranteed wage increases, and we have to make sure we can support those kinds of built-in increases." -- Dwaine Duckett, University of California's Vice President for Human Resources I am writing these lines on 16 January 2010 and thinking of Sheharbano "Sheri" Sangji. The 23-year-old University of California, Los Angeles (UCL...
24 August 2001 diamond.gif Be Honorable and Strategic: Negotiating a Faculty Position 10 August 2001 diamond.gif Alleviating Tenure Torture 27 July 2001 diamond.gif Getting Research Done (with Undergraduates) 22 June 2001 diamond.gif Tenure: Under Fire but Hunkered Down 25 May 2001 diamond.gif Art of Teaching Session II: Portfolios 11 May 2001 diamond.gif Organizing a Scientific Meeting 27 April ...
In August, the postdocs at the University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC) opened a new chapter in postdoc history and a new round in the debate over how best to improve postdoc working conditions. They voted to join University Health Professionals (UHP), a local of an AFL-CIO-affiliated national labor union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). UHP is a long-established bargaining unit ...
A postdoc working at the bench across from you publishes data that are "too perfect," and his reported sample size of mice does not match up with the number of animals you know he used. Feeling it is your duty as a graduate student and as a scientist to find out what happened, you first ask him what's going on. When he doesn't give you a rational response, you go through the proper channels at yo...
Rutgers University (Ted Kerwin) "I feel I do have an advantage if I can say, 'You're joining a group where we have a process, we have a union, we have built-in metrics. ... I'm offering you a position where you're not just a whim, just answering to me. You're part of the bigger system.' " --Lisa Klein On 20 July, the postdocs at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, received official recog...
