First of all: OUCH! 0-3 yesterday in football. I finally had a losing week, and in a big way. All my hopes rest on the Pats tonight– if they manage to win in Denver, I stay alive with a 2-3 record on the weekend (since I bet two units). If they lose, it’s 0-5 and my sportsbook bankroll takes a major blow. More on the sportsbook after the game.
More importantly, in an hour I negotiate my new salary… I’m moving over to the web team, since the funding for the project I’m working on has dried up… I don’t really have any clue how to negotiate a salary, but I did a bit of reading, and at least have some clue. It’s definitely time to apply some poker ideas to the negotiation, but first lets start with the facts:
1. The HR department lists an upper and lower bound on the salary range for the position
2. The position has been filled by 5 other people in the last year, all of whom quit within 3 months (yikes)
3. They are currently trying to fill 2 spots
4. I am far above the job requirements in several areas, but far behind in several others
5. I’ve been here for a year, so I can’t leverage the negotiation with offers from other companies
6. I don’t particularly like LA, so it is possible for me to refuse their offer
All of these numbers suggest I might as well go for the upper range of the requirements, although number 4 suggests I might skim a little bit off the top just to make it “look good”. Clearly I’ve got the best hand here, and I should be value betting that they don’t have much of an alternative but to pay me a lot. I’m somewhat of a proven quantity and they can’t fill the position, so they are in a tight spot.
In any case, I will most likely be getting a substantial raise, which will substantially increase my poker bankroll. But we’ll take Kenny Rogers advice this time and wait until we leave the table before we count our money…
Thanks to Avandalay for his kind comments… my wife’s family is heading up to San Francisco tomorrow for a few days, so I’m hoping to get a few solid nights of pure PartyPoker madness and get back to the grind. This journal needs to get back to poker!