AI being a hammer searching for a nail

Published 2 days ago • 1 min read

Hey Reader,

Not sure if you've seen this too, but we keep getting this ad on Instagram (screenshot below), probably because we post a lot about negotiations.

It's tempting to go down this rabbit hole, but don't let curiosity waste valuable time you could spend elsewhere. Here's why, but first:

FREE Negotiations Q&A on Thursday, March 5th

Quick PSA: we're hosting a live Q&A this week! Join us Thursday, March 5th at 3pm PT / 6pm ET to get live input and real-time feedback from us on all your negotiation questions. We'll also send everyone who RSVPs a free template doc that will come in handy for your career ;)

RSVP here, and feel free to forward this to anyone who you know is job searching: https://luma.com/wvg8iavq

Why this ad about salary benchmark data is flawed

🔥 Hot take: While market data is interesting, it’s not that useful.

Companies always have canned responses prepared to dismiss any compensation research you bring to the conversation, no matter how accurate your data is. They can simply respond that they have their own philosophy on how they pay for the role, and all that research you did was for nothing.

Use that time instead to learn how to negotiate both strategically and respectfully. Here's a batch of helpful tips to keep in mind.

We dove deeper into what you should do instead of spending a lot of time gathering salary data: Salary Market Research is a Waste of Your Time

Hope to see many of you at our negotiation Q&A this Thursday!

Warmly,

Gerta & Alex
Co-founders, YourNegotiations.com

P.S. Are you job searching or have upcoming negotiations?

Book a free call with us, where we’ll learn more about your situation, offer some free tips, and explore if we’re a good fit to work together: https://calendly.com/alexhapki/call

P.P.S. Know someone interested in negotiations?

Send them our way and we’ll thank you with $500 for each person who becomes a client. No cap.

A quick intro or an email to alex@yournegotiations.com works.

Hi, we’re Gerta & Alex. 👫
We’re Harvard, MIT, LinkedIn, and Instagram alums and we share negotiation tips to help you
negotiate job offers or business deals. Have an upcoming negotiation? Book a call with Alex here!

548 Market St, No. 922375, San Francisco, CA 94104
Unsubscribe · Preferences

The problem with BATNA

There’s a specific kind of pain that shows up in negotiations. You walk away from an offer because you assume something better is coming. You tell yourself you’re being “disciplined.” Then nothing comes. The sushi belt keeps moving. You’re just sitting there watching empty plates. In this week’s episode of Gentle Power, we invited Yehong Zhu, cofounder and CEO of Zette AI, which licenses premium news data from trusted publishers to AI companies. Yehong left us with a few metaphors that...

6 days ago • 4 min read

Layoffs, clawbacks, and severance: what you can actually negotiate

Hi friend, With the market uncertainty these days and many recent layoffs, we've received a lot of questions about severance packages, sign-on bonus clawback clauses, what can be negotiated, and more. Here are some things to think about:1️⃣ The new California clawback law(Even if you’re outside California, it’s worth keeping an eye on since other states often follow California’s lead.)California recently passed a new law called Assembly Bill (AB 692) tightening the rules around sign-on...

9 days ago • 2 min read

LinkedIn is a weird place. Use it anyway.

LinkedIn feels like it’s split into two genres right now: “Thrilled to announce we raised $50M” AI-written posts that somehow say nothing in 900 words. And yet… it still works. This week on Gentle Power (Youtube | Spotify | Apple), we talked to Morgan Snyder, who helps CEOs and exec teams build a real content engine. The part we found most useful was not his tactics. It was the underlying negotiation happening before any “sales call” even starts. Key frameworks or ideas 1) Long-form builds...

13 days ago • 2 min read