Negotiations
“Have you been involved in negotiations in your past
jobs?”
■“At my last job I was on the ‘best practices’ team after we
merged two companies. Our team went through extensive
negotiating to maintain practices that were important to
our department. I was the team leader and managed to
keep things under control by being as objective as
possible.”
■“As the HR manager, I was in negotiations with candidates
regarding salary offers and benefits on a regular basis. The
secret to my successful negotiations was to listen first and
then talk.”
■“I have strong training in negotiations and was able to
negotiate a win/win situation in almost all of the cases I
worked on as an arbitrator. Listening and using active
listening skills is important when hearing all sides of the
problem.”
“Tell me about a time when you negotiated a deal at
your last job?”
■“The most successful negotiations I have had involved a
contract with the shipping dealer who I had to sell over a
long period before he agreed to our conditions. But I am
happy to report it resulted in a 15 percent reduction in our
costs.”
■“Negotiating contracts was a major part of the responsi-
bilities at my last job. In fact, I was given a bonus for saving
the company over half a million dollars in a six-month
period.”
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