I told myself that, I am going to stay longer this time, when I joined this company. Well that was almost five years ago, and I stayed true to my promise. My life changed tremendously when I joined this company with so many things to do and so many things to learn. Every day was a new thing and you can never guess what will crop up next and that was the sort of excitement that I had, being part of the team.
Time and tide wait for no man, as the saying goes. There were several opportunities came since June last year but I had to politely decline it. There were few reasons that held be back at that point of time. I told to myself that if I ever decided to leave, it would be after I completed some major work or after the submission of the Annual Report.
I started to seriously looking for a new job since January this year. A friend of mine kept pushing for me to send my CV to a few of her contacts, but I told this good friend of mine that I have to wait for the right time. Of course I was worried then with no news coming in, but I maintained my composure. I flunked in one interview end of last year. I didn’t know how to negotiate on my asking pay, which I regret after leaving the interview room. I have not gone for any interviews for almost five years and the skills were a bit rusty. So what I did was, discussing with few friends on negotiating on the packages. Read up few books on manners and a series of philosophising and debating with my mind on how to answer questions.
How God works in mysterious ways, every good things were put together perfectly in a right time. Few head hunters started to call me of which I find the offers were not so attractive, I didn’t make it either. One out of about four companies that I wrote in called, of which I really liked it. It is one of the three major regulators in my industry. I went for the interview and was selected to move on to the next level i.e. sitting for their online assessment. In between the interview and the online assessment, there was another head hunter called for one IB of which I am very much familiar with. I told them that they better be quick as I have been shortlisted for the next stage with the regulator.
So I went to the interview with the IB and they called for a second interview. Just before going for the second interview, I received a call from the regulator that I have been selected for the post that I applied. But they have one little problem with my asking pay of which they are negotiating for a lower pay. This is where my negotiating skills were put into practice. I told them that I am going for a second interview with an IB and what I am asking from the IB is higher than what I am asking from them. I was a bit open at that point of time and willing to explore on the whole package that they are going to give. They gave me about one week to respond on this.
The second interview with the IB too went well and it was done in a rather informal way as I knew them well. I had earlier giving a range of asking pay of which the threshold was higher than the one I was asking from the regulator. And this time, I mellowed down on my negotiation as I had to be realistic. Two days later, I received the letter of appointment of which they are giving the lowest threshold of the range that I asked for. I am okay with that as combining with the whole package. It was a good deal.
When Ayam called me last year informing about him hitting the target that both of us had promised to each other on reaching the targeted pay before we reach 30, I was really worried as I was behind schedule. Considering that Ayam is one year younger, he reached the target much earlier than me. And now, Alhamdulillah, I am back on track with few compensations.
