Developing good negotiation skills

For your career growth, negotiation is one of those skills that are fundamental but largely neglected. This is probably because it is a skill not usually associated with technical jobs, and only thought about when we are negotiating salaries.

But negotiation is a skill that we use daily, every time we have priorities and expectations that involve other people.

We negotiate even during our free time – where we will eat on the weekends, where we will spend our vacations, the responsibilities we have at home, how much time we can spend with friends, and what we will do during that time. When we are working, we negotiate what feature needs to be implemented, who will implement it, and how it will be implemented. When we negotiate our career development, we determine which jobs we will take, what salaries we will be paid, which projects we will work on, which responsibilities are ours, which mentors we will have, what bonus we will receive...