Negotiation skills: job offer

I attended a negotiation skills workshop today and during the lecture, i realized how naive i was when i acceped the job offer.
"Negotiation" was the last thing that I had in my mind. Why? Because I was desperate to get A job. I did not know what "Base Salary" meant. I thought that was the walk away minimum level, not the salary before bonus and benefits. I didn't even research how much the average salary is for the position. Stupid!!!
I knew that I got the lower position because the director didn't see my academic experience as my real experience.
I researched a bit and realized that what I'm making is the far bottom (actually out of the average range when they applied my personal qualification/education level).

I know i should be very grateful to get the current job so that I can make a living and have a good life in a new city. But, it's important to market yourself at a proper value. Gosh~! I need to get about 40% raise to meet the median level of salary. 40% raise, huh?

I know money is not everything but when i found out all this today, I wasn't a very happy person. :( Ahhhh~~ I better prepare for the next negotiation session.

Dissertation

I thought it was funny to present my dissertation at AECT exactly a year after my dissertation defense.
I'm so glad it was over! I have no desire to go back to school and work on my dissertation if I had taken a job without finishing it. :)

AECT Debrief

It was my 5th year at the AECT (Association for Educational Communication and Technology) conference. It was my first one after the graduation and I noticed some changes this time.

1. Funding: Since I'm not in academia, my situation was different from many of other attendees. In business consulting, not many people appreciate the value of presenting an academic paper at a major conference. Therefore, I had to support myself to go to this conference. I had to use my personal time and expenses, which ended up quite expensive. When I was a grad student, I was able to receive funding from different sources and didn’t have to pay much. Some co-workers did not understand me why I spend so much money and time to go to the conference. Ah well…

2. Job: I was glad to see many of my friends found good jobs in academia. I was a bit envious a bit when a friend of mine had a position at Indiana University. However, I asked myself if I would like to move to Indiana for a job. I’m not very good with cold weather and my answer would be “I wouldn’t be as excited as when I got a job offer from my current position.” Anyhow, many people found it odd that I, who is in business consulting, attended conference.

3. Good ol’ time: Like I mentioned earlier, it’s my 5th year since I started attending conferences. I learned how to enjoy conferences. The real fun starts outside of sessions. I attended only two sessions in this conference. For me, the main reason to attend this conference was to strengthen my existing network. It was nice to meet old faces from PIDT, AECT, and ISPI. I went out for lunch/dinner two nights in a row with many people. I had a good time. ;) Too bad I missed the Korean event on Thursday night, though. I hope I don’t miss much.

4. Bottom line: I wanted to go back to academia after getting some experience from the consulting. But do I really want to? Or do I have pressure to go back to academia because that seems the right thing to do if you have Ph.D? My interest is mostly in higher education and work settings. My ultimate interest is to provide strategies to grow and improve their performance through analysis, evaluation, and other systems approach. I decide not to worry too much about my future career path. About a year and a half ago when I attended PIDT, I told everyone that I would love to be in consulting to get some experience. At that time, it looked really tough to get a job in consulting but it happened. If I really focus on what I want, I’m sure opportunities will come alone. I rather focus on what I really want in my life in terms of my career. J