By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
One of the seasons of “Billions” was been terrific. Lots of solid writing. A great storyline with a terrific cliffhanger leading into next season. The last few episodes have provided two intriguing plotlines that offer advice for job hunters. NOTE: At the end of the episode, I mention a number of services I no longer recommend or refer people to. Instead, I recommend people to the services below.
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Hi! I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter and welcome to episode 1803 of the number one podcast and Apple podcast for job search, No BS Job Search Advice Radio and welcome. I like to spend some time daily offering some advice about job hunting because to me, it doesn’t have to be as hard, difficult, painful, or take as long as it does. It’s just the skills needed to find a job are different than those needed to do a job.
And I like to bring in resources from all sorts of places. A lot is created by me. After all, 1800 some odd episodes at this point.
A lot’s coming from me and my experience when I did recruiting. And this show pulls in from, I think it’s two seasons ago of the Showtime series, Billions, where I take a portion of the show and point out how well it really translates into negotiating. Hope you find this helpful and give it a great review wherever you listen to the show.
And if you have a question for me, reach out to me through wisio.com. That’s W-I-S-I-O.com forward slash TheBigGameHunter. You can ask your question there. I’d be very happy to answer it.
And with that, let’s get going. But this season had a couple of interesting twists to it. And the last couple of episodes, in particular, offered some advice that I think is very helpful when negotiating salary when you’re changing jobs.
That’s not the way it was depicted on the show. But I’m going to use some material from the show, two specific plot lines to point out how it taught something. Now, the first one involves the district attorney character, Chuck Rhodes, who has been encouraged by his wife to take down the Attorney General of the United States for reasons that it’s not important to go into.
What he attempts to do is to plot out in his own mind, first, the direct course of attack, and then a very subtle way of responding to it. I’m sorry, a very subtle alternative that, instead of going at the Attorney General directly, is designed to draw the other person in. Now, again, the plot line isn’t important.
What is important is that the character carefully thinks out what the alternatives are and rehearses them in his mind in advance of the steps that he takes. He’s not going in and winging it. He has carefully rehearsed it with a number of different measures along the way.
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And in each step, he can see whether the strategy is effective. He also goes to rely upon other people. In one case, he talks to his father, who’s been a successful businessman, his wife, who’s a therapist, and confirms advice.
He speaks with individuals who report to him within the office to give them a sense of strategy. And although at the end of the season, there’s a plot twist, and the preparation doesn’t work, we are always better when we are prepared. We are always better when we see and anticipate responses from people.
So, I want to encourage you to do that before you have the negotiation conversation. Talk to people about what you’re planning on doing and how you’re going to do it. Practice what you’re going to say and how you say it.
And know that it’s possible that it’s not going to work. That’s what happens for that character this season in Billions. Now, here’s the other one, which is a very subtle one.
We have the antagonist for the district attorney, played by the billionaire hedge fund operator, who, while he was being prosecuted last season and early part of this season, had to step out of the firm and chose someone to be the chief investment officer of his hedge fund. A younger individual, very smart. And upon his return, he did a number of things that would antagonize this individual.
Job Search Realities
Mistake. What does this person do? Again, with a degree of anticipation and reading the tea leaves, he puts himself in a position where he’s got a plan B. He doesn’t have to take the beating from his boss relentlessly. He can look at alternatives and try to craft a solution that suggests that an exit strategy for him is best.
As you go into negotiations, you should have a plan B, both for the negotiation and as an alternative job that you can go to. In this case, the character starts his own firm, so that in this way, he doesn’t have to put up with stuff. And he makes a number of bold moves.
Again, I’m not going to go into the plot line. But number one, again, is be prepared. Look at what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it.
Anticipate responses, knowing that you can’t anticipate everything. Go for advice and counsel from trusted, experienced people that you know, before going into the meeting. And the second example from the show, always have a plan B in place, because you can always cut the ties on that one and go to your first choice.
So that’s today’s show. I hope you found it helpful. And if you did, here are a few more ways to get information and advice from me.
First of all, there’s my website, which is TheBigGameHunter.us. I have more than 8000 blog posts there that you can watch, listen to or read that will help you find your next job. In addition, if you’re interested in my coaching you, at the site, there’s a button there that says schedule. Schedule time for a free discovery call.
Schedule yourself in for coaching, interview preparation coaching, salary negotiation advice, coaching related to hiring more effectively, managing and leading, helping you to be a better executive in your organization, and overall being a better employee of your firm.
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ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
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