> That's assuming that negotiation skill is closely correlated with the skill you're actually hiring for People overestimate negotiation as a "skill." It's not

> That's assuming that negotiation skill is closely correlated with the skill you're actually hiring for People overestimate negotiation as a "skill." It's not. It's leverage, it's BATNA. Negotiation is having more than one offer and using that to explore the difference between the initial offer space and the maximum offer space between firms based on a basket of offers. The skill is in getting an offer from more than one company in the first place. And I would wager that if you're hiring professionals, having that kind of ownership and thoroughness is often exactly what you want to hire for, even more than the direct experience.