Week 11 - Remuneration

Last week Hayley and I presented on Remuneration, it was a difficult topic and was one of the most content/data heavy topics to be spoken about, for this reason we decided to only have two people speak as there will be no repetition in content and secondly not everyone needs to speak. It can feel very unengaging when people pass-on topics and repeat what has been said, it can seem disjointed and unengaging as a listener (especially when not everyone in a group is confident when presenting).

When outlining our approach to remuneration I decided to keep it simple and focus on value adding to create a personal brand, as I felt that it would be most appropriate for the university students. I have come to realise that a thorough knowledge of remuneration can help you negotiate your salary and benefits of a prospective job, wage can then be discussed though benefits and allowances as oppose to salary. This allows you to negotiate whilst not portraying a negative money grabbing persona to an employer.

I feel like our presentation went very well, however I do recognise that an inclusion of a remuneration scenario or two (especially relating to the projects) would have been largely beneficial. This was outlined by Nicole and a student; unfortunately due to lack of communication and work not being completed it was taken out of the presentation.

I do think the highlight of the presentation was the great John Goodman (one of my many theological/comedic/actor, man crush's... only to be out done by Stephen Fry) excerpt from The Gambler, where his character's monologue directed at Mark Walberg (who is an overindulged compulsive gambler) about attaining the position of "fuck you" directly parallel’s a life aspiration of the position where you can control a negotiation. I thought this was a great clip that would engage the class at the beginning of the presentation mostly due to the fact that the word fuck is repeated several times (admittedly it was also skewed to gain brownie points with Russell).

The second highlight of the presentation was that we both spoke without any notes at all. This was a goal of mine from the outset. I felt that we covered the topics to a more than satisfactory level offering personal insight when necessary.

Looking back I do concede that the PowerPoint was slightly bare and non-engaging, despite my best efforts, graphics would have helped a lot.

Lastly, I do want to pick up on a lack of communication and shared work that resulted in me doing all the work for both the presentation and the essay (to then be partially rectified an hour before the presentation). Hayley is a very smart and determined person, however at times she did not communicate or even realise what work had to be done (didn't even know there was an essay, I had already finished it before she found out). I do understand that people have other commitments and assignments, however we're all in the same boat and its not helpful when a task is not completed in a reasonable time frame.

Below are screenshots outlining these issues (the essay was submitted on the 23rd, and the conversation was the night before the presentation):