Highest Paying Jobs that Involve Negotiation

Do you love the feeling of a good argument? Do you somehow always manage to get your way?

Negotiation is an incredibly powerful skill that can open doors to a number of careers. Those who possess this ability tend to be sharp and strong-willed, able to think clearly and efficiently in high pressure situations. They are often organized and planful, with a natural knack for self-expression. But they also understand the people around them on a deep, intuitive level. A good negotiator can meet a total stranger in the street, take a guess at how that person is feeling, and come pretty close to accurate.

If this sounds like you, you're in luck. The following careers are not only ideally-suited to people with great negotiation skills, they're also very well-paid.

Here are CareerExplorer's Top Jobs for Negotiators

This article will be covering the following careers:

Career	Avg Salary	Satisfaction
Chief Executive	$259k	3.9/5
Lawyer	$141k	2.7/5
Human Resources Manager	$81k	3.1/5
Purchasing Manager	$100k	3.0/5
Sales Engineer	$109k	2.9/5
Construction Manager	$97k	3.0/5
Talent Agent	$97k	3.6/5
Counseling Psychologist	$87k	3.4/5
Arbitrator	$74k	3.5/5

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1. Chief Executive

Found in almost every industry, chief executives are the strategic force behind a business operation. These powerful individuals plan, coordinate, and direct the activities of companies and organizations to ensure they meet their goals. They also manage teams and liaise with other executives, staff, and board members about operation decisions. Especially when it comes to implementing new policies, having a persuasive personality can be a huge asset.

Some people are natural born leaders, innovators, and motivators.

2. Lawyer

Quick witted and rigorous, lawyers uphold the law and represent their clients in a variety of different contexts. They may provide legal advice or counsel, research and gather evidence, create legal documents for a divorce or real estate transaction, or prosecute in court. But no matter what area of law they work in, all lawyers possess the ability to synthesize complex information into a logical, convincing argument.

A lawyer is someone who is licensed to practice law, and whose obligation it is to uphold the law while also protecting their client's rights.

3. Human Resources Manager

The best human resource managers have two key qualities: strong people skills and excellent judgement. In addition to overseeing the screening and hiring process for new employees, people in this role are also spend a great deal of time helping with conflict resolution. Whether mediating personal disagreements between employers or complaints about upper management, the human resource manager is responsible for coming up with a fair compromise that all parties can agree upon.

A human resources manager is someone who oversees and manages a company's human resources department.

4. Purchasing Manager

A purchasing manager's primary responsibility is to buy the products best-suited to their organization's needs. Whether these products are for use or resale, the purchasing manager must ensure they are of high enough quality and acceptably priced. Settling on a final contract can be challenging, often involving multiple meetings with retailers and heated negotiations about costs and fees, delivery schedules, and more. Being able to stay calm and collected during these arguments is an asset in this role.

A purchasing manager buys products for organizations to use or resell.

5. Sales Engineer

Requiring a mix of extensive technical knowledge and strong sales skills, this is not a career for the week willed. Sales engineers are responsible for selling complex scientific technologies and services to businesses, often in stressful, highly competitive situations. To be effective in this role, sales engineers need to understand potential clients' needs, then persuade them that their product is better-suited to those needs than anything else on the market.

A sales engineer is someone who sells complex scientific and technological products or services to businesses.

6. Construction Manager

Construction managers are strategic and organized, responsible for planning, coordinating, and supervising the construction of projects from development through completion. This is a position that often involves managing others; the best construction managers are personable and convincing leaders. On a day-to-day basis, they also spend a lot of time preparing and negotiating budgets, cost estimates, and work timetables, so solid argument skills are a must.

Construction managers coordinate and supervise a wide variety of projects, including the building of all types of residential, commercial, and industrial structures, roads, bridges, schools, and hospitals.

7. Talent Agent

Talent agents are the middle men between professional performers, writers, and artists and their potential employers. They spend much of the day on the phone with directors or producers, selling their client's talents or negotiating fees and contracts. To succeed in this line of work, talent agers must have excellent people skills, a persuasive approach, and a very strong will.

A talent agent is someone who represents professional actors, writers, performers, musicians, artists and athletes.

8. Counseling Psychologist

On the most basic level, counseling psychologists help their patients lead more fulfilling lives. To do so, they first evaluate their patients' mental health and lifestyle, then provide therapy, advice, or other treatment recommendations. The best counseling psychologists have strong social skills, a clear, logical mind, and a knack for convincing others that they can make lasting change in their lives.

Do you have an interest in helping people deal with their mental health and life issues?

9. Arbitrator

Arbitrators are probably some of the most effective negotiators around. These skilled professionals are paid to resolve disputes between parties—be it between a mobile phone company and a consumer or between two high powered executives. No matter what the context, an arbitrator's key role is to remain unbiased and informed while guiding both parties to an agreeable consensus.

Anyone who has ever signed a mobile-phone or other consumer contract, a lease, or an employment agreement, has probably seen in the contract's fine print a provision known as an "arbitration clause." This popular legal clause asks that in the case of a dispute between the parties, the arbitration process be used to resolve the differences.