[WalterBright]

We are all salesman - and a better salesman gets better results. As nerds we tend to discount, dismiss, overlook, whatever, salesmanship skills. But they still count big time.

We sell ourselves all the time, like it or not. Might as well try to learn how to get better at it.

All aspects of ourselves can be tweaked to better our salesmanship - grooming, dress, posture, getting our teeth fixed, tone of voice, words used, email protocol, etc., the list is endless.

This all started with the book "Dress For Success" by Molloy who noted that businessmen wearing tan overcoats did better than those wearing black overcoats.

[kamaal]

What you have written is 100% true. Especially about the dress part. A while back I started wearing a shirt and pant to work. People, especially juniors do tend to take you a lot more seriously if you look formal and well dressed, compared to say showing up in denims and t-shirt.

But the negotiation and sales part. That's the issue. Its not easy to get good at that.

[WalterBright]

I noticed early in my career that people who dressed better got noticed more - i.e. promotions. Habitually wearing flipflops and track shorts to work won't work.

> But the negotiation and sales part. That's the issue. Its not easy to get good at that.

You're right. I work at it all the time, and I have a very long way to go. It will always be a "work in progress" for me.

But at least one can try to not be simply terrible at it. I still shudder at the stupidity of some of the things I did that clearly damaged my career.