Sell your car on Craigslist. You'll get more experience negotiating with sociopaths than you could ever hope for.

There are plenty of negotiation courses around, and the better ones tend to use cases and simulations. Unfortunately there is also a lot of on the job training in negotiations going on, which can be rather costly and not very effective. I have been giving a bit of thought to how to address this and I think some sort of platform where negotiation teams can train with/against each other using customized cases would be an interesting proposition. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss.

Let me chew on it. Having an agitated human being across the table from you was always my acid test.

That is a good point, although a Skype connection or just a conference call is a pretty good substitute, and without body language as a guide actually tends to make negotiations much harder and increase the risk of tempers flaring.

I am just throwing this out here.

Reading this thread, I thought of a meet-up type of group where the purpose would be to lie to the person in front of you. If the person buys X amounts of lies then you get Y amount of points.

What does lying have to do with interviews? Nothing at all, but to make a person believe you, you must utilize and have a full comprehension of the social dynamic that occurs in a interview.(IMO)

Like I said, I am just putting this out there. However one thing is certain you need humans for this, it can not be a program. Also lying and wondering if that person believes you would add the stress of uncertainty that inherently comes with interviews. A minimal simulator.

I do not think this will ever gain traction, as the community of people interested to participate would not be centrally located geographically.

An other alternative is to invest in an interview coach. I know old school but I think this is the route to go. If you can find a HR professional who does IT headhunting. Her wisdom is priceless. Search for HR firms and head hunters on linkedin or whatever they are called officially and you will get the angle from the insiders. Might be pricey but I would consider it an investment.

just my 2 cents

Negotiation is typically one of the topics covered in MBA curriculum. Some of the business school faculty also specializes in negotiations and do consulting on the side. You might be able to find negotiation training and seminar through such faculty members. Also, look up a few books on negotiations and reach out to the authors. They most likely will be able to refer to negotiation training.

> How do you gain practical experience?

Suggest reading Stuart Diamond's brilliant book Getting More. He offers some practical everyday negotiation advice.

Here's his presentation at Google > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOZo6Lx70ok

I think it would be novel to have a negotiation seminar, but where the price of the seminar would be ... negotiable. a la https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y.

I had a really excellent online class in Negotiation and Conflict Management. A simulation was part of it. I thought it was really good.

So, look for a class, either online or local.

Try Harvard's Program on Negotiation. The materials are golden and excellent and gilded excellent. pon.harvard.edu