Session: Negotiation and Self-Advocacy: How to Ask for More
Many candidates who are underrepresented in tech avoid negotiating job offers. Whether because negotiation is considered taboo and we’re socialized against it, or we’re afraid of offers getting rescinded and managers thinking we’re difficult, we hold ourselves back.
The truth is that negotiation is an expected and important part of creating healthy employment relationships -- not to mention that negotiation has a huge impact on future earnings and pay equality.
This talk explains exactly how to negotiate, including key phrases to use when talking with recruiters and hiring managers. What do you say when asked what you would like to earn? How do you counter a disappointingly low offer that you secretly would accept? How do you ensure that you don’t leave money on the table? Can you do all of this politely and effectively? Yes!
You’ll walk away from this talk with a specific plan for your next negotiation, and the confidence to advocate for yourself instead of holding back.
Bio: Lusen Mendel
Lusen Mendel / they / them co-founded DangoorMendel to create entertaining educational videos that empower candidates -- Candidate Planet: https://youtube.com/c/CandidatePlanet -- and to work directly with candidates on their interviewing and negotiation skills. Lusen is also Director of Developer Relations at Karat, where they share interviewer best practices with interviewers around the world. Previously, Lusen managed engineering teams at Indiegogo and Rackspace, worked as a software engineer at a number of startups and research groups, and graduated with a couple Computer Science degrees from MIT.