Girlboss Rally is a conference and community for ambitious women.

Alexandra led a workshop called Get Paid: Negotiating The Salary You Deserve at the Rally.

Here are three key takeaways from her session:

Bring your creative problem solving mindset to the negotiation table. This means thinking as much from your counterpart’s perspective as your own. Spend some time thinking about the issues at stake from their POV. What’s most important to them? If you aren’t sure, go ahead and ask them to share more about what they value, what their challenges are, and what they’re most looking for from you. Everyone appreciates feeling heard, so take it all in, and look for new ways to align your interests.
Invest the time and effort it takes to do good research. Good research starts online (hint: check out getthatraise.sofi.com for an online tool to help you get a benchmark) but finishes IRL. We recommend speaking with three men and three women. Here’s that handy script again: “I’m doing research because I’m planning to negotiate. I think you have some information that could help me. Would you be willing to share your ballpark salary with me?” Or, alternatively, you can swap the last line with “Does X sound reasonable to you?”
Reminder: California now has a salary history ban, which means you don’t have to answer questions about what you made at a previous job. This law also requires employers to give applicants pay scale information if they request it. If you get asked how much you used to make, it’s fine to say you’re not ready to discuss pay, or redirect the question to your salary expectations.