Practice Scenarios
Salary Negotiation Manager
Mission mode. You play yourself asking for a 15% raise. The AI plays a calm, slightly skeptical hiring manager whose budget is tight and whose patience is finite. Three live meters track the room.
Positioning
Good for the conversation you keep rehearsing: asking your manager for more money. You will see your rapport, the manager's guardedness, and how close you are to alignment shift live as you talk.
Heuristics
- ●Lead with scope, impact, and market evidence — not feelings or fairness arguments
- ●Anchor high but with a defensible number (cite levels.fyi, peer benchmarks, or a competing offer)
- ●Separate the ask from the relationship — "I love this team AND I want to be paid at market"
- ●Have a BATNA: know what you'll do if the answer is no
- ●Trade for non-cash if cash is blocked: title, scope, RSU refresh, learning budget
- ●Silence is a tool — after stating your number, stop talking
Best Fit Scenarios
- ●I want a 15% raise but I don't know how to open the conversation
- ●I have a competing offer and I'm not sure how to use it without sounding threatening
- ●I asked for a raise last quarter and got a vague "let's revisit" — how do I push?
- ●I need to negotiate up an offer letter without losing the offer
Helps With
Practice the opening 60 seconds
The first sentence of a comp ask is usually the worst. Rehearse it until it sounds natural.
Handle "we don't have budget"
The most common pushback. Practice three different responses without getting flustered.
Negotiate non-cash compensation
Title, scope, equity refresh, remote flexibility — practice trading when cash is locked.
Hold silence after stating a number
Most people fill the silence and negotiate against themselves. Practice not doing that.
Boundaries
- Simulator only — does not reflect any real company policy, compensation band, or manager
- Not legal advice on employment terms, non-competes, or severance
- Output meters are vibes-based estimates from an LLM, not a real psychological model