Salary Story: Two Redundancies In My 20s Helped Me Find What I Truly Wanted
In our series Salary Stories, women with long-term career experience open up about the most intimate details of their jobs: compensation. It’s an honest look at how real people navigate the complicated world of negotiating, raises, promotions and job loss, with the hope it will give young women more insight into how to advocate for themselves — and maybe take a few risks along the way.
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Age: 29 Location: London Current industry and job title: Media, Brand Development Manager Current salary: £45,000 Number of years employed since school or university: Eight
Starting salary: £10,000 in 2013 Biggest salary jump: £34,000 to £45,000 Biggest salary drop: £18,000 to £0. I took a three-month internship in an industry I wanted to break into but it led to me developing mental health issues
Biggest negotiation regret: Not recognising the opportunities that redundancy was offering me and using it to work out what I wanted rather than focusing on what was being forced on me.
Best salary advice: Don’t be intimidated if you find yourself in a redundancy situation. I have gone through three redundancy situations and been made redundant once when I was suffering from mental health issues. The most recent situation gave me such clarity on what I want in the short and long term, and I used the understanding I had of my value in the company to make steps in the right direction and earn the biggest raise I’ve had so far. Someone told me: “What’s for you, won’t pass you.” I laughed at the time but when I was feeling stressed and not in control, repeating it really helped me.
I didn’t have a gap year and had always been a bit serious so wanted to do something fun for a year. I decided to do a ski season seeing as I speak French. I wanted minimal responsibility and lots of fun but ended up being put in charge of two resorts by myself. I did have a good time, just not in the way I expected.I moved to London and found an hourly rate customer service job at a snack company, working shifts and weekends, but it was just so I could pay my living expenses and party with my friends every weekend I wasn’t working.I’d always wanted to work in the music industry and through a blog I was writing for I met reps from a small digital music PR agency who offered me an unpaid internship. It was meant to be for a month but it extended to three and I developed depression, working under lots of pressure with no pay. I ended up having to ask my parents for money, which I was so lucky to be able to do. I left just when I think they were going to offer me an entry level salary but I couldn’t do it anymore.I knew I needed to do something to get out of the house and pay rent but it was hard to commit while starting antidepressants. I managed to find a job at a local shop which felt manageable and really helped my recovery. On reflection, it was exactly what I needed at the time. The shop ended up having financial difficulties and I was made redundant but because I hadn’t been there long enough I got nothing. Ultimately it was the kick I needed to find a full time, better paid role that gave me more experience.After being made redundant I found a job in a different PR company, with much less pressure. It included early and late shifts but it gave me more stability and money than I’d ever had and a close-knit group of colleagues who I’m still friends with today.As part of passing my probation and a pay review I received a £4k pay rise, which blew my mind. With bonuses and shift allowances I was probably earning around £30k in reality. However I then went through another redundancy process. It sent me into a spiral because I was waiting to hear back on another role I’d interviewed for. I decided not to risk taking redundancy without the role in the bag but ended up handing in my notice two weeks after the process was over, which I was really annoyed at myself about. I took a leap of faith and started in a completely new industry based on how well I got on with the manager and the fact I wanted a change. It was a bit of a pay cut as I hadn’t appreciated how much bonus I got in the last role but I learned so much and had a great time, even going to Hong Kong and Singapore for work. In the end though it just wasn’t really for me. I attended an event and saw someone from this company speak. When I went on LinkedIn that evening and saw this role at the top of the jobs list, it felt like destiny. It was working on something I absolutely love and it felt like everything had finally fallen into place. As part of an internal pay review my pay was brought up to the band median, as it turned out I was getting paid less than my peers who were doing similar roles. It was such a great feeling to get a pay rise about six months into the role. Our team went through a massive restructure and I was told I was at risk of redundancy. I panicked, what with it being my third redundancy process, but this time I spoke to lots of people across the business, heard how valued they thought I was, managed to believe a little bit of it and worked out exactly what I want in the long term. In the end a promotion came up for me to apply for, and I got it. I got exactly the salary I asked for and the business is paying for a course I want to do for my long-term goals.
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