Salary Story: The Secret To My 60k Salary? A Lot Of Interviews
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: 31 Location: London Current industry and job title: Digital consultant in digital marketing Current salary: £60,000 Number of years employed since school or university: Eight
Starting salary: £17,000 in 2013 Biggest salary jump: £39,000 to £50,000 in 2018 Biggest salary drop: N/A
Biggest negotiation regret: When negotiating the salary for my most recent role, I wanted to move into a consultancy but I was also conscious it was a small business. I often price myself out of the market so only asked for £4,000 more than my previous salary. I wish I’d asked for £10,000. Then they could have negotiated me down to somewhere between the two.
Best salary advice: 1) Always interview, even when in a role. I interview regularly (but only for roles that interest me, to keep my skills on form and to keep an eye on what’s going on in the industry) so that if THE role comes along it isn’t completely overwhelming. My friends all think I’m crazy but I promise it works.
2) Don’t be scared to move around as long as it makes sense. I’ve never spent more than three years in one business and moved round after a year in my first two roles, either for promotions or to move into bigger businesses. Moving on to a new business is a challenge but it’s also exciting and it means you’re going to grow. And it often comes with a pay rise, which is a bonus!
3) Stick to your guns. When I moved up to £50,000 they asked if I would take less. I said no as my commute costs were more than doubling but at £50,000 my take-home would still be more, and got what I wanted.
I landed this job part-time and as a temporary contract out of university. Although it was not full-time hours (at £17,000 pro rata) I was able to secure some experience straight out of university, which was great.Although it was not necessarily a raise I was kept on past the end of the temporary contract (go me!) and was able to earn the full £17,000 as I was now full-time.I changed roles to a new business to gain some experience in digital as I thought this was where the industry was going. I was keen to learn more and able to gain a small salary increase to £20,000 in the process. My previous role had also stagnated and they weren’t able to offer me more so I found that growth elsewhere.I moved business again (don’t be ashamed to move if the opportunity is right) as there was great scope to learn in this business. I asked for £25,000 and they offered me £27,000, which shows how underpaid I was before. I was lucky here but this is where I first started to really think about negotiations for the future.My initial view to grow within this business paid off as I got the promotion I was looking for and a decent pay rise to £36,000 to go with it. Salary wasn’t able to be negotiated due to salary structures in the business but I was happy with this change at the time.Once again I found a role elsewhere that allowed me to take on more and develop my skills more deeply, which I wasn’t gaining in my current role. Pay rises were also tiny, if anything, which didn’t fit with the rises in inflation. My commute was changing from driving to commuting into London so my commuting costs were going to rise but an £11,000 raise allowed me to take a good chunk more home, too. I was fortunate that this business had a decent review process in place. Due to the hard work over the last year I got a decent raise to £56,000. It was exciting to work with a great team and go through massive growth in the business.I was struggling in my previous role due to some structural changes and my new management not giving me the support I needed. I wanted to learn how to think more strategically and they weren’t willing to mentor me so I found a role in a small consultancy that would allow me to do this. It’s a big change (even though it’s in the same industry) but they’re an incredibly supportive team and I’m looking forward to my role and growth here. Plus, it came with a raise to £60,000 and a bonus of up to 20%.
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