Salary Story: I’m 27 & Left The Police Force For 47k
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.
Been in the workforce for at least five years and interested in contributing your salary story? Submit your information here.Published stories receive £100.
Age: 27 Location: Southeast England Current industry and job title: Safety and security executive in the transport sector Current salary: £47,000 Number of years employed since school or university: 11
Starting salary: £800 per month in 2013 Biggest salary jump: £16,000 to £28,000 in 2015 when I moved to London and joined the police Biggest salary drop: £47,000 to £39,000 in 2020
Biggest negotiation regret: Police pay is on a scale so there is no negotiation, it increases with service during the first seven years. In the first three to four years it increases by around £1,000 to £2,000 a year; from years five to seven it increases in larger leaps by around £3,000 to £4,000 per year until it ends at approximately £42,000. When London weighting and allowance is added on it totals around £48,000. The salary scales are published online.
Best salary advice: Don’t be afraid to talk about salaries. Figure out what friends are earning and whether the grass can be greener. I was terrified to leave the police; it was always a career that I, like others, intended to remain in for my entire working life. But I knew a better work-life balance, salary and ultimately a less taxing role could be found outside the public sector. I just wasn’t sure I was qualified for anything else as I joined the police when I was 19 and although I had done lots of different roles within the force, I knew not every employer would recognise the transferable skills.
My advice would be to back yourself, sell your transferable skills and if you’re not sure whether you have everything a prospective employer is looking for, apply anyway. In every interview I did when looking to leave the police, the hiring managers always commented that my experience was interesting, varied and different from anyone else they’d interviewed and I almost always got offered the job. Don’t let self-doubt prevent progression.
I completed my A-levels and got into university to study criminology but I knew I wanted to pursue a career in policing and I wasn’t sure going to university would assist in that so I deferred for a year. I then had to get a job as an apprentice to earn some money. I hated it but it was drilled into me from a young age that I had to earn my way in life, so I did.
I also signed up at this point as a special constable. This was an unpaid position within my local police force, which afforded me with full police training and powers over the period of around a year training at weekends and evenings. Once I was qualified I could go out on shifts in my spare time and see firsthand whether it was the career for me. It also looked great on my CV, any future job applications and afforded me priceless experience in dealing with confrontation, working under pressure and making difficult decisions.
I applied for a role closer to home as a benefit assessor for the local council. I was still volunteering for the police in my spare time and intending on pursuing that as a career but needed a paid job in the meantime. I really did not enjoy this role but I made friends for life and gained computer skills that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I was still living at home at this point so the low salary wasn’t too much of an issue.I moved to London and joined the police full-time as a police officer in 2015. My starting salary was £21,000 plus an additional £6,000 for working in London. I never intended to move to London but at the time there was a freeze on police recruitment and this was the only force recruiting so I took a leap. For 20 weeks I lived at a police section house and trained at the police training school before being posted to a station and sent out onto the streets in uniform as a 19-year-old in a new city, full of enthusiasm and ready to put my training into practice.
Ultimately I decided that I wanted to pursue a career in policing and made the decision to forgo university as I didn’t feel it would assist me in my career.
I finished my probation period and moved to a new team. I worked various shifts and often worked unexpected overtime when tied up with an incident. I was living with friends in a houseshare at this time and paying minimal rent. I feel like I had the best of both worlds: I was living with friends and experiencing a bit of a ‘uni lifestyle’ while setting myself up for a good career and earning good money for a 22-year-old. In the police, the salary increases on a scale for the first seven years until you hit the top of the scale. I had seven years’ experience at this point and so was earning the maximum a PC could at £41,000 + £6,000 (not including additional overtime). I had specialised as a sexual offence investigator at this time, which meant a lot of unplanned overtime would top up my salary, in exchange for lots of long shifts and antisocial hours.I changed force and location, which resulted in a pay cut to £39,000, however I felt it would further my long-term career prospects and skills. I got a role on a sought-after team that afforded me a lot of new skills and experience. I also worked a lot of overtime in this role as the investigations would take me all over the country so a lot of the pay cut was cushioned by my overtime payments.
This role involved working on some difficult sexual abuse cases involving children and although rewarding, it was taxing and after a couple of years it took its toll.
I took the leap and left the police. I applied for a role in the transport sector that I wasn’t sure if I was really qualified for, assessing security and safety risks, conducting investigations and running projects. I managed to get an interview and the hiring manager loved my examples from policing and recognised the transferable skills. I had huge imposter syndrome when I started but my team were so supportive and six months down the line my manager is really happy with my work. I have gained so much knowledge, experience in a new industry and lots of nationally accredited courses for my CV. Ultimately I now have a much better work-life balance, no more shift work and lots of benefits and progression routes.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
