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: 25 Location: London Current industry and job title: NLP (natural language processing) engineer Current salary: £90,000 Number of years employed since school or university: Three
Starting salary: £32,000 in 2019 Biggest salary jump: £45,000 to £90,000 in 2022 Biggest salary drop: N/A
Biggest negotiation regret: I was told by my recruiter that the salary limit for my previous role was £40,000 so they’d try and get me £42,500. In the interview with the employer I asked for £45,000 as this was the minimum I was willing to accept but I regret not asking for £50,000, which was the actual amount I wanted and believed I deserved.
Best salary advice: Always do your research. There is so much information about salary ranges for different levels of experience, locations and industries. It’s never been so transparent to gain understanding of what your skills are worth so definitely utilise the tools available.
I had done an industrial placement year during university so was given preference for graduate roles at this company. I managed to secure one in a different area of the business and this was my first experience with consultancy.I had been in the company for a year now so was eligible to put my case forward for a promotion. I had worked hard this year both in my day job and doing extra work outside my day job so had a lot of sponsors for my promotion and ultimately got it.I started my master’s in January 2021 to try and move out of consultancy into a more programming role. I knew this meant leaving my current role so I started looking elsewhere with the aim of securing a job by the end of my degree. I actually managed to find one after a month or so and switched jobs halfway through my degree. The salary jump was not as much as I’d hoped. I knew I could get more elsewhere if I waited but this job provided some experience that I wanted and also suited my current experience and background so was a good fit. I saw this more as a filler role until my degree had ended.I had graduated from my master’s and the environment at my company was becoming quite toxic – not for me or my team specifically but it was a startup so it was easy to see the impact it had as several people were leaving. I was approached by a competitor to do the same role for a lot more money and more benefits. It seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
