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Salary Story: I Looked Outside London For More Opportunities (& More Money)

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: Senior project manager – consumer goods
Current salary: £55,000
Number of years employed since school or university: Four

Starting salary: £21,000 in 2019
Biggest salary jump: £39,000 to £55,000 in 2023
Biggest salary drop: N/A

Biggest negotiation regret: In the past I have only ever negotiated the base salary and not considered the entire package, such as negotiating pension contribution, healthcare package, the bonus percentage and so on.

Best salary advice: Applying to jobs that I wasn’t really that interested in was the best thing for me. I gained experience in interviewing and ended up getting job offers, which I accepted in the end.

Don’t be afraid to consider opportunities that are further away if they have a hybrid working structure. I feel like living in London is very competitive and I’ve managed to build my experience at reputable companies that have bases in Greater London or just outside of London in commuter towns. Sometimes investing and sacrificing in the short term helps your career in the long term.

I joined a large Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) blue chip company as an industrial placement (IP) while I was completing my chemistry master’s at uni. I had previous retail experience in two different large department stores but this was my first 9-to-5 experience and I really tried to make the most of it. I would ask my boss to introduce me to people in the company so I could network and find out more about their career path.

I also had a great relationship with my manager as he was very relaxed and we got on well. He would put me forward for opportunities which I said yes to even if I was nervous. I left this year with much more confidence in presenting to senior stakeholders as my manager used to ask me to present to the director of our team on a new project each quarter. I got paid base (£21,000) and pension only. This role was outside London so I was commuting for about an hour each way to the office.

Before I finished my master’s year, I was looking for jobs and I applied for a six-month contract position at the company I was working at. I thought that even if the contact only lasted six months, it was an additional six months of experience.
My interviewer was one of the members of staff I had spoken to during my placement. I got offered £28,000 which I was happy with. I didn’t try to negotiate as I thought £28,000 was a good starting salary, plus I graduated in the first year of the pandemic so I was just happy to have a job. My contract ended up getting extended for another year from six months, to 18 months, so the risk paid off. I got paid base and pension as well as private healthcare.
I went from a contract to being a permanent employee with a better base and benefits. Around five months in my contract role, my manager from my IP year kept telling me about a permanent position in their team and told me to just send my CV over.
At first I was a bit lazy as I was content being a contractor, so I didn’t take them seriously. Then one day I just decided to do it. I sent my CV over and had a brief chat with the hiring manager, my manager’s manager, and got the job.

I really enjoyed this role as it was about 50% project management and 50% technical. I did try to negotiate this salary but HR had a clear band of pay, so they were not having it. When my friend joined later, I realised that HR used a metric based on experience to make an offer of a base salary. My friend got offered just the same as me and she had the same experience. The benefits here were good, so it brought the total package up to £40,000 including the bonus.

I was very happy at my previous job and very comfortable. I started thinking about what I wanted from life and I realised that if I didn’t start to challenge myself then I wouldn’t really be living my life how I wanted to.

I knew that I wanted to switch industries to beauty, so I decided to move to a small company with 50 staff members (very small in comparison to my last company with 90,000 staff worldwide). It helped me to gain experience of working in a smaller environment, one that didn’t have as many processes in place. It broadened my knowledge, but ultimately helped me to realise that I’m not a fan of working in small companies. I like flexibility and not feeling like I’m being watched constantly. I did negotiate this salary as they initially offered me £35,000 but I told them I would not move [to Greater London] for under £40,000. I ended up being offered £39,000 plus benefits. The benefits were not that great — and the bonus had also not been given out for the last three years.

This role was also outside of London in Bracknell. This bumped up my commute from an hour each way, to about an hour and a half on a good day, and sometimes even two hours when there was really bad traffic on the motorway. As I only went in once a week, I didn’t mind it so much. I thought of it as a stepping stone.

When I was at my previous role, I decided to pay for a PRINCE2 Project Management course. My last role was 60% project management and 40% product development. I wanted to move further into project management. While doing the course, I was applying for project manager roles. I applied for my current job randomly and passed the two interview stages. I ended up getting offered a senior project manager position, instead of a project manager role. I got offered a higher salary than I was expecting, so I didn’t negotiate. My recruiter told me that £48,000 would be the company’s max, but they offered £55,000. I get the majority of benefits such as private healthcare, although there’s no bonus This is a 12-month role, so I shall enjoy it for now and see if it gets extended.

This company has multiple offices around the UK. The R&D site is out of London, and I visit there once a week to speak to my engineers. I also go to the London office to speak at the commercial functions.

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