Salary Story: I Had Three Job Offers, But Didn’t Negotiate
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: London Current industry and job title: Digital health, operations manager Current salary: £50,000 Number of years employed since school or university: Six
Starting salary: £18,000 in 2017 Biggest salary jump: £15,000 to £24,000 in 2018 Biggest salary drop: £18,000 to £15,000 in 2018
Biggest negotiation regret: I honestly disclosed to a company I used to work for the salary offers of not one, but two competitors that had offered me roles. My company at the time only went above the other offers by £2,500. I realise now I showed my hand too soon. My company were desperate to keep me and I did not play this to my advantage! I should have negotiated more.
Best salary advice: It’s not just about the salary — it’s sometimes about the experience you gain and the benefits you receive too. Especially as you get taxed quite heavily the further you go up. At some points in your career it can be worth the sacrifice for the actual role itself.
Being a pharmacist was not for me, it felt like being a glorified Amazon warehouse packer, with targets and the relentless boxes of medicines and abuse from the general public. I wanted a complete change of direction but had no direction.I then spent a few months working for a startup. Suddenly everything felt less serious and my mental health started to look up — even with a pay cut.I was struggling financially on £15,000 a year. My take home was a little over £1,000 a month and I was next-level broke. It was time for me to look for my next role.
I had zero confidence in myself, but the interviewer at this role actually ended up offering me a job role that was a step up in seniority over the one I’d actually applied for! So that meant a £2,000 on-the-spot promotion, as the original role was £22,000.
I was working hard and making a big impact at work. I was also handling tasks and projects solo that only managers were working on. It became awkward that I was earning so much less and my manager was incredible and asked the people team for my raise. I didn’t even ask for the raise! I feel like that one was a bit of a fluke.
I was starting to think about moving from the company for more experience. It was just before the pandemic and I was applying to other roles. I was offered two really exciting roles and there was a bidding war from the £30,000 salary to £35,000 maximum offer. I went back to the company I worked for and they counter-offered £37,500. By the time I’d had the counter-offer, COVID-19 started to seem a lot more concerning and I chickened out of the move and stayed put. I was getting a reputation in the business for being able to handle the difficult and complex projects and had a knack for how the product worked. With my clinical knowledge and my operational knowledge, I successfully interviewed and moved teams via a promotion. The interview didn’t feel as intimidating, as I’d vaguely met the hiring manager through other projects. I’d ridden out the worst of the pandemic and at the first sign of it calming down, I was ready to risk it and jump ship. I found the role through LinkedIn and it was again for another startup right at the beginning of its journey. This role had many hoops in the form of interviews and presentations to jump through before finally receiving the offer. It was definitely worth sticking with the process as I felt like I really understood the role I was getting myself into. This time I made sure I understood the salary banding before sharing my salary expectations which led to being at the top of the projected banding.
I got promoted, with the same duties, just with more responsibility. I was happy with the increase.
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