Salary Story: I Got Cancer & Rethought My Relationship With Work
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: 32 Location: Glasgow Current industry and job title: Finance, financial advisor Current salary: £50,000 Number of years employed since school or university: 10 Starting salary: £22,000 Biggest salary jump: From £22,000 to £38,000 in 2017. Biggest salary drop: From £53,000 to £50,000 in 2024 due to a career break after ill health.
Biggest negotiation regret: I moved sideways at one point in my career, which meant I remained at the same grade and didn’t get a pay increase for the move. The new job demanded more hours and work output than was ever required of me previously. I enjoyed this job more but it annoyed me that my employer got more out of me for no additional cost. I should have pushed for a pay increase given the increased responsibility and job ask.
Best salary advice: Base salary isn’t everything. When plotting your next move, ensure you consider the whole benefit package on offer. You never know when you might need to use your benefits.
I didn’t enjoy this job much but it paid the bills.I studied for and completed my financial adviser exams while working in this role. I would study during the evenings and weekends around work.
I had aspirations to earn more but at this stage I was unclear on how to achieve this. A year later, I got a pathetic yearlypay rise of £300 and knew I had to get out of this job.
I qualified as a regulated financial advisor, which I had been studying toward alongside working full-time for the previous 12 months. Still my proudest career moment to date. Hard work paid off on this occasion. I self-funded all my exams. This was considered an average starting salary for this role at the time so I felt it was fair to accept.
I felt like I was finally on the path to establishing a career for myself. I also learned a lot from my peers in the workplace, who had many years of experience within that industry. It played a big role in shaping the person I am in work today.
I also got a £4,000 bonus. I received a bigger salary increase than many of my peers this year as it was recognised that I was underpaid compared to others in the team. I didn’t need to fight for it as it was recognised through an internal exercise by HR.I started to grow bored of my job and didn’t feel that I was being rewarded generously enough. I made the decision to make a sideways move to another role at the same grade in the same company. That felt more important to me than a significant pay rise, as I felt that the role would open up new opportunities and exposure that I wasn’t getting in my previous role. I anticipated that greater pay rises would follow so I wasn’t too concerned about forgoing what I wanted initially.
It was quite a shock to the system when I moved into this role. The environment was much more fast-paced and intense than I’d experienced before. I went through periods of really doubting myself and questioning whether I could actually do it. After six to nine months in the role, I gained my confidence and started to get my teeth into bigger deal cases that I found really interesting and challenging in a good way.
I got a £7,500 bonus, which is the biggest bonus I’ve ever received. I treated myself to a designer handbag (Fendi Baguette!) and saved the rest. Bonuses were discretionary, meaning they were performance-based but also dependent on the end-of-year results of the business.
One career regret I have is not being more proactive in trying to negotiate salary rises. I have largely always accepted what was offered to me in the first instance, like I did here. I would now be confident challenging future or prospective employers for more pay if I felt I wasn’t being valued or rewarded appropriately.
This is the same role, with a pay rise. I got a £9,000 bonus and was delighted with the uplift, however, the job was starting to take its toll on me. I was working increasingly long hours and feeling really burnt out. I was unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer. This came as a huge shock and turned my world upside down. I immediately took sick leave from my job and exercised the various workplace benefits I was fortunate enough to qualify for (sick pay, critical illness, income protection) while I underwent treatment. My salary was maintained and I received a lump sum critical illness payment on top.
Thankfully I was given the all-clear in November 2023 and have gone on to make a full recovery.
After an extended break from work, discussions began to take place about my return. I’d had a lot of time to reflect on my work-life balance, recognised that it had been in a really poor state prior to my diagnosis, and even began to question if it could have played a role in me getting ill in the first place. I knew, deep down, that I didn’t want to return to that way of life and managed to negotiate voluntary redundancy with my employer. I walked away with a post-tax package of just under £50,000.I have a bonus potential of 5 to 10% and an attractive benefits package including life cover, PMI and a fully remote working arrangement. This role saw me going back to the wealth management industry and simultaneously taking a step back from the level I’d worked up to prior to my illness.
If my cancer scare has taught me anything, it’s that money isn’t everything in a job. Too often we end up living to work, not working to live. I have a completely different perspective on my career now. It’s still important to me and I have aspirations to get on, but not if that involves sacrificing my health and the time I get to spend with those I love. That is priceless.
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