Salary Story: I Played The Long Game & Tripled My Salary To 45k In 3 Years
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: Leeds Current industry and job title: Educational psychologist in local government Current salary: £45,000 Number of years employed since school or university: Nine
Starting salary: £5,000 (plus accommodation) in 2011 Biggest salary jump: £24,000 to £45,000 in 2021 Biggest salary drop: £28,000 to £15,000 in 2018
Biggest negotiation regret: Not doing a side hustle while in some lower paid positions.
Best salary advice: Get a professional qualification even if it means a reduction in pay in the short term.
I took a job as a nanny as I wanted the opportunity to live in London and this seemed like a good way of doing it with free accommodation. I had always liked working with children and thought I might want to go into this field for a career so thought it would be a good stepping stone.While living rent-free in London as a live-in nanny, I did many unpaid writing jobs which eventually led to me being able to get my first ‘proper’ job as a copywriter on £21,000. After a few years having a ball in London I decided I wanted a career change to become an educational psychologist. This meant a significant reduction in pay while I got the necessary experience to be able to apply for a psychology training course. I moved from London to Leeds in search of a lower cost of living as it would have been impossible to afford to live in London on the teaching assistant salary of £13,000.After a couple of years working in education I had enough experience to apply for an assistant psychologist job with the local authority. These jobs are like gold dust as they give you fantastic experience in order to be able to apply for the training course. There were four positions available and over 100 applicants. This was really the first time that I was earning a decent enough salary (£28,000) to enjoy a good standard of living.
This was a promotion of sorts but without the pay rise! I was lucky to get a place on an educational psychology doctorate training course. The first year of training you are given a tax-free bursary (£15,000), which was a significant reduction from my assistant psychology position but also a significant step towards becoming a qualified psychologist. There are around 12 training places per year at a handful of universities and they have hundreds of applicants. Trainees don’t pay any tuition fees as these are covered by the Department for Education. Qualified psychologists have significant earning potential so it seemed worthwhile to me to take the pay cut to invest in my future.This was also a promotion of sorts. In the second and third years of training, your placement provider can either pay you a bursary as in your first year or a salary, which is what I managed to get. Not only was it a higher amount but it also came with the benefits of being employed rather than a student, such as pension contributions and continuing service. Upon qualifying with a doctorate degree, I accepted a position with the same local authority that I trained with and started straightaway on spinal point four, earning £45,000. This will go up incrementally each year. I also get 44 days holiday plus mileage allowance and professional registration fees reimbursed.
Some people may think it was quite a long-winded way of establishing a career but I feel very proud of my achievements plus secure in the knowledge that I will always be very employable and have good earning potential.
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