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Salary Story: I’m On £10,000 More Than My Parents Ever Made & I’m So Proud

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: 29
Location: Manchester
Current industry and job title: Marketing manager, higher education
Current salary: £46,000
Number of years employed since school or university: Seven

Starting salary: £14,000 in 2015
Biggest salary jump: From £33,000 to £42,000 in 2020
Biggest salary drop: N/A

Biggest negotiation regret: My biggest regret would be when I secured my first graduate job. I settled for a very low salary and then settled again for a small raise of £2.5k at my first pay review. I wish I’d have had the confidence and experience to understand and communicate my worth. I allowed more powerful men make me feel guilty for asking for more.

Best salary advice: Be open and honest with friends about salaries, look to those in positions you’re aspiring to move into and learn from their experiences and take the time to record your successes during your work and not just when you need to or are actively looking to apply for promotions or new jobs.

When I took my first graduate job I accepted a £14,000 salary and was told this salary was due to a lack of marketing degree. I was so grateful for the opportunity that I didn’t really think about money or try and negotiate. So many of my friends were really struggling to find any work at all and I needed any money to cover my rent and bills.

After working in the job for six months I had really excelled. I’d brought in lots of new business, developed strong client relationships and proved my marketing skills in a number of areas. At my review I was determined to ask for £18,000 which I felt was a more appropriate graduate salary but was offered £16,000. I tried to stand my ground and asked for £16,500 which they agreed with, but it felt like they were reluctant. It was a really horrible experience and comments that were made did make me feel guilty for asking, which makes me really sad to look back on.

After a really challenging 10 months it was safe to say I wasn’t feeling appreciated in my marketing agency workplace and was incredibly mentally drained from quite a toxic experience.

When my boyfriend was accepted to begin a PhD, I took the opportunity to move cities with him and restart my career. I had a couple of months living off the very little savings I had, but managed to secure a marketing assistant role in the higher education sector, working for a university. This salary felt like it finally matched my graduate expectations (albeit over a year later) and I began paying into a pension, getting paid sick leave and all the other perks of working for a very established organisation.

The great thing about working within a university is the chance to move around, so when the opportunity to move up a pay grade within a different team arrived I grabbed it with both hands. I approached the interview with confidence as I was smashing my current role, but then I took the first offer at the bottom of the grade which in hindsight was silly. I constantly felt like I was working above and beyond my pay. Job satisfaction comes from so many aspects of work, but I’ve learnt that being paid what you think you deserve is really vital.
After seeing a couple of friends and colleagues move away from the university and secure jobs externally, I began looking into opportunities outside of my workplace.

One role caught my eye as it was a “pilot” fixed-term role role establishing marketing strategies and plans in an area of higher education. It felt like a risk, but something that could finally get me to the level I felt I was capable of working at. I took the leap, applied and successfully interviewed but the role required working in another city. This was my first experience negotiating my salary because I couldn’t afford to take the entry level pay after my commuting costs and I couldn’t move locations due to my relationship. I was able to sell my skill set and after some back and forth secured the salary I needed! And so began 18 months of hellish commuting and seeing that pay rise go onto train season tickets…

I’d won a contract extension on my last role and my boyfriend was coming to the end of his PhD. I was ready for more and by chance another internal move was able. Having negotiated my last salary I went into this new role with that same mindset. I secured a slightly higher salary and felt so proud.
The chance to step up into a role managing the team I’d only recently joined came up. I honestly felt really surprised I could even consider such a big promotion at 27 years old. I had to look back over my achievements, the years I had spent grafting to develop my expertise even on lower salaries, and really push myself to embrace the challenge.

I immediately started taking all opportunities to “work up” and this paid off with being given an interim manager role initially and then finally being made the permanent manager after another round of recruitment a few months later. It was the proudest moment in my career and I’m now earning £46,000 at 29 which is more than £10,000 more than my parents ever made.
It’s a new territory for me but that’s made me all the more vocal about the years of not knowing and demanding my worth, the importance of moving around to find opportunities and being honest about my experiences especially with more junior colleagues in my team.

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