Salary Story: Working With Friends Was Great, But I Changed Jobs To Get Space
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: 33 Location: London Current industry and job title: Culture sector, lead producer Current salary: £49,000 Number of years employed since school or university: 11 Starting salary: £19,000 Biggest salary jump: From £49,000 to £67,500 in 2024 Biggest salary drop: n/a
Biggest negotiation regret: I was once given a huge project to manage in addition to my existing workload. I was excited by the project and grateful for the opportunity as it catapulted my experience. At the same time I had been negotiating a promotion: I was offered a £4,000 pay rise and title change. I had asked for £40,000 but accepted £38,000. Once I started this project I realised they had planned to hire a project manager on a £60,000 salary to run the project before I accepted. I was furious and tried to negotiate retrospectively but was not in a strong position.
Best salary advice: Always aim higher than you’d be happy with when negotiating salary, as in the arts charity sector you will be negotiated down. It feels obvious but I see so many younger women in my sector accepting the lower end of the band, despite the huge value to charities that people bring.
I couldn’t believe it when I got my first job in the arts not too long out of university, as I knew how competitive it was. I was interning at a theatre alongside working in a bar when they offered me a full-time role. I stayed there for three years, but I accepted the first salary offer when I started.The company was going through a difficult time and some key staff members left. I was going to be offered more responsibility and used this to negotiate a title and salary increase that reflected what I was doing on projects already. I didn’t stay long after this due to the challenging personalities here. I applied to a dream job with an amazing theatre company and couldn’t believe it when I got it. The projects, creativity and quality of work was exactly what I was looking for. The bracket for the role was £26,000 to £28,000. They offered me £26,000 and we settled on £27,000. I was grateful to be at a good place in my career relatively early on. After my six month review, my salary was increased as they were happy with my performance. I was working hard and loving it. After three years in the role, the company was growing and I took on management of three additional people. I barely had to negotiate on my salary as they offered me a £6,000 raise which I accepted. The company was still growing and I was proving myself to be a great manager and leader during this time. I negotiated hard on a title change as they had not had a senior role before, but I knew it reflected what I would be doing as my colleague was about to go on maternity leave and I’d absorb some of their workload. At this stage, the title was the most important thing to me to help my career growth. I asked for £40,000 but agreed £38,000. In hindsight I wish I had negotiated harder on the salary as it made me feel undervalued when my mental health suffered due to workload and stress. The COVID-19 pandemic was a bloody hard time in the events and culture sector. I came out the other side exhausted and realised my time at the company I loved should come to an end. It felt like it was part of me, as I worked with my good friends and I needed some distance. I applied to a company to run an ambitious programme with high stakes and big audiences and got a huge salary jump. It was a shock to the system to be somewhere new. I took a step into the commercial sector this year after a career working in publicly funded events and charitable causes. Working in an agency environment is a different pace and pressure, but with better salaries and benefits, which is a priority for this stage in my life. I put my expected rate at £70,000, landing on £67,500 for now.
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