Salary Story: After 5 Years, I’m Finally Being Paid Fairly At 30k

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Age: 26
Location: Manchester
Current industry and job title: Fundraising/third sector, senior individual giving executive
Current salary: £30,800
Number of years employed since school or university: Five

Starting salary: Unpaid internship to start, then £21,000 in 2017
Biggest salary jump: £25,000 to £30,800 in 2021
Biggest salary drop: £26,500 to £25,000 in 2020

Biggest negotiation regret: When I moved from London to Manchester, I took a job that was not in the third sector, doing digital marketing. I had never negotiated anything before as charity salaries are usually quite fixed. They offered me £500 more a year than my existing salary after a very lacklustre negotiation on my part. I should have pushed more and really regret not doing so. The fact that I was moving from London, where salaries are typically higher, threw me off but I lost so many benefits by moving to a startup that I ended up worse off overall.

Best salary advice: Never give your current salary, only what you are expecting. If you won't accept a job under a certain salary then just be honest about that. In my latest job move I was upfront from the start that I wouldn't accept lower than £30,000, which was the top of their range. They appreciated that honesty and offered it to me straight up.

I wanted to share my salary story to show that it's not all huge jumps and fast progression. A lot of sectors are really slow to navigate, don't accept negotiation or offer any raises. It has been a slog and due to life circumstances like moving cities and a toxic job that didn't work out, then taking a job I was overqualified for to escape, I've had to job-hop a lot. Now that I'm in a role that challenges me, pays fairly and offers progression, I hope that my future salary story will be better.