Salary Story: After A Tough Pandemic, I Made My Salary Jump To £125k

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Age: 32
Location: London, UK
Current industry and job title: Mining and Metals, Director
Current salary: £125,000 + bonus
Number of years employed since school or university: 10

Starting salary: £25,500 in 2011
Biggest salary jump: £78,000 to £125,000 in 2021
Biggest salary drop: Not happened

Biggest negotiation regret: I regret not negotiating the salary offered to me in my very first job out of university. I was excited to have been offered a job in the first place, having been a student of the recession years. I was also keen to get all the paperwork wrapped up before I went off travelling for a month after my degree. I ended up regretting rushing that process for the next three years as I later found out that a guy who got recruited at the same time as me did negotiate and for the entire time I was at the company earned more than me for the same role.

Best salary advice: Always negotiate but do so in a considerate and informed way. I really regret not doing it for my first job offer but quickly learned my lesson. Now I'm in a role where I'm hiring people and making job offers and I always expect people to come back to the table and negotiate. I actually think it's a really important skill to have!