I Used This Strategy To Get My Biggest Salary Jumps

Illustrated by EUTALIA DE LA PAZ.

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 people more insight into how to advocate for themselves — and maybe take a few risks along the way.

Been in the workforce for at least five years and interested in contributing your salary story? Submit your information here.

Age: 28
Location: Chicago
Current industry and job title: Retail industry, employer brand manager
Current salary: $125,000 + up to 20% bonus
Number of years employed since school or university: Six
Starting salary: $16/hour

Biggest salary jump: I’ve had two big jumps: from $45,000 to $68,000 as the result of a job switch, and from $80,000 to $110,000, also from a job switch.

Biggest salary drop: No drops.

Biggest negotiation regret: I wish I had known earlier the power of coming in with an external offer during negotiations. I learned way too late that all of my peers were doing this to get their promotions and salary increases. Nothing gets a company to act faster than being confronted with the possibility of you actually leaving.

Best salary advice: It’s okay to care about how much you make. Starting from when I was a young girl, I was always told to follow my dreams, and I held onto that so hard. I felt that changing my major for the promise of more job stability or leaving my dream company for more money were things to be ashamed of, like I was giving up on myself.

But those actions were the opposite of giving up — I was showing myself that I knew my worth and I wasn’t willing to settle for less. There’s no such thing as a “dream job.” My current job is the best role I’ve ever had but if I had seen the job description on paper when I was just starting in my career, I would not have thought of it as a “dream job.”

When I first graduated, I was obsessed with how things looked on LinkedIn, instead of focusing on what was best for me. Don’t let big-name companies take advantage of you for the sake of saying you work for them.