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.
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Age: 31
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Current industry and job title: Creative Agency, Senior Producer
Current salary: $130,000
Number of years employed since school or university: 9
Starting salary: $42,000
Biggest salary jump: $80,000 to $130,000 due to a job switch
Biggest salary drop: $64,000 to $40,000 due to company closure
Biggest negotiation regret: While in a job, don’t be afraid to play tough. I’ve always wanted to play nice because I want to be a good employee, be put on good jobs, etc. That’s hurt me when fighting for a raise.
Best salary advice: Do your research, and decide how important the job is. There are so many great resources to find more information on how much companies will pay (Fishbowl is my favorite).
A few of my responsibilities were going through pitches from different companies, setting up meetings, and organizing files. I had a ton of free time but I think it’s also because I didn’t have a direct set of things I needed to get done each day. After spending all my life to that point in school, I understood direct assignments. You need to write this paper by this date, study this subject for this test, etc. But after having been working for ten years I see that in my line of work, it’s about understanding what the missing gaps are and taking the initiative to do the work that no one assigns you. In that role, I just didn’t understand that yet, and no one really helped direct me to that logic.

One of my first initiatives on the job was to set up a daily podcast. At about 5 a.m. every day, I would need to get up and edit together an audio track that a journalist just finished (covering breaking overnight news) and publish it. I would go back to bed afterward, to wake up at a more reasonable 7 or 8 a.m., but it was still a lot. If something newsworthy was happening that my editor wanted to be covered either in audio or video production, I had to work on it — weekends, late nights, didn’t matter. This was during the first few years of the Trump administration too, so there was always something happening.

It was a really tough time for me. I was away from my best friends and the community I had built. My entire life, I’ve always strived for independence (even to my detriment), so to have to rely on my family financially was hard. The second I got a job, I was looking for a new apartment, but my mom convinced me to wait an extra month since it was the holiday season.






I definitely feel I am ready for the next stage in my industry, which would be an executive producer. I’m hoping that my company expands more in Los Angeles, and I can push for more responsibilities as a higher salary (I’m looking for $160,000).
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