Salary Story: I Went From Moving Back Home To Making $130k

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Salary Story: I Went From Moving Back Home To Making 0k



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).

I was ecstatic when I got my first job out of college, but it was honestly really boring for me. I didn’t feel challenged at all and felt that there wasn’t much for me to do.

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.

I left my previous job for a bigger role at a news start up. I felt like I needed a change and a chance to create something new (plus the higher salary!). I do think they were expecting more from me than was listed, and I ended up working crazy hours in this job.

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.

I was let go from my last job as the company kept losing more and more money and was letting more and more people go. It was a pretty frustrating year of trying to find a full-time job and I took on freelance work and small gigs along the way to keep me afloat. It was a really stressful time and really hit my self-esteem. I eventually had to move home for about seven months since I could no longer afford to live on my own.

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 was so relieved to finally get a full-time job, I accepted the salary right away. I was struggling with the decision when I first received the offer, but people around me were saying to go ahead and accept.
After a year in my role, I received a small raise. I negotiated, and they gave me the max of what was available for my role. I was really pushing for a new title as well to give me better pay, but I wasn’t able to get there.
I was getting really frustrated with the lack of conversation around a new title, so I moved to a different team within my company. I wasn’t able to immediately receive a new title with the move, but I received a raise and a promise to have the conversation in a few months. However, a few months down the road, when I inquired, my supervisor seemed surprised by the conversation and said it would take more time. I was pretty fed up by this point, so when another company reached out, I started chats.
I was excited to move to another agency, not just because of the new title and pay bump, but also for the experience. However, pretty soon in, I realized it wasn’t a good fit. I spent nearly every day frustrated with the structure of the teams, some team members, etc. About three months in, the company had huge layoffs, and I was affected. I was definitely scared to be in this situation again (and pretty pissed that it would happen so soon into the job), but I was definitely in a better financial situation than before.
I took in maybe $2,000 total in two months. Besides applying and interviewing, I made money by dog sitting, dog walking, and doing user testing. I mostly relied on my savings for immediate things like rent and food.
Thanks to a new law in New York, companies must post their pay range if they have an office within New York state, so I could focus on applying to jobs with higher pay ranges. I took this job because it had the highest salary and my savings were getting too low to live on for much longer. I’m happy enough with the role for now, but am definitely looking for a raise in a few months.

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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