Salary Story: I Quit My $115,000 Job To Hike For Five Months — & Came Back To A $145,000 Offer

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: 30
Location: Portland, ME
Current industry and job title: IT, senior consultant
Current salary: $150,000/year + bonus (up to 20% of salary)
Number of years employed since school or university: 6
Starting salary: $25,000
Biggest salary jump: My biggest jump was $30,000, which was when I went from a $115,000/year to $145,000/year via a job switch. I went from a project management job to a job as a tech consultant for a software platform.

Biggest salary drop: I went from $110,000/year to $0 during a work hiatus when I quit my job to do a long distance hike in 2021. I was incredibly burned out from telework and the COVID pandemic, so I saved up $30,000 to be able to hike for five months while having a safety net for my return. I still feel incredibly grateful to have earned a high enough salary to facilitate that trip. I ended up finding a job within two months of returning from my hike, resulting in a $30,000 bump from my previous salary.

Biggest negotiation regret: I have never been able to work up the courage to negotiate a salary. I have had the luck of being recognized as a good employee and naturally getting pay raises at each of my jobs, but I'm still trying to find my voice and the confidence to negotiate. I know the worst thing they can do is say no, but I find myself worried that they will change their mind or think that I'm too difficult if I negotiate. My biggest specific regret has been with my most recent position. I was so over the moon about the number that they offered me that I didn't even think to ask for anything else. After joining the company, I found out that starting bonuses are incredibly common and I could have easily had a $10,000 to maybe even $20,000 starting bonus. But c'est la vie. I try not to dwell on it too much.

Best salary advice: The best advice that I have received and never actually manage to follow is to negotiate. The world of starting bonuses is quite new to me, and I didn't realize that was a potential avenue for negotiation. Even if a company has hit the top of their salary range, there is still typically some wiggle room in terms of starting bonuses. As an additional side item, my dad always told me to include benefits when a new company asks for your current salary. So if you make, say, $60,000 but get a $2,000 commuting benefit, a 10% 401k match, and all healthcare costs are paid, you should say your current salary is more like $70,000+.