Salary Story: How My Coworker Helped Me Negotiate My Salary To Be $5k Higher

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: 33
Location: New York, NY
Current industry and job title: Digital Media, Marketing Operations Manager

Current salary: $162,000
Number of years employed since school or university: 12
Starting salary: $50,000

Biggest salary jump: From $85,000 to $125,000 for a new job. I negotiated.

Biggest salary drop: I took a job at a big corporation for the experience and went from $50,000 to $44,000.

Biggest negotiation regret: I made a lateral move one year and my salary stayed the same. I did ask for more, but was promptly shut down. I wish I had pushed back and showed why I deserved it as they really needed me and could clearly afford it.

Best salary advice: I had a former coworker actually push me to negotiate a higher salary and ask about bonuses, which was something at that point I never put much thought into. I got quite a bump because of his guidance and kindness.

At this point, I had no idea what kind of career I wanted. I studied international marketing and graduated with a BBA. I spent an entire summer indoors during the aftermath of the recession applying for hundreds of jobs. At the very end of the summer, I got two job offers: One salaried and stable job as a marketing research company, and the other (which I took) was as a coordinator at a big media company, but I started as a contractor. I accepted it because of the name recognition and it was the right choice to make, even though it was risky, as it put me on the path towards working in the digital tech field.

I got very lucky — I started out as a contractor and then was hired full time. I wasn't sure what exactly I wanted to do but my role was at a startup that was acquired by a major company. It was my introduction into the world of tech and is the field I find myself still working in today.  My responsibilities varied at this role, however, I was ultimately responsible for the launch and execution of digital ad campaigns. 

I made the decision to take a slight pay cut when I moved to my next role because the new company was so huge, I figured it would be excellent work experience, as well as a boost on my resume. I definitely thought about it quite a bit, but I was in my early 20s and didn't have major responsibilities, so it felt okay to take this risk since I was still so young.

This new role was quite different because I was essentially an assistant supporting two executives. I had smaller projects I worked on to support them, but a lot of it was very admin-oriented which I was not used to, such as managing calendars and transferring calls. I will say it was still a good experience because of the people I met. Additionally, administrative work can be more challenging than expected and having that experience under your belt early on is a positive in my opinion.

In 2014 I got promoted to an associate manager making $55,000, and many people recommended me for the job. I was encouraged and really pursued this new opportunity, which felt like a dream job.

My responsibilities completely changed. I was not doing any admin work and had to lead my own conference calls with people located all over the world. It was definitely an adjustment, but the type of work was exactly what I wanted to do. I had the full support of my managers to be promoted because they knew that the coordinator role was something that people usually stay in for a year or two, so this helped with me getting this new job. Additionally, I had two other coworkers that reached out to my new hiring manager with glowing recommendations. I'm convinced this helped me above other potential candidates.

I also developed a good relationship with the HR partner who helped interview me. I am a firm believer in the relationships you make and how that can help you in your career. I did try to negotiate a certain salary but ultimately took what they offered me, which was still higher than the current salary I had. 

I got a new job as an associate manager at a new company. My responsibilities were very global and I helped manage all of our ecommerce sites with new site launches and features. I wasn't able to negotiate much and the salary stayed the same, it was a pretty lateral move. I had taken some time off to study for my MBA and left that previous role, so I got this new one once I completed studying. I also didn't really get along with my manager, so I felt it was best to just leave.

In 2017 I made the switch from beauty to retail which was a change but a great learning experience with a supportive team.

A number of people always say beauty doesn't pay as much, so I moved over to a slightly higher role with a bigger salary in retail. It was purely time for me to move on and try something new. This role was not as global and very much focused on the day to day management of an ecommerce site. I personally didn't see much of a difference between beauty and retail — this new role was just a smaller team with a more focused day-to-day. The people were generally nicer at this new company but I am not sure if that had anything to do with the industry itself.

I wanted to get a true project manager title in ecommerce, so that’s what was great about this role. This is the one that I was able to negotiate with the help of a former coworker.

I had felt that I had great experience in managing both the day-to-day of an ecommerce site as well as the technical part of launching new sites. I wanted to focus on technical projects and launching new features, where you work very closely with developers. That is why I ultimately moved again and got a certification in scrum (CSM) to help get that new role. I got this role by being extremely persistent, I had to call my point of contact at HR a lot because he wouldn't respond back in a timely manner. He actually told me that he would have forgotten all about me if I wasn't so persistent.

My coworker at the retail industry job actually helped me negotiate my salary by an additional $5,000. I was pretty complacent with what I had gotten and he told me that every increment counts, especially since I wasn't going to be receiving a bonus. He guided me in what to say when negotiating, I believe I just reiterated my experience as well as the fact that I was a new MBA grad with a CSM.

My salary started at $155,000 but went up to $162,000 with cost of living raises. I head up quality practices on my team to ensure we are getting more efficient over time with workflow improvements and cost effectiveness. I left the last job because I felt it was time to move on and it was the height of 2020/2021 where the job market was pretty hot. I was able to get a good salary bump with this role and decided to take advantage of that. I did not negotiate much and my company has cost of living raises each year. 

I hope to eventually reach $200,000 in a director role with direct reports. However as I have moved around a lot, I would like stability and to stay at my current company long-term.

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