Salary Story: I Make $203,000 As A VP — & Write Fiction On The Side

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: 44 
Location: New Jersey
Current industry and job title: VP of communications at a nonprofit, and fiction writer
Current salary: $203,000 (salary) + $15,000 (book income)
Number of years employed since school or university: About 22
Starting salary: $35,000

Biggest salary jump: From $120,000 base (plus $15,000 bonus) to $180,000 base (plus $25,000 bonus). This was a promotion from senior director of communications to VP of communications. 

Biggest salary drop: From $190,000 (with 25% bonus) to $180,000 (with 14% bonus). I’ve taken a pay cut exactly once: when I left a corporate role to join a nonprofit organization.

Biggest negotiation regret: The job that required me to accept my biggest salary drop was initially designated to pay me even less ($150,000 base). After several interviews, I withdrew from consideration, citing the salary as my primary reason. They had been very upfront that the band was capped at $150,000 for equity reasons, and I believed them — I truly wasn’t trying to play a game! 

But they were very excited by my candidacy and came back, saying they were willing to up-level the role for me. There was a series of somewhat chaotic emails flying at me from the head of HR, all during a busy workday for me, so I wasn’t fully focusing and was surprised at the turn of events. They asked me to name a number, and in retrospect I should have asked for more time to consider so I could really think about it. Instead I threw out $180,000, and they accepted. I deeply regret that move. 

Best salary advice: There’s always more money available for talented staff. Period. That’s why I’ve always strived to make myself valuable, to build relationships, to be positive at work — usually, it pays off financially.

This was in New York City. I knew I wanted to work in the city, in a large global company, doing something that would let me write and edit. I stumbled into the world of corporate communications by chance — I knew someone who knew someone in a world-renowned financial company’s HR department, and they had an entry-level opening in communications. I never looked back.

I lived in a shared house (with four roommates!) in New Jersey, and I commuted by bus through the Lincoln Tunnel. Things were tight but great.

This was a promotion within the same company. I loved my job and had a couple years of excellent reviews under my belt, so the promotion happened organically during performance review season. By this point, I had moved into a nicer New Jersey apartment with just two roommates. I wasn’t saving much, but I also wasn’t particularly worried about budgeting.

This was another promotion, this time overseeing an intern — my first time managing someone. I still loved this company and was able to travel quite a bit globally. I also made a ton of friends here, many of whom I’m still close with.

I switched companies and industries, from finance to publishing. I felt like my time at my first company had come to a natural end — I’d been there for six years and the structure of our team had changed a lot. I was confident in my skills, and I wanted to break into an industry that I found more meaningful and exciting. 

This felt like a ton of money to me — and rightfully so, as it was more than either of my parents ever made. It was a dream company to work for, and I worked very hard to impress them. I had no outside obligations besides some volunteer work — no kids, no partner, not even a pet — so I was able to dedicate a lot of myself to my work.  

This was the same company. By now I was leading a team of three, and I had incorporated a whole new area of communications into my scope, so I’d really expanded my skill set. Becoming a director also meant I was officially eligible for the management incentive scheme, so I began to receive significant annual bonuses that were dependent on the company’s performance. 

In addition, I began to moonlight as a writer — I scored my first ghostwriting contract and earned an extra $15,000 by ghostwriting a book (young adult fiction). I’d always had a desire to write fiction, and through my volunteer work at a writing-focused organization, I connected with an editor at a book packaging company. She asked me to try out for a project they had open, and I got it!

This was a promotion within the same company, which came with more direct reports for me to manage and more visibility. 

This promotion was very unexpected — I had just come back from my first maternity leave, and I would have been perfectly satisfied at my previous senior director level for at least another year. When I found out my new salary, I wondered if I had been underpaid at my senior director level.

I left the full-time world to start consulting and also focus more on my writing, since my first book under my own name was about to be released. It felt like this was my time to really give the writing thing a go. My earnings here were super sporadic, and I had both long- and short-term clients. 

In 2019 I earned about $20,000 in consulting, and my book income was an additional $40,000.

The following year, I earned about $90,000 in consulting, and another $25,000 in book income.

The pandemic freaked me out in a lot of ways — when it came to my income, it made me hate the instability of consulting, and I could also tell that some publishing projects I had on the horizon were likely to dry up. So I jumped back into full-time corporate life. 

I tried to be strategic about my next steps by focusing on what was missing from my communications expertise. I landed a job at an agency focused on communications, but I was underwhelmed by the type of work I was doing here, so I left the following year.

I took a pay cut to join this nonprofit organization. I jumped at the chance because this was in an industry I’d been eager to try, and the role had a slightly different focus than my previous roles, which I knew would build my skill set. 

But the joke was on me, because this organization was a terrible fit. I had never worked harder and for a more demanding boss than at this job, and I did it for less money, which was a tough pill to swallow. I won’t take a pay cut again unless I’m absolutely certain it’s for the right role, or if I absolutely had to.

On the freelance side, my additional writing income was a bit higher because my first book was optioned for film! I also published a short story in an anthology. That extra writing money came to approximately $25,000.

I left my previous role without having something new lined up — that’s how bad it was. Thank goodness for savings. I’m now at a different nonprofit, working in an area that’s critically important to me, doing exactly what I love. 

I plan to stay in communications always, and I’ll keep writing as long as my agent can continue selling my books! I really like my current role, and given my instability the past few years, I want to stay here for at least two or three years. 

However, I feel like I’ve been stuck in the same pay range and job level for so many years, and I am eager to level up! For my next move in a couple of years, I will be targeting a more senior title — something like SVP or chief level — and would ideally want to move into the $250,000-range for salary.

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

I Made Way More Money After Quitting My Job

I Make $6,000 To $12,000 By Freelancing

I Went From $175,000 To $245,000 In One Job Change

from Refinery29 https://ift.tt/pGybAaF
via IFTTT