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Salary Story: I Wish I Knew Negotiating Annual Leave Was Possible

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Illustrated by Eutalia De La Paz.
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 women 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. Published stories receive £100.
Age: 26
Location: Birmingham
Current industry and job title: Charity sector, fundraising manager
Current salary: £34,650
Number of years employed since school or university: Five
Starting salary: £12,057 in 2017
Biggest salary jump: From £21,000 to £30,200 in 2020.
Biggest salary drop: N/A
Biggest negotiation regret: I’ve always been happy with salary negotiations but I wish I’d negotiated on annual leave after leaving one job that had generous flexi-time, to one that wasn’t generous at all. I don’t think I even knew at the time you could negotiate on non-money-related things. Now, I wouldn’t join a business that didn’t offer good holiday and prioritised work/life balance.
Best salary advice: Apply for jobs you don’t hit all the criteria for (yes, even those with big salaries). If they like you enough they might be willing to train you, or put you at the bottom of the salary band, or even fit you in elsewhere in the business.
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