Brianna Doe, a 30-year-old marketing director, used to have a fear of salary negotiations, leading her to avoid asking for a raise. This fear stemmed from a past experience where a job offer was rescinded after she requested more money. It left her doubting her own value. However, last year, while working remotely at a Web3 startup, she realized she could be earning more. A recruiter informed her that she should be making $80,000-$90,000 more based on her skills and experience. Motivated by this conversation, Doe decided to take her job search seriously and change her approach to salary negotiation.
Doe found a valuable job search hack that changed her life. She researched salaries for different marketing positions using a free, crowdsourced database from #HireBlack, a job search platform for Black women. She compared these figures with her own salary and discussed earnings with friends and colleagues. With this research, she established a target salary range to guide her job search. Doe focused on companies that valued her and automatically disqualified those that didn't offer at least $150,000.
To further refine her search, Doe only applied to roles that provided a salary range aligned with her expectations or had anonymous salary data available on platforms like ZipRecruiter and Glassdoor. Additionally, she targeted remote job boards to continue working from home. This strategy of applying only to roles with clear salary information that matched her expectations proved to be liberating and empowering.
In February 2022, Doe received an offer for a remote senior marketing manager position at a computerized manufacturing company. The proposed salary of $155,000 exceeded her expectations by $5,000 and was $80,000 more than her previous pay. Encouraged by this success, she used the same research and negotiation tactics to land a $15,000 pay increase for a marketing director role at a fintech startup.
Within two years, Doe's salary increased from $75,000 to nearly $200,000. Throughout her journey, she emphasized the importance of confidence in salary negotiations. Seeking advice from a seasoned marketing professional on the ADP List networking platform, she learned that advocating for oneself is crucial because the skills and impact a candidate brings to a company are valuable. Being clear about needs and understanding personal value in the profession greatly contributes to successful salary negotiation. Despite her significant salary growth, Doe prefers not to disclose her exact salary to protect against potential future negotiation ramifications.