Age: 26

Industry: Internal recruitment for a recruitment agency

Your role then and now (before and after negotiating): Internal recruiter to senior talent acquisition partner

Length of time in industry: 4 years

Location: London

Salary jump: £30,000 basic plus bonuses (£16,000 in year 1) to £35,000 basic plus bonuses

Any additional benefits: flexible working, private health care, company holidays abroad

How did you decide it was time to make a change? 

I was being headhunted online by recruiters who were offering me over £40,000 as a basic salary. This made me realise that my salary was not in line with the market rate at that time.

Have you ever negotiated a promotion, title change or pay rise before? 

This was my first time.

What preparation did you do beforehand? 

I watched YouTube videos on how to negotiate your salary plus rehearsed a little script of what I was going to say. I was quite anxious.

What reasons did you give for a pay rise? 

I had doubled the company’s headcount in my first year plus had consistently exceeded my KPIs. I was also a very good culture-hire in the office and went out of my way to make an effort with everyone. I knew my management team valued me and would want to keep me there.

Did you have a contingency plan if your request wasn’t met? 

I would have taken one of the other roles I was being headhunted for. I know my worth and I would not stay at a company that I don’t feel values me. If there was no effort from them to keep me, then I would have felt unvalued.

What was the scariest part of the process? 

I was scared of how my employer would react and the possibility of him saying no, meaning I would likely need to leave my job despite really liking it. I do feel that a lot of the fear was in my head because I ended up getting what I wanted.

How long did the process take? 

Four weeks. It took this long because I also negotiated my next promotion in the same meeting.

Would you do anything differently this time? 

I would try to be more present and not overthink the process. The fear of my manager not agreeing to my promotion put me off asking for a while but if I had asked earlier, I would have been earning more sooner.

I stuck at my current company ultimately because I loved it and I was able to negotiate my next promotion at the same time as my current one.