Age: 40
Industry: Charity sector
Role: Head of trading
Time in industry: 13 years
Location: South-east England
Salary jump: From £32,000 to £40,000
Additional benefits: Part-time flexible working

Do you know the average salary for your position?
No.

How did you decide it was time to make a change?
I identified a gap in the organisation that I could fill, but I didn’t want to take on more work without being rewarded for it.

I had grown sales and profitability in my department using customer insight and analysis, which I then implemented with my team. Departments similar to mine were structured in a slightly different way, and there wasn’t someone doing my specific role – just the day-to-day work. I highlighted that if we applied my approach to these other departments, then we had the possibility of growing sales there, too.

So, I decided to ask for a pay rise.

Have you ever negotiated a promotion or pay rise before?
No.

What preparation did you do beforehand?
I researched the gap in the organisation, identifying what wasn’t being done because this role didn’t yet exist.

What reasons did you give for a promotion/pay rise?
I highlighted the growth in income I had been able to generate in my area, and put forward a case to suggest that if the two other areas of the business had me leading them, they would also be likely to see growth in income.

We also had a new recruit – likely to be doing a similar job to mine – coming in at the pay level I was asking for, so I highlighted that too.

Did you have a contingency plan if your request was rejected?
No!

What was the scariest part of the process?
It wasn’t too scary. I had nothing to lose by making the suggestion and everything to gain if they said yes. It was uncomfortable because I hadn’t done anything like that before. 

I felt quite relaxed. My boss wasn’t the final decision maker; they had to present it to the CEO, so I was pitching to a warm audience. I needed to give them the evidence they needed to convince the CEO. I knew the CEO likes to deal with facts and to have time to think things through, so I prepared a paper outlining the proposal and highlighting the profit benefits.

How long did the process take?
It took about six weeks from submitting my proposal to getting the sign-off. 

Would you do anything differently next time?
I wish I had done it sooner and not doubted myself when writing the proposal. 

I had feelings of doubt because I’d always thought that if you worked hard you would be rewarded for it. What I’ve learned is that you have to make your own opportunities. I could very easily have taken on the extra work with no increase in pay or change in job title and ended up being very overworked. This was the first time I’d said: “I could do this extra work for you but you would need to pay me more.” It was uncomfortable for me to say, partly because it was new and partly because it was so ingrained in me that hard work would be rewarded. Now that I’ve done it, I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again, and it has really shifted how I think about my worth at work.

Images: Getty; Molly Saunders