A salary journey up and down and back again

The impact of a career pivot on salary

Image created via Midjourney

When I first entered the professional world, salary was Something We Don’t Talk About. It was private, right? Uncouth to discuss with other people. If you did, you were bragging.

Fast forward to today and salary transparency matters, a lot. Without salary transparency, women and people of color continue to be underpaid — without even realizing it.

One of the hardest parts of a career pivot can be a substantial salary cut. If you’re essentially “starting over” you may end up being lumped in with employees that don’t have a lot of experience. That happened to me. And the only way to “give myself a raise” was to change jobs, quickly, leveraging about 8 months of experience (and results) in my newly chosen industry.

And so I’m sharing my salary journey with hopes that it can be helpful for other people considering a career pivot, the leap to freelancing, or negotiating with a current employer.