What reasons did you give for a promotion/pay rise?
When I received the call and subsequent email offering me the senior account manager role, I was a little disappointed that the offer was for £33,000 - the same salary that I was already earning. I took some time to craft an appropriate response as, even though my primary motivation for moving jobs was the prospect of more money, I’d grown to like the sound of the company as I learned more in the interview process.

In the end, I replied by saying thank you for the offer and said that I was keen to accept the position but unfortunately, the offer didn’t align with my salary expectations. I asked if they’d be willing to consider meeting me closer to the £45,000 mark to better reflect the breadth of the role (they wanted me to take on the line management of 3 staff members which wasn’t originally mentioned in the job description). The next day, I had a phone call with the hiring manager and thankfully they were able to revise the offer to £43,000.

Did you have a contingency plan if your request was rejected?
Not at all! I was just hopeful that they’d see my value in the same light that I did! If they didn’t adjust the offer I would have had to turn them down.

What was the scariest part of the process?
Saying no to the original offer! I think we’re so programmed to say “yes” and be automatically thankful for whatever we’re given so it was really difficult to tell myself that it was okay to say “no”.

How long did the process take?
The period from being offered the job and being offered the revised salary was approximately 3 or 4 days.

Would you do anything differently next time?
I regret not asking what the salary was during the interview process. I’m still not very confident about when the appropriate time to raise that question is, but it might have prepared me a bit more for what an offer might look like.

Know Your Worth: “How I negotiated an extra £10,000 after receiving a disappointing offer”