By the end of this issue, you’ll have a better way to think about what your experience is worth, how other people understand the value you bring, and what I’d want better pay to actually buy me.

At one point in my career, I was told I was overpaid compared to others with a similar title.

My reaction wasn't, “Oh no, maybe I'm earning too much.”

It was closer to, “You have absolutely no idea how much you're getting out of me for this amount.”

Comparing salaries without comparing the actual work underneath them is pretty meaningless.

Two people can have similar titles and completely different jobs. One person might be keeping an established function running. Another might be dealing with much broader scope, bigger decisions, more complexity, and problems that affect a much larger part of the business.

The title doesn't tell you that, and the salary definitely doesn't.

I think this is where staying somewhere for a long time can distort your frame of reference. You may know what the person above you earns, you know what your last raise looked like, you know which numbers make your manager uncomfortable.

Eventually those numbers can start to feel like the boundaries of what your experience is worth. They aren't.

There were points later in my career where the salaries I asked for felt almost ridiculous. Then I realised the market didn't think they were ridiculous at all.

That changed the question for me. I stopped asking: What feels reasonable compared with what I make now?

And started asking: What is this scope, experience and responsibility actually worth today?

Your current company can tell you what they are willing to pay. That is useful information. It just is not the same thing as a final verdict on your value.

01  Check your market value

I wouldn't rely on titles alone. I'd look at what the role actually owns.

What decisions are yours? What happens if you get them wrong? What are you expected to figure out without somebody handing you the answer?

Two jobs can have the same title and bear very little resemblance to each other. I'd look for roles with comparable responsibility, talk to recruiters about scope and salary ranges, and ask what companies have budgeted before spending weeks interviewing.

You're not trying to prove you deserve more. You're trying to understand where your experience fits - and whether somebody has a problem they're willing to pay you to solve.

And sometimes your current company simply isn't that company. That's useful to know. You don't have to spend another year trying to win an argument about your value with someone who has already told you what they're prepared to pay.

02  Be easy to recommend

We hear 'it's not what you know, it's who you know,' and it can make career progression sound like one giant popularity contest. I don't think that's the useful version of it.

Imagine an opportunity comes up and someone asks, “Do we know anybody who could do this?”

Can somebody put your name forward and explain why? “She works really hard” is nice. But “She took over a project that kept missing deadlines, fixed it, and delivered the result ahead of plan” gives somebody something to work with.

People can like you, trust you and think you're brilliant, and still have absolutely no idea what they should recommend you for. You don't need to turn every conversation into a sales pitch. Just make your impact understandable.

03  Buy yourself options

This is the part I care about most.

You can negotiate a brilliant salary and then build a life that requires every penny of it. The house. The commitments. The monthly payments. The standard of living you gradually stop thinking of as optional.

Then one day you want something different, and changing your mind suddenly has a very expensive price tag.

If my income went up, I'd want at least some of that increase to create breathing room: accessible savings, investments, and fewer commitments that require me to keep earning at exactly the same level forever.

Because one day you might want a different role. A different pace. More time with your family. Something of your own. You're allowed to want that, even if you worked incredibly hard to get where you are.

I talk through all three in this Sunday’s video, including how I’d actually test my market value before my next salary negotiation.

ONE IDEA TO KNOW Your Salary Is A Price. It Isn’t An Identity

I think this gets blurred more than we realise.

If somebody offers you more money, it doesn't suddenly mean you became more talented overnight. Conversely, if your current employer refuses to pay more, it doesn't suddenly mean you became less valuable either.

Compensation is a transaction.

It depends on the problem, the company, the budget, the timing, the alternatives available to both sides, and how badly somebody needs what you can do.

That's why I'd be careful about turning one employer's number into a judgment about yourself.

THE ADVANTAGE Make Sure You’re Getting a Good Deal Out of Your Career Too

I want to be paid properly for the work I do.

I don't want the end result of earning more to be that I have to keep doing the same work forever.

Better pay is useful. More choices are better.

I think we can waste a lot of energy trying to change somebody's mind.

We make another case, we take on another project, we stay later and work more hours, we wait for another review cycle, we prove a little more.

Sometimes that works, but sometimes the company has already told you the answer.

There's a pay band. There's no budget. They don't value the scope the way another company might. They simply aren't going to move.

That doesn't automatically mean you should leave, it just means you can stop treating the situation like a puzzle you haven't solved yet.

You have information now, and information gives you a choice.

Stay because the whole deal still works for you, or see what else is out there.

I'd rather make that decision consciously than spend years waiting for one company to validate a number the market may already be willing to pay.

If you stopped using your current salary as the reference point, what do you think your experience might actually be worth?

Hit reply and tell me. I read every response.

Charlotte
Founder, The Redhead Advantage  ·  Build a life you’re proud of.