Your salary may have peaked but you don't know it yet

I’ve seen this happen more than once and it often takes a while for someone to realise that it’s happened or be willing to accept that it’s happened. I’ll give you an example;

Sam is a Marketer who reaches CMO level and a salary of $350,000 in the tech industry.

Layoffs hit their company and they start interviewing with other companies but when it comes to salary discussions or offers, everyone is paying $250-$280k.

Sam had been approached about new roles during their time at the tech company every now and then but thought those offers were paying under the market. What Sam hadn’t realised was those offers weren’t low, they were in line with the market averages and they were the one that was over the market.

This can take people a long time to adjust to this reality and I’ve seen many progress with their job hunt and stick to looking for $350k or even more - as I know many people work on rules like getting a 10% or higher increase in the next role - only for their job hunt to extend longer than it would have if they were aware of the market reality or willing to consider a step back.

In Sam’s case, 9 months later they dropped their salary expectations to $280k and secured a role but they probably could have secured that salary 9 months earlier.

Especially at a more Junior stage of their career, some people think their career and salaries will go like this:

When what plays out for many might look more like this:

Now I hope this doesn’t look like I’m trying to scare everyone into thinking they are overpaid and will never get a salary increase again, that’s definitely not my intention.

But if you do find yourself in this situation, there’s a couple of things to look at:

1. What information can you find on salaries in your market? And be aware that there isn’t a singular market i.e. if you’re a CMO at a sports betting company in Sydney, you’re likely on a lot more money than a CMO of an early stage Health Tech Startup in Tasmania

2. Have a chat with your ego

#2 is what stops a lot of people from finding the next thing, the idea that a lower salary in the next role (regardless of the context like title, size of team, type of company/industry) is a demotion when it’s really not. Job markets go up and down like all other markets, as I said different industries pay differently, there are a lot of factors in play here.

People can get stuck on the fact that their salary was X so therefor the next salary has to be at least X or X + yet for the past 5 years, their salary was 25% over most of the rest of their peers.

There might be a lot of thoughts on “well it would all be easier if companies advertised their salaries” and it would but it’s also a separate topic for another day.

The reality is you have to work with what information you can get access to and your network can be really important here. Do you have peers in other companies you can speak openly to about salaries? Are you nice to 1 or 2 recruiters that can give you updates on salaries they are seeing? Can you organise a salary survey for your role/industry that not only benefits you but will benefit those peers?

I hope you all get infinite salary increases and this never applies to you. If you do have to take a lower salary in your next role, maybe look at it as “I was on a good wicket there, glad I got to earn that money” and a step back now doesn’t necessarily mean a step back forever.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting anyone take an offer where they think they are being underpaid. What I’m trying to say is try and find out if the offer is actually under the market or if your expectations are over the market due to your last salary.