Brianna Doe used to be terrified of salary negotiations — so much so that she’d avoid asking for a raise, even if it meant leaving thousands of dollars on the table.
“Early in my career, I had a job offer rescinded in less than 24 hours after I asked for more money,” the 30-year-old marketing director recalls. “It traumatized me a bit. I started to doubt what value I was bringing to the table.”
Doe didn’t realize she could be earning more until last year, while she was working remotely as a marketing manager at a Web3 startup in Phoenix.
She had applied to a few marketing jobs on LinkedIn during one slow afternoon at work, and a recruiter called her to discuss one of the opportunities.
“When I told her what my current salary was, she was horrified,” says Doe. “She told me I should be earning at least $80,000-$90,000 more than what I was making, based on my skill set and experience.”
At the time, Doe was earning about $75,000.
That conversation alone was enough motivation for Doe to rethink her approach to salary negotiation. Six weeks later, in March 2022, she landed a job as a senior marketing manager that paid more than double her previous salary, about $155,000.
Doe began her search by researching the salaries for different marketing positions using a free, crowdsourced database published online by job search platform #HireBlack.
Doe evaluated those numbers against her pay and asked her co-workers and friends how much they were earning to see how their salaries matched up.
