After completing her MBA, Angela was offered a role at a new company. She knew she was getting paid less than she was worth but loved the people and corporate philosophy. Hoping the compensation would adjust over time, she took the job.

However, as the workload continued to grow, the pay did not adjust accordingly, and the role shifted to being one that no longer aligned with her intended career path.

“I loved my team and manager, but I had been pegged as being the one who ‘got stuff done.’ I didn’t get an MBA to do that,” Angela said. 

She started pursuing other positions and worked with Worthmore throughout the process. She received offers from both companies at which she interviewed. The role she ultimately took offered her a 25 percent pay increase and tripled her long-term incentives.

“The key to my negotiation process was understanding the right questions to ask and positioning my desires in a way that was palatable to the company,” she said. “If you know what to ask for and how to make it seem reasonable, it doesn’t really feel like a negotiation.”

Although one of the companies was a popular tech giant, which felt tempting, she took the job at the smaller company, because they offered more than just money.

“I chose this role because the company is known for allowing employees to move easily between internal roles. That mentality can lead to multiple career paths, which is exciting to me,” she explained. “They also allow me to have greater flexibility for my family, work from home and do more interesting work in fewer hours.”

Throughout Angela’s career, something she has noticed is that it’s not necessarily that women don’t know how to negotiate, it’s that they don’t know what they can ask for or what they really want.

Her negotiation was successful because she knew what other opportunities were out there, understood her market value and was not afraid to advocate for herself.

“It’s OK to make tradeoffs – it’s not always about compensation and title,” Angela said. “Just make sure you’re the one choosing to make those tradeoffs, not that someone else is forcing them on you by offering less than you’re worth.”