How much does your salary really mean to you and don’t give me any of the PC nonsense? Be honest, how much does it mean to you and shape your definition of success? I’ve always been good with money, much to the annoyance of my other half. I’ve always managed our finances and saving is something I’ve always done. Interestingly though, my salary was never really something I thought about. Of course, I thought about being able to cover the necessities and live comfortably but for some reason, money has never been a big driver for me professionally. In fact, just about every career decision I’ve made, whether rightly or wrongly, has been decided by heart, not my bank balance.
I studied to be a lawyer and wasn’t too shabby at it either. I could have easily followed my friends, bagging a lucrative placement scheme at a top firm. Instead I spent the best part of my studies skiving to work on set styling or attending fashion week and press trips for The Fash Pack. Where most people on my course landed themselves prominent roles with starting salaries on the sexier side of five figures, my first full-time gig was at a London-based newspaper that barely paid enough to cover my bills. A few years later, when offered my dream job, I happily accepted the first salary offer – only to later find out that I could have put down a deposit on a house with the amount they were underpaying me. Salary reviews came and passed and, I still hadn’t closed the gap on those lost wages by the time I left but still, I had no doubt that I’d made the right decision. I loved the work and my colleagues and I thought of my relative poverty as the price I had to pay.
Like most people who chose to work in the creative industry, career success has always ranked above financial security with me but then something began to shift. My modest take home each month was starting to jar with my aspirations personally. I’ve been lucky enough to travel to incredible places across the world for work but now it wasn’t enough sharing those experiences with a group of journalists I didn’t know.
I was now less interested in splurging on dresses and shoes and more interested in spending an afternoon trip shopping for interiors at Jonathan Adler or relaxing with an issue of Elle Décor over the latest issue of Vogue. We’d also started talking about marriage and, having vowed to pay for it ourselves, there was always the issue of financing it to contend with. We were determined to buy our first house too – not necessarily the forever home but one that we could live in for the next five years without bursting from the seams – and I didn’t want to feel like every purchase was taking us one step away from that. What I didn’t realise when I first graduated though was that doing what you love isn’t always enough. Sometimes, there are other things that you want.
Navigating between professional aspirations and your financial and personal goals isn’t anything new. According to Sylvia Ann Hewlett, an economist who studies female career trajectories, women are continually being stretched in more and more ways. In a study on the motivations of men and women at work, conducted in partnership with the Centre for Talent Innovation, Hewlett found that while men are primarily driven by money and power, “women want meaning and purpose in their work. They value great colleagues. They also like to give back to society in terms of the work they do, some healing of the planet, and they want flexibility, which is not the same as family stuff—it’s so that they can have a life.”
If you were to ask me the question I posed to you at the start of this piece now, I don’t know what I’d say. Money definitely plays a bigger part in my life than it ever has, as the prospect of getting married and settling down are within sight but I’m nowhere near finding that perfect balance. I’ve just started my own business and plan on throwing myself head first into the adventures that await but I’m also learning that making sure your professional endeavours support your personal goals isn’t a bad thing either.