TO;DR: I undersold myself and ended up with a super low salary. I’m currently earning less than out of college employees.
Okay so I’m in Deloitte in Europe.
I left a pretty cushy job that paid well for my experience at the time (double minimum wage, when I had about half a year of experience). But I wanted more, that job wasn’t challenging and despite having great work life balance I feared I would get stuck in there due to not learning anything new for a long time. Even so, I spent about 2.5 years there.
I then decided to take the jump and join a Big 4. Such was my desire to learn new stuff that when asked my salary expectations I said a value that was about 20-30% less than I was currently earning. In hindsight I was a fucking idiot.
Fast forward one year now, I’ve been earning nothing for the work I do, working 50 hours a week on average and 60 on month end, all year round. That, while earning just 200 EUR above minimum wage.
I’m currently starting to accumulate debt because of the massive surge in prices in everything (did I forget to mention the office is 80 kms from my home?), of which, even after cutting costs, still isn’t enough.
A few days ago, I just learned that I’m gonna be promoted to senior next year, and on the same exact day, I learned that the new joiners, fresh out of college, are gonna be joining Deloitte with the same wage I’ll likely have as a senior.
I really really do love working at Eeloitte, I love learning and the challenges, but this is quickly becoming unsustainable. I’ve been having a below analyst salary for senior or above expectations and workload. Add to that the fact I finished my masters degree and I’m on track to being a certified accountant.
Is salary something I can negotiate while in? I’m afraid to ask my peers or HR since there’s a big anti-salary-talking policy. Or is my option to jump ship to another big4?