I find it impossible to believe that today is finally here. I have always made a joke in the past about the ‘salary survey being the death of me’, well I don’t think I’ll ever say that again. It would have been so much easier to not publish the data, but I owe you all so much more than that.
I’ve now been collating salary data since 1995. I first got the idea for a Salary Survey back when I was Chairing the SYP for the 3rd time. I was at the London Graduate Careers Fair and was approached by someone who had been offered a job with a major publisher as a Production Assistant and wasn’t sure whether to accept it as she thought it wasn’t a good salary. Through the careers work I had been doing, I advised her that it was an excellent salary and that she should keep her voice down, because there were plenty of others that would accept that job, and probably fight her for it. It then spurned me on to do a Salary Survey, first with the SYP, and then on my own when I set up bookcareers.
I should have known though when I joined the industry that pay wasn’t great. I was offered a starting salary of £3000 at Andre Deutsch and the local Careers Office had already told me that because I was expecting a reasonable number of O Levels (GCSEs in modern speak) I need to look for a salary of not less that £3500. Fortunately, I didn’t listen to their advice.
And where am I with my health? The diagnosis is Basilar-type Migraine and Fibromyalgia, both caused by me not getting seen to immediately after I had a car crash 3 years ago (I had an undiagnosed concussion for 2 weeks to save you looking back – on the day of the accident I went into the office to do my ‘day’ job). I’ve had some not so great news from the hospital in that my injuries now look like they are permanent. But that is their opinion and they are entitled to it. What do I think about this? They are just labels and words and phrases. The hospital can say what they want but I’m going to keep on fighting. I am going to win this.
My life still goes on; I can still work with clients. The website is in a bit of a pickle but I’ve been given some great help from Access to Work, which will make a huge difference to me. I am still working, just a little bit differently to how I was before. But I am still the same Suzanne.