I increased my salary from $22K to $180K salary before a layoff. Taking a pay cut in my next role felt like a step backward.

Elianor Williamson went from making $22,000 to $180,000 in a decade. Then a layoff and job search made her feel like she's taken a step backward. Courtesy of Elianor Williamson; BI Elianor Williamson is a 36-year-old living in Seattle. Business Insider has verified Williamson's income and employment history with documentation. The following as-told-to essay has been edited for length and clarity. I went to school for wine. My major was originally education, but while studying abroad for a year in Ireland, I took a class on global food and beverage, and loved it. I switched majors to global wine studies — a little bit of the marketing world and a lot of the wine world. I was drawn to it because it seemed like a fun, cool, shiny, interesting career path. Salary wasn't really discussed in my two years of studying; looking back now, that was disappointing.