Breaking the Income Barrier: 10 Practical Tips To Scale to a Higher Salary
Life is a struggle even for highly qualified graduates nowadays. It can be hard seeing influencers raking in millions for eating snacks on camera when you’ve spent years in education, going into thousands of debt, with only a $40k salary to show for it. How does a hardworking graduate elevate themselves to a $100k income?
1. Switch Companies
If you are an asset to your company, you should receive market value for your services, if not more, depending on what you bring. So many successful people took a risk on their ability, found a better-paying offer, and used that to leverage a better salary or leave their current job.
2. Look for Long-Term Opportunities
Maybe a smaller company needs someone to come in and help them grow, which could be tough at first. However, sometimes we must look for the potential in a job that might not pay well, though it has much room for growth. Many new businesses need employees to help them become well-established, which, at worst, looks great on the resume.
3. Realize Salary Is Just a Number
Ultimately, a $100k job is no different to a $40k job. In both jobs, one must work hard and show their employer they have value. Professional athletes only make such huge wages because their profession is in demand, and they work the same hours as anybody else. Visualizing a $100k salary doesn’t need to be daunting, and believing you deserve it is the first step.
4. Transition Your Skills
Anybody working in any field can transfer their skillset to new pastures. Zookeepers could easily transition into head of sales if they have personality, a strong track record in selling their experience, and social media marketing skills — essential when selling zoo tickets today.
5. Visualize the End Goal
By investing time in your life story’s resolution and outcome, you can work toward a winning career formula. Select a reasonable target for where you want to be (realistic isn’t being CEO of Tesla), then make every effort possible to build your career profile for that pathway. Become the perfect candidate by rehearsing answers to pertinent career questions by researching them. If you want it, that job is out there.
6. Self Help and Coaching
Part of researching a career change is bettering oneself in key skills related and unrelated to the job. While finding work experience in a new career is difficult while you are still employed full-time, completing online workshops on Udemy or Masterclass can help you become more knowledgeable. Moreover, working on soft skills such as conversation or public speaking will never hurt someone trying to improve.
7. Retrain in Key Fields
There are dozens of ways to know which skills are in demand, including checking the Bureau of Labor Statistics, government or state websites, or industry journals. If you have the necessary support at home, retraining in a skill currently in short supply could be a masterstroke.
8. Embrace Job Hopping
Changing employers every three to five years was considered right. But recently, there has been a pivot toward the job market being increasingly a candidates’ market instead of an employers’ market. Social media means employers also need to let people leave on good terms lest any unpleasant publicity result from disgruntled former employees.
9. Specialize Yourself
There is a simple equation that some live by: if there is only X number of people doing a certain job, the value of that job increases. If we can all find that perfect X that fits our skillset, we should find ways to become exceptional in that niche. By becoming a specialist in an in-demand career field, your value rises because fewer people have that skill.
10. Further Your Education
Put simply, the more education you have, the better your chances of being valued highly. If you are aiming for a $100k salary, it is highly competitive. Another option that requires extrinsic support is doing a master’s degree or Ph.D., which will inject your resume with the necessary call to authority employers want to see.
12 Practical Ways To Make Life Easier
Life can be pretty complicated sometimes.
From stressing about your career working in an office to managing your finances, there is so much to do. As a result, your life becomes stressful, messy, and whatnot.
Many of us don’t immediately realize when our lives get messy and overwhelmed.
Over time, it gets worse and affects our mood, productivity, and other areas of our lives.
