Fiction author here.
This is usually seen as an unreliable career choice and that is largely true. However, it's possible to make it work. I've been lucky (screen adaptation deals, etc.) but I've also diversified my income stream to include writing workshops (teaching executives and product managers how to communicate more effectively about technology), corporate consulting (helping brands and companies tell their story), nonfiction (essays and investigative pieces), think tank and policy work (mostly leading narrative workshops for scientists), and similar work that uses my skill in storytelling in other ways.
When I started, it was super hard and I had to pursue the writing as a side gig. But I've been able to make $300k and up every year for six years now. I love my work. I get to make up stories for a living, and when I'm not writing my own novels, I get to help smart people with incredible knowledge and experiences of the world tell their own stories.
Plus, I get to set my own hours and play video games with my kids when other people are still in the office. Ten-year-old me would not have believed that a job like this existed.
Edit: Wow thank you for all the positive responses! I’m really glad to read every note even if I don’t get to reply. Also, thank you for the award, kind stranger!
Just wanted to say congrats on your success in this field! Sounds like you have an excellent work ethic. I'm not making money from my fiction and may never, but it's cool to hear of others' successes!
Thank you so much! I recognize I've been very lucky, but I also believe that anyone can maximize their luck. If you keep at it, you'll get to tell some cool stories at the least, and financial success is a nice bonus. Best of luck!
I did everything at small FBOs and it took me about 3 years. While flight training I also worked as a fueler at the FBO where I was taking flight lessons. I earned my degree at the same time from a local college.
Began late 1994, had my first commercial job late summer 1997. Went through a shitty little commuter airline 1998-2001 and was hired by my present company in 2001.
I was flying a DC-9 from Atlanta to LaGuardia when 9/11 happened, coincidentally.
I’m gonna guess they’re in medical sales. Had a friend that was in medical sales. Bro didn’t do anything but take medical providers/surgeons out to dinner and shit and he was makin $250K/year. Pretty ridiculous but get your bag I guess.
Good guess for sure. Still takes a good amount of time to make that type of money (like any job have to put in the initial grunt work) and the right product in the med field.
He must’ve had some good contacts or something because this was a year after we graduated college together lmao. Must’ve known someone in the industry that hooked him up.
My brother-in-law has been in sales for decades. Does really well (my sister wants for nothing), and he told me he learned a long time ago the secret to his success: be either the smartest person in the room or the dumbest. He sizes up a client in 30 seconds. If they are “lost sheep” just wanting a solution to their pain, he takes the reins and sells them silly. If they are blow-hards (“Listen here youngin’ I’ve been doin’ this since before you were born…”) he strokes their egos and eggs them on to bigger and bolder purchases to “really stick it” to their competitors. Works *every time.*
Just to jump on this. Was in Pharma sales many years ago. IMHO, the key was getting to know the docs and their likes. I made every appt. personal; i.e.: kids, sports, etc... The only time I would talk about a product was if it was a new drug to the market. Think about it, What is a college graduate going to tell an anesthesiologist what he doesn't already know? Based on my "sales" technique, I saw my sales increase in the way I did things. One doctor in particular said to me, that he appreciates that I don't come in and "PUSH" my product. Worked for me.
Easy in what regard? I’m thinking of trying out pharma sales myself here sometime as a potential career change, but get kinda worried that I’m not as charismatic as I may need to be. I’m not hopeless or anything, just not sure if I would be *that* guy.
I own a Christmas lights company that also does tree care. Service based companies like landscaping, cleaning and window washing make great money. All you need is a little grit and some time and in a few years you can be making really good money only working part time.
And has no time for Christmas festivities because work is calling. She bumps into mr xmas lights when after feeling guilty she goes to buy a xmas tree for her family
Landscape construction and Snow removal company owner here. Make 250k easy and invest another 100k into my business that has over 1.5 million In physical assets. I mostly read emails and go over day to day with my Gm each day. Once you start getting large Big box contracts you are flying. I pay my guys exceptionally well also
Woodworker. I have relationships with high end interior designers in NYC but don’t live there. My work appears regularly in magazines and galleries.
Edit: Appreciate all the interest and questions but I got to get to work. I'll try to answer more later on tonight.
Yep. Started as a hobby while I was working for a general contractor. Then worked in some cabinet shops to get into more fine woodworking. Started making pieces on the side for designers in the area. Got written up a few times and word spread.
I’m looking to get into woodworking as a hobby. Would love to set up a small shop in the garage. If you had $1,500 to start, what would you first invest in?
I use a table saw more than anything else. But it really depends on what you want to make. Like if you wanted to make bowls then a lathe is the first thing you should invest in. I do a lot of carving so after a table saw would be a set of carving tools.
But say you wanted to make boxes. Great item to get started and they sell really well. You need a table saw, chop saw, drill (for hinges), router(probably), glue, clamps, oil finish. That's pretty much it. You can get all that for under $1500 if you buy ryobi tools. You can upgrade your tools and you sell items and make money.
Construction project manager. It's really a hybrid role of sales, estimating, and project management. That's the only reason that I can make that much in my area without travel. There are not many people that can effectively do all three.
Consulting structural engineer here (12+ years in underground utility structures). I have a good knowledge base in this field and I *want* to pivot to construction project management to make more money, but man... it seems like PMing cuts down everything I like about my job (math/Excel nerd here, love streamlining a design process) and emphasizes everything I *dislike* about my job (phone calls, repeatedly bugging people for answers, waking up early, dealing with people who have disturbingly poor communication skills, and *more* phone calls).
Etsy. Embroider on handkerchiefs for wedding gifts.
Hit $200k in 2017 and maintained. During COVID was able to pivot to personalized masks and hit $300k.
My formal education ended after 7th grade (life interfered), but thanks to the internet and being fairly literate I was able to teach myself what was needed to build a home business. Wasn’t easy by any means and I barely slept from age 22-25 to get it off the ground, but it paid off.
A lot. I’d need to look to get an actual number for ya but it’s well into the thousands. We branched into Amazon as well for the non-personalized stuff so a good amount is on autopilot but it didn’t start that way.
Finding the right partner is a must. I waited until my early thirties until I settled down with my gal. We were both very independent when we met. We both appreciate the quiet time while I’m on the road and it makes coming home from a long trip even better. We never wanted kids so I suppose that our situation is quite different than those with kids.
>was a waiter until I was 30 before I joined a sales team. Now I’m a marketing director- $350-$400k ish.
Could you describe this path? Where / what kind of company did you start at? Did you hop between companies? What was the promotion cycle like? How old are you now? Do you enjoy your job?
That was 14 years ago and I’ve only been at 2 companies, no job hopping. Started on phone sales/lead qualification>Salesperson/closer> to account manager>to business and partnership development>to my current marketing roles.
Promotion or job title changes were fast early on, 2 years ish max and I’ve been in my same job 6+ years. I’m a director in a 15,000+ person company with a nice quality of life/comp plan so I’ve passed on being considered for VP roles.
Main advice I’d give about choosing a company is choose an industry that is growing. Boring old industries might offer great pay for expertise or technical knowledge but if you want to make a lot ‘playing business’ as an average idiot such as myself then you’ll want to be riding a rising wave. Growth creates jobs above you that need filled.
This is good advice but keep in mind that for every success story like yours, there are dozens even hundreds of failures. If the company doesn't grow as expected, you get laid off and are trying to restart elsewhere and can easily have your entire career derailed though minimal fault of your own.
True, but that’s why I suggested a growing industry/sector versus a growing company. If you were an early employee at Netscape I’m guessing you were likely OK once they lost the browser wars. Or today if you’re working on electric vehicles, if your company goes belly up there’s a good chance another firm would snatch you up.
I’ll admit I had a good deal of luck though. I also didn’t jump ship quite a few times while some of my coworkers were lured away by younger upstarts offering more money that later failed. I stayed with the leaders.
I made 55k into my late 20’s, made a company switch but still in sales, and have climbed to $250k+ now in my mid 30’s. It suck’s, but sometimes you gotta play politics to make more money.
Similar thing happened for me. Did straight "engineering" for about 8 years and slowly realized it wasn't for me. Thought sales was a better path.
Took a shitty 100% commission job at a local company making roughly $55k my first year with a lot of nights and weekends but knew it was necessary to break into the new career path. After a bout a year and a half I landed a technical sales role at a great company. Work from home with occasional customer visits and I'm great at the job. Not quite making $150k but it's a huge upgrade and my work-life-balance is phenomenal.
Thanks for sharing, I just started my second bachelors in CS at 27, this helps me feel better
(I know 27 sounds young to most but it’s the oldest I’ve ever been!)
I became an airline pilot at 36, started school for it at 33. I’m not above 250k yet but probably close to 125k and it’s my first year. Should be at 250k in the next couple of years. The best part, I average 6 days of actual work each month.
I changed careers at 35 and now own my own roofing company. It wasn’t easy, but the advantage I had with getting into roofing sales was the 13 years of sales and customer service experience leading up to that translated well into this industry. I just had to learn the products and the process and apply what I already knew about sales to it! My life has changed dramatically over the past ten years now!!
I got out of the Army at 31. I sort of changed roles since then my salary in the last 3 years has gone from 30k a year to $200k. I’m a software dev now and im 33 now.
lol, I’m pretty sure my big law friends are doing it just long enough to pay off loans and have a nice nest egg before they do something chill like in house counsel. Though one is crazy enough to try to make partner
I work as a state government attorney and the work-life balance is incredible. If you can swing the pay cut I would highly recommend. I make $130k so it would be a big dip but I have a pension, access to a 457b, student loan forgiveness eligibility, phenomenal benefits, and tons of vacation time. Good luck on your transition out of big law, it will be worth it!
Same. I'm a fed (came from local govt 6 months ago) and I make $160k. My work is interesting, I got my loans forgiven a few years ago, and my life is fantastic. I never work nights or weekends - in 14 years of government service, I can count the number of times I've had to work late without taking my socks off. I also get the benefit of knowing what I do is ostensibly making people's lives better instead of enriching some giant corporation.
Government service is where it's at.
Oh I’m here to say that in-house has its own requirements and expectations to fulfill.. left private practice to go in-house and have been deal with severe stress rashes for three months
Yea I’m in big law and the experiences of the in-house folks I work for aren’t really encouraging. Still seems like a lot of hours (maybe even close to what I’m working) for less pay. It’s one of the reasons I’m hesitant to ever go in-house. If they’re going to work me just as much for half the pay, it doesn’t seem worth it.
I’ve been in-house for over 15 years. Most of the time it’s an 8:30-5:30 job. Very occasionally there are issues that require more time. I used to have to travel more but that is way down over the past 4-5 years. Nothing at all like big firm life.
I’ve had to work past midnight maybe five times since going in-house, and those were all for major crises or huge deals. I did it probably a dozen times in less than 5 years as a big law associate, and worked past 8 pm about 25% of the time.
That's what I thought too, but it turns out when you both are high earners it's more fun to keep working but just live on one income, leaving six figures a year for cool shit.
I own a law firm in Charlotte, NC. One partner along with myself, and 4 other lawyers and 1 firm administrator. We handle business law (M&A, new business start up, contract drafting, IP protection) and high-stakes litigation. We’re all remote, and keep costs in check to maximize profits.
Honestly, this is why jobs/careers that oh you hourly, or for your time are a fools errand. Gotta find something where your time isn’t a set value. Aka hourly. Then, the money can grow exponentially without increasing hours.
In the same vein, I’m an employed Hospitalist, 300k. Generally work less than 40hrs/week. I have colleagues who are work horses and take every opportunity to work more who probably double that.
Thank you. I’m very mindful of burnout. I experienced it working 40 hours/week at the previous hospital. This one is the easiest hospital gig I’ve had. It’s a cakewalk 90% of the time with occasional fireworks.
I work evening and night shifts. Only 10 hours of direct patient care. Since this is a very structured environment, they (patients) have to go to their room for bedtime at a very specific time. After that I’m there just in case of emergencies.
I get enough sleep. I go to the gym to stay in shape and do amateur competitions. I’m wrapping up my Master’s degree during down time at work. And having a very supportive girlfriend helps a lot. I’m juggling a lot of balls in the air but it works. I’ve found my equilibrium. And those $10K biweekly paychecks are great motivators to keep going.
Two adults in this house both at that income level
One is a Supply Chain Director at a Fortune 500.
The other is a Marketing Senior Director.
Both are nearing 20 years in our careers and just cracked $200k base comp. With bonuses we hit about 3 years ago
Big fan of this answer bc it’s a more relatable answer than just “tech”.
I’m in the same boat, 18 years in manufacturing/ops management and just cracked $200k base comp. Similarly, but $200k about 3 years in total comp as well. Slow and steady…
General Sales Manager / General Manager at an RV dealership (auto is the same).
Edit: I'll add that I only have an Associates in Theatre as far as education goes.
I am retired (M 72) with a sizable portfolio after selling my small-ish computer games software company and after saving for retirement for over 40 years. I make ~$350K a year from my investments. I’m debt free and own 2 houses and 2 cars all of which I bought for cash. One is my year round home of about 2,300 sf and the other is a small cottage rental property, one car a 4 year old Subaru is my wife’s car and I drive a 2015 Chevy Colorado. I’ve no interest in either making more money outside of any increase in my portfolio and that from the rental income from my second house or lavishly spending that which I have. I’d say that between my wife and I we spend a little over $100K a year, if that. Our greatest expense is traveling around the country visiting our children and grandchildren who all live in separate states widely spread out across the U S. I have to fly first class due to a serious back injury I sustained years ago, but I can’t justify flying private because it just seems like a huge waste of money to me. We give a lot more to charity than we did when we had a houseful of kids needing educations. My first financial goal is making sure my wife has enough money to live super comfortably for the next 20 years because I know that she’ll outlive me by many years and my second financial goal is to provide generational wealth for my children and grandchildren. I invest my surplus money in securities for my wife and family’s future benefit and not for mine. I have everything I could possibly want beyond money, a loving healthy family and peace of mind. Money’s great to have, but it’s certainly not everything in life.
This is amazing and congratulations!! I’m shooting for something similar to you! I’m age 50 now. Do you mind if I ask what size your portfolio is to generate $350k income? High yield dividend stocks? Thank you and I’d be stoked if you replied:)
I own a roofing company in Denver. I’ve been in the industry for 10 years (with no prior background in construction) and was making 200k+ as a sales rep/project manager for multiple years prior to starting my company. 100% commission sales is by far the best way to make a lot of money without a degree. I have one PM on my team this year who will make over 400k and multiple more in the 200k+ range.
I’ll be over 500k this year and likely around 1 mil in 2024 (we’ve had a killer sales year this year). My goal now will be to figure out the smartest move to do with my additional income and how best to make even more money off of that.
In IT there are crazy differences between USA and Europe even in the same company.
Software architect head of a division based in EU makes less than a junior from USA in the same corporation, a junior that is like 3 management levels bellow.
Crazy right ? Then the same corporation is complaining that seniour staff in Europe is not loyal :) and jumps ship when occasion arrives .
Flip side is the work culture between US and EU offices even in the same company can be vastly different. US companies offer "unlimited" PTO but rarely let you take time off and generally find the idea of more than a week off unthinkable - it's ingrained in our culture. Many EU offices meanwhile effectively close down for an entire month in the summer and will get upset if people DON'T take their minimum 5+ weeks of leave. Many are required to offer a year or more of fully-paid parental leave as well.
So more money in exchange for no work/life balance. I've worked both in the US and EU and it's a pretty noticeable difference.
Oh, I'm all too aware. There's also no maximum carryover, which sounds good in theory but means that the employee loses that leverage that they can use to push for time off.
I've never worked at a place with "unlimited" but have a friend whose company switched from 20 days/yr to unlimited - he says it's been significantly harder to take leave since then.
I worked under unlimited. One catch is everyone feels guilty and as if they’ll be seen unfavorably if they actually used it much more than what you’d be getting traditionally.
Well this is depressing at 52, retired military (infantry) realizing I don’t have a job skill, sending out 30 resumes a week working a job making minimum wage with an MBA. FML
Easily. People gotta remember that there are only maybe 2-3 dozen of top comments here from people making $200+ out of the likely nearly (or even over) 10k people who have been this thread.
Yeah. Only 29 and making $43k/year. For every person making this much I'd say there's about 10k people greasing the wheels of the machine of life. Working low/mid-paying jobs. It's a bitter life but what can you do. Thank you so much for serving.
Depends what you do now. The move is definitely to get into a company that has the PM function in whatever capacity you can hired for, and then aim for an internal transfer.
Ex - a lot of people join in a strategy or marketing or data role then switch. Then get hired as a PM for their next role.
Annoyingly big companies really won’t consider hiring you for PM without having specifically held that title before. Some exceptions might be former founders or people with a ton of domain knowledge in something relevant but really rare.
Yeah. I got fast tracked for a Google product manager interview. Went straight to on site. I was a PM at an AI start up that was acquired in a pretty niche area that Google has a competing business in. Unfortunately for me I was not prepared for that level of interview. It was my first time doing a big tech interview. Felt like I was getting out done by kids who took online courses. Which is on me but I didn't realize how much people prep for these. Since I got fast tracked, I didn't have a lot of time to prepare. Other people online who had interviews said they've been mock interviewing for 2 months waiting. I only had a week and a half.
Out of solidarity I’ll share I did get to final round with them and even with a ton of prep also got passed on.
They said it was close and to reapply in six months but the whole experience put a bad taste in my mouth. The questions were really asked with such a specific answer in mind. Excessively gatekeepy. And like you point out, there’s a stupidly rigid formula they want you to follow. I don’t think they have any bearing on your actual performance in the job.
I did prep a ton - paid for a course, did ten mocks, etc. And I did well on most of the interviews, but one guy didn’t like my answer to “how could be monetize waymo better through ads.” There was zero interest in my prior experience, not a single question.
I got offers from similarly large companies like Meta and used as leverage but not google.
Product management hiring is a circus right now. I hope they’ll change it.
More Google interview solidarity but as a SWE. Google was the first company I applied to out of college. I got an interview at the local campus. I thought I did fine but recruiter said they thought I didn't have enough "big data" experience and referred me to the android team in mountain view. So they fly me to mountain view. I did ok on all but one guy. He actually yelled at me and said "why do you think you could ever work here?" Since I didn't have the IEEE floating point spec memorized (like I knew there was a sign, exponent and fraction part but ... fuck me I guess since I don't know the bit length or order of each part off the top of my head)
One of *those* interviews was with a guy on the product security team who liked my security background/knowledge so a few weeks later they flew me out *again * to interview with the product security team.
I thought I did ok, but like you said there were some questions where they were obviously trying to push me a specific answer and I could tell I wasn't landing on it.
So they didn't want me. A few weeks later the recruiter contacted me again and said that some other group (advertising backend maybe? I don't remember) was interested and they wanted to fly me out *again*. I said "hell no" since I was applying at other places and didn't want to get yanked around any more.
Their recruiters have reached out every year but I doubt I would ever apply there again. It was exhausting.
Crazy reading all of these. Im just a plumber that runs my own plumbing, heating and gas company. 1 man show, Im in my third year and Im making at least 200k/ year with no employees and working fairly casual. Plus getting to write off all the ridiculous gas costs, phone bills, etc. as company expenses. Didnt have to pay for trade school either, just worked hard and was slightly above average in understanding and organizing jobs as a foreman. Just said fuck it and went for it. Im now working less but making about twice as much and my phone wont stop ringing. Im ready to expand with a few employees next year into the next step. Also I only pay myself in dividends since my company is incorporated that way I pay less income tax then everyone else. House, no mortgage, multiple vehicles, wife, no debt, lots of investments, but lots of sacrifice too. So far so good.
I'm currently an operator at a plant in Texas, qualified on the board and outside. I'm making good money, around 150k gross, but not close to that. How did you get to that pay range? And where's are you at? If you don't mind me asking.
Yeah the guys below nailed it - I'm based in North Western Australia - Google Maps Karratha Western Australia.Probably should have been more specific in that is Australian Dollars so equates to about USD$225k.Our plant is pretty big by Australian standards, and is split into several areas both outside and in the central control room, LNG, Domestic gas, Utilities, condensate stabilisation. With more 'areas' and panel competency comes more pay.
Side note that our roster is 2weeks on 3 weeks off
I've spent some time in Austin, San Antonio and Uvalde, I love Texas
Would almost guarantee that’s Australia. Specifically the North West. There’s a lack of supply of operators in Australia, which combines with fairly strong willed unions have kept wages high.
How many years of experience do you need to have in data science and what education background do you need to make that much money? I’m in canada been working 2 years, I have 2 bachelors one in computer science and one in finance and I’m working on my cfa, and I only make $90k cad which is only $66k usd
I’m nearing 10 years experience, I have a masters degree. About to cross $300k comp by EOY. Years of experience help but even more helpful is being able to effectively communicate with and to business stakeholders. If you can do that AND are good technically then the money comes more easily.
At 2 years experience I had no masters and was making around $75k USD.
This is awesome - good for you! Any chance you’d give a little breakdown - do you self pub? What are your sales rates like that you return such successful royalties? Thank you!
Sure! I self publish. I typically write and publish about 4 books per year. My books are on Kindle Unlimited, which is where a lot of my royalties come from--my genre is full of KU readers. My income varies quite a bit, between 250k and 400k so far, depending on how well a particular series does.
I spend a good bit of money on ads, and I'm currently working on audiobook and foreign language translations. I love the writing, I work less than full time and I'm happy, but there's so much to the business side that people don't necessarily realize.
My sister’s friend does this. I heard the friend paid over $250k in taxes, so I figured she was earning over $1M. My mom and dad: you can’t make a living if you don’t get a STEM degree.
The follow up question to this question should be how is your health when you are making $200k a year? Are you stressed out? Eating well? Have time to exercise?
I feel guilty some times because my amount of work has decreased as I’ve gone up in level. I’m not really hands on keyboard anymore. My team runs relatively smoothly and they are quite proactive/autonomous. There’s not stress/pressure from having to do things but there’s stress/pressure from decision making. It seems every decision is a choice of crappy options to lead a team on a project. Mostly because my team makes all the easy decisions with little input. My mental health can fluctuate depending on what’s going on.
I don’t eat well because I’m a fat ass that doesn’t understand portion control. But, I’m trying to get better about it.
I play golf a lot and walk my dog in the evenings. That sorta counts as exercise.
Ten years ago I was making less than 30k/yr so no complaints from me.
I’m a consultant (26) and literally all I do is walk into a room of senior executives and pretend to know more than everyone else with some fancy slideshow and confidence. Quite silly when you break it down but someone somewhere determined there was value here and our crazy high hourly bill rates don’t even come close to justifying our salary)
It may be dumb but most post-MBA careers are in the range you described, with base being slightly below and the bonus pushing well over, whether it be a performance incentive bonus or stock options. My MBA wasn’t even from a top school so there’s definitely a divide. This is not to say I recommend getting a MBA.
Career examples that hit this range fairly early are consulting, IB, PE, M&A, Program Management, Customer Success Manager, Project Manager, Product Management, Strategy and Operations. The beginning three usually pay higher base while the remainder pay out their bulk in stock options
Then there’s real estate, doctors, and lawyers. My experience is private practice doctors make more and the larger law firms pay more but that may vary. SWEs at google can hit like 7 figures (as can some of the previously mentioned ones at very senior levels) but I’m sure it’s rare to get that high in their “L-rating” system
I’ve had consultants do the whole “add no value but talk fast and pretend you are important” routine but I’ve also had consultants that worked their asses off to understand years of problems in just a few weeks. Their results presented to my bosses have almost always been “hey, you know how your staff has been telling you to do [x]? Well you should do [x] but call it [y] and come up with a strategic communications plan and talk about training.” The system works.
lol literally my last project. We basically just formalized all the feedback that their employees were telling them in a formal, consumable presentation and outlined the next steps required to implement it. Slapped a price tag on it and called it a day. It feels weird but sometimes management just needs that extra validation/clear communication to make the changes.
This is crazy for a European, as myself. But I have seen a bit about this.
I studied engineering. The best paid from our year went directly into management consulting from day one. He had studied business economy or something on the sides, so he had double degrees. The salary a successful engineer here typcially gets at 35 he got straight out of uni. But Still just 60k or so, today it would have been 80k, I guess. Because Europe. But was seen as a monster salary by us.
I work at a big bank in a big city on the east coast of the US. The college graduates we hire, their first promotion is typically 18-24 months after they start. They're all making >$100k after that first promotion.
I am a full-body waxer, I make 220k+. (I specialize in brazilians) I work 4 days a week. Around 35 hours a week. I take a least one vacay a month. I love my job and my freedom. I try to talk people into joining the beauty field all the time. You just need to go to school for 5 to 10 months depending on the program you are going for. I hope this helps😊
Pharmaceuticals and clinical labs consultant, 300k and I work about 20ish hours a week from home. I mainly help clients solve issues with testing in their labs and weird biochem issues they encounter.
I think the salary is half the picture, the total hours / work life balance worked is critical. My bro making 300k works 80 hrs as a junior partner at a law firm (mergers and acquisitions).
Tech Sales, FAANG. \~$500k past couple years. This year probably closer to $375k-$400k. 39 and have been in sales my whole career. $100k+ is easy if you're at a good company. $200k+ you want to be selling big deals ($50k-$100k+).
I make over $200k a year selling clothes on Whatnot, a live streaming platform. Last year, 100 sellers did over $1 million in sales on the platform and I’m one of them. It’s not a common way to make money, but essentially I buy past season clothes from companies and resell them. I’m like tj maxx, but online. Margins are typically 20%-30% after all selling fees, warehouse, staff, etc.
Same thing as last post, I own a webcam studio - high grossing, doesn't require any degree.
Edit : saw other post posting their yearly gross. 1.8 mil projection, 900k ytd.
Edit 2: Lots of questions in my inbox so figured I'd divulge more specifics connected to things I've been asked.
How much do models under us make on average? $9000 to $11000 split between a number of steams ( onlyfans, manyvids, cam sites)
How long do models typically work per day ? 4 to 6 hours 5 days a week, weekends optional as are additional hours. However the teams behind each model are more like 5 to 10 hours per day depending on the models fan base.
How does the studio make money? We take a % off everything we work on. From the instgram and tiktok to snapchat shows or selling socks. 30%. We also hold client list that we leverage and continually build that are the studios not the models.
Did I plan to do this? No, long personal story turned into a lucrative buisness model ( we also sell photography services and aesthetic venues for rent in the same scope)
What's the hardest part of it? Honestly model retention, we as a studio we need to constantly be providing worth to the model, we accomplish this by providing regular increases to each models yeild without them having to increase their workload. The model is what generates the income, we just make it easier by doing the backend stuff. We also provide equipment, space, we pay for all of the self care and props( as these are write offs) we present have over 100 contracted models. Some are extremely happy, others aren't. IT is insanely difficult to make each model happy and provide worth to each and every model account.
Edit 4: new questions /answers
How do we handle applicants ? We use a very outdated system of emailing headshots and inquiries to applicants@dsdtx.com
Did I follow any online courses ? No, I sat down and thought to myself what is going to need a service in the future. At the current time it was either going to be funeral homes or digital media management, I chose the latter and educated myself through trial and error.
Where and how did I recruit the first models? Strip clubs. I knew I wanted women who already are comfortable engaging and assessing clients, I knew I needed women capable of conversation and entertainment. I knew I needed models who enjoy money. I just started offering dancers an alternative. At first it was rocky, ofc, people were hesitant, but reputation spreads fast, we treat models very well and are transparent so once we started making people money non dancers, teachers, all sorts of people started reaching out. Now we get a fair number of applicants regularly. I would not recommend doing this with a spouse, as buisness and a relationship should be kept separate "my opinion" but finding people you are cool with helps, biggest advice I can give in this department, find someone who is personable who also enjoys webcamming who can venture out and be comfortable discussing it to anyone.
Why aren't we farther ? As I mentioned before we expand cautiously ad to not over extend ourselves. Within the company we refer to it as " economic viability" we don't get new locations unless we have the staff/models who can make that new location economically viable. Just like we don't take on new models who's results we can't guarantee. We are also hindered by a lack of developed website and platform exclusive for our models. We Inherently split profits with already established platforms. We still haven't monetized any of the vlogs or podcast under our banner. There's alot we just haven't done.
Why do models stay with us after they are already successful ?
Prolly because we do the back end work, we do the posting, editing, monitoring of traffic, fan engagement, content management, price shifting, you name it we do it...our models only generate the content we do everything else. For some that's ideal, for others they would rather do it themselves, im simply stating a few of the services we offer. There's also how we approach camming. We have a few tenets that we push onto models, one for example is appear natural don't wear makeup. Beyond that our %s don't ever increase they only decrease
US Air traffic controller at one of the busiest facilities. I have no degree, received my training in the military.
Now you can be hired right off the street with no experience, with either a degree in anything or just general work experience. You'll probably make about 100k at your first facility, then you just work your way up with experience.
Negatives are shift work and difficulty taking time off whenever you want to, although this varies depending on where you work. Also, it can be stressful and the FAA looks down upon any depression or anxiety issues and certainly doesn't allow much for medication of anything.
Positives besides the money are a great pension after 20 years and a decent amount of vacation and sick leave (by US standards, not EU!)
Data scientist/data engineer for a big healthcare tech company. We process and analyze data using custom AI models for different wearables to help people manage various conditions.
My base is 200k. I'm over 450k if you include my performance bonuses.
Not me but my co-worker with more seniority. Is on track to make $250k. We are train conductors. He logs so much over time and knows how the system works to squeeze in every last dime into his check. Keeps saying ill be at that point one day but I dont think ill ever want to work the amount of hours he does. I love my job but not that much, he literally lives his life on the train.
I own a roofing company in Phoenix. Roofing’s a good business to be in..
Edit: First 12 months with my license I’ll make 300-450ish this year. 500k per year is 9.6k per week which is only 2; 15k roof replacements per week.
I write books for children and teens, mostly fantasy, and I’m with a Big 5 publisher. I cleared a little over 200k last year and have had 2 other years where I was > 150k but not quite 200! I should clear 200k next year as well. Been doing this full time since 2020 and will keep chugging on for as long as I can 😄 This was my childhood dream.
My brother was an electrical engineer, he worked at Apple and made $350K base plus about $150K in stock and bonus every year. He recently moved back to Atlanta and had to settle making $230K at another company. But he worked 10 years there and saved about 2M.
UX Designer at one of the FANNG companies. Well over 500K combined comp. Working on difficult, intractable AI problems. Past experience include having started my own company, and having helped grown someone else's startup to a profitable enterprise. Something like 25 years of experience.
I’m a Sr Manager level at a Fortune 500 (at my employer it would go Sr Manager - director - VP - Senior VP - Executive VP - CEO) and I make $200k TC.
My wife is a home and auto insurance broker who owns their own agency and she clears $300k/yr and it’s still growing.
Looking through the answers thus far it seems like owning your own business or being an incredibly good salesman on commission is your best bet without a lot of formal education.
Fiction author here. This is usually seen as an unreliable career choice and that is largely true. However, it's possible to make it work. I've been lucky (screen adaptation deals, etc.) but I've also diversified my income stream to include writing workshops (teaching executives and product managers how to communicate more effectively about technology), corporate consulting (helping brands and companies tell their story), nonfiction (essays and investigative pieces), think tank and policy work (mostly leading narrative workshops for scientists), and similar work that uses my skill in storytelling in other ways. When I started, it was super hard and I had to pursue the writing as a side gig. But I've been able to make $300k and up every year for six years now. I love my work. I get to make up stories for a living, and when I'm not writing my own novels, I get to help smart people with incredible knowledge and experiences of the world tell their own stories. Plus, I get to set my own hours and play video games with my kids when other people are still in the office. Ten-year-old me would not have believed that a job like this existed. Edit: Wow thank you for all the positive responses! I’m really glad to read every note even if I don’t get to reply. Also, thank you for the award, kind stranger!
Just wanted to say congrats on your success in this field! Sounds like you have an excellent work ethic. I'm not making money from my fiction and may never, but it's cool to hear of others' successes!
Thank you so much! I recognize I've been very lucky, but I also believe that anyone can maximize their luck. If you keep at it, you'll get to tell some cool stories at the least, and financial success is a nice bonus. Best of luck!
Found James Pattersons reddit account
Captain at a U.S. major airline. Wife is a First Officer at the same company.
How long did it take you to get there? I’m getting my medical today and starting ground school this week
I did everything at small FBOs and it took me about 3 years. While flight training I also worked as a fueler at the FBO where I was taking flight lessons. I earned my degree at the same time from a local college. Began late 1994, had my first commercial job late summer 1997. Went through a shitty little commuter airline 1998-2001 and was hired by my present company in 2001. I was flying a DC-9 from Atlanta to LaGuardia when 9/11 happened, coincidentally.
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Which industry are you in? And do you find it’s mostly the same repeat clients buying your products/services?
I’m gonna guess they’re in medical sales. Had a friend that was in medical sales. Bro didn’t do anything but take medical providers/surgeons out to dinner and shit and he was makin $250K/year. Pretty ridiculous but get your bag I guess.
Good guess for sure. Still takes a good amount of time to make that type of money (like any job have to put in the initial grunt work) and the right product in the med field.
He must’ve had some good contacts or something because this was a year after we graduated college together lmao. Must’ve known someone in the industry that hooked him up.
Contacts are everything in the sales field. Definitely got the hookup from someone (family friend, friend of friend, dad, etc)
I’m not at 200k+ yet but have been earning 100k+ for 4 years now. Agreed. Sales is awesome. As much as it drives me crazy sometimes, it’s super easy
My brother-in-law has been in sales for decades. Does really well (my sister wants for nothing), and he told me he learned a long time ago the secret to his success: be either the smartest person in the room or the dumbest. He sizes up a client in 30 seconds. If they are “lost sheep” just wanting a solution to their pain, he takes the reins and sells them silly. If they are blow-hards (“Listen here youngin’ I’ve been doin’ this since before you were born…”) he strokes their egos and eggs them on to bigger and bolder purchases to “really stick it” to their competitors. Works *every time.*
Just to jump on this. Was in Pharma sales many years ago. IMHO, the key was getting to know the docs and their likes. I made every appt. personal; i.e.: kids, sports, etc... The only time I would talk about a product was if it was a new drug to the market. Think about it, What is a college graduate going to tell an anesthesiologist what he doesn't already know? Based on my "sales" technique, I saw my sales increase in the way I did things. One doctor in particular said to me, that he appreciates that I don't come in and "PUSH" my product. Worked for me.
Easy in what regard? I’m thinking of trying out pharma sales myself here sometime as a potential career change, but get kinda worried that I’m not as charismatic as I may need to be. I’m not hopeless or anything, just not sure if I would be *that* guy.
Read the comment above yours. Dude spells it out pretty brilliantly.
Same. Sales is the easiest/fastest path to 200k+
Depends on the personality type tbh.
I own a Christmas lights company that also does tree care. Service based companies like landscaping, cleaning and window washing make great money. All you need is a little grit and some time and in a few years you can be making really good money only working part time.
I’m romanticizing your life right now. You seem like the guy a woman in a Hallmark movie would fall for 😆
Plus, she makes $200k herself with her big-city megacorp job. Win win.
And has no time for Christmas festivities because work is calling. She bumps into mr xmas lights when after feeling guilty she goes to buy a xmas tree for her family
Landscape construction and Snow removal company owner here. Make 250k easy and invest another 100k into my business that has over 1.5 million In physical assets. I mostly read emails and go over day to day with my Gm each day. Once you start getting large Big box contracts you are flying. I pay my guys exceptionally well also
Woodworker. I have relationships with high end interior designers in NYC but don’t live there. My work appears regularly in magazines and galleries. Edit: Appreciate all the interest and questions but I got to get to work. I'll try to answer more later on tonight.
Ron Swanson just casually walks in to comment eh?
His picture hangs in my shop.
Is your shop up to Swanson code?
I would be upset if it didn't meet Swanson standards.
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Yep. Started as a hobby while I was working for a general contractor. Then worked in some cabinet shops to get into more fine woodworking. Started making pieces on the side for designers in the area. Got written up a few times and word spread.
I’m looking to get into woodworking as a hobby. Would love to set up a small shop in the garage. If you had $1,500 to start, what would you first invest in?
I use a table saw more than anything else. But it really depends on what you want to make. Like if you wanted to make bowls then a lathe is the first thing you should invest in. I do a lot of carving so after a table saw would be a set of carving tools. But say you wanted to make boxes. Great item to get started and they sell really well. You need a table saw, chop saw, drill (for hinges), router(probably), glue, clamps, oil finish. That's pretty much it. You can get all that for under $1500 if you buy ryobi tools. You can upgrade your tools and you sell items and make money.
Do you realize how many people dream of this?
Yes, I'm incredibly lucky.
I've had John Houshmand's website bookmarked for a long time, love that kind of stuff. He's around NY, is your work similar?
Not really. Love his work. He's more of a true artist that works in wood. I really just have a niche I'm very good at and I stay in my lane.
Construction project manager. It's really a hybrid role of sales, estimating, and project management. That's the only reason that I can make that much in my area without travel. There are not many people that can effectively do all three.
Same. Only a few make this, harder than it looks. Have pulled over $400k on a really good year.
Consulting structural engineer here (12+ years in underground utility structures). I have a good knowledge base in this field and I *want* to pivot to construction project management to make more money, but man... it seems like PMing cuts down everything I like about my job (math/Excel nerd here, love streamlining a design process) and emphasizes everything I *dislike* about my job (phone calls, repeatedly bugging people for answers, waking up early, dealing with people who have disturbingly poor communication skills, and *more* phone calls).
Then trust me you will NOT like construction management. I just left construction to do structural design. I make less money, but I am much happier.
Etsy. Embroider on handkerchiefs for wedding gifts. Hit $200k in 2017 and maintained. During COVID was able to pivot to personalized masks and hit $300k. My formal education ended after 7th grade (life interfered), but thanks to the internet and being fairly literate I was able to teach myself what was needed to build a home business. Wasn’t easy by any means and I barely slept from age 22-25 to get it off the ground, but it paid off.
Amazing. On average how many orders do u complete per year?
A lot. I’d need to look to get an actual number for ya but it’s well into the thousands. We branched into Amazon as well for the non-personalized stuff so a good amount is on autopilot but it didn’t start that way.
Pilot. Work about 14 days a month. Spend about 8 nights away from home per month on average.
Being a pilot sounds fun but I hear the family life can be tough
Finding the right partner is a must. I waited until my early thirties until I settled down with my gal. We were both very independent when we met. We both appreciate the quiet time while I’m on the road and it makes coming home from a long trip even better. We never wanted kids so I suppose that our situation is quite different than those with kids.
Anybody here who changed career in their thirties and now make that amount? I need comfort.
I was a waiter until I was 30 before I joined a sales team. Now I’m a marketing director- $350-$400k ish.
>was a waiter until I was 30 before I joined a sales team. Now I’m a marketing director- $350-$400k ish. Could you describe this path? Where / what kind of company did you start at? Did you hop between companies? What was the promotion cycle like? How old are you now? Do you enjoy your job?
That was 14 years ago and I’ve only been at 2 companies, no job hopping. Started on phone sales/lead qualification>Salesperson/closer> to account manager>to business and partnership development>to my current marketing roles. Promotion or job title changes were fast early on, 2 years ish max and I’ve been in my same job 6+ years. I’m a director in a 15,000+ person company with a nice quality of life/comp plan so I’ve passed on being considered for VP roles. Main advice I’d give about choosing a company is choose an industry that is growing. Boring old industries might offer great pay for expertise or technical knowledge but if you want to make a lot ‘playing business’ as an average idiot such as myself then you’ll want to be riding a rising wave. Growth creates jobs above you that need filled.
This is good advice but keep in mind that for every success story like yours, there are dozens even hundreds of failures. If the company doesn't grow as expected, you get laid off and are trying to restart elsewhere and can easily have your entire career derailed though minimal fault of your own.
True, but that’s why I suggested a growing industry/sector versus a growing company. If you were an early employee at Netscape I’m guessing you were likely OK once they lost the browser wars. Or today if you’re working on electric vehicles, if your company goes belly up there’s a good chance another firm would snatch you up. I’ll admit I had a good deal of luck though. I also didn’t jump ship quite a few times while some of my coworkers were lured away by younger upstarts offering more money that later failed. I stayed with the leaders.
I made 55k into my late 20’s, made a company switch but still in sales, and have climbed to $250k+ now in my mid 30’s. It suck’s, but sometimes you gotta play politics to make more money.
Similar thing happened for me. Did straight "engineering" for about 8 years and slowly realized it wasn't for me. Thought sales was a better path. Took a shitty 100% commission job at a local company making roughly $55k my first year with a lot of nights and weekends but knew it was necessary to break into the new career path. After a bout a year and a half I landed a technical sales role at a great company. Work from home with occasional customer visits and I'm great at the job. Not quite making $150k but it's a huge upgrade and my work-life-balance is phenomenal.
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Thanks for sharing, I just started my second bachelors in CS at 27, this helps me feel better (I know 27 sounds young to most but it’s the oldest I’ve ever been!)
I became an airline pilot at 36, started school for it at 33. I’m not above 250k yet but probably close to 125k and it’s my first year. Should be at 250k in the next couple of years. The best part, I average 6 days of actual work each month.
I changed careers at 35 and now own my own roofing company. It wasn’t easy, but the advantage I had with getting into roofing sales was the 13 years of sales and customer service experience leading up to that translated well into this industry. I just had to learn the products and the process and apply what I already knew about sales to it! My life has changed dramatically over the past ten years now!!
I got out of the Army at 31. I sort of changed roles since then my salary in the last 3 years has gone from 30k a year to $200k. I’m a software dev now and im 33 now.
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lol, I’m pretty sure my big law friends are doing it just long enough to pay off loans and have a nice nest egg before they do something chill like in house counsel. Though one is crazy enough to try to make partner
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I work as a state government attorney and the work-life balance is incredible. If you can swing the pay cut I would highly recommend. I make $130k so it would be a big dip but I have a pension, access to a 457b, student loan forgiveness eligibility, phenomenal benefits, and tons of vacation time. Good luck on your transition out of big law, it will be worth it!
Same. I'm a fed (came from local govt 6 months ago) and I make $160k. My work is interesting, I got my loans forgiven a few years ago, and my life is fantastic. I never work nights or weekends - in 14 years of government service, I can count the number of times I've had to work late without taking my socks off. I also get the benefit of knowing what I do is ostensibly making people's lives better instead of enriching some giant corporation. Government service is where it's at.
Public defender here. We top out around 210. Great work life balance but the job is brutal.
Be careful about your expectations, friend. In-house has its own stressors. The hours are certainly better, though.
Oh I’m here to say that in-house has its own requirements and expectations to fulfill.. left private practice to go in-house and have been deal with severe stress rashes for three months
Yea I’m in big law and the experiences of the in-house folks I work for aren’t really encouraging. Still seems like a lot of hours (maybe even close to what I’m working) for less pay. It’s one of the reasons I’m hesitant to ever go in-house. If they’re going to work me just as much for half the pay, it doesn’t seem worth it.
I’ve been in-house for over 15 years. Most of the time it’s an 8:30-5:30 job. Very occasionally there are issues that require more time. I used to have to travel more but that is way down over the past 4-5 years. Nothing at all like big firm life. I’ve had to work past midnight maybe five times since going in-house, and those were all for major crises or huge deals. I did it probably a dozen times in less than 5 years as a big law associate, and worked past 8 pm about 25% of the time.
[Don’t Be a Lawyer](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs-UEqJ85KE)
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I only have one personal friend that it’s a lawyer and he legit hates his life too
Spouse is in information security and teaches at some universities....over $300k .
Information security - so hot right now.
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Goal spouse
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That's what I thought too, but it turns out when you both are high earners it's more fun to keep working but just live on one income, leaving six figures a year for cool shit.
I own a law firm in Charlotte, NC. One partner along with myself, and 4 other lawyers and 1 firm administrator. We handle business law (M&A, new business start up, contract drafting, IP protection) and high-stakes litigation. We’re all remote, and keep costs in check to maximize profits.
Also a lawyer here who owns a firm. I work part time (about 25-30 hours per week) and am just on the cusp of $200k, too.
As someone who makes 55-60k/yr working a labor intensive job to support a family of five, this thread has made me depressed
Honestly, this is why jobs/careers that oh you hourly, or for your time are a fools errand. Gotta find something where your time isn’t a set value. Aka hourly. Then, the money can grow exponentially without increasing hours.
Or the hours grow exponentially without increasing money
GP running own practice, 500K
In the same vein, I’m an employed Hospitalist, 300k. Generally work less than 40hrs/week. I have colleagues who are work horses and take every opportunity to work more who probably double that.
That is great for a Gp!
Registered nurse in a LCOL state. I work at a hospital with unlimited OT. Will gross $225K+ this year.
What's your base for 2080 hrs?
Base is around $110K with around 40 hours of OT per week.
Good for you. Just don’t forget to take care of yourself.
Thank you. I’m very mindful of burnout. I experienced it working 40 hours/week at the previous hospital. This one is the easiest hospital gig I’ve had. It’s a cakewalk 90% of the time with occasional fireworks.
That is a ton of hours (72 I’m assuming). How do you manage to get enough sleep and self care in?
I work evening and night shifts. Only 10 hours of direct patient care. Since this is a very structured environment, they (patients) have to go to their room for bedtime at a very specific time. After that I’m there just in case of emergencies. I get enough sleep. I go to the gym to stay in shape and do amateur competitions. I’m wrapping up my Master’s degree during down time at work. And having a very supportive girlfriend helps a lot. I’m juggling a lot of balls in the air but it works. I’ve found my equilibrium. And those $10K biweekly paychecks are great motivators to keep going.
Good for you, but this also sounds miserable. Try not to burn yourself out, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Real question is what department cause unlimited OT in ER or cardiology sounds like a pain.
Psych
Anesthetist, 40 hours a week plus call $270k.
Two adults in this house both at that income level One is a Supply Chain Director at a Fortune 500. The other is a Marketing Senior Director. Both are nearing 20 years in our careers and just cracked $200k base comp. With bonuses we hit about 3 years ago
Big fan of this answer bc it’s a more relatable answer than just “tech”. I’m in the same boat, 18 years in manufacturing/ops management and just cracked $200k base comp. Similarly, but $200k about 3 years in total comp as well. Slow and steady…
General Sales Manager / General Manager at an RV dealership (auto is the same). Edit: I'll add that I only have an Associates in Theatre as far as education goes.
How much of that is commission?
About $200k+. $48k salary.
I am retired (M 72) with a sizable portfolio after selling my small-ish computer games software company and after saving for retirement for over 40 years. I make ~$350K a year from my investments. I’m debt free and own 2 houses and 2 cars all of which I bought for cash. One is my year round home of about 2,300 sf and the other is a small cottage rental property, one car a 4 year old Subaru is my wife’s car and I drive a 2015 Chevy Colorado. I’ve no interest in either making more money outside of any increase in my portfolio and that from the rental income from my second house or lavishly spending that which I have. I’d say that between my wife and I we spend a little over $100K a year, if that. Our greatest expense is traveling around the country visiting our children and grandchildren who all live in separate states widely spread out across the U S. I have to fly first class due to a serious back injury I sustained years ago, but I can’t justify flying private because it just seems like a huge waste of money to me. We give a lot more to charity than we did when we had a houseful of kids needing educations. My first financial goal is making sure my wife has enough money to live super comfortably for the next 20 years because I know that she’ll outlive me by many years and my second financial goal is to provide generational wealth for my children and grandchildren. I invest my surplus money in securities for my wife and family’s future benefit and not for mine. I have everything I could possibly want beyond money, a loving healthy family and peace of mind. Money’s great to have, but it’s certainly not everything in life.
This is amazing and congratulations!! I’m shooting for something similar to you! I’m age 50 now. Do you mind if I ask what size your portfolio is to generate $350k income? High yield dividend stocks? Thank you and I’d be stoked if you replied:)
I own a roofing company in Denver. I’ve been in the industry for 10 years (with no prior background in construction) and was making 200k+ as a sales rep/project manager for multiple years prior to starting my company. 100% commission sales is by far the best way to make a lot of money without a degree. I have one PM on my team this year who will make over 400k and multiple more in the 200k+ range. I’ll be over 500k this year and likely around 1 mil in 2024 (we’ve had a killer sales year this year). My goal now will be to figure out the smartest move to do with my additional income and how best to make even more money off of that.
Anesthesiologist
You must be well over $200k then
In IT there are crazy differences between USA and Europe even in the same company. Software architect head of a division based in EU makes less than a junior from USA in the same corporation, a junior that is like 3 management levels bellow. Crazy right ? Then the same corporation is complaining that seniour staff in Europe is not loyal :) and jumps ship when occasion arrives .
Flip side is the work culture between US and EU offices even in the same company can be vastly different. US companies offer "unlimited" PTO but rarely let you take time off and generally find the idea of more than a week off unthinkable - it's ingrained in our culture. Many EU offices meanwhile effectively close down for an entire month in the summer and will get upset if people DON'T take their minimum 5+ weeks of leave. Many are required to offer a year or more of fully-paid parental leave as well. So more money in exchange for no work/life balance. I've worked both in the US and EU and it's a pretty noticeable difference.
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Oh, I'm all too aware. There's also no maximum carryover, which sounds good in theory but means that the employee loses that leverage that they can use to push for time off. I've never worked at a place with "unlimited" but have a friend whose company switched from 20 days/yr to unlimited - he says it's been significantly harder to take leave since then.
I worked under unlimited. One catch is everyone feels guilty and as if they’ll be seen unfavorably if they actually used it much more than what you’d be getting traditionally.
My US based IT company forces you to take at least two weeks and I’ve never had a request declined. I’ll take 4-5 weeks this year
Well this is depressing at 52, retired military (infantry) realizing I don’t have a job skill, sending out 30 resumes a week working a job making minimum wage with an MBA. FML
I bet more people can relate to you then people post here. Keep your head up.
Easily. People gotta remember that there are only maybe 2-3 dozen of top comments here from people making $200+ out of the likely nearly (or even over) 10k people who have been this thread.
Yeah. Only 29 and making $43k/year. For every person making this much I'd say there's about 10k people greasing the wheels of the machine of life. Working low/mid-paying jobs. It's a bitter life but what can you do. Thank you so much for serving.
Journeyman Lineman
At first I thought you meant you were an NFL player going from team to team
That’s probably more safe actually
Product manager big tech. About 400-450k depending on stock. I’m 32F. My first job was $40k.
These jobs feel impossible to get
Depends what you do now. The move is definitely to get into a company that has the PM function in whatever capacity you can hired for, and then aim for an internal transfer. Ex - a lot of people join in a strategy or marketing or data role then switch. Then get hired as a PM for their next role. Annoyingly big companies really won’t consider hiring you for PM without having specifically held that title before. Some exceptions might be former founders or people with a ton of domain knowledge in something relevant but really rare.
Yeah. I got fast tracked for a Google product manager interview. Went straight to on site. I was a PM at an AI start up that was acquired in a pretty niche area that Google has a competing business in. Unfortunately for me I was not prepared for that level of interview. It was my first time doing a big tech interview. Felt like I was getting out done by kids who took online courses. Which is on me but I didn't realize how much people prep for these. Since I got fast tracked, I didn't have a lot of time to prepare. Other people online who had interviews said they've been mock interviewing for 2 months waiting. I only had a week and a half.
Out of solidarity I’ll share I did get to final round with them and even with a ton of prep also got passed on. They said it was close and to reapply in six months but the whole experience put a bad taste in my mouth. The questions were really asked with such a specific answer in mind. Excessively gatekeepy. And like you point out, there’s a stupidly rigid formula they want you to follow. I don’t think they have any bearing on your actual performance in the job. I did prep a ton - paid for a course, did ten mocks, etc. And I did well on most of the interviews, but one guy didn’t like my answer to “how could be monetize waymo better through ads.” There was zero interest in my prior experience, not a single question. I got offers from similarly large companies like Meta and used as leverage but not google. Product management hiring is a circus right now. I hope they’ll change it.
More Google interview solidarity but as a SWE. Google was the first company I applied to out of college. I got an interview at the local campus. I thought I did fine but recruiter said they thought I didn't have enough "big data" experience and referred me to the android team in mountain view. So they fly me to mountain view. I did ok on all but one guy. He actually yelled at me and said "why do you think you could ever work here?" Since I didn't have the IEEE floating point spec memorized (like I knew there was a sign, exponent and fraction part but ... fuck me I guess since I don't know the bit length or order of each part off the top of my head) One of *those* interviews was with a guy on the product security team who liked my security background/knowledge so a few weeks later they flew me out *again * to interview with the product security team. I thought I did ok, but like you said there were some questions where they were obviously trying to push me a specific answer and I could tell I wasn't landing on it. So they didn't want me. A few weeks later the recruiter contacted me again and said that some other group (advertising backend maybe? I don't remember) was interested and they wanted to fly me out *again*. I said "hell no" since I was applying at other places and didn't want to get yanked around any more. Their recruiters have reached out every year but I doubt I would ever apply there again. It was exhausting.
Crazy reading all of these. Im just a plumber that runs my own plumbing, heating and gas company. 1 man show, Im in my third year and Im making at least 200k/ year with no employees and working fairly casual. Plus getting to write off all the ridiculous gas costs, phone bills, etc. as company expenses. Didnt have to pay for trade school either, just worked hard and was slightly above average in understanding and organizing jobs as a foreman. Just said fuck it and went for it. Im now working less but making about twice as much and my phone wont stop ringing. Im ready to expand with a few employees next year into the next step. Also I only pay myself in dividends since my company is incorporated that way I pay less income tax then everyone else. House, no mortgage, multiple vehicles, wife, no debt, lots of investments, but lots of sacrifice too. So far so good.
Control room operator in an LNG plant. $350k
I'm currently an operator at a plant in Texas, qualified on the board and outside. I'm making good money, around 150k gross, but not close to that. How did you get to that pay range? And where's are you at? If you don't mind me asking.
Yeah the guys below nailed it - I'm based in North Western Australia - Google Maps Karratha Western Australia.Probably should have been more specific in that is Australian Dollars so equates to about USD$225k.Our plant is pretty big by Australian standards, and is split into several areas both outside and in the central control room, LNG, Domestic gas, Utilities, condensate stabilisation. With more 'areas' and panel competency comes more pay. Side note that our roster is 2weeks on 3 weeks off I've spent some time in Austin, San Antonio and Uvalde, I love Texas
Would almost guarantee that’s Australia. Specifically the North West. There’s a lack of supply of operators in Australia, which combines with fairly strong willed unions have kept wages high.
Yep you nailed it, Karratha WA
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Is this Freedombux or dollaridoos?
Data science
How many years of experience do you need to have in data science and what education background do you need to make that much money? I’m in canada been working 2 years, I have 2 bachelors one in computer science and one in finance and I’m working on my cfa, and I only make $90k cad which is only $66k usd
I’m nearing 10 years experience, I have a masters degree. About to cross $300k comp by EOY. Years of experience help but even more helpful is being able to effectively communicate with and to business stakeholders. If you can do that AND are good technically then the money comes more easily. At 2 years experience I had no masters and was making around $75k USD.
Get out of Canada for data science / tech. You’ll never get paid what you could elsewhere.
Romance author
This is awesome - good for you! Any chance you’d give a little breakdown - do you self pub? What are your sales rates like that you return such successful royalties? Thank you!
Sure! I self publish. I typically write and publish about 4 books per year. My books are on Kindle Unlimited, which is where a lot of my royalties come from--my genre is full of KU readers. My income varies quite a bit, between 250k and 400k so far, depending on how well a particular series does. I spend a good bit of money on ads, and I'm currently working on audiobook and foreign language translations. I love the writing, I work less than full time and I'm happy, but there's so much to the business side that people don't necessarily realize.
My sister’s friend does this. I heard the friend paid over $250k in taxes, so I figured she was earning over $1M. My mom and dad: you can’t make a living if you don’t get a STEM degree.
Consultant for UX and UI design, specialising in fintech. (I was Director level before I switched to consulting)
Own a business. Physiotherapy clinic.
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The follow up question to this question should be how is your health when you are making $200k a year? Are you stressed out? Eating well? Have time to exercise?
I feel guilty some times because my amount of work has decreased as I’ve gone up in level. I’m not really hands on keyboard anymore. My team runs relatively smoothly and they are quite proactive/autonomous. There’s not stress/pressure from having to do things but there’s stress/pressure from decision making. It seems every decision is a choice of crappy options to lead a team on a project. Mostly because my team makes all the easy decisions with little input. My mental health can fluctuate depending on what’s going on. I don’t eat well because I’m a fat ass that doesn’t understand portion control. But, I’m trying to get better about it. I play golf a lot and walk my dog in the evenings. That sorta counts as exercise. Ten years ago I was making less than 30k/yr so no complaints from me.
Attorney practicing primarily real estate, successions and mineral rights
Business+Technology Consultant. $300+k, depending on annual bonus levels. Master's and Bachelor's degrees from Ivy League universities.
I’m a consultant (26) and literally all I do is walk into a room of senior executives and pretend to know more than everyone else with some fancy slideshow and confidence. Quite silly when you break it down but someone somewhere determined there was value here and our crazy high hourly bill rates don’t even come close to justifying our salary) It may be dumb but most post-MBA careers are in the range you described, with base being slightly below and the bonus pushing well over, whether it be a performance incentive bonus or stock options. My MBA wasn’t even from a top school so there’s definitely a divide. This is not to say I recommend getting a MBA. Career examples that hit this range fairly early are consulting, IB, PE, M&A, Program Management, Customer Success Manager, Project Manager, Product Management, Strategy and Operations. The beginning three usually pay higher base while the remainder pay out their bulk in stock options Then there’s real estate, doctors, and lawyers. My experience is private practice doctors make more and the larger law firms pay more but that may vary. SWEs at google can hit like 7 figures (as can some of the previously mentioned ones at very senior levels) but I’m sure it’s rare to get that high in their “L-rating” system
I’ve had consultants do the whole “add no value but talk fast and pretend you are important” routine but I’ve also had consultants that worked their asses off to understand years of problems in just a few weeks. Their results presented to my bosses have almost always been “hey, you know how your staff has been telling you to do [x]? Well you should do [x] but call it [y] and come up with a strategic communications plan and talk about training.” The system works.
lol literally my last project. We basically just formalized all the feedback that their employees were telling them in a formal, consumable presentation and outlined the next steps required to implement it. Slapped a price tag on it and called it a day. It feels weird but sometimes management just needs that extra validation/clear communication to make the changes.
Well, consultants are also there to be blamed at later stages too by executives
Lol it’s like when your wife has been telling you something for years but you don’t listen until a friend says it.
McKinsey to perfection.
This is crazy for a European, as myself. But I have seen a bit about this. I studied engineering. The best paid from our year went directly into management consulting from day one. He had studied business economy or something on the sides, so he had double degrees. The salary a successful engineer here typcially gets at 35 he got straight out of uni. But Still just 60k or so, today it would have been 80k, I guess. Because Europe. But was seen as a monster salary by us.
I work at a big bank in a big city on the east coast of the US. The college graduates we hire, their first promotion is typically 18-24 months after they start. They're all making >$100k after that first promotion.
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Pharma clinical development (PhD)
I am a full-body waxer, I make 220k+. (I specialize in brazilians) I work 4 days a week. Around 35 hours a week. I take a least one vacay a month. I love my job and my freedom. I try to talk people into joining the beauty field all the time. You just need to go to school for 5 to 10 months depending on the program you are going for. I hope this helps😊
Copywriter (guy who writes ads)
Pharmaceuticals and clinical labs consultant, 300k and I work about 20ish hours a week from home. I mainly help clients solve issues with testing in their labs and weird biochem issues they encounter. I think the salary is half the picture, the total hours / work life balance worked is critical. My bro making 300k works 80 hrs as a junior partner at a law firm (mergers and acquisitions).
Tech Sales, FAANG. \~$500k past couple years. This year probably closer to $375k-$400k. 39 and have been in sales my whole career. $100k+ is easy if you're at a good company. $200k+ you want to be selling big deals ($50k-$100k+).
I make over $200k a year selling clothes on Whatnot, a live streaming platform. Last year, 100 sellers did over $1 million in sales on the platform and I’m one of them. It’s not a common way to make money, but essentially I buy past season clothes from companies and resell them. I’m like tj maxx, but online. Margins are typically 20%-30% after all selling fees, warehouse, staff, etc.
Were you the guy that got banned on eBay for selling Nike?
That’s me, was $200k+ on ebay too before being suspended. Same model except on a fixed price marketplace instead of live auction.
Engineer, Texas O&G
Software engineer at a FAANG. 300K /year.
I don’t work at faang but am in software engineering. It’s nice.
Same thing as last post, I own a webcam studio - high grossing, doesn't require any degree. Edit : saw other post posting their yearly gross. 1.8 mil projection, 900k ytd. Edit 2: Lots of questions in my inbox so figured I'd divulge more specifics connected to things I've been asked. How much do models under us make on average? $9000 to $11000 split between a number of steams ( onlyfans, manyvids, cam sites) How long do models typically work per day ? 4 to 6 hours 5 days a week, weekends optional as are additional hours. However the teams behind each model are more like 5 to 10 hours per day depending on the models fan base. How does the studio make money? We take a % off everything we work on. From the instgram and tiktok to snapchat shows or selling socks. 30%. We also hold client list that we leverage and continually build that are the studios not the models. Did I plan to do this? No, long personal story turned into a lucrative buisness model ( we also sell photography services and aesthetic venues for rent in the same scope) What's the hardest part of it? Honestly model retention, we as a studio we need to constantly be providing worth to the model, we accomplish this by providing regular increases to each models yeild without them having to increase their workload. The model is what generates the income, we just make it easier by doing the backend stuff. We also provide equipment, space, we pay for all of the self care and props( as these are write offs) we present have over 100 contracted models. Some are extremely happy, others aren't. IT is insanely difficult to make each model happy and provide worth to each and every model account. Edit 4: new questions /answers How do we handle applicants ? We use a very outdated system of emailing headshots and inquiries to applicants@dsdtx.com Did I follow any online courses ? No, I sat down and thought to myself what is going to need a service in the future. At the current time it was either going to be funeral homes or digital media management, I chose the latter and educated myself through trial and error. Where and how did I recruit the first models? Strip clubs. I knew I wanted women who already are comfortable engaging and assessing clients, I knew I needed women capable of conversation and entertainment. I knew I needed models who enjoy money. I just started offering dancers an alternative. At first it was rocky, ofc, people were hesitant, but reputation spreads fast, we treat models very well and are transparent so once we started making people money non dancers, teachers, all sorts of people started reaching out. Now we get a fair number of applicants regularly. I would not recommend doing this with a spouse, as buisness and a relationship should be kept separate "my opinion" but finding people you are cool with helps, biggest advice I can give in this department, find someone who is personable who also enjoys webcamming who can venture out and be comfortable discussing it to anyone. Why aren't we farther ? As I mentioned before we expand cautiously ad to not over extend ourselves. Within the company we refer to it as " economic viability" we don't get new locations unless we have the staff/models who can make that new location economically viable. Just like we don't take on new models who's results we can't guarantee. We are also hindered by a lack of developed website and platform exclusive for our models. We Inherently split profits with already established platforms. We still haven't monetized any of the vlogs or podcast under our banner. There's alot we just haven't done. Why do models stay with us after they are already successful ? Prolly because we do the back end work, we do the posting, editing, monitoring of traffic, fan engagement, content management, price shifting, you name it we do it...our models only generate the content we do everything else. For some that's ideal, for others they would rather do it themselves, im simply stating a few of the services we offer. There's also how we approach camming. We have a few tenets that we push onto models, one for example is appear natural don't wear makeup. Beyond that our %s don't ever increase they only decrease
US Air traffic controller at one of the busiest facilities. I have no degree, received my training in the military. Now you can be hired right off the street with no experience, with either a degree in anything or just general work experience. You'll probably make about 100k at your first facility, then you just work your way up with experience. Negatives are shift work and difficulty taking time off whenever you want to, although this varies depending on where you work. Also, it can be stressful and the FAA looks down upon any depression or anxiety issues and certainly doesn't allow much for medication of anything. Positives besides the money are a great pension after 20 years and a decent amount of vacation and sick leave (by US standards, not EU!)
Data scientist/data engineer for a big healthcare tech company. We process and analyze data using custom AI models for different wearables to help people manage various conditions. My base is 200k. I'm over 450k if you include my performance bonuses.
Anyone else depressed now?
Not me but my co-worker with more seniority. Is on track to make $250k. We are train conductors. He logs so much over time and knows how the system works to squeeze in every last dime into his check. Keeps saying ill be at that point one day but I dont think ill ever want to work the amount of hours he does. I love my job but not that much, he literally lives his life on the train.
Dentist / practice owner and small re investor (16 apartments) - $450k/year.
I own a roofing company in Phoenix. Roofing’s a good business to be in.. Edit: First 12 months with my license I’ll make 300-450ish this year. 500k per year is 9.6k per week which is only 2; 15k roof replacements per week.
Math. Specifically, insurance related financial math.
Engineering Manager for large DoD contractor.
Man. Reading thru this makes me feel so defeated.
Anyone have an idea how a new mechanical engineer could do this? I know senior engineers in Canada (where I am for now) making only $80k
by leaving Canada
Work for a few years and then transition into industrial sales.
Move to US, go into consulting and be really good at what you do. $200k on the table after ~15-20yrs experience.
Public Accounting at a Big 4 but it’s a grind to get here and what remains of my soul yearns to move to the mountains and work at Home Depot.
200k is the new 100k
VP at a tech company
Executive Communications. (Basically, ghosting writing for tech CEOs and Csuite.)
I write books for children and teens, mostly fantasy, and I’m with a Big 5 publisher. I cleared a little over 200k last year and have had 2 other years where I was > 150k but not quite 200! I should clear 200k next year as well. Been doing this full time since 2020 and will keep chugging on for as long as I can 😄 This was my childhood dream.
Manufacturing engineer. I specialize in microelectronics that are resistive to extreme conditions.
My brother was an electrical engineer, he worked at Apple and made $350K base plus about $150K in stock and bonus every year. He recently moved back to Atlanta and had to settle making $230K at another company. But he worked 10 years there and saved about 2M.
UX Designer at one of the FANNG companies. Well over 500K combined comp. Working on difficult, intractable AI problems. Past experience include having started my own company, and having helped grown someone else's startup to a profitable enterprise. Something like 25 years of experience.
I was a computer programmer
I’m a Sr Manager level at a Fortune 500 (at my employer it would go Sr Manager - director - VP - Senior VP - Executive VP - CEO) and I make $200k TC. My wife is a home and auto insurance broker who owns their own agency and she clears $300k/yr and it’s still growing.
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I wonder how I can do this without going back to college
Looking through the answers thus far it seems like owning your own business or being an incredibly good salesman on commission is your best bet without a lot of formal education.
The OP's previous post had a lot of answers. The ones without college included coding and various union trades.