Those of you with 200K+ jobs & are NOT doctors/lawyers: what do you do & how did you find your jobs?
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Anonymous
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In the DC policy world, a lot of people earn that much in their 40s. Senior people who float between the Hill, Schedule C, K St, foundations, universities and think tanks may dip below that mark when they are in government, but their pay spikes up when they go back out.
Most started out making very little, but that changes as your network and reach grow. I made less than $20k and lived in a group house when I moved to DC. Most of us were getting some experience before grad school. I took a nonstop $150-200k consulting job for a few years after school to build up enough security to buy a house and start a family. When I moved over to the nonprofit side during my child's preschool years, my earnings retreated back to around $150k in exchange for shorter, regular office hours. Going into the last Administration gave me a small bump back up. Then when I left, the nonprofit offers were around $250k while the for-profit offers were multiples higher (though dependent on booking business). While recognizing that few people earn this much, I am no superstar. I went to all the right schools, I am good at what I do and I have a really broad network, but my trajectory is pretty standard. Some would say its the typical boring career of the Ivy league upper middle class and that it's rinky-dink compared to what our classmates who went into finance earn. |
Anonymous
I work at a large IT consulting company. The people making this much money are 1099s charging $150-250/hr. They either have their own company or have a buddy that has a company that handles taxes and invoicing for a small %. The guys that have those companies of 8-15ppl are the ones making the most money for the least hustle / effort. That said, large companies like to use the same contractors over and over and it is hard for someone new to break on. Once you do get a good gig, it's all about keeping the gravy train flowing. |
Anonymous
| Bot DH and I are in sales. One with a college degree and one who didnt complete theirs. We each make between 240k-400k/yr. |
Anonymous
| IT - 20 years experience. Someone who can fix all the problems and make it run smoothly |
Anonymous
Between this job, the It consultants with lock-in, and all the sales folks it's safe to say OP coming from a no-connection lower middle class background has a gnats butt of making any of these work. |
Anonymous
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Are university jobs especially appealing to those from lower middle class backgrounds. Went to Wharton undergrad with a guy who grew up on a small farm in the Midwest -- he himself talked about how humble the upbringing was, his parents were only able to visit the campus once at graduation, he only went home once in 4 yrs etc.
Immediately after graduation he went into Big 4 consulting and then when the recession hit in 2008 -- he took up a university job as a budget analyst -- and has been at 2 universities in the last 9 yrs and doesn't seem like he will ever leave the stable job. Now that there are kids, it's all about how his kids will one day be able to go to his (admittedly prestigious) university for a low cost; and how the university has a highly ranked k-12 school where they can go for very nominal tuition. I get it -- the benefits are great - but how is a Wharton grad ok being a budget analyst making 75k (or even a 100k if I'm under estimating) when he could be making 2-3x that and save up for his kids school etc. |
Anonymous
When you grow up lower middle class, you are very risk averse. If you screw up or your company screws up there is no safety net. You generally see a private employer as someone who takes advantage of the employee (see how shift workers are screwed by last minute scheduling, or the conflict between management and unions). So essentially there is always the fear you are one misstep away from poverty with no family to help, and growing up with negative association of private employers who take advantage of lower rung employees. Finally there is aura of education as the path to prosperity -- everyone tells you go to college and you will be set (without any discussion of what to do after college but 'get a good job'), and I think that reverence for education carries over to universities as employers. |
Anonymous
Guys!! The previous poster practically spelled out the recipe for you all! The key here is to "work from home" and "two jobs"! No special connections needed!!! I'm exactly the same way. No special connections and not a super star by any stretch of imaginations. Please follow these steps 1. Get your first 1099 / work from home job for say $150k all inclusive. It doesn't matter if it's a bit low. Key here is to work from home! Break away from the bad cycle of stuck at an on-site job. 2. Stay there and get yourself familiarized with the environment, the work, the phone calls and how fast / slow the job moves. 3. Around 4-6 month mark, when you are comfortable and you find yourself watch too much TVs? Find yourself ANOTHER 1099 job BUT ALSO work from home one, preferably a bit higher since you already have one.. you can afford to be a bit picky, say $180k all inclusive. 4. Work on both of them and see how you feel. NO ONE with 1 job works 100% of the time. 5. If one of them start to go south, find a third one, and quit the last one. If you can't handle it, quit the busier one. 6. Rinse and repeat. Be self-disciplined, don't procrastinate (with two jobs, procrastination comes back to haunt you, trust me), and know how to handle meeting conflicts (rare, but it happens). You get used to it after awhile For me personally, working 2 jobs for one year, in terms of saving is equivalent to 5-6 years of working if I had just 1 job. 4 years so far for me, I have saved around 20 years worth of saving. You welcome!! |
Anonymous
PP, thank you for this advice. I work from home and will start working a 2nd full time 1099 in September. Please provide advice about how to handle meeting conflicts between the 2 jobs. |
Anonymous
uh how do you land the $150k 1099 job without connections. Cold call companies selling your services? |
Anonymous
| What is a 1099 job? |
Anonymous
The person is basically an independent contractor. They have to provide their own benefits. One of my plumbers is basically a 1099 and he probably has a better lifestyle than most of these donks. |
Anonymous
+1. I have a college friend with an almost identical path -- rural Nebraska where mom and dad farmed and then in yrs when farming wasn't bringing in enough worked odd jobs in construction/driving school buses etc; went to an ivy; went to a private sector finance job for a few yrs post graduation; and then when the recession hit his view was -- see these big companies aren't in the red, profits have just fallen since last year so they're being greedy and laying off innocent associate. Went to a similar university finance job as your friend where he's been for 10+ yrs and intends to retire from there in 30 yrs with a pension. Interesting thing is that his younger brother went to their state flagship u in large part bc he saw how hard his brothers life was on the east coast - trying to afford housing in the ivy city, not having the money to ever fly home etc. The younger bro studied finance/accounting and landed at their state's public utility as a finance/accounting analyst -- a quasi gov't job and his view is -- no matter how hard times get, people still use electricity so the electric company's profitability doesn't vary much. So yeah given that both brothers craved stability suggests it's about how they grew up and feeling like they can't take a risk bc what if there are layoffs. I'm actually surprised they didn't go into medicine/nursing - the most stable of professions |
Anonymous
Med school tends not to attract as many lower middle class kids simply bc of the length of schooling and thus the tuitions/loans involved. Even lower middle class kids who are interested are sometimes scared off by the idea that they'd first have to get a bio/chem pre-med degree -- which isn't particularly marketable so if they don't get admitted to med school, what do they do with that degree. And then there's taking out loans for 4 yrs of med school. I knew a few LMC kids in college who wanted to do med and were looking into it and were aghast at the idea that the entire education would have to be on loan bc med school is busy/challenging enough that you are told you really shouldn't hold a side job thru school. Most were scared off by that idea and then turned to marketable 4 yr degrees -- finance/accounting or engineering. The 1-2 that did do it turned out fine though bc they then pursued residencies and full time attending jobs at rural hospitals where there was partial/full loan forgiveness over a number of years; they ended up staying in those types of towns in the long term simply bc they couldn't believe their luck in terms of loan forgiveness and high salaries in relation to very low COL. Nursing could be an option, but I have to imagine that boys from Nebraska are still pretty traditional and nursing is not viewed as an option for a man. They may be getting some ribbing from extended families about all their fancy book learnin' and taking out loans for it -- but to do that for nursing school may not go over well at all. |
Anonymous
Yes, LMC engineer here. It's totally the debt. We grow up LMC not poor, so generally that means our parents are frugal and we don't have a culture of debt -- and it is drilled into us that debt is bad. So being a doctor is attractive, there is the years of living off debt for a payoff decades away and no guarantee you will even make it to medical school. Engineering, accounting, are basically professional degrees after 4 years of college. And engineering and accounting tend to pay better than nursing and are probably higher status for men like PP mentioned. Also, you have to realize there is little salary insight from folks from middle of the nowhere -- engineers probably top out at $150k while a doctor can easily go to $300k+ in a moderate speciality like dermatology -- but all these numbers seem astronomical when you grow up in a place where your parents house is worth $70k (today!) and the most they ever made is $40k unless they cranked out the overtime. $100k-$150k right out of college seems like plenty of money, more than you ever need. And most of us are pretty simple folk, we don't need fancy cars, maybe like to travel but are fine going budget -- but we don't understand that the engieering salary in a major metro area really won't cut it as a breadwinner income -- but you find that out too late to change anything. And end of the day, still very risk adverse so not sure how to make a change without changing risk profile. |