What do you do, how much do you make, and how'd you get there?

[Anonymous]

1.
2.
3.

[Anonymous]

1. Lawyer
2. GS-15, just shy of 200k
3. How'd I get here? Law school. Summer Law Intern Program. Honor program. And a lot of hard work.

[Anonymous]

1 lawyer
2 $1.1 for 2023
3. Law school, hard work, intelligence, helpful spouse (sounding board, good advice), knowing my value, actually providing that value, asking for what I want, strategically playing the long game

[Anonymous]

1. Technology sales
2. $325k 2023
3. Law school, hard work, got burned out, network, highlight transferable skills,good timing and some luck

[Anonymous]

1. Economist
2. $225k, will probably go up to $265k this year.
3. Masters degree, joined the government through PFM, left for private sector after about 10 years

[Anonymous]

1. Vice President at midsize NGO
2. $150K
3. Top 10 undergrad, corporate job for a couple years, masters degree, then 15 years as a scientist with increasing levels of project and team oversight. Basically worked my way up at one place. I mommy tracked for a while from years 2-11 - working part-time in a low responsibility role - before leaning back in at the encouragement of my boss and rapidly moving from team, to program, to division head.

[Anonymous]

1. IT program manager
2. $200K
2. Degree in math, statistician, programmer… hated it…moved to help desk support, then infrastructure support, got my masters in project mgmt, learned contract mgmt.

[Anonymous]

1. Historian
2. $120k
3. PhD, part time and summer work at museums and historic sites during grad school, postdoc, government job, two promotions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1 lawyer
2 $1.1 for 2023
3. Law school, hard work, intelligence, helpful spouse (sounding board, good advice), knowing my value, actually providing that value, asking for what I want, strategically playing the long game

Ooh on mine 3, I forgot to add other important elements: like another poster, I mom tracked years 6-12 after law school. Also, duh, luck was a huge part of my career.

[Anonymous]

1. USG analyst
2. $165k
3. Master’s in economics. Trailing spouse of a military officer who bounced around in crummy job markets at the beginning of my career. Came to DC and hustled until I decided to mommy track into a very flexible job. It’s worked out fine.

[Anonymous]

1 manager of small dept in midsized company with 3 direct reports
2 110k plus annual bonus of 8k
3 bachelors degree. Then the long and winding road. Also took off nearly a decade to stay home with children when they were young.

[Anonymous]

Independent recruiter/consultant
$150k for 30ish hours per week
Bachelors degree, 7 years agency recruiting, networked my butt off and made sure to provide both candidates and companies with stellar experiences from the start. Eventually, I had lots of people telling me to go out on my own and went for it.

[Anonymous]

Clearly the DCUM middle class making $400k+ are shy to reveal their path to success. Thanks to the 1M lawyer

1) NASA engineer
2) $190k
3) excelled in high school, elite engineering degree and masters, hooked up with a NASA mission I believed in and thought would make world better place. Regret not following the money into tech or defense, mommy tracked last decade and reluctant to take a risk because of DH more demanding and better paying job which disrupt our working parent juggle mid air.

[Anonymous]

1) Fed/analyst
2) 167k
3) associates degree (grit, tenacity; worked my way up from the bottom)

[Anonymous]

1) environmental policy, now a supervisor
2) GS-15, $191K
3) MS degree then straight into a fed government job as a GS-9. Worked my way up to GS15 over 20+ years. Absolutely love my job, my coworkers, and my Agency's mission.