Anonymous wrote:It's notable, so many people say "hard work", "grit", "worked my @ ss off"... do you think the guys who work on your car didn't work hard to get where they are? The person with the most grit and determination is probably the cleaning lady who walked here from Venezuela...

I'm not normally one to go crazy shouting "white privilege" but these answers seem really tone deaf. I'd love to also hear about how you got lucky.

Why does it have to be luck? OK, so some of us had grandparents or great grandparents who "walked here from Venezuela" so to speak and worked in sweat shops or on construction crews with no benefits so we wouldn't have to. Just because it might be a generation or two ago does not make what's happening today "privilege" or "luck". It's concerted effort and hard work over generations. It is unfair to tag the current generations of such families as "lucky" or "privileged".

1. Electrical technician who troubleshoots residential solar systems.
2. $96k
3. 58 year old engineer. Worked as an engineer/analyst for 30 years for a series of federal contractors but never figured out the business. Was eventually laid off and found this job 8 years ago through a former colleague. Hard to believe that some of us old white guys worked our whole careers without making six figures (but I'm so close!).

1. Local government analyst
2. $150k
3. Lots of wandering, tried out the nonprofit space, realized I prefer analytical work to direct service delivery, got public policy masters', applied, showed genuine interest in local government at my interview, stuck around despite initial low pay and was lucky to have manager that stuck their neck out to promote me and give me raises.

1. Chief Systems Engineer (DoD Contractor)
2. 250k
3. Started at $55k out of college (2004). Initially, got promotion and salary increase by changing jobs every 2-4 years. Only twice over the last 10 years.

Anonymous wrote:It's notable, so many people say "hard work", "grit", "worked my @ ss off"... do you think the guys who work on your car didn't work hard to get where they are? The person with the most grit and determination is probably the cleaning lady who walked here from Venezuela...

I'm not normally one to go crazy shouting "white privilege" but these answers seem really tone deaf. I'd love to also hear about how you got lucky.

This is a pretty myopic thing to say. I posted in this thread and from the responses so far I’m probably in the upper 5%. My parents came from the projects of their home country. So while you can think you know me and my privilege from one post, lady you’re the one who’s actually tone deaf.

People have some pretty tepid jobs here.

Anonymous wrote:1. director of national accounts, food sales
2. 160k plus 20% bonus
3. aa degree, started as a territory rep & worked my way up

Do you want to go into other sales, which could be more lucrative?

1. Senior attorney at a large Silicon Valley company. Manage several legal teams.
2. About $600k per year, excluding equity which is on average $700k - 800k per year.
3. SLAC, law school, DOJ and then inhouse.

1. Chef
2. 250k
3. Bunch of random terminal degrees, but what really started me on my path was washing dishes in high school at an old Italian restaurant

It's notable, so many people say "hard work", "grit", "worked my @ ss off"... do you think the guys who work on your car didn't work hard to get where they are? The person with the most grit and determination is probably the cleaning lady who walked here from Venezuela...

I'm not normally one to go crazy shouting "white privilege" but these answers seem really tone deaf. I'd love to also hear about how you got lucky.

1. Director at a large strategy consulting firm
2. $205k base plus bonus (highly dependent on economic cycle + year end rating - but should be ~40k this year)
3. Large OOS state school (not top 100) on full scholarship, various comms roles, T10 MBA on full scholarship, strategy consulting

1. director of national accounts, food sales
2. 160k plus 20% bonus
3. aa degree, started as a territory rep & worked my way up

Director of pre award administration
$145,000
Undergrad at a top SLAC then grad school. Pretty much fell into the field during grad school then faked it till I made it. Had no idea what I was doing when I started 13 years ago. Mommy tracked for 10 years and then took a more senior position. Still very flexible with job. DH is the main bread winner.

1. SAHM

2. 0 dollars

3. A series of questionable decisions

Strategy manager
$102k plus $20k in bonus
Two masters and international work experience how ever never knew what I wanted lacked tactics and skills so stayed stuck in low paying jobs. At 36 wish I was smarter, knew better and trusted myself more