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If someone told you they went from $10 a hour to $80,000 a year within five years would you believe them?
Job 1: $10/hour, part-time, no benefits
Job 2: $14/hour, full-time, no benefits
Job 3: $17/hour, full-time, no benefits
Job 4: $50,000/year salary, full-time, full benefits
Job 5: $80,000/year, full-time, full benefits
The person already had a bachelor's degree when starting job one. The individual started a masters program while doing job 4, but hasn't completed the requirements of the degree yet. All this happen in about 5 years time.
What did the person do to achieve this?
Yes. Happens in our firm frequently. And they don't even have to change companies.
Start as temps, low pay. Get into permanent position, pay increases. Get into higher permanent position, pay increases substantially. Get into lead or managerial position, pay increases greatly.
Put me in the "it's not that unusual in IT" camp. With no degree, I followed a similar path for my first few years:
10.50/hour as a pc tech - 1 year
18.00/hour as a sysadmin - 2 years
48k as a security analyst - 1 year
started next job as a sysadmin at 25.00/hour and then promoted after 6 months to 75k as an IT manager
After that, I got my degree and certs and other things...but my first 4-5 years went up very quickly.
In IT, especially those first 3 years or so, your value practically doubles every year. There is no reason for any IT employee to stay longer than a year unless they're being promoted internally because their skillset value will be worth far more than any raise they'd realistically get. A PC tech making 14-18/hour (a pretty standard going rate) will have the skills to be a sysadmin in a year if they want, at which point their new range is basically 40-80k (likely 50-60k), depending on the company.
You have to remember that the company has to value you enough to let you do things where you can learn additional skills. I worked as a Fortune 500 help desk tech for three different firms, and none of them really allowed me to grow my skills at the time.
If someone told you they went from $10 a hour to $80,000 a year within five years would you believe them?
Job 1: $10/hour, part-time, no benefits
Job 2: $14/hour, full-time, no benefits
Job 3: $17/hour, full-time, no benefits
Job 4: $50,000/year salary, full-time, full benefits
Job 5: $80,000/year, full-time, full benefits
The person already had a bachelor's degree when starting job one. The individual started a masters program while doing job 4, but hasn't completed the requirements of the degree yet. All this happen in about 5 years time.
What did the person do to achieve this?
In 5 1/2 years I went from earning minimum wage to almost the salary of Job 5. It's very possible.
possible, but takes quite a bit of luck, a dedicated person, and the right field.
went from about 33k to 70K from 2007 to 2011, promoted twice within the same company. I had been making more than 33k in the years prior, but the recession got me.
What I want to know is why any company would have the audacity to give only 10 an hour with no benefits to a degree holder!
I agree with you 100%! I actually personally know this individual and know for a fact that he accomplished this. The first job was at a retail store, so go figure. The other jobs with no benefits were temp jobs.
The reason I wanted CD's input is due to the fact that many people don't seem to believe him when he shares this story. I just wanted to see how CD visitors would react.
The common reaction is that this is "impossible", and that even with job changes, you usually only get a 10% pay increase per job change. I think this is primarily due to the fact that they can't achieve similar pay increases themselves so they refuse to believe that others are achieving it.
I am really happy to see that others out there managed to achieve similar jumps.
What I want to know is why any company would have the audacity to give only 10 an hour with no benefits to a degree holder!
I want to know why a degree holder is taking such low paying jobs! and why they didn't plan their post college careers better than just "hoping" to land a job
I went from $5 an hour to $50,000 in three years. No college what so ever. Haven't earned under $85,000 in 30 years.
Then again, I didn't sit on my butt playing video games waiting for some HR person in Tuscalusa to contact me either!
I sat on my butt playing video games and still made/make big bucks Trust me, video games aren't the problem as good as it may look writing it or sound saying it
You have to remember that the company has to value you enough to let you do things where you can learn additional skills. I worked as a Fortune 500 help desk tech for three different firms, and none of them really allowed me to grow my skills at the time.
I don't understand what you mean by "none of them really allowed me to grow my skills." Study at night. Teach yourself. Use free online classes. Don't sit and wait to get all your experience on the job. When I interview people for my teams, particularly more junior people, one of the first things I ask them is what they do outside of work. You get bonus points if you have a hobby doing tech stuff that could be useful in the workplace because they are growing themselves and having fun at the same time. I don't want anyone working for me that views our work as just a job/daily grind.
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Trust me, video games aren't the problem as good as it may look writing it or sound saying it 
