$10/Hour To $80,000/Year In Five Years?

[LampTrill]

I would believe them. It's possible. I never made more than $7.75/hr, mostly just pure minimum wage $7.25/hr. I have now jumped to a salary a little above job #4. It'd be awesome if I could bump up to $80k in the next 4 or 5 years. You would be considered pretty well off around where I live currently, although in some areas of the country that may be considered lower-middle class. It's all about perspective really.

[hensleya1]

Originally Posted by VictoryIsMine1

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?

Well, here's a bit of my own story:

Job 1: $12 an hour, part-time, full benefits
Between Jobs 1 and 2 I graduated college and went on to law school (three years).
Job 2: unpaid internship
Job 3: $25 an hour, part-time, no benefits
Job 4: $50,000/year salary, full-time, full benefits
Job 4 became $60,000 after one year, and $71,000 after two.

I suppose it's taken me six years instead of five, but.... certainly believable if OP went from $10 an hour to $80,000 in five years.

[BlerntForceTrauma]

It's definitely possible and I'm on my way there with no degree or certifications. I've only completed two semesters of college credits (9 years ago now) but I have the ability to pick up on things quickly and demonstrate my value to my employers through hard work and proactively seeking out issues and resolutions. Here are my last 5 jobs and you can see a lot changed in just two short years between Fall 2011 and Fall 2013, and I'm working towards a promotion at my current company which would net me roughly between 30-40% more take home pay per year:

Job 1: Deli at Wal-Mart - $9 an hour, part time, no benefits - Fall 2010 to Fall 2011
Job 2: Entry level desktop support technician - $9 an hour, full time, insurance - Fall 2011 to Summer 2012
Job 3: Desktop/application support - $14 an hour - full time, insurance - Summer 2012 to Spring 2013
Job 4: Assistant/Technician - $17 an hour - full time, insurance, 401k - Spring 2013 to Fall 2013
Job 5: Application support analyst - $56,000 salary - insurance, 401k, stock options, vacation - Fall 2013 to present

I rarely need to work over 40 hours a week because in my current role it's not required unless when on call (once every 6 weeks), and I'm productive enough during my 40 to receive recognition from several managers on my performance. The main thing it took for me was to move to a different area. Job 1 was in northwest Ohio where there weren't a ton of positions available for anything IT-related. I moved north a bit and Jobs 2-5 have been within 20 miles of the Detroit area, and if I were fired tomorrow, I receive enough random offers and have met enough people that I wouldn't have a problem finding a job within a month. People can say what they want about the market; depending on the field, jobs are there, you just need to know how to find them and how to conduct yourself in an interview. After that, it's up to your work ethic and ability to prove your value to your employer.

[JoiLynn248]

Reading this thread is really encouraging what states do you all live in?

[the_grimace]

What if I told you my may history over the past 5 years (in the same field) has been:

$15/hour for 1.5 years
$10/hour for 0.5 years
$25/hour for 0.5 years
$36/hour for 1.5 years
$8/hour for 0.5 years
$55/hour for 0.5 years

Because that WAS my pay history... All contract work though, but even in salary positions pay just varies greatly from company to company. My $8 an hour job was in many ways harder than most jobs on my list, and my $55 hour job was probably the easiest while it lasted, I was mostly just consulting for the company.

I never did anything too special. Just kept my resume up to date, networked, and kept an eye open for new opportunities and jumped on them when they came.

I'm since in a new field though because I was sick of the contract work. But yea, pay varies and a lot has to do with negotiation too.

[Workaholic82]

Originally Posted by VictoryIsMine1

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?

I believe that completely. Especially if they work in IT.

[Spedizzo]

It is possible but isn't easy without certain credentials. (Jumping $30K in one year)

[vademo]

Started as an intern at 2012 summer
$12/hour average for 6 months no benefits (intern)
$22/hour for 10 months years no benefits (analyst)
$75k per year for 11 months with benefits (project management)
$115k per year in my current job with amazing benefits (consulting)

I work at DC metro area and work in healthcare management. My case is probably unique but it was all very hard work. Since my internship, I work around 65 / 70 hours per week. If you have a reputation in the company, people will want you and pay you the money you want In my internship, I saved 75k to my department and it opened me so many new doors...

[Hivemind31]

Originally Posted by Emigrations

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.

That's true, but I'm not even talking about "external" learning (classes, certificates, etc.). I simply mean the things you learn on the job. I'm willing to bet that whatever pay you walked into one of those firms with (especially the first one), you walked out worth significantly more simply via the additional skills you picked up while you were working there.

At my first tech job, I already knew how to install software and some hardware peripherals going in. During that first year, I learned some key skills that allowed me to perform the basics as a systems administrator. It's pretty rare for a company to have you do only the things on the job listing, especially in IT. There is basically a 0% chance that an entry level tech is going to do exclusively entry level duties in any company.