Is Your Career Standing In the Way of You Making More Money?

April 1st, 2009

Continuing this week’s theme of addressing the compensation piece of the career pie, today’s topic is changing careers in order to make more money.

There are certain jobs you do because there are intangible payoffs (helping others, self-expression, etc.), not for the money. Some people choose to become teachers, social workers, or bar band musicians because of these non-monetary rewards. 

There are a lot of careers where you unexpectedly reach an earning ceiling you didn’t realize was there- or didn’t consider when you were starting out. 

Other times, you don’t get where you thought you would get and you hit a salary dead-end (such as the executive assistant trap which I’ll be addressing in another post soon).

And sometimes there is burnout (the intangibles stop providing the same satisfaction) or circumstances change (kids approaching college or a marriage ending) or you have an epiphany (”I am worth more than this!”) and the money-making piece becomes more important.

In the March More Magazine, there is an article called Reinvent Yourself Richer about four women who jumped their earnings by changing careers. They went from being a flight attendant to an entrepreneur, a musician to a CEO, an executive assistant to a publicist, and a psychotherapist to a real estate broker, respectively.

The thing that struck me is that each of the women profiled made their own opportunities. The entrepreneur invented a clever product and then passionately publicized it to everyone she met for the next year as she hung onto her flight attendant job during the transition.

The musician who became a CEO is the CEO of her own company. She saw a niche business need that wasn’t being addressed and created a website to fill it and her gamble paid off.

The executive assistant-turned-publicist tapped into a passion she had and repositioned herself by reworking her resume to highlight little-used skills in order to get work for a public relations firm.

The psychotherapist, going through a divorce and needing to kick up the earnings to support her kids, had a background in renovating and flipping apartments which she turned into a career by getting licensed as a real estate broker and persevering until she got her first clients and proved herself, so she could get more clients.

All of these women are making substantially more money than they were in their previous careers and they did it by using their own ingenuity and passion, and forcing a change in their lives.

Nobody reached down and gave them an opportunity. They all sweated out the transition with challenges some thought they might not have it in them to overcome. But they were all so committed to making a difference in their lives, they did what was necessary.

What untapped passions or unexplored business ideas or alterntive career paths do you have? How can you make your own opportunity and kick up your earnings in the process?

Photo courtesy of JBlaze_B.

Related posts:

1. Recommended: Secrets of Six-Figure Women
2. Dreaming on Paper

Filed under: miscellaneous career advice

Tags: career advice