Author Topic: How do people make $100+ salary?  (Read 117022 times)

elnion

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #500 on: May 17, 2018, 05:06:09 PM »
Yes, I was talking base + bonus, sorry for the confusion. I guess I should include RSUs for long term employees (Sr/Principal level) since they're not so much in danger of hopping somewhere else and having to ramp up a vest schedule. I just have that mode of thinking because I've known quite a few folks lured to AMZN with what looks like on paper a generous comp package but heavily loaded with RSUs. A year or two later they're sick of 12-14 hour days and don't even care about 'losing' that stock.

Ah yes, the schedule and risk of losing them is a definite factor. Quarterly vesting (and will likely bump to monthly next year), no cliff means it's not really a risk in the same way for me, since they basically pay out alongside salary. Note that this is true in general at Google.

I've heard from several former-Amazon folks here that Amazon likes to backload the RSU schedule, so that job hopping is much more likely to cause a loss there. You're probably right to consider them differently when that's true or if similar risks are part of the contract.

JLee

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #501 on: May 20, 2018, 08:10:12 PM »
All our LA people were hired there, so I'd have to assume they were market wages, which is why it is stunning to me to see these kinds of numbers because our CA office was in no way paying those salaries and we had no issue finding people.

Again, I don't believe it is industry or geographically isolated.  For those in a high demand industry it is a slam dunk day one.  For others it is more than doable if you are smart, hardworking, willing to relocate, move jobs, etc.

I know a dump truck driver that makes six figures and he is not in a major city.  Virtually, all police officers make greater than six figures after 10 years and they are also eligible for a great pension.  Fire and other services as well.

Any senior level construction person would be making six figures after a decade because there is a building boom in many places across the US and World. 

If you are able and willing to move to where the jobs are then I don't see much of a hurdle to hitting six figures.

Based on your posts I would think that you should be looking for a career at a different company.  The unemployment rate is ridiculously low right now.  A smart, hard working person should be bringing home significantly more compensation than you are currently making.

I assume you must be talking about LA, because if not, LOLOLOLOL.

https://swz.salary.com/SalaryWizard/police-officer-Salary-Details.aspx?&yearsofexperience=12

-signed, a former LEO
« Last Edit: May 20, 2018, 08:12:35 PM by JLee »

tomsang

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #502 on: May 21, 2018, 09:23:10 AM »
[I assume you must be talking about LA, because if not, LOLOLOLOL.

https://swz.salary.com/SalaryWizard/police-officer-Salary-Details.aspx?&yearsofexperience=12

-signed, a former LEO

You should never use salary.com for salary information.  That site is not accurate. 
What city are you in? 

With overtime, businesses hiring you for special events, longevity bonuses, education bonuses, and every other bonus that you would qualify for if you were there for 10+ years then you should easily be making $100k if you are located in a reasonable sized town.  Again moving may be in many people's best interest.  Many/most of these positions are also eligible for a very sweet pension.  In Seattle it is 60% of your salary cost adjusted for life.  These pensions are probably worth another 1/3 of your compensation if you figured out the value.   

http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2017/05/the_25_towns_with_the_highest_police_salaries_in_nj.html

https://www.seattle.gov/police/police-jobs/salary-and-benefits

https://everettwa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1050/Recruitment-Brochure-PDF

http://www.edmondswa.gov/images/COE/Government/Human_Resources/2018_POLICE_wage_schedule.pdf

Virtually everyone on the LAPD makes over $100k.  http://salaries.scpr.org/list?commit=Search&page=50&query=police+sergeant&utf8=%E2%9C%93

effigy98

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #503 on: May 21, 2018, 01:29:50 PM »

I work for one of the big west coast tech companies in the seattle area and want to give some perspective on this just as effigy does above so you know he's not just talking out of his ass. ;)

I'm a senior engineer on the infrastructure side of things and design/build some of the worldwide IT infra for 'big tech', we make similar $$ to what effigy quotes. And like he says it sounds absurd and unreal but it's no lie. Just about everyone in the building makes over $100k, Sr level high 100's to mid 200's. Principal level mid 200's-low 300's total comp. I hope he's talking total comp, otherwise I should learn to slang some code. :D


Those numbers actually sound kind of low for total comp at the major west coast tech companies. I'm a mid-level SRE at Google and make a little over $200k/yr total comp not including extra on-call compensation. If we have Principle Engineers making under $500k total comp, then something is going very wrong.

As far as work conditions go, working at Google feels fairly laid back to me. I have my complaints, and work certainly tends to pile up until it becomes stressful unless you manage expectations and limit the work in progress queue well, but it's generally very 9-5ish unless I'm on-call, which I'm compensated for as well (in either dollars or extra PTO, my choice).

Those numbers big_slacker quoted are dead on with my company, we probably work at the same one... I know we are underpaid compared to a few other companies (including me). Yes I was talking total compensation. I REALLY enjoy my worklife balance (4 real hours of work required) here however, the network of people I know, and the location (can bike in from my home on a bike trail mostly), I hate interviewing, and the place just seems like my second home now so I rather just ride out my final years until FI here. I HIGHLY recommend you try to get into the higher paying tech companies first if you are planning on moving here. Total compensation is key vs salary so keep that in mind.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2018, 01:35:04 PM by effigy98 »

JLee

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #504 on: May 21, 2018, 05:25:17 PM »
[I assume you must be talking about LA, because if not, LOLOLOLOL.

https://swz.salary.com/SalaryWizard/police-officer-Salary-Details.aspx?&yearsofexperience=12

-signed, a former LEO

You should never use salary.com for salary information.  That site is not accurate. 
What city are you in? 

With overtime, businesses hiring you for special events, longevity bonuses, education bonuses, and every other bonus that you would qualify for if you were there for 10+ years then you should easily be making $100k if you are located in a reasonable sized town.  Again moving may be in many people's best interest.  Many/most of these positions are also eligible for a very sweet pension.  In Seattle it is 60% of your salary cost adjusted for life.  These pensions are probably worth another 1/3 of your compensation if you figured out the value.   

http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2017/05/the_25_towns_with_the_highest_police_salaries_in_nj.html

https://www.seattle.gov/police/police-jobs/salary-and-benefits

https://everettwa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1050/Recruitment-Brochure-PDF

http://www.edmondswa.gov/images/COE/Government/Human_Resources/2018_POLICE_wage_schedule.pdf

Virtually everyone on the LAPD makes over $100k.  http://salaries.scpr.org/list?commit=Search&page=50&query=police+sergeant&utf8=%E2%9C%93

You said "virtually all police officers" -- not "virtually all HCOL police officers."  There are plenty of places where that is possible, but "virtually all" is laughable.

https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/patrol-officer/salary

https://www.cheatsheet.com/culture/states-pay-police-officers-highest-lowest-salaries.html/?a=viewall

https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes333051.htm

tomsang

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #505 on: May 21, 2018, 06:49:08 PM »
You said "virtually all police officers" -- not "virtually all HCOL police officers."  There are plenty of places where that is possible, but "virtually all" is laughable.

https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/patrol-officer/salary

https://www.cheatsheet.com/culture/states-pay-police-officers-highest-lowest-salaries.html/?a=viewall

https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes333051.htm
In five minutes I listed a number of small and lower cost of living cities(Everett, Edmonds, WA). If you would like to provide your exact city, we can pull the data from that city.  Mustachians after 10 years would not be mediocre. They would be in the top 10% as they would be pulling down overtime, promotions, and side hustles.  I stand by my comment that virtually all police officers make more than $100k if they are doing what a normal Mustachian would do.  If they are located in a dying city where someone could not make that type of money, then I would repeat what I have said in virtually every post on this topic.  "You may need to move"

If you are in Los Angeles, Seattle, Silicon Valley, you should be touching on $150k - $200k after 10 years.   

Spokane info from 2014 - Type in police sergeant or whatever you think would be a typical title after 10 years.
http://www.spokesman.com/data/city-employee-salaries/

Here is Tacoma, Wa 2017 - http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/databases/article25876201.html

Spokane, Everett, Tacoma are not high cost of living areas in Washington State.  Easy to make $100k in any of these cities with overtime, longevity, education, and side hustles.

If people are living in towns that are not prosperous, then it might be time to move. 

JLee

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #506 on: May 21, 2018, 07:02:09 PM »
You said "virtually all police officers" -- not "virtually all HCOL police officers."  There are plenty of places where that is possible, but "virtually all" is laughable.

https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/patrol-officer/salary

https://www.cheatsheet.com/culture/states-pay-police-officers-highest-lowest-salaries.html/?a=viewall

https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes333051.htm
In five minutes I listed a number of small and lower cost of living cities(Everett, Edmonds, WA). If you would like to provide your exact city, we can pull the data from that city.  Mustachians after 10 years would not be mediocre. They would be in the top 10% as they would be pulling down overtime, promotions, and side hustles.  I stand by my comment that virtually all police officers make more than $100k if they are doing what a normal Mustachian would do.  If they are located in a dying city where someone could not make that type of money, then I would repeat what I have said in virtually every post on this topic.  "You may need to move"

If you are in Los Angeles, Seattle, Silicon Valley, you should be touching on $150k - $200k after 10 years.   

Spokane info from 2014 - Type in police sergeant or whatever you think would be a typical title after 10 years.
http://www.spokesman.com/data/city-employee-salaries/

Here is Tacoma, Wa 2017 - http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/databases/article25876201.html

Spokane, Everett, Tacoma are not high cost of living areas in Washington State.  Easy to make $100k in any of these cities with overtime, longevity, education, and side hustles.

If people are living in towns that are not prosperous, then it might be time to move.

You and I clearly have very different definitions of what "virtually all" means.  I think it means virtually all, and you think it means cherry-picked coastal cities. 

A 10+ year officer with a bachelor's degree makes $66,669.44 plus OT (average OT is $5k) in Nashville TN: http://www.nashville.gov/Police-Department/Get-Involved/Become-a-Police-Officer/Pay-Scale-and-Benefits.aspx

If you want to add a laundry list of clarifiers and ifs and shoulds, then obviously it's absolutely possible to reach that salary in 10 years.  I take issue with your claim of "virtually all" -- it's simply wrong, as demonstrated by any number of readily available statistics.

This is your exact claim:
Quote
Virtually, all police officers make greater than six figures after 10 years

No.  No, they do not.

tomsang

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #507 on: May 21, 2018, 08:00:29 PM »
You and I clearly have very different definitions of what "virtually all" means.  I think it means virtually all, and you think it means cherry-picked coastal cities. 

A 10+ year officer with a bachelor's degree makes $66,669.44 plus OT (average OT is $5k) in Nashville TN: http://www.nashville.gov/Police-Department/Get-Involved/Become-a-Police-Officer/Pay-Scale-and-Benefits.aspx

If you want to add a laundry list of clarifiers and ifs and shoulds, then obviously it's absolutely possible to reach that salary in 10 years.  I take issue with your claim of "virtually all" -- it's simply wrong, as demonstrated by any number of readily available statistics.

This is your exact claim:
Quote
Virtually, all police officers make greater than six figures after 10 years

No.  No, they do not.

These people are pulling down $40k plus in overtime. 
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/investigations/2018/04/03/nashville-police-overtime-costs-soar-assume-bigger-role-securing-entertainment-events/446974002/

You also listed compensation for a police officer vs. a sergeant.  A good Mustachian would be pulling down above average overtime, pulling down some off-duty gigs, and would be promoted to Sergeant.  This would put their base compensation at $80k+ and they would be above average and bring in $20k+ of overtime and off duty work, which would put them over $100k before the pension benefit that they are earning which is most likely valued at $30k+ a year. So conservatively, they would be earning $130k in total compensation in Nashville.  If they don't feel like they can reach these levels, then they would be looking to a place more prosperous or figure out why they are not getting promoted or getting the overtime that the high achievers are getting.

I am not talking about a slacker police office.  I am talking about a Mustachian.  They would look at all potential opportunities.

What is the value of their retirement plan?  That alone put them at $100k before overtime. 

JLee

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #508 on: May 21, 2018, 08:37:09 PM »
You and I clearly have very different definitions of what "virtually all" means.  I think it means virtually all, and you think it means cherry-picked coastal cities. 

A 10+ year officer with a bachelor's degree makes $66,669.44 plus OT (average OT is $5k) in Nashville TN: http://www.nashville.gov/Police-Department/Get-Involved/Become-a-Police-Officer/Pay-Scale-and-Benefits.aspx

If you want to add a laundry list of clarifiers and ifs and shoulds, then obviously it's absolutely possible to reach that salary in 10 years.  I take issue with your claim of "virtually all" -- it's simply wrong, as demonstrated by any number of readily available statistics.

This is your exact claim:
Quote
Virtually, all police officers make greater than six figures after 10 years

No.  No, they do not.

These people are pulling down $40k plus in overtime. 
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/investigations/2018/04/03/nashville-police-overtime-costs-soar-assume-bigger-role-securing-entertainment-events/446974002/

You also listed compensation for a police officer vs. a sergeant.  A good Mustachian would be pulling down above average overtime, pulling down some off-duty gigs, and would be promoted to Sergeant.  This would put their base compensation at $80k+ and they would be above average and bring in $20k+ of overtime and off duty work, which would put them over $100k before the pension benefit that they are earning which is most likely valued at $30k+ a year. So conservatively, they would be earning $130k in total compensation in Nashville.  If they don't feel like they can reach these levels, then they would be looking to a place more prosperous or figure out why they are not getting promoted or getting the overtime that the high achievers are getting.

I am not talking about a slacker police office.  I am talking about a Mustachian.  They would look at all potential opportunities.

What is the value of their retirement plan?  That alone put them at $100k before overtime.

Pension value was not included in the initial claim, as your specific phrasing was "Virtually, all police officers make greater than six figures after 10 years and they are also eligible for a great pension." Key word being "and," not "including."

If you said "a good mustachian working 60+ hours a week, pulling down some off-duty gigs, and getting promotions, and then moving to other cities to meet an income target" instead of "virtually all", then I wouldn't be posting here at all.

But here we are.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2018, 08:39:08 PM by JLee »

Michael in ABQ

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #509 on: May 21, 2018, 09:19:32 PM »
in the City of Albuquerque the second highest earner for 2017 was a patrol officer making $165k, only the chief administrative officer made more ate $180k. Of the top 250 earners in the city about half are police and the bottom of that list is in the high 90s. http://cognospublic.cabq.gov/cabqcognos/cgi-bin/cognos.cgi?b_action=cognosViewer&ui.action=run&ui.object=%2fcontent%2ffolder%5b%40name%3d%27Transparency%27%5d%2freport%5b%40name%3d%27Top%20Earners%20of%20the%20City%20of%20Albuquerque%20List%27%5d&ui.name=Top%20Earners%20of%20the%20City%20of%20Albuquerque%20List&run.outputFormat=&run.prompt=true

Overtime and double time pay really add up, especially if it's an officer that spends a lot of time in court - for instance if they're on the DWI task force.

The base pay for a police officer first class is $26.44/year.

Quote
The opportunity to retire with 90% of your top pay and the ability to retire after 25 years of dedicated service.
We will pay you a $5,000 bonus for successfully joining one of the best law enforcement agencies in the country. Just successfully complete our academy and on-the-job training and the hiring bonus is yours!
http://apdonline.com/salary.aspx

They are hurting for bodies though. My brother-in-law recently retired from there and they're under a DOJ consent order due to various excessive force and officer involved shootings. So, not necessarily a great place to work but if you're willing to work overtime obviously you can make $100k. They have something like 800-900 officers so roughly 10-15% are making over $100k, most of which are not sergeants, lieutenants, commanders, etc.

JLee

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #510 on: May 21, 2018, 09:34:58 PM »
in the City of Albuquerque the second highest earner for 2017 was a patrol officer making $165k, only the chief administrative officer made more ate $180k. Of the top 250 earners in the city about half are police and the bottom of that list is in the high 90s. http://cognospublic.cabq.gov/cabqcognos/cgi-bin/cognos.cgi?b_action=cognosViewer&ui.action=run&ui.object=%2fcontent%2ffolder%5b%40name%3d%27Transparency%27%5d%2freport%5b%40name%3d%27Top%20Earners%20of%20the%20City%20of%20Albuquerque%20List%27%5d&ui.name=Top%20Earners%20of%20the%20City%20of%20Albuquerque%20List&run.outputFormat=&run.prompt=true

Overtime and double time pay really add up, especially if it's an officer that spends a lot of time in court - for instance if they're on the DWI task force.

The base pay for a police officer first class is $26.44/year.

Quote
The opportunity to retire with 90% of your top pay and the ability to retire after 25 years of dedicated service.
We will pay you a $5,000 bonus for successfully joining one of the best law enforcement agencies in the country. Just successfully complete our academy and on-the-job training and the hiring bonus is yours!
http://apdonline.com/salary.aspx

They are hurting for bodies though. My brother-in-law recently retired from there and they're under a DOJ consent order due to various excessive force and officer involved shootings. So, not necessarily a great place to work but if you're willing to work overtime obviously you can make $100k. They have something like 800-900 officers so roughly 10-15% are making over $100k, most of which are not sergeants, lieutenants, commanders, etc.

Yeah, it's certainly possible if you work for a department that has unrestricted overtime opportunities. Some of these guys are turning 3000+ hours a year...it's insane!

grandep

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #511 on: May 23, 2018, 01:48:02 PM »
in the City of Albuquerque the second highest earner for 2017 was a patrol officer making $165k, only the chief administrative officer made more ate $180k. Of the top 250 earners in the city about half are police and the bottom of that list is in the high 90s. http://cognospublic.cabq.gov/cabqcognos/cgi-bin/cognos.cgi?b_action=cognosViewer&ui.action=run&ui.object=%2fcontent%2ffolder%5b%40name%3d%27Transparency%27%5d%2freport%5b%40name%3d%27Top%20Earners%20of%20the%20City%20of%20Albuquerque%20List%27%5d&ui.name=Top%20Earners%20of%20the%20City%20of%20Albuquerque%20List&run.outputFormat=&run.prompt=true

Overtime and double time pay really add up, especially if it's an officer that spends a lot of time in court - for instance if they're on the DWI task force.

The base pay for a police officer first class is $26.44/year.

Quote
The opportunity to retire with 90% of your top pay and the ability to retire after 25 years of dedicated service.
We will pay you a $5,000 bonus for successfully joining one of the best law enforcement agencies in the country. Just successfully complete our academy and on-the-job training and the hiring bonus is yours!
http://apdonline.com/salary.aspx

They are hurting for bodies though. My brother-in-law recently retired from there and they're under a DOJ consent order due to various excessive force and officer involved shootings. So, not necessarily a great place to work but if you're willing to work overtime obviously you can make $100k. They have something like 800-900 officers so roughly 10-15% are making over $100k, most of which are not sergeants, lieutenants, commanders, etc.

Albuquerque has a particularly high crime rate and is one of the harder cities to be a police officer in, so I wonder if those numbers are higher than the national average.

LibrarianFuzz

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #512 on: May 24, 2018, 09:04:22 AM »
I've always been curious about this myself. I don't know anyone in "real life" who makes $100k. When I graduated high school, everyone I knew was working fast food or retail, making less than 20k a year, full-time. Fast forward to today and everyone I know typically earns between $30k - $40k. As the "college grad" among the bunch, I'm the "high earner" at $50k.

JLee

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #513 on: May 24, 2018, 09:09:05 AM »
I've always been curious about this myself. I don't know anyone in "real life" who makes $100k. When I graduated high school, everyone I knew was working fast food or retail, making less than 20k a year, full-time. Fast forward to today and everyone I know typically earns between $30k - $40k. As the "college grad" among the bunch, I'm the "high earner" at $50k.

What part of the country are you in?

LibrarianFuzz

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #514 on: May 24, 2018, 09:14:35 AM »
Quote
What part of the country are you in?

Northern California, near San Francisco.

Which means I'm probably theoretically surrounded by 100k salaries, I just don't know those people. We don't move in the same circles or they don't self-identify as such. Most of my friends are office clerks, receptionists or admin assistants, customer service reps, shift managers at retail, unemployed, or on disability (or on disability as a form of very-long term employment.) I also of course know a few fellow librarians and library technicians.   

AlanAbroad

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #515 on: June 03, 2018, 11:46:29 AM »
I'm in education and continuous professional development, doing good work, moving where the opportunities are, and being able to endure more rigors than the average person can put one in the $100,000+ bracket overseas. That can be $100,000+ tax free in some places.

Padonak

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #516 on: June 03, 2018, 11:48:16 AM »
I'm in education and continuous professional development, doing good work, moving where the opportunities are, and being able to endure more rigors than the average person can put one in the $100,000+ bracket overseas. That can be $100,000+ tax free in some places.

Can you elaborate a little bit? What kind of education? Private school? College? Corporate training? What subject?

AlanAbroad

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #517 on: June 03, 2018, 11:58:20 AM »
I'm in education and continuous professional development, doing good work, moving where the opportunities are, and being able to endure more rigors than the average person can put one in the $100,000+ bracket overseas. That can be $100,000+ tax free in some places.

Can you elaborate a little bit? What kind of education? Private school? College? Corporate training? What subject?

I started out as an English teacher with no experience and a BA, got into a Uni, then got an MEd and teacher's license, changed to a better paying uni in another country, got an MBA, and then moved to another country to train company employees. It's my field now.

Most others followed some sort of similar path, and at this level it is the same faces wherever I work, interview, or attend a conference or hiring fair, etc. If I started out again, I might take a different path but am quite sure that by following the same principles that I would end up in a decent situation again. The thing is, it is not quick or easy. I think it will take most about 10-15 years to get to the higher rungs of their game even if they make good moves and get their ducks in a row.
« Last Edit: June 03, 2018, 12:00:39 PM by AlanAbroad »

samanil

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #518 on: September 13, 2020, 08:41:54 PM »
PharmD, Nurse specialists ($100k includes OT), Law, Investment banking, Dentist, IT specialists, Software developers, Sales specialists especially when they're managers/GMs, lots of small and medium businesses. There are hundreds of jobs that make 6 figures, I don't get the point of asking which careers. Google could help you out in that regard.

Now how to get to 6 figures within a particular path is a question that takes more detail. Biglaw and IB folks make that right out of college but you need to intern and land those coveted spots. Almost any doctor will make 6 figures as soon as they start proper doctorin'.

I make mid 200k in IT, I just job hopped every couple of years taking increasingly more challenging *AND* more specialized spots each time. Got a very difficult professional certification as well. Started at 30 years old and had my first 6 figure salary at 36. Took another 6 to hit 200k total comp.

How did you get into IT at 30?

Dicey

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #519 on: September 13, 2020, 10:56:24 PM »
PharmD, Nurse specialists ($100k includes OT), Law, Investment banking, Dentist, IT specialists, Software developers, Sales specialists especially when they're managers/GMs, lots of small and medium businesses. There are hundreds of jobs that make 6 figures, I don't get the point of asking which careers. Google could help you out in that regard.

Now how to get to 6 figures within a particular path is a question that takes more detail. Biglaw and IB folks make that right out of college but you need to intern and land those coveted spots. Almost any doctor will make 6 figures as soon as they start proper doctorin'.

I make mid 200k in IT, I just job hopped every couple of years taking increasingly more challenging *AND* more specialized spots each time. Got a very difficult professional certification as well. Started at 30 years old and had my first 6 figure salary at 36. Took another 6 to hit 200k total comp.

How did you get into IT at 30?
Welcome to the forum, @samanil. You've necroposted on an old thread. According to his profile, big_slacker left the building in March of 2019. Hopefully, he made it to FIRE and hit the road, never to be heard from again.

SEAK

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #520 on: September 14, 2020, 09:58:01 AM »
My wife makes $100k working for the city as an engineer at the local wastewater treatment plants.

samanil

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #521 on: September 14, 2020, 06:09:53 PM »
Welcome to the forum, @samanil. You've necroposted on an old thread. According to his profile, big_slacker left the building in March of 2019. Hopefully, he made it to FIRE and hit the road, never to be heard from again.

I hope that was the outcome :)

Is necroposting bad form?

scottish

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #522 on: September 14, 2020, 07:59:22 PM »
No.   It's good to revive old topics, jogs the memory.

TomTX

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #523 on: September 14, 2020, 08:24:09 PM »
You and I clearly have very different definitions of what "virtually all" means.  I think it means virtually all, and you think it means cherry-picked coastal cities. 

Strangely, that's where most of the population is. Near the coasts.

Okay, I'm inland in Austin - at 10 years experience, you have to be a pretty poor officer to fail to at least advance to Corporal, which would get you to ~$100k.

Even with zero advancement, 10 year officer pay would be $85,724 + $1,284 longevity pay. Having a couple of certifications is good for another $1,200. There are a variety of other incentives which add thousands more (bilingual, degree, etc)  Overtime is very common - 75% of the "top overtime earners" for all of City of Austin were APD.

I seriously doubt very many APD officers with 10 years on the job get less than $100k.

Dicey

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #524 on: September 14, 2020, 09:45:58 PM »
Welcome to the forum, @samanil. You've necroposted on an old thread. According to his profile, big_slacker left the building in March of 2019. Hopefully, he made it to FIRE and hit the road, never to be heard from again.

I hope that was the outcome :)

Is necroposting bad form?
Not necessarily @samanil. Necroposting by someone with less than 5 posts that include a link is definitely bad form. I just replied because I'm an old timer and I knew the person you asked is not currently active. Also, if you want to get someone's attention, you can quote them, or you can batsignal them by putting an @ symbol before their name. If you're wondering if someone's active, just click on their name and look at their stats.

In general, I'm a fan of necroposts, because I always love when someone comes back and updates their story. Hmmm, maybe @big_slacker will see this...
« Last Edit: September 15, 2020, 06:46:21 AM by Dicey »

bbqbonelesswing

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #525 on: September 15, 2020, 06:54:10 AM »
Identify a high-paying career path, get necessary certifications, volunteer for high-profile work and apply to better roles when they open up.

I shifted into IT about 4 years ago. My starting salary was $45k, which rose quickly with certifications and promotions. Now I'm almost at $100k, and should break over that in a few months. Not very complicated.

asauer

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #526 on: September 15, 2020, 07:04:14 AM »
I'm in a career that does not traditionally make above 90-100 but I make 150.  I'm also female which makes it tougher.  Here's what I did.  I'm in HR. 
1. I got a college degree, did a bunch of internships and networked.  I started as an HR Assistant for 25k (in 2000). 
2. Then I was an HR Generalist for 2 years (35k). 
3. Then got my Master's in HR Development (through company's tuition reimbursement). I then specialized in Learning and Development which is a higher paying arm of HR.  Started at 50k. 
4. Then jumped from manufacturing to Pharmaceuticals.  Started there at 65k, ended at 80k (also had bonus opportunity there). 
5. Then jumped to a clinical trials organization as a L&D Manager- started at 85k, worked there for 10 years, ended at 110k. 
6. Then had a Director opportunity starting at 115k.  After 1 year in the job, they promoted an unqualified person to take half that job b/c he is the CEOs friend.  So, I negotiated a new job title and additional job responsibilities as Sr. Director of Organizational Development.  They needed me more than I needed them so they took it.  That boosted me to 120,000 plus 35% bonus opportunity and got it.  Now, a couple of years later, I've gotten a couple of raises and now site at $131,000.  I'm still in this job.

So- key points: what can you specialize in that is higher paying?  What industries can you approach that are higher paying?  Get an advanced degree only if it will gain you entry to more $.  Negotiate like hell.

JLee

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #527 on: September 15, 2020, 07:22:54 AM »
You and I clearly have very different definitions of what "virtually all" means.  I think it means virtually all, and you think it means cherry-picked coastal cities. 

Strangely, that's where most of the population is. Near the coasts.

Okay, I'm inland in Austin - at 10 years experience, you have to be a pretty poor officer to fail to at least advance to Corporal, which would get you to ~$100k.

Even with zero advancement, 10 year officer pay would be $85,724 + $1,284 longevity pay. Having a couple of certifications is good for another $1,200. There are a variety of other incentives which add thousands more (bilingual, degree, etc)  Overtime is very common - 75% of the "top overtime earners" for all of City of Austin were APD.

I seriously doubt very many APD officers with 10 years on the job get less than $100k.

Well damn, this is an old post.  Remember we're talking specifically about "virtually all" police.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewdepietro/2020/04/23/police-officer-salary-state/#540ba28d2010

Quote
The national average annual wage of an police officer is $67,600, according to the BLS, a little over $15,000 more than average annual salary for all occupations, $51,960. Depending on the state, however, the average salary of a police officer can vary significantly. Police officer wages are heavily dependent on the cost of living in each state.

Below is a list of the top-10 highest-paying states for police officers:

California average police officer salary: $105,220
Alaska average police officer salary: $87,870
New Jersey average police officer salary: $86,840
Washington average police officer salary: $80,200
Hawaii average police officer salary: $78,720
Illinois average police officer salary: $78,350
New York average police officer salary: $77,490
Colorado average police officer salary: $75,720
Delaware average police officer salary: $73,740
Nevada average police officer salary: $73,660

10 States Where Police Officers Earn the Least Money
The bottom-10 states where police officers make the least money are heavily concentrated in the U.S. South, where cost of living is lower compared to the nation overall. In Mississippi, the lowest-paying state, police officers earn over $31,000 less than the national average wage. It should be noted, however, that only 16 states have police officer salaries that are higher than the national average.

Here's a look at the bottom-10 states for police officer salaries:

Mississippi average police officer salary: $36,290
Arkansas average police officer salary: $40,570
Louisiana average police officer salary: $42,470
South Carolina average police officer salary: $43,520
West Virginia average police officer salary: $44,450
Georgia average police officer salary: $44,700
Tennessee average police officer salary: $45,370
Alabama average police officer salary: $46,510
Kentucky average police officer salary: $46,720
North Carolina average police officer salary: $47,340

Average pay for the town I live in is $106k. It's absolutely possible, but it's not "virtually all" unless you don't care what words mean. If that's the case, there's no point in me continuing to talk about it.

BlueHouse

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #528 on: September 15, 2020, 08:40:02 AM »
I've gone into great detail in the past extolling specific aspects of project management as a career, but over the past few years, I realize that my career trajectory (and others' whom I've coached) had a few simple things that made it much easier.  So I'll be really cynical and state my current view.

1.  Find a job with a government contractor.  They get paid when they put bodies in seats, so they're not overly careful about making sure people are truly qualified.  There are some totally unqualified people getting paid a lot of money. 
2.  Learn how to do that job while you're getting paid to do it.  Look around and find out what job you actually would rather do.  If you like the path you're on, use your benefits to get training and certifications. 
3.  After a year or two, leave that company and get a job with a competitor.  Don't hop unless you get 10-20% increase.  The only time you can really get a salary increase with a government contractor is when you start.  Rate increases are built into the contract, so you're not going to get rich staying with one company.  Feel free to go back to them after 2 or 3 job-hops. 
4.  join industry groups to network.  Volunteer with them doing as much or as little as you wish.  I became very well known in my industry by volunteering for industry groups, even though I cherry-picked the easiest jobs and never did anything that required much time or thought. 
5.  You do have to try -- work hard and smart, especially during the first few months of any new job.  Be a problem solver, not a problem creator. 

DeniseNJ

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #529 on: September 15, 2020, 11:24:18 AM »
Federal gov't hires for almost every imaginable profession and college degree.  Go to USAjobs.  Currently hiring is low and jobs have been cut quite a bit, and departures haven't been replaced, in the last 4 years. But they will have to start hiring a lot soon since somone has to do the work of all the ppl they lost.  A change of administration will open the flood gates to gov't work.

Most of what you need to know, like program specific skills, they will teach you.  and once you are in gov't you can qualify for internal fed jobs with other agancies to climb the pay scale.  Pay varies with location.  Look at OPM website for GS payscales--that's general service.  Most analyst positions go up to a GS-12, but you may start at a GS 7 and get a grade increase every year, and then raises with step increases every year or two.  Really, no matter your major, there is a federal job for it.

rockstache

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #530 on: September 15, 2020, 04:29:36 PM »
Federal gov't hires for almost every imaginable profession and college degree.  Go to USAjobs.  Currently hiring is low and jobs have been cut quite a bit, and departures haven't been replaced, in the last 4 years. But they will have to start hiring a lot soon since somone has to do the work of all the ppl they lost.  A change of administration will open the flood gates to gov't work.

Most of what you need to know, like program specific skills, they will teach you.  and once you are in gov't you can qualify for internal fed jobs with other agancies to climb the pay scale.  Pay varies with location.  Look at OPM website for GS payscales--that's general service.  Most analyst positions go up to a GS-12, but you may start at a GS 7 and get a grade increase every year, and then raises with step increases every year or two.  Really, no matter your major, there is a federal job for it.
Except that USAjobs is a black hole of sadness where resumes go to die. My husband has been applying for over four years with a USAjobs tailored resume (checked by countless other government employees who agree that it’s written properly and well) and has made it to a real human phone interview only once. They promoted from within instead. He’s applied from GS 5 on up. I’m starting to think no one gets hired unless they know someone.

BlueHouse

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #531 on: September 15, 2020, 06:02:00 PM »
Federal gov't hires for almost every imaginable profession and college degree.  Go to USAjobs.  Currently hiring is low and jobs have been cut quite a bit, and departures haven't been replaced, in the last 4 years. But they will have to start hiring a lot soon since somone has to do the work of all the ppl they lost.  A change of administration will open the flood gates to gov't work.

Most of what you need to know, like program specific skills, they will teach you.  and once you are in gov't you can qualify for internal fed jobs with other agancies to climb the pay scale.  Pay varies with location.  Look at OPM website for GS payscales--that's general service.  Most analyst positions go up to a GS-12, but you may start at a GS 7 and get a grade increase every year, and then raises with step increases every year or two.  Really, no matter your major, there is a federal job for it.
Except that USAjobs is a black hole of sadness where resumes go to die. My th has been applying for over four years with a USAjobs tailored resume (checked by countless other government employees who agree that it’s written properly and well) and has made it to a real human phone interview only once. They promoted from within instead. He’s applied from GS 5 on up. I’m starting to think no one gets hired unless they know someone.
I'd agree with this.   There are very few job openings that are open to everyone.  Most are reserved for govt employees, spouses, veterans, etc. 
That's why I suggest contractor.  There are jobs that need to be filled, but it's very hard to get a foot in the door as a fed.  extremely easy as a contractor. 


TomTX

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #532 on: September 15, 2020, 07:27:41 PM »
Average pay for the town I live in is $106k. It's absolutely possible, but it's not "virtually all" unless you don't care what words mean. If that's the case, there's no point in me continuing to talk about it.

You stripped out a super important qualifier: A minimum of 10 years' experience. For APD, 10 years means >$35k more than starting pay.

I'm also a bit dubious that the BLS "wage" numbers accurately capture normal incentive pay and overtime rather than just base wages. This is typically a significant amount of money for police officers.

MrTurtle

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #533 on: September 15, 2020, 07:56:05 PM »
OK but which careers are these?  I imagine doctor, law firm partner, people who work in finance?  What else?

Oilfield.  My only 6-fig job was fracking field engineer after like 5 months of experience.  Work outside, live in a man camp, F-you at your company-assigned best friends for 84 hours a week.  There were men out there who didn't pass high school clearing 100k.  If you keep your back straight and wear your PPE like a non-idiot, the only downside is there is no job security.  One wrong step (literally, putting your foot in the wrong place) can get you fired.

That was years ago when oil was expensive.  If you want to work in the oilfield now, you will have to wait patiently for somebody to start hiring again.

Matte

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #534 on: September 16, 2020, 12:07:19 AM »
I’m in an oil refinery in Canada.  All overtime is double time after 38 hrs and 1000+ Hours ot  is common.  We have hourly union operators making 300k with a 2 year diploma.  Even the contract laborers moving barrels with forklifts are making 6 figures.  The only workgroups that are under 100k are junior white collar (engineering) jobs and health and safety (non union). 

rockstache

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #535 on: September 16, 2020, 04:33:12 AM »
Federal gov't hires for almost every imaginable profession and college degree.  Go to USAjobs.  Currently hiring is low and jobs have been cut quite a bit, and departures haven't been replaced, in the last 4 years. But they will have to start hiring a lot soon since somone has to do the work of all the ppl they lost.  A change of administration will open the flood gates to gov't work.

Most of what you need to know, like program specific skills, they will teach you.  and once you are in gov't you can qualify for internal fed jobs with other agancies to climb the pay scale.  Pay varies with location.  Look at OPM website for GS payscales--that's general service.  Most analyst positions go up to a GS-12, but you may start at a GS 7 and get a grade increase every year, and then raises with step increases every year or two.  Really, no matter your major, there is a federal job for it.
Except that USAjobs is a black hole of sadness where resumes go to die. My th has been applying for over four years with a USAjobs tailored resume (checked by countless other government employees who agree that it’s written properly and well) and has made it to a real human phone interview only once. They promoted from within instead. He’s applied from GS 5 on up. I’m starting to think no one gets hired unless they know someone.
I'd agree with this.   There are very few job openings that are open to everyone.  Most are reserved for govt employees, spouses, veterans, etc. 
That's why I suggest contractor.  There are jobs that need to be filled, but it's very hard to get a foot in the door as a fed.  extremely easy as a contractor.
That's not a bad option, but hasn't panned out for us either. He is a veteran, with related preferences. He tried going the contractor route for a while, but everyone wants you to have a clearance first. His clearance expired some years ago.

To the topic, I think that the government is a great way to go if you can get in. It can just be really hard to get in.

economista

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #536 on: September 16, 2020, 07:20:14 AM »
Federal gov't hires for almost every imaginable profession and college degree.  Go to USAjobs.  Currently hiring is low and jobs have been cut quite a bit, and departures haven't been replaced, in the last 4 years. But they will have to start hiring a lot soon since somone has to do the work of all the ppl they lost.  A change of administration will open the flood gates to gov't work.

Most of what you need to know, like program specific skills, they will teach you.  and once you are in gov't you can qualify for internal fed jobs with other agancies to climb the pay scale.  Pay varies with location.  Look at OPM website for GS payscales--that's general service.  Most analyst positions go up to a GS-12, but you may start at a GS 7 and get a grade increase every year, and then raises with step increases every year or two.  Really, no matter your major, there is a federal job for it.
Except that USAjobs is a black hole of sadness where resumes go to die. My th has been applying for over four years with a USAjobs tailored resume (checked by countless other government employees who agree that it’s written properly and well) and has made it to a real human phone interview only once. They promoted from within instead. He’s applied from GS 5 on up. I’m starting to think no one gets hired unless they know someone.
I'd agree with this.   There are very few job openings that are open to everyone.  Most are reserved for govt employees, spouses, veterans, etc. 
That's why I suggest contractor.  There are jobs that need to be filled, but it's very hard to get a foot in the door as a fed.  extremely easy as a contractor.
That's not a bad option, but hasn't panned out for us either. He is a veteran, with related preferences. He tried going the contractor route for a while, but everyone wants you to have a clearance first. His clearance expired some years ago.

To the topic, I think that the government is a great way to go if you can get in. It can just be really hard to get in.

I lucked out by getting hired as an intern first. After 8 years I’m a GS-13 and make over $100k. As a side note - the agency I work for hires from the outside for all of our GS11 or 12 positions, because those are the lowest non-intern GS positions within our agency. Lots of those hired are contractors assigned to our agency first, or have veteran’s preference, or peace corp experience, but we also get quite a few who aren’t in any of those categories and simply make it through the application and interview process. Your resume is step one, and then on the vacancy questions (we call the program “easy liar”) you have to choose “expert” for every answer or you won’t make it through to an interview. Even for internal promotions/hiring we have tons of employees who would do a great job who don’t get an interview because of those damn multiple choice questions.

rockstache

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #537 on: September 16, 2020, 08:04:19 AM »
Federal gov't hires for almost every imaginable profession and college degree.  Go to USAjobs.  Currently hiring is low and jobs have been cut quite a bit, and departures haven't been replaced, in the last 4 years. But they will have to start hiring a lot soon since somone has to do the work of all the ppl they lost.  A change of administration will open the flood gates to gov't work.

Most of what you need to know, like program specific skills, they will teach you.  and once you are in gov't you can qualify for internal fed jobs with other agancies to climb the pay scale.  Pay varies with location.  Look at OPM website for GS payscales--that's general service.  Most analyst positions go up to a GS-12, but you may start at a GS 7 and get a grade increase every year, and then raises with step increases every year or two.  Really, no matter your major, there is a federal job for it.
Except that USAjobs is a black hole of sadness where resumes go to die. My th has been applying for over four years with a USAjobs tailored resume (checked by countless other government employees who agree that it’s written properly and well) and has made it to a real human phone interview only once. They promoted from within instead. He’s applied from GS 5 on up. I’m starting to think no one gets hired unless they know someone.
I'd agree with this.   There are very few job openings that are open to everyone.  Most are reserved for govt employees, spouses, veterans, etc. 
That's why I suggest contractor.  There are jobs that need to be filled, but it's very hard to get a foot in the door as a fed.  extremely easy as a contractor.
That's not a bad option, but hasn't panned out for us either. He is a veteran, with related preferences. He tried going the contractor route for a while, but everyone wants you to have a clearance first. His clearance expired some years ago.

To the topic, I think that the government is a great way to go if you can get in. It can just be really hard to get in.

I lucked out by getting hired as an intern first. After 8 years I’m a GS-13 and make over $100k. As a side note - the agency I work for hires from the outside for all of our GS11 or 12 positions, because those are the lowest non-intern GS positions within our agency. Lots of those hired are contractors assigned to our agency first, or have veteran’s preference, or peace corp experience, but we also get quite a few who aren’t in any of those categories and simply make it through the application and interview process. Your resume is step one, and then on the vacancy questions (we call the program “easy liar”) you have to choose “expert” for every answer or you won’t make it through to an interview. Even for internal promotions/hiring we have tons of employees who would do a great job who don’t get an interview because of those damn multiple choice questions.
This is the bizarre part to me. So many people have recommended lying, but he just can't see doing that. He can answer a lot of questions at the highest level but rarely every single one. He does get referred a lot, but it usually stops there. Do you tell people to lie, or do they kicked out of the process for lying?

JLee

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #538 on: September 16, 2020, 10:35:45 AM »
Average pay for the town I live in is $106k. It's absolutely possible, but it's not "virtually all" unless you don't care what words mean. If that's the case, there's no point in me continuing to talk about it.

You stripped out a super important qualifier: A minimum of 10 years' experience. For APD, 10 years means >$35k more than starting pay.

I'm also a bit dubious that the BLS "wage" numbers accurately capture normal incentive pay and overtime rather than just base wages. This is typically a significant amount of money for police officers.

What percentage constitutes "virtually all" in your mind?

Gronnie

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #539 on: September 16, 2020, 10:46:27 AM »
Federal gov't hires for almost every imaginable profession and college degree.  Go to USAjobs.  Currently hiring is low and jobs have been cut quite a bit, and departures haven't been replaced, in the last 4 years. But they will have to start hiring a lot soon since somone has to do the work of all the ppl they lost.  A change of administration will open the flood gates to gov't work.

Most of what you need to know, like program specific skills, they will teach you.  and once you are in gov't you can qualify for internal fed jobs with other agancies to climb the pay scale.  Pay varies with location.  Look at OPM website for GS payscales--that's general service.  Most analyst positions go up to a GS-12, but you may start at a GS 7 and get a grade increase every year, and then raises with step increases every year or two.  Really, no matter your major, there is a federal job for it.
Except that USAjobs is a black hole of sadness where resumes go to die. My th has been applying for over four years with a USAjobs tailored resume (checked by countless other government employees who agree that it’s written properly and well) and has made it to a real human phone interview only once. They promoted from within instead. He’s applied from GS 5 on up. I’m starting to think no one gets hired unless they know someone.
I'd agree with this.   There are very few job openings that are open to everyone.  Most are reserved for govt employees, spouses, veterans, etc. 
That's why I suggest contractor.  There are jobs that need to be filled, but it's very hard to get a foot in the door as a fed.  extremely easy as a contractor.
That's not a bad option, but hasn't panned out for us either. He is a veteran, with related preferences. He tried going the contractor route for a while, but everyone wants you to have a clearance first. His clearance expired some years ago.

To the topic, I think that the government is a great way to go if you can get in. It can just be really hard to get in.

I lucked out by getting hired as an intern first. After 8 years I’m a GS-13 and make over $100k. As a side note - the agency I work for hires from the outside for all of our GS11 or 12 positions, because those are the lowest non-intern GS positions within our agency. Lots of those hired are contractors assigned to our agency first, or have veteran’s preference, or peace corp experience, but we also get quite a few who aren’t in any of those categories and simply make it through the application and interview process. Your resume is step one, and then on the vacancy questions (we call the program “easy liar”) you have to choose “expert” for every answer or you won’t make it through to an interview. Even for internal promotions/hiring we have tons of employees who would do a great job who don’t get an interview because of those damn multiple choice questions.

Sounds like the hiring process is completely fucked and is engineered to actually get terrible, lying candidates instead of good ones that are honest and hard working.

It sounds almost as dumb as the customer satisfaction surveys where anything less than a 10 is a fail.

BlueHouse

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #540 on: September 16, 2020, 05:57:23 PM »
Federal gov't hires for almost every imaginable profession and college degree.  Go to USAjobs.  Currently hiring is low and jobs have been cut quite a bit, and departures haven't been replaced, in the last 4 years. But they will have to start hiring a lot soon since somone has to do the work of all the ppl they lost.  A change of administration will open the flood gates to gov't work.

Most of what you need to know, like program specific skills, they will teach you.  and once you are in gov't you can qualify for internal fed jobs with other agancies to climb the pay scale.  Pay varies with location.  Look at OPM website for GS payscales--that's general service.  Most analyst positions go up to a GS-12, but you may start at a GS 7 and get a grade increase every year, and then raises with step increases every year or two.  Really, no matter your major, there is a federal job for it.
Except that USAjobs is a black hole of sadness where resumes go to die. My th has been applying for over four years with a USAjobs tailored resume (checked by countless other government employees who agree that it’s written properly and well) and has made it to a real human phone interview only once. They promoted from within instead. He’s applied from GS 5 on up. I’m starting to think no one gets hired unless they know someone.
I'd agree with this.   There are very few job openings that are open to everyone.  Most are reserved for govt employees, spouses, veterans, etc. 
That's why I suggest contractor.  There are jobs that need to be filled, but it's very hard to get a foot in the door as a fed.  extremely easy as a contractor.
That's not a bad option, but hasn't panned out for us either. He is a veteran, with related preferences. He tried going the contractor route for a while, but everyone wants you to have a clearance first. His clearance expired some years ago.

To the topic, I think that the government is a great way to go if you can get in. It can just be really hard to get in.

I lucked out by getting hired as an intern first. After 8 years I’m a GS-13 and make over $100k. As a side note - the agency I work for hires from the outside for all of our GS11 or 12 positions, because those are the lowest non-intern GS positions within our agency. Lots of those hired are contractors assigned to our agency first, or have veteran’s preference, or peace corp experience, but we also get quite a few who aren’t in any of those categories and simply make it through the application and interview process. Your resume is step one, and then on the vacancy questions (we call the program “easy liar”) you have to choose “expert” for every answer or you won’t make it through to an interview. Even for internal promotions/hiring we have tons of employees who would do a great job who don’t get an interview because of those damn multiple choice questions.

Sounds like the hiring process is completely fucked and is engineered to actually get terrible, lying candidates instead of good ones that are honest and hard working.

It sounds almost as dumb as the customer satisfaction surveys where anything less than a 10 is a fail.

There are certain certifications that are very popular with the US Government.  In order to get the certification, you must have 4-5 years of experience in multiple areas.  This certification is often listed as required for entry level positions. 

The only people who can make it through the computer-based questionnaire are liars. 

economista

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #541 on: September 17, 2020, 06:37:46 AM »
Federal gov't hires for almost every imaginable profession and college degree.  Go to USAjobs.  Currently hiring is low and jobs have been cut quite a bit, and departures haven't been replaced, in the last 4 years. But they will have to start hiring a lot soon since somone has to do the work of all the ppl they lost.  A change of administration will open the flood gates to gov't work.

Most of what you need to know, like program specific skills, they will teach you.  and once you are in gov't you can qualify for internal fed jobs with other agancies to climb the pay scale.  Pay varies with location.  Look at OPM website for GS payscales--that's general service.  Most analyst positions go up to a GS-12, but you may start at a GS 7 and get a grade increase every year, and then raises with step increases every year or two.  Really, no matter your major, there is a federal job for it.
Except that USAjobs is a black hole of sadness where resumes go to die. My th has been applying for over four years with a USAjobs tailored resume (checked by countless other government employees who agree that it’s written properly and well) and has made it to a real human phone interview only once. They promoted from within instead. He’s applied from GS 5 on up. I’m starting to think no one gets hired unless they know someone.
I'd agree with this.   There are very few job openings that are open to everyone.  Most are reserved for govt employees, spouses, veterans, etc. 
That's why I suggest contractor.  There are jobs that need to be filled, but it's very hard to get a foot in the door as a fed.  extremely easy as a contractor.
That's not a bad option, but hasn't panned out for us either. He is a veteran, with related preferences. He tried going the contractor route for a while, but everyone wants you to have a clearance first. His clearance expired some years ago.

To the topic, I think that the government is a great way to go if you can get in. It can just be really hard to get in.

I lucked out by getting hired as an intern first. After 8 years I’m a GS-13 and make over $100k. As a side note - the agency I work for hires from the outside for all of our GS11 or 12 positions, because those are the lowest non-intern GS positions within our agency. Lots of those hired are contractors assigned to our agency first, or have veteran’s preference, or peace corp experience, but we also get quite a few who aren’t in any of those categories and simply make it through the application and interview process. Your resume is step one, and then on the vacancy questions (we call the program “easy liar”) you have to choose “expert” for every answer or you won’t make it through to an interview. Even for internal promotions/hiring we have tons of employees who would do a great job who don’t get an interview because of those damn multiple choice questions.

Sounds like the hiring process is completely fucked and is engineered to actually get terrible, lying candidates instead of good ones that are honest and hard working.

It sounds almost as dumb as the customer satisfaction surveys where anything less than a 10 is a fail.

There are certain certifications that are very popular with the US Government.  In order to get the certification, you must have 4-5 years of experience in multiple areas.  This certification is often listed as required for entry level positions. 

The only people who can make it through the computer-based questionnaire are liars.

It is definitely a fine line, and the official guidance is not to lie. We are told to be very creative in thinking outside the box about situations we have been in / projects we have worked on so our resume backs up what we answer on those questions. They do cross-reference, so if you just lie and say “expert” on every question but your resume doesn’t back it up, you won’t get through. This is why the average “successful” Fed resume is 10 pages long, not the private sector standard of 1-2. You have to actually use the wording from the questions in your resume when describing the projects you have worked on. One time I applied for a different job within my agency and didn’t back up my answers with my resume and didn’t get through to an interview. However, my current job has been my career goal with this agency since I started working here and I specifically went out of my way for the first 6 years I worked there to learn everything I could and work on as many projects as I could that make me the ideal candidate for this job. When the opening came up it wasn’t difficult at all to think of ways where I could truthfully answer the questions and the application was a breeze. I got the job ahead of many candidates who had been at the agency 10+ years longer than me and I am the youngest person anyone knows to have ever had this job in our region. It is a perfect fit for me and my skill set and I have flourished while doing it. I love my job.

So, I definitely think the hiring process is bunch of bureaucratic nonsense and in their quest to be perfectly fair without any form of discrimination they have lost their way a bit and made it so muddy and difficult that almost no one gets through. On the other side, I can see how someone who is easily able to answer the questions without the tiniest bit of lying would really be the ideal candidate for a job.

knigry01

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #542 on: September 17, 2020, 07:04:07 AM »
The best way to get to multiple six figures without going into debt/years of school is Sales.

I'm not talking about used car salesmen here, but sales functions within the commercial arms of Fortune 500 companies.

My career has been in this area and has covered medical device, specialty chemicals, and biotechnology.

Pros: High degree of autonomy, clear understanding of value creation for self/firm, new experiences constantly, significant visibility in company

Cons: Absolute accountability in a way most roles can't imagine, high pressure, travel can be 80% at times, customers can be pricks

Benefits: Two types of comp packages are typical; 1.)low base (70-90k) with uncapped commission structure (think 20% of gross sales over target) with total comp realistically hitting 300k+ in good years. 2.) high base (120-150k) with capped bonus/commission structure with total comp hitting 200k+. Type one is typically for business that aren't market leaders and require more of a hunter mentality. Other benefits- all these roles usually come with a company car/stipend, home office allowance (internet, phone, etc.), and standard mega corp benefits/retirement packages.

Often these roles have titles like: Account Manager, Business Development Manager, Commercial Director.....they're all ways of avoiding saying salesman....at the end of the day nearly every product you see/touch has to be sold by someone and that person is typically getting a cut.

BlueHouse

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #543 on: September 17, 2020, 07:17:30 AM »
...
So, I definitely think the hiring process is bunch of bureaucratic nonsense and in their quest to be perfectly fair without any form of discrimination they have lost their way a bit and made it so muddy and difficult that almost no one gets through. On the other side, I can see how someone who is easily able to answer the questions without the tiniest bit of lying would really be the ideal candidate for a job.

Completely agree with this statement.

You're also the only person I've ever known who knew exactly what job they wanted (and were right about it) years before they had it.  I've basically just floundered and wound up where the path took me.  Then I wove a backstory about how I used all these different job skills to get to where I am.  I thought most people did that.  Congratulations on your much more direct path (and on loving it once you got there)! 

economista

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #544 on: September 17, 2020, 08:13:20 AM »
...
So, I definitely think the hiring process is bunch of bureaucratic nonsense and in their quest to be perfectly fair without any form of discrimination they have lost their way a bit and made it so muddy and difficult that almost no one gets through. On the other side, I can see how someone who is easily able to answer the questions without the tiniest bit of lying would really be the ideal candidate for a job.

Completely agree with this statement.

You're also the only person I've ever known who knew exactly what job they wanted (and were right about it) years before they had it.  I've basically just floundered and wound up where the path took me.  Then I wove a backstory about how I used all these different job skills to get to where I am.  I thought most people did that.  Congratulations on your much more direct path (and on loving it once you got there)!

Thank You! I think I got really lucky with my whole situation. I applied for an intern position with the contracting division and during my 2nd round interview (with our director and the regional head of our agency) they left the room, came back in, and with a giant smile said that they absolutely loved me but thought I would hate my job if I was in contracting. They said they didn't think that job was for me, but they wanted me and my talents in the region and they were just about to open up an intern position in portfolio management, and they would like me to consider that position instead. I had absolutely no idea what any of of those divisions did (I was in grad school at the time) so I said sure. I was a general portfolio intern so I took on projects from all of the different areas within the portfolio management division and discovered that my current position is exactly what I wanted to do. When my internship ended they offered me a full time position, but not this one because I could only be given a GS-12 and this was a GS-13 so I took the position they gave me and worked my way toward this one. Considering that I had no idea what this position was, or even what this agency actually did, when I initially applied for my internship I think I got extremely lucky!

FYI - When I applied to this position I had gone to my school's job fair and just applied to every paid internship I could possibly stretch myself as qualified for. I had no idea this agency even existed before I applied! I think I applied to 25 jobs and I got 3. I was able to work it out so I actually did all 3 over that summer, and I was surprised that the intern position with this agency wasn't a set summer internship for a given # of weeks, but a full time position that I would keep until I graduated and was either offered or not offered a full position with the agency.

TomTX

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #545 on: September 17, 2020, 09:27:45 AM »
...
So, I definitely think the hiring process is bunch of bureaucratic nonsense and in their quest to be perfectly fair without any form of discrimination they have lost their way a bit and made it so muddy and difficult that almost no one gets through. On the other side, I can see how someone who is easily able to answer the questions without the tiniest bit of lying would really be the ideal candidate for a job.

Completely agree with this statement.

You're also the only person I've ever known who knew exactly what job they wanted (and were right about it) years before they had it.  I've basically just floundered and wound up where the path took me.  Then I wove a backstory about how I used all these different job skills to get to where I am.  I thought most people did that.  Congratulations on your much more direct path (and on loving it once you got there)!

Make it two - I targeted my current job title and division about 2 years before applying. Made sure to get appropriate training and experience in advance.

samanil

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #546 on: September 17, 2020, 08:25:51 PM »
You and I clearly have very different definitions of what "virtually all" means.  I think it means virtually all, and you think it means cherry-picked coastal cities. 

Strangely, that's where most of the population is. Near the coasts.

Okay, I'm inland in Austin - at 10 years experience, you have to be a pretty poor officer to fail to at least advance to Corporal, which would get you to ~$100k.

Even with zero advancement, 10 year officer pay would be $85,724 + $1,284 longevity pay. Having a couple of certifications is good for another $1,200. There are a variety of other incentives which add thousands more (bilingual, degree, etc)  Overtime is very common - 75% of the "top overtime earners" for all of City of Austin were APD.

I seriously doubt very many APD officers with 10 years on the job get less than $100k.

Do you recommend the police officer career path? Is this something one could get into in their early 30s?

samanil

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #547 on: September 17, 2020, 08:35:59 PM »
I’m in an oil refinery in Canada.  All overtime is double time after 38 hrs and 1000+ Hours ot  is common.  We have hourly union operators making 300k with a 2 year diploma.  Even the contract laborers moving barrels with forklifts are making 6 figures.  The only workgroups that are under 100k are junior white collar (engineering) jobs and health and safety (non union).

Didn't the refineries shut down? What do you do there?

Matte

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #548 on: September 19, 2020, 12:55:54 PM »
Nope, still running.  As long as people are driving were running.  Right now I am a console operator but pre-Covid did planning for maintenance turnarounds. 

Jakestersquat

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Re: How do people make $100+ salary?
« Reply #549 on: September 20, 2020, 08:12:31 PM »
I am currently an apprentice lineman ( I build high voltage power lines) working in CA I made over 200k I am in the IBEW ( electrical workers union) CA has some of the highest pay in the nation but I know plenty of guys all over the USA easily making over 100k. This is doing contract work not necessarily working for the local power company. The power company usually limits their guys to 40 hrs plus call outs. Most of the contract jobs I’ve been only have been for anywhere from 50-100 hours a week. Worked 7/16s for a few months straight. Being an apprentice i basically have to work when I’m told. But once I become a journeyman lineman I’ll be able to pick the jobs I want to work on with a little more control. Talked with quite a few guys who come out to CA to work for 6 months of the year then go home and enjoy the other 6 months.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!