Lisa never thought she'd ever earn six figures, let alone before her 30th birthday.
The 26-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina, resident spent several years working in higher education and earned $34,000 as an assistant director at an area college, a position she tells CNBC Make It "sounds like it would be very fancy" but didn't pay her enough to move out of her parents' home.
In 2020, like many working professionals, she took a hard look at her career and thought of what she really wanted: more money, clear structure and a path to promotion. Higher ed no longer felt like a fit. So after doing some research>She changed her old job titles (with permission)
As Lisa began looking at job descriptions, she realized she had a lot of experience leading projects in higher education, but never held the title of "project manager."
"I knew that it was going to be really hard getting my foot in the door with a non-project management experience in a corporate setting," Lisa says. "And so I had to think about non-traditional ways to go about it."
She could tailor the "experience" section of her resume to match the bullet points in job descriptions, but what would really make the difference would be to change her job titles.
So, she reached out to her previous bosses, told them about her new career goals and asked for permission to change her former job titles to "project manager."
For example, in>She asked LinkedIn contacts how much they earn
To push past the discomfort of discussing pay with others, Lisa remembered a previous experience where she learned a male colleague with the same job and qualifications as her was getting paid $10,000 more. She didn't want to be in the same position again.
So, as she took classes to earn a project management certification via Coursera, Lisa networked with other project managers with 10 to 15 years of experience and tapped them for negotiating advice.
While>She didn't name a number
Lisa had always heard that job candidates shouldn't name the first number in an interview. But when HR pushed her to state her salary expectations, she gave a range ($80,000 to $110,000) and aimed higher than some of the averages she found online ($76,000).
HR asked her again for a specific number, "and I said, 'I really need to hear a little bit more about the role first,'" Lisa says.
After three rounds of interviews, Lisa got the offer: $100,000 with a 20% bonus based on the company's performance.
"When they said that number, I don't even remember what I said, I was in total shock," Lisa says. She accepted the offer as-is: "I was happy with it because I know it was the upper part of the range."
The money itself has been "life-changing," Lisa says. She started the job in October 2020 and by January 2021 used her new earning power, plus a performance bonus and money she saved while living with parents, to move out and buy her own house.
Had she stayed in higher education, Lisa says, "you don't make what I make now until you're almost at retirement age. Now, I have to shift my financial goals, because I never thought I would make six figure, let alone like before the age of 30."
