30-year-old upped her salary by $100,000: Here's how

Monday, July 31, 2023

CNBC Make It Work helps you get ahead in your career.
By Ashton Jackson

30-year-old upped her salary by over $100,000 in 2 years using a simple job search strategy

Brianna Doe used to shy away from salary negotiations, until a conversation with a recruiter changed her mind.

Doe, a 30-year-old marketing director then earning about $75,000, had applied to marketing jobs on LinkedIn during one slow afternoon at work, and a recruiter called her to discuss one of the opportunities.

"When I told her what my current salary was, she was horrified," Doe recalls. "She told me I should be earning at least $80,000-$90,000 more than what I was making, based on my skill set and experience."

The recruiter motivated Doe to start taking the job search more seriously and rethink her approach to salary negotiations. Six weeks later, she landed a role that paid more than double her previous salary, about $155,000.

Her strategy? She researched wages for different marketing positions using databases and knowledgeable peers, then came up with a target salary range to guide her job search, Doe says. She eliminated jobs that didn't meet her expectations, which helped streamline the process.

Doe calls the approach "life-changing."

"That alone, just cutting off any opportunities that didn't align with my salary expectations, was incredibly liberating," she says. "Even in interviews and conversations with hiring managers, I rapidly became more confident on what I brought to the table."

Land The Job: This common mistake can ruin a job interview in minutes

A job interview doesn't start when the first question is asked. As soon as you walk in the door, the hiring manager could be drawing conclusions about you.

Interviewers pay close attention to one detail in particular, according to William Vanderbloemen, the CEO of executive staffing firm Vanderbloemen Search Group: what time you show up.

"It always amazes me how many people arrive even two minutes late for an interview with a fresh cup of coffee in their hand," says Vanderbloemen, who has interviewed more than 30,000 job candidates.

Being late and not giving prior notice is a "red flag" to hiring managers that sets a bad tone, he adds.

Arriving extremely early can be risky, too. "If I'm in the middle of another meeting, or taking a break between calls, it's not helpful to have someone waiting on me for 15-20 minutes before our scheduled call," Vanderbloemen says. "It can make the interviewer feel uncomfortable or frazzled."

The best time to show up for a job interview is five minutes before the scheduled start time, he says.

Being punctual might seem like a minor detail in the grand scheme of things, but it can help you stand apart from your competition.

Millennial Money: Living on $70,000 a year in NYC as a drag queen

36-year-old Cesar Villavicencio, better known by his stage name, Pixie Aventura, has been performing as a drag queen since his freshman year of college. He's built a full-time career appearing as Pixie at clubs, weddings and corporate events.

Mark Cuban says this is the No. 1 biggest time waster

That meeting could have been an email, says Mark Cuban, billionaire investor, Dallas Mavericks owner, "Shark Tank" personality, author and father of three.

In a conversation with bestselling author Chris Voss on the interactive streaming platform Fireside, which Cuban co-founded, he said that people "over-meet and over-call."

"It kills so much time," he added, saying that most meetings don't progress through a productive agenda. Instead, attendees get sidetracked by trivialities like "Who got the donuts?" and small talk questions like, "How are the kids?"

"I try to only do meetings if I have to come to a conclusion or there's no other way — same with phone calls," Cuban told Voss. Otherwise, he sends emails, which allow people to be more flexible.

"I can respond to those in the middle of the night. Or I can respond to those on my schedule as opposed to [having] to arrange everything around other people," Cuban says.