Origin story, Pt. 2

Between 2015 and 2019, I doubled my salary. Right as I was leaving my first job in the pharmaceuticals, I was earning $32,000. And by the time I left pharma completely in 2019, I was making $64,000.

During the time that I was helping my first customers advance in their careers, I was using the same strategies I was teaching to also advance myself, to "walk the walk."

1. Every company I worked for had a hierarchy of groups, and within each group you could usually see how various responsibilities were distributed. Within each group was a go-to person who did the "expensive" tasks. I would connect with the people doing the expensive tasks and learn exactly how they acquired the responsibility. Then I would find ways to be trained in those tasks.

2. I kept my resume accessible at all times on my laptop, and every time I was trained in an expensive task, I captured both the task and the benefit of the task for the company. It wasn't enough to just write what I could do. I wanted to find out how my contribution translated to dollars earned, or dollars saved, or additional opportunities for the company.

3. I knew that I wanted to be a project manager one day, so I networked extensively to find out how to make it happen. But I didn't want to just be competitive. I wanted to be highly desirable. I learned that less than half of the pharma PMs had real-world lab experience. Some had PMPs, and few had advanced degrees. Once I realized what it would take to stand out as a PM among PMs, I repositioned my resume and shifted the language for the world I wanted to inhabit.

4. I never stayed at a company for long, and every time I joined a new company, I negotiated for a higher salary. I used my expensive skills as leverage. I used the benefits of those skills as leverage. And I never accepted a counter salary, even if the counter was just a thousand dollars less than what I'd asked. I wanted the salary that I wanted, and I made a compelling argument for it. My hiring managers seemed to respect my moxie, and so they'd agree to my terms.

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