How to reach $1MM/year as a traditional employee | Hacker News Reader

How to reach $1MM/year as a traditional employee

marketingbs.com

16 pointsednever7 comments

A lot of the advice seems superficial (using college and employer branding to leverage yourself into roles). It even goes to the point of telling you that earnign an MBA from a any school besides a toptier school hurts you. I guess that might be true if your only goal is to make $1M in 10 years, not for an average top-impact employee working their way up (the HN title says "as a traditional employee")

Did anyone find value in this? It comes off as a bit arrogant maybe, but maybe Ineed to reread it

Getting an MBA from a non-top school CAN help. The key is understanding how it can help: 1- If your pre-MBA employer has a strong brand, and you are not planning to switch functions, then a mid-tier MBA will hurt you (i.e., you are working at Amazon in marketing. Getting an MBA from University of Portland thinking it will accelerate your marketing career is a mistake)

2- If you are using an MBA to switch functions, then even a lower tier school will help you do that (but obviously not as valuable as a higher tier school)

"Traditional employee" here just means someone working for an employer - not self employed or starting their own company. It does not mean "an average employee". Clearly a random person off the street is not going to make $1MM/year anytime soon. And anyone who claims they could make that happen are lying.

Also: I would hope much of the advice is helpful for anyone who wants to "accelerate" their career, even if they don't take it all the way to $1MM.

I wish I had known this when I was getting started in my career. Most advice out there says you can't get wealthy with "salary," but clearly there is a way to earn 7 figures even as an employee.

They say the best time to start is 10 years ago. The second best time is now :)

It does take time, but many people do many of these things "naturally", even if not in a fully optimized way.

I'll be coming back to this guide over and over again, I can already tell. Thanks for the fantastic advice.

seems like a key piece to achieving $1MM/year is working your way to a senior position (director+) and then negotiating for equity in the company. that's good advice, but definitely feels like you're taking liberties with the term "traditional employee"

I think that is correct. You are not going to make $1MM as a senior manager of social media marketing. The only way to get to $1MM is to get into the executive ranks.

And even that is not enough! There are lots of executives that are not making $1MM/year... You need to be positioned as an executive that is uniquely placed to drive the business. And THAT is only possible in some types of roles.

"Traditional" here refers to employment by a company (rather than self employment or starting your own business). It is not "traditional" in the sense of "an average person off the street can make $1MM/year is they follow The Secret"

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