Hacking a Marketing Career to Reach a 100k Salary

I shared some cool news on Twitter today that got me thinking on this, along with a call around 11 AM with a recruiter I met years ago on LinkedIn. Last week she had reached out to me about a new opportunity that paid into the six figures, which was definitely not one I would’ve expected this early in my career. We’ve only just passed the four-year mark of my first job post-college; how did I get myself a 100k marketing salary?

Another excellent reason for having a kickass LinkedIn profile: recruiters will reach out with SIX FIGURE OPPORTUNITIES.

When you’re not even looking.

During 2020.

Which I’m now going to chat with her about later this morning 😈 A little work now pays off in the long run! pic.twitter.com/sREt1hiqXR

— We Want Guac (@WeWantGuac) July 8, 2020

As I’ve written before, it wasn’t thanks to family connections, a top-tier college pedigree, or some out-of-this-world work experience like founding some crazy-visible company. Nope! It’s just Darcy being particular about how she presents herself to the right digital algorithms.

Darcy versus the Algorithms of Power

Which takes some explaining to understand. Because most people are either busy or lazy, they don’t have enough time/energy/desire to consider every single job candidate vying for a position. This includes the hiring managers, recruiters, HR people, and anyone else involved in the selection process. They need some way to make the best choice possible in as efficient a manner as available; the less time they spend agonizing over the decision, the less chance the hiring process will drag on and on.

Before computers were a thing this was mainly done via networking; your chances of scoring a job skyrocket if someone on the inside can vouch for you. Now that we’re sailing into the 2020s, we’re doing so with a mind-boggling amount of technology at our fingertips. Why not use that tech to cut through the fluff and find the candidates you want to hire?
Enter: the hiring algorithms. These babies show up and analyze your credentials before anyone even says “hello” to you. They’re present in many an HR department, where they automatically trash your resume if it doesn’t contain the right buzz words. In other words, be careful about your wording because describing things differently (i.e. using “analytical” instead of “analytics”) could mean your downfall.

Ah, robots. So efficient. So ruthless.

These algorithms are also on LinkedIn, the best place online to meet hiring professionals. Recruiters use them to find those with the listed skills they’re looking for; hiring managers use them to narrow down the candidate pool with the click of a button. And now, you should use them to get a head start on your 100k marketing salary.

Why Marketing At All?

I’m talking about marketing specifically because that’s my own career. Out of any job type, I know that one best from personal experience. If you want to read about earning six figures as a consultant, finance whiz, or software maven, there’s some great content out there that focuses on that. The difference here is that marketing is underrated as far as compensation goes.

Think about it: marketing is generally the lead department on drumming up interest in whatever it is you’re selling. Marketing also works directly with sales, who use the data marketing gives them to sell even more product. Basically, marketing is required if you want to expand your business. With that much riding on your work as a marketer, it’s a lot easier to demonstrate your worth and earn the big bucks.

I see marketing as the hidden gem of getting you a six-figure, 100k salary. STEM fields and entrepreneurship have that reputation on lock, lending to a misconception that marketing doesn’t really pay that well at the end of the day. Thankfully, I can tell you now that idea is super extra FALSE. It’s a phenomenal path to reaching a high-pay job while also maintaining a nice work-life balance and creative outlets! My first blogger friend Purple is also a marketer who sings its praises as well… and who is also making a 100k marketing salary. Don’t sleep on a marketing career; it gets lucrative fast without the need for coding bootcamps or weird bro-culture rituals.

Reaching That 100k Marketing Salary in <5 Years

While I’m still working to break into the six figures myself, I’m getting pretty damn close. I’ve already shot way past 100k wealth, which is from both increasing my pay and keeping my expenses low. Now my six-figure income is the next goal on my list, with the hard parts already done. Namely, getting a relevant-enough college degree*, amassing some impressive work accomplishments, and then marketing the best of both to show me as the ideal hire.

The only reason I mention college at all is because of stigmas around non-college-graduates. You really don’t need an education to do your work, assuming you’ve got enough maturity and listening skills off the bat. But having a degree cracks open doors that would’ve remained firmly shut to you otherwise**.

Now that you have the degree, it’s time to optimize your LinkedIn profile. I go into depth on what exactly to do in another article, but here I’m going to remind you about those algorithms I mentioned beforehand. Go through some of the job listings on LinkedIn and set up alerts for jobs that you want. In no time LinkedIn will start sending you suggestions that match up with your listed skills. You can also see the other skills that job poster wants to see, which is exactly what we want to see for beating the algorithm!

The more skills you match up on, the more likely it is that the hiring people get a message saying “Hey, this cool cat checks the most of your boxes so you should hire them in particular”. Make the automatons work for your benefit, not the other way around.

Career Jumping to Reach 100k

So! With your education credentials and sparkly profile you’re off to see the wizard. As long as you find that first job that is 1) vaguely related to the career you want and 2) isn’t toxic, ride that baby until recruiters find something better for you. Update your profile after switching jobs, connect with more recruiters, then rinse and repeat.

Thankfully more of America is acknowledging that corporate life is a steaming pile of turds, and that a turdy job situation is unlikely to improve unless you go somewhere else. That, in turn, has made the stigma of frequent job-hopping all but disappear. This is awesome for you as you can use that to your advantage; when a recruiter reached out to you about further opportunity, you don’t have to agonize over hitting some arbitrary timeline metric. You can just bounce over to that better opportunity and continue to see your salary grow every couple of years.

The best part? Since marketing is such a crucial role, you’ll find marketing needs transcend industry. It’s easy to diversify yourself by being a marketer for a variety of products, which is also perfect for selling yourself to the next awesome company. Take it from me, who’s marketed real estate, luxury goods, and medtech products. This potential company would, if I’m hired, have me work on marketing baby products. Not an industry I’ve worked specifically in, but they know I’ve got the skillset regardless.

PRO TIP

A big part of raising your salary is identifying the niches you can fill. Personally I’ve discovered marketers are more creative than technical, meaning they’d rather make decisions on designs or copywriting than scrolling through databases or looking at code.

Thank you, that means a lot 💚
Yep, I’m in marketing! There’s some good money to be had if you don’t mind trawling through customer databases and the other technical stuff. Most marketers cling to the creative stuff so analytics becomes a neat niche to fill.

— We Want Guac (@WeWantGuac) July 8, 2020

I’m no expert on data or coding, but I’m more willing to do it than your average marketeer; this means I can focus my job description to the in-demand digital marketing roles and command higher pay. As you can see from the tweets, it’s a plan that’s paying off very well.

So tell me about how you can see yourself doing this in your own career. I’m really interested in knowing how folks on other tracks find their niches and bump up their pay!

*It actually doesn’t have to be THAT relevant as long as you can successfully argue how much it’s helped you. Philosophy, History, or Fine Arts can still help boost you into cool roles and high salaries with the right persuasion.
**Case in point: my first job out of college required a college degree. As a receptionist. Which, if I didn’t set out to take on marketing duties, would have bored any graduate to tears.

Cover image credit: NeONBRAND via Unsplash