I changed careers 5 times by the age of 35... and got a pay rise every time

Did you know I had five careers by the age of 35? And not only that, I got a pay rise each and every time? Last week I shared the behind the scenes of the launch of my first-ever book “Pioneer Your Career Change”. In my book I detail each career change, sharing my personal motivations, hopes, dreams, fears, challenges and experiences with each one. In particular I share how my relationship with loyalty changed, as this is one of the biggest things that can cost people real hard cash and hold them back from making the career change that’s in their hearts. 

For most people dreaming of making a career change, there’s a belief that you feel like you’ll need to start at the bottom, do your time, take a pay cut, eat tinned tuna on dry crackers for dinner because you have no money anymore, and end up miserable and bereft. 

Put away the violins – let’s bust this myth.

Because of your transferable experiences and skills, you are perfectly eligible and within your right to get a pay rise when you change careers. And if you don’t believe me, let’s take me as an example:

• I moved from Hospitality to Advertising and got a pay rise ($4 more per hour).
• I moved from Advertising to Marketing and got a pay rise ($20,000 more).
• I moved from Marketing to Change Management and got a pay rise ($15,000 more initially, then doubled my salary).
• I started Coaching and got a pay rise (once certified, my rate was $200 per session – way more than my hourly salary equivalent).
• I started my own Change Management Consultancy and tripled my rates overnight to $3,000 per day.

Every career change I’ve made, I’ve earned more money, not less. And that’s because I actively chose career paths that I knew paid more. I made these decisions based on the life and lifestyle I wanted to lead, not just what I happened to study at uni or roles I fell into and then took the salary I was given. 

• Advertising paid more than Hospitality (and I got to use the skills I’d been building over my university course and internships).
• Marketing paid more than Advertising (because it was client side with the people who held the budgets rather than the people pitching for the work).
• Change Management paid more than Marketing (because it was project work, a niche skill set, and favoured in industries like Financial Services that tend to pay higher than the average market wages).
• In Coaching, I set my own rates. I started at $70 a session for my practice clients and once I was certified, I increased this to $200 a session. I increased my rates until I got to $997 a session.
• Consulting is a completely different market to the employment or even the contracting market. When I started my consultancy, I tripled my rates overnight to a day rate of $3,000 per day.

It wasn’t luck that I got a pay rise every career change – it was common sense. I simply fished where the fish were and guess what – you can, too! When you take your transferable skills and you use them in new ways in higher-paying professions, even when you start at the bottom of the new profession, it’s often more than what you’re currently making. For experienced professionals, you could start higher up (and, in fact, you should because you may not be taken seriously or make it to interview if you apply for entry-level positions in a new career). And if you want to move to a profession that does pay less than your current profession due to health, wellbeing, lifestyle, personal, or passion reasons, that’s ok, too! You can promote those personal wins and spiritual wins over the financial cost, or even find the higher-paying roles in that new career or industry – there’s always a range. 

You may still be calling B.S. on your ability to easily and successfully change careers, and that’s ok. We’ve only done half the work. Stepping through career change myths is a very logical, rational exercise. But the other half of how you make decisions, how you take action, how you show up, is your emotional side. And for this, we need to go deep (which is what I spend the majority of my book "Pioneer Your Career Change" doing!).

Lata xx

P.S. Here’s 3 ways to get your hands on my global bestseller “Pioneer Your Career Change”:

1. Get the first chapter for free here
2. Buy the full version in print, eBook or audiobook here
3. Buy my book in bulk for friends, family, colleagues and team members - contact me via my website or shoot me a DM on LinkedIn to order 4+ copies, each signed with a personalised message from the author… me!