People In This Thread All Earn Above $100k A Year And Share What They Do For A Living (30 Answers)

Team truck driving with my wife. Last year we cleared 210k, set to make more this year. Two months of truck driving school, and February we will hit our 5 yr mark in this industry. Not bad considering we're both high school drop outs with no college under our belt.

Got engineering degree and got into patents. Became patent lawyer. Make 700k/year from my basement in sweats in 30s. Don’t hate the player.

I’m a pharmacist. I work three 8-hour shifts per week (8-5) and make just under $100K.

Hit $200k+ this year. Software development (C/C++) doing automation for a large manufacturing company. Hit $100k about 8 years ago and it's steadily increased with yearly cost of living raises, requested raises, job/role changes within the company etc.

Network Engineer. By the way in some places $100K won't even pay the bills.

IT Director. Started off making $19 an hour doing support for multiple clients, big, and small for 5 years. Then one client, a small municipality, had their IT Manager position open up, and they asked me to apply. My pay went from $19 an hour to a salary of $65k a year. After 4 years there another municipality in the area had their IT Director position open up, and I applied. Imposter syndrome hit hard when I got the offer letter…I got it today. I never, ever imagined I would make that much money. I only have an associates degree in networking, and 3 certifications that are kind of out dated.

I'm a Data Scientist, making $125k. I've got a BS in Statistics and a knack for the machine learning stuff, so I got promoted with a raise to six figures after about a year as a Data Analyst. That was my "fresh grad" job.

I got there more quickly than average, but if you're good at math and think you can do some Python scripting, I would recommend working toward it.

Manager at tire store. $142K in 2022

I’m a teacher at a public high school in California.

I think to actually get over 100k took about ten years. I switched to a higher-paying district in the middle of that time. Teachers in most districts here get regular pay raises based on the “salary schedule,” as well as cost of living adjustments which are negotiated.

For perspective, in my area I was able to buy a house after three years of working in my career. When you compare the cost of living in my part of rural central California with the income it’s really decent, but it wouldn’t go as far in a more expensive part of the state.

Doctor. I'm finishing up residency so I'm making around $70,000/year but I've been interviewing for jobs and expected salary would range from $280,000 to $350,000 with bonuses depending on work efficiency.

Overall, took 4 years of undergraduate, one gap year doing research, 4 years of medical school, 3 years of residency. 12 years total starting from undergraduate. Now if I could just get rid of the $500,000 in student loans...

Worked as an IT monkey for 14 years and inched up from 65k to 85k.

Switched jobs twice last year to be a cloud architect and I am earning almost thrice that amount and the job is better and has more respect.

How long it stays that way in the current economic climate though is anyone's guess.

Wedding photography. Took about 7 years. Started out at $1,000 per wedding, 12 years later now around $4,500-$6,000 per wedding. Shoot around 30-40 a year

I started $6/hour working fast food when I was 15 and a few decades later I was making $20/hour. But, in a past couple years I went from 52k to about 110k after being promoted twice to an engineer spot. I still cut my own hair and live like I'm making 30k a year because it doesn't feel real to me yet. This is with an AS, BS, MS in STEM fields with decades of professional and military experience. Speak at least 2 languages too. Not saying to show off or anything but the struggle is real. Doesn't feel like I'm saving any money with things the way they are.

jimmy__jazz said:

Travel nurse

freakinfalk added:

travel nurses pick up contracts through agencies (generally 8-13 weeks) to go assist in hospitals where they are severely understaffed. you can do local traveling where you commute everyday, or get your license in other states and truly travel. you generally need 1-2 years of experience in your specialty before you can get hired by an agency, and contracts generally include living/travel expenses for your time there

Writer. I broke into six figures about a decade into my career by going freelance and doing marketing and consulting for tech and financial services, and now do it by writing novels.

PhD drug discovery scientist. Made $100k at 33yrs. Now make almost $300k at 50yrs.

College dropout here doing website design and online marketing. Took me about 5 self-taught years to get to $100K annually.

Cybersecurity Architect for a Fortune 500 company. Took me 3 years and have yet to make it to the top rank in my profession yet. I get 1 month paid vacation, full benefits, matching 401k up to 10%, and I only have a bachelors degree.

Population ecologist. I did 8+ years of university and was willing to work in really remote locations

Industrial Millwright in a steel plant. I've been doing it for nearly 8 years, but I've had the ability to make +100k since I was ticketed.

Apprenticeship took 3 years of school and 8000hrs of work.