
Millennials, Want To Advance In Your Career? Follow These 3 Simple But Effective Career Hacks
There really isn’t a good class on how to advance your career. Nobody sits you down when you’re in college and explains how the world works — I mean really works. Sure, your classes give you the working knowledge to get a job. Your teachers might give you some insight into ways you can “be more successful.” But very few people break down how to advance in the world, and most importantly, what to do when you’re confronted with an obstacle (like an employer not paying you what you’re worth, for example).
Let me tell you a story:
When I was a senior in college, I won second place in a national sales competition, which ended up leading to handfuls of phone calls and job offers. I had probably 40 offers on the table, and honestly I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to do yet. I couldn’t figure out what kind of job would define me as a person. I ended up taking a job consulting in Project Management at State Farm, accepting an offer that was a bit less (actually about $10,000 less) than other offers, because I thought I would have more upward mobility.
Still, when I first started working for them, I said, “Hey, can you match this other offer I got?” They said, “No, but if you work really hard, then you can probably get an increase in your salary next year.”
So I buckled down and got to work.
A year later, I gathered as many Thank You emails, testimonials and references, all kinds of accolades and proof of my hard work, ready to negotiate an increase in my salary. Keep in mind, I was only a year out of college.
But when I went in for my yearly performance review, they said, “Oh, I’m sorry. We put a new policy in place where you can only get up to a 5% increase in your salary every year.”
I left that meeting fuming. I felt betrayed. I felt like the system was broken. I was furious that I had worked as hard as I could, did everything right, was managing $5 million projects, streamlined their processes in a way that ended up saving the company $1.5 million per year, and still, I couldn’t get more than a 5% increase in my salary?
I was determined to not let that happen to me again. So, by mixing a little book-smarts with a some street-smarts, I used these 3 career hacks to double my salary the next year.
Here’s what I did.
1. Shop around to prove your value.
The first piece of advice I always give people when it comes to advancing in their career is to shop around. If you’re not happy with what’s in front of you, you can’t expect the situation to change on its own. You have to make it happen yourself.
That’s what I did. I shopped around.
That next year, I worked really hard, learned more, enhanced my skills, and made sure I had three strong job offers on the table by the time my next performance review came along.
When I walked into my yearly performance review meeting and they told me again, “Okay, we can give you the 5% raise again.” I said, “Oh, that’s not going to work for me.”
They were a little taken aback.
“Yeah, I’m sorry but I know what my skillset is worth in the industry and I have these three job offers on the table. If you can match that, great. If not, then let me know so I can put in my two weeks’ notice.”
The reason I could do that was because I knew I had nothing to lose. I liked the company, but I wasn’t going to wait for them to pay me what I knew I was worth. At just a 5% increase each year, it would have taken me ten years to reach the salary of the job I turned down the year before! So, I put in the work, I got a few job offers, and I renegotiated.
2. Know the rules of the system.
As they looked at me with blank stares, I asked if I should put in my two weeks notice or if I should grab my bag and be escorted off the client site that day. I then got up and walked out of the meeting room. Ten minutes later, they called me back and said, “We kind of need you, because we already told the client you were going to renew and we just hired new people we need you to train, so while we can’t meet that salary amount, what we can do is give you this base salary and then two large bonuses a year to get you up to that amount.”
This is where most people immediately jump for joy.
I didn’t.
I said, “Okay, thank you. I need to think about it over the weekend.”
They said, “No, no, we need to know now so we can tell the client.”
“I’m pretty sure everyone else gets 24 to 48 hours to decide whether to accept an offer,” I said. “I’m going to take that, and I’ll let you know on Monday.”
This taught me a lot about the corporate system, and the fact that most people aren’t really looking out for your best interest. They want you when they need you, and expect that you’ll take whatever you can get.
If you want to move up in your career, you have to learn the rules of the chessboard and play strategically. It’s the combination of having the intelligence to do your job well, but also having the street-smart instincts to know what you need to do in order to “growth hack” your career.
3. Don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone to jump to the next level.
By doing the above, my second year out of college I had doubled my salary. What I learned through all this is that you can’t necessarily fast track your career by staying in the same place. What I mean by that is, if you’re working one job, in one department, doing one thing, it’s good to have at least a year there, sure. That’s a solid tenure. Two years is alright too. But you can’t really grow or make a big jump if you just stay in that same spot. You can’t leapfrog if nothing has changed. You may have to do something above and beyond the bare minimum job requirements to set yourself apart from the people around you.
I found ways to take on more responsibility at work. I started leading “Lunch and Learn” training sessions, mentoring new hires, and learned a new project management approach called Agile, an efficient iterative development methodology, that no one else really seemed to want to learn. They put off learning Agile because it was new to them and may take more effort. As they resisted the change, I ran head first into it. I learned it inside and out, quickly becoming the “go-to” person for Agile. I made myself indispensable. When the economy started to take a downturn and people were getting laid off, I got a promotion.
I also volunteered for the local Project Management Institute chapter and joined their Board of Directors as VP of Operations for 2 years. This experience not only gave me a broader view of my industry outside of my 9–5 job, but it gave me more credibility while I was still in my early twenties.
Assuming you are good at what you do, take the time to shop around, and go above and beyond to set yourself apart, you can actually growth hack your salary by about 10–20k, easily.
Don’t assume that you have to stay where you’re at. Constantly be developing your skills and know your worth.

