Today we have our latest interview with a reader who has grown their income to at least $100,000 annually.
If you’re interested in participating in this series, please drop me a note.
This interview took place in September.
My questions are in bold italics and their responses follow in black.
Let’s get started…
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I am a 35 single Asian male.
I grew up in Hong Kong and our family moved to the Mid-Atlantic region in the United States when I was 14 (In general, I highly do not recommend any parents to move countries when their kids are around that age, unless the kids are used to moving from an early age.)
Besides spending 1 year studying abroad in London, I have lived in the Mid-Atlantic region and plan to stay here I would like to be close to family members given their linguistic challenges.
What do you do for a living?
I am currently a commercial credit underwriter for a national bank and moved from a credit analyst for regional bank in March 2022.
This is a promotion by industry standard as credit underwriters, unlike credit analysts, have customer interactions and structure loan terms along with credit officers.
How much do you earn annually?
I currently earn $140K base salary.
Before I left for this bank I earned $107K base salary.
How does this amount break down (salary, bonuses, etc.)?
$140K base salary and $30K bonus potential.
Do you receive any additional compensation/benefits from your employer (401k match, stock options, etc.)?
I am eligible for 5% 401K match after one year of employment.
No RSU or ESPP plan.
The negotiation was relatively straightforward because I was essentially negotiating just my base salary. Even bonus potential wasn’t written into the employment contract.
How long have you been working?
A little over 11 years, I have been working professionally since late 2010 with a 3-month mini-retirement in early 2013 after a 5-month stint in equity research (a department within an investment bank). I left very suddenly as I wanted to evaluate my career.
Incomes before my big-boy job at 23 were negligible. As my mom never finished middle school she encouraged my sibling and me to focus on schooling. I am grateful to be able to focus on schooling even though I wish I had more odd jobs for more odd experience and good stories later in life.
How long have you earned at least six figures?
I have only started earning six figures since 2021 (see chart below for a history of my salaries).
Note: Since I moved jobs in 2012, 2014, 2018, 2020, and 2022, I list the annualized salary for the first and second job in those years to illustrate how much each move would yield income growth wise.
Besides the most recent move, the salary changes as a result of job changes were slightly over 10% besides the most current job move.
Summary of My Career Path:
- Since reading about Warren Buffett when I was 19, I wanted to run a hedge fund one day. When finding a job was difficult during the Great Recession in 2008-2010 (I remembered only being interviewed a couple of times despite applying for 100 jobs), I studied an additional year to complete the CPA exams but my true focus was only investment analysis.
- I found a specialty auditor firm that focused on hedge fund audit which allowed me to accrue the 2,000 hours required for the CPA license. Once I officially obtained the license, I started networking into the fund management field.
- In mid-2012, I got a position as an equity research associate at a minimum sized investment bank but left in 6 months afterward due to lack of training and management. I did not enjoy working for the manager at the time I found out years later that high turnover for that department was fairly normal due to similar issues I faced. It was very much a sink or swim environment.
- In early 2013, I got a position as an accountant. On the first day of my job I was told there would be layoff.
- In late 2013, I interviewed at an insurance company and was offered a credit analyst position in early 2014. Due to my job-hopping rap sheet, I intended to stay at one company for as long as possible while growing my income.
- In mid-2016, I leveraged an internal job offer from another department for a promotion.
- In mid-2018, the same department was growing rapidly and offered me a job offer with 13% raise, I moved. At the same time, many of my coworkers moved to commercial banking for greater salary so I kept in touch with many former coworkers.
- In late 2020, I transitioned to commercial banking after a former coworker offered me a position under her team.
- In late 2021, my manager moved teams internally. Coupled with pending post acquisition reorganization, I decided to interview at the national bank when an external recruiter reached out to me in Linkedin. After 5 hard rounds of interviews and salary negotiation throughout the interview process, I decided to make a move even though I had less than 2 years of tenure at my current company because the national bank made an offer I couldn’t refuse.
What have been the key steps you have taken that have allowed you to earn this level of income?
Find Specific Skills that the Society Values
When the economy is good, graduates can get job offers with a BA in German polka history (Dave Ramsey reference here). But when the economy is bad, graduates really need to show they can immediately contribute.
During the Great Recession, when I applied to 100 jobs without a job offer, I came to the realization that my BS degree in International Affairs and Economics were not valued by society and had to retrain. My managerial accounting professor recommended me to pursue the CPA license (which requires 2,000 hours and passing 4 exams within 18 months.)
With financial help from my family, I completed the Exams by October 2010. With 2,000 working hours I got the CPA license in November 2011. I believe this license is incremental in helping me get most of my jobs in the future.
When I was 22, I wanted to be a hedge fund manager and pursued the CFA charter (which requires 4 years of experience and passing 3 level of exams that are only offered once a year at the time). I completed the exam for pride in 2026, and I am pleasantly surprised to find a number of CFA charter-holders in commercial banking.
There are many skills the society values, and I chose accounting and financial analysis. They are not sexy skills but are still demanded by the society.
Network Like it is Your Second Job
Think of yourself as a company. You can have the best product but without proper sales and marketing channels the company will fail. After applying to 100 jobs without a job offer in 2008, I needed to take the extra step to showcase my value. My accounting knowledge, demonstrated by the CPA license, was my “product,” and networking, as I call it “connecting with others,” was my sales and marketing funnel.
It certainly wasn’t easy when I was starting out, but I viewed it as a necessity for survival in the modern economy.
This is how I obtained some of my jobs:
- Auditor at the Specialty Audit Firm: I went to a job fair at a local public university where I wasn’t a student (I emailed and was given permission to attend) in the fall 2009. I got the business card with the internal recruiter at the company. I saw her again at the same local job fair in fall 2010, followed up with her again and got the job offer in October.
- Equity Research Analyst at an Investment Bank: after passing the CFA Level II Exam in mid-2011, I joined the local CFA society and went to a few lunches and networking events. I also joined a mentorship program. My mentor worked for the investment bank at the time and referred me to the analyst role in early 2012.
- Accountant at a Private Company: after leaving the investment bank, I started networking again. One of the managers at the Audit Firm left the firm for the private company in late 2013 and referred me for an accountant position.
- Credit Analyst at the Insurance Company: the internal recruiter at the Audit Firm left for the Insurance Company. She remembered I wanted to be an analyst when I did my exit interview in 2012. She reached out to me in late 2013 for a credit analyst role when there was an opening at the insurance company.
- Underwriter at the same Insurance Company: my manager at the time left internally to another department. I kept in touch with him and applied when an opening in his department came up. I leveraged that offer for a promotion in mid-2016. I interviewed again and left for the underwriter role in mid-2018 since I topped out salary wise.
- Credit Analyst at the Regional Bank: the hiring manager at the Regional Bank used to work in the Insurance Company and moved to banking 2017. I went to lunch with her once when she worked there and followed up with her every 6 months after she left, via on Facebook or email, for 3 years before she reached out with an opening that was fitting for my credentials. In the meantime, she poached one of her coworkers to banking. Before he left, I got his phone number and connected with him throughout 2019 about his experience in commercial banking. I knew the culture, salary range expectation, job responsibilities well before there was an opening.
All of them require a fair amount of work behind the scene. The general recommendation I will give to the readers is that be nice to everyone in general and if possible get to know them on a more personal level either via text, email, social media, or lunch.
Whether or not they stay with the company is irrelevant. People leave jobs for many reasons and treat coworkers and former coworkers equally. And don’t feel that you are a burden to former coworkers. Keep in touch. Remember, people want to work with people they like.
You don’t have to touch base with them very often. Contact them once every 6 months, depending on how close you are with them, is perfectly fine. Real estate investors like to say, “your network is your net worth.” It translates to Corporate America as well.
Also, when people within your network or external recruiters want you to interview for jobs, be grateful for the opportunities. Even if you aren’t interested, decline in a timely manner and express politely what you want. Ghosting is impolite in dating, and in networking as well. I know workers have more leverage now during the Great Recession, but I still believe in basic human decency, even though employers ghost all the time.
Dig Your Well Before You are Thirsty
If you plan to stay in the same geographic area, find a big Industry with many competitors in your local area.
I did not think too much about it early in my career b/c I was pursuing my dream in the investment industry. After I switched my career to insurance, I realized that I couldn’t stay in a niche insurance industry in my city since I could not change jobs and was stuck at a lower salary level, so I started a multi-year effort to move to commercial banking.
I moved to commercial banking with my eyes wide open and have been thoroughly impressed. Even though there is consolidation in a low-interest rate environment, there are still many local banks that need analysts and underwriters.
People in commercial banking change jobs often, and there is less of a stigma of someone changing jobs. Because it is so mobile, people understand the importance of networking so they share their contact information freely even after I put in my two weeks. I still talk to my former banking coworkers regularly
Again, Dig Your Well Before You are Thirsty.
Learn to Interview Well
Job interview is stressful, nerve wrecking and emotionally draining, but that’s part of the game. I have never hired a coach and done a mock interview. Instead, I write down answers to interview questions, which are available online and practice them. This way I have more latitude to changing my answers on the fly if needed.
Be honest and authentic. Slight embellishment is fine but if you don’t have certain skill and experience don’t lie about it. I am aware that some candidates interview for jobs they aren’t qualified for, but even when I was changing industries I made sure my skill is transferrable. In general, I think you need to have experience in 50% – 60% of the role or you could have heavy imposter syndrome at the role.
Also, interview is a two-way streak. I was interviewed by two boutique PE firms early in my career and I knew my desire for work life balance (or flexibility) does not fit that industry. One interviewer told me I could be on standby at 4 am because the PE firm owner may be oversea and calling. That’s not the right role for me.
Before the interview, show interest in your communication. After the interview, make sure to send a thank you note. Even if you aren’t interested, be nice.
There are more advices I could provide but my advices are not earth shattering and easily found on Google.
Which of the following career advancing strategies did you employ (if any) and which were most effective: A. Doing well within your current company and being promoted. B. Jumping around from company to company always seeking a higher salary & responsibility. C. Entirely changing your career path from a lower earning field to a higher earning field (going back to school, etc)?
B. Also see the answer above. The only job I had more than 2 years is the credit analyst job at the insurance company, and I only stayed another 2 years because I forced a promotion as a result of an internal offer.
“A” doesn’t apply to me as I have never gotten a true promotion from doing well within my current company. The only “promotion” I got was a result of my leveraging an internal offer from another department.
YMMV. My experience is that companies don’t provide a roadmap or checklist to promotion. I suspect they don’t want to make a promise only to roll back due to budgetary reasons if they have a poor year. The end result is that promotions could be a result of politics which lowers morale, or there are minimal promotions which force workers to take on job searching as their second job.
For example, at my annual review in November 2021, I asked my then manager what I needed to do to be promoted. She went on a tangent and I couldn’t motivate her to reveal a set list of goals. I knew then she didn’t have a checklist.
“C” doesn’t apply to me completely since auditing/accounting, investment banking, insurance, and commercial bank all require similar hard skills – accounting and some finance. Once I completed the CPA Exam before entering the workforce, I didn’t have to go back to school.
While I had to network to change industries from insurance to commercial banking, I did not have to invest a large sum of money in going back to school to change my career path.
When I was 23, I did not plan on changing jobs this often, but unintentionally or not, changing jobs has been my path to high earnings. I am now in a bigger industry with more transferable skillset. I also have also built relationship with many banking professionals within my former company and headhunters specializing in banking positions. I plan on checking in with them from time to time (as I have done with my connections throughout the year) so opportunities would come my way.
What are you doing now to keep your income growing?
I am grateful to be in my position and I would like to get truly settled in my current job before thinking about income growth, but in due time there are promotion opportunities since in job title (level of my job) or job function (different job). Therefore, I may not even have to job switch to increase my income.
However, I may be more interested in return on my time instead of total income. In my experience, a minimum hour of 40-45 hours is required in most salaried position in corporate America. Currently because I am single and childless, I am fine with this arrangement but I could be interested in working 20 hours at some point.
Before then, I probably will work in commercial banking (see answer below).
What are your future career plans?
For a few years after leaving investment banking, I thought my career was over and I would never have a six-figure job with work life balance. It took me 7 years (from 2013 to 2020) but I finally transitioned to a great industry in commercial banking with good work life balance and income potential. I plan on staying in this industry for a few reasons:
- As it is not the sexiest industry, many intelligent and ambitious finance professionals don’t choose this as a career. There also aren’t many CFA and CPA in commercial banking which is a competitive advantage for me.
- I didn’t know this till I transitioned to commercial banking, but many commercial banks, probably for budgetary reasons, don’t offer formal credit analysis and lending training anymore. Over time, due to retirement and attrition, there are less qualified banking professionals which creates value for those remaining in the industry, so long as the industry doesn’t shrink.
- People don’t tend to leave commercial banking due to good work life balance and income. $150K – $200K of salary + bonus is possible in many cities. Therefore the workforce is relatively old as many don’t retire. The Pandemic may be the start of the retirement trend for the older professionals. I was able to move to my current bank in October 2020 since someone decided to retire in June 2020. As more retire there are promotion opportunities.
My current career path, which is subject to change, is to be a credit officer (the underwriter writes the analysis and the credit officer approves the loan based on the analysis).
Depending on the bank, I may need lending/sales experience before moving to the credit officer role, but the functions are so specialized in my bank that I don’t need sales role before being promoted.
Similar to how I got a promotion from a credit analyst to underwriter in insurance and banking so, I could over time quit my way into a credit officer position. However, moving from a national bank to a local or a regional bank entails layoff risks which I need to carefully consider when the time comes.
Have you been able to turn your income into a decent net worth (what is your net worth)?
See below for my net worth.
I would say yes, but only partially.
Why or why not?
Since I only started generating a high income in 2021, I would need a few years of higher savings for Net Worth to compound.
Most of the net worth gain has come from living below my means (I started tracking in 2018 and I spend about $30K-$35K annually) and time, having worked for 11 years.
What advice do you have for people wanting to grow their incomes?
The answer above provides fairly comprehensive tactical advices on how I grew my income.
On a mindset level, I will add that goal setting, optimism, growth mindset, and taking ownership over your life can also help.
Geta says
Really nice interview to read.
You did a great job up until now and your high earning years are just beginning.
MI-173 says
That is an awesome story, and congrats on your success so far. Accounting is such a great stepping stone in terms of foundational skills. Your net worth is well ahead of where I was 10 years into my career, so you have an outstanding trajectory so far. Great read – really enjoyed it!
Karen Bleil says
Well done thru tough times! Wishing you continued success.
Uche says
Very interesting read. You are very intentional and it’s paying off greatly. Well done.