<prompt> Human: Alright friends. Ive been thinking a lot about this topic, driven by the common sentiment I see a lot from people my age about the job market for young, uneducated, inexperienced, and often underqualified folks, and I wanted to throw together some thoughts based on my experiences and those of my friends. I really do believe that there is a formula for making great money under these conditions, and it doesnt involve, like, starting a company, working in Multi-Level-Marketing, or blogging for a living. Im going to use specific examples, citing specific dollar amounts and experiences.As a quick disclaimer; in no way do I intend to underplay the difficulty that many people are having with making a living. I know that Ive been fortunate, but I see some trends here that might be able to help some people.I have many young, uneducated, highly paid working professionals around me, but Im going to highlight 4 myself included. Each path has been different, but with some key similarities. Each person is in a different field, and no one has done anything especially groundbreaking like invent Facebook or something. None of us have a degree, none of us did well in high school 3 have GEDs, and all of us came from poor families. Additionally, no one has any highly rare, marketable skills; or at least we didnt to begin with. Were all between 24-29, and we will all end this year over 120k. Step 1. EnterIf you dont have some fancy education, or some fancy connections, to utilize in order to get a sweet job right out of the gate, youre going to have to start small. A degree in theory proves that you have a level of knowledge, so we just have to prove it a different way. Most people are already in this phase; they just dont move on from it efficiently. Myself and one of my examples, well call him John, got started using one of the best resources available to unhirable shmucks out there; temp agencies. Temp agencies are much less particular about the qualifications of an applicant than a companys HR department would be, and they very often fill some of the great entry-level positions that a lot of people here read job descriptions for and complain that theyre underqualified. Its really a win-win; the company can cut you loose no questions asked if youre a bum, and you get the perfect opportunity to showcase that youre not. Youll find that its a lot easier to talk about your skillsets in interviews for full-time positions when the company already knows you and likes you. It also earns you the opportunity to network with key individuals in the company who can help you in the future. John and I both temped for IT helpdesks at different companies, starting around 14 an hour, and got offered full time positions that we were still not at all qualified for on paper within about 6 months that paid about 20hour. We were underqualified even for the temp job descriptions, but we were both sure to go to the agency and put on a good face for the recruiter, and they dont mind giving someone a shot. This happened when we were around 18-19.There are some jobs that this isnt necessary for, as theyll hire pretty much anyone. These industries often sales driven, usually have incredibly cut-throat entry level positions, and thats how our other two examples got started well call them Dan and Carl. Dan started selling gym memberships, and Carl worked in a call-center environment for a third-party purchasing company. Both paid minimum wage with some okay incentives for reaching certain goals. Both had very high turnover and were pretty intense. Both of them also got those roles around 18-19.Step 2. EmergePretty much everyone is able to, eventually, get SOME kind of entry level job. But what most people dont do is dominate at it. Heres the reality; if you get a basic, low-level, entry-level position in ANY field doing ANYTHING, and you dont find a way to excel at it and stand out, then you will not get anything better, and you dont deserve to. If youre just another face in your department, then you cannot feasibly expect anyone to give you a boost.If youre young and scrappy, hopefully you have a chip on your shoulder that says, Its time to prove everyone who thinks Im underqualified wrong, and hopefully you keep that chip for the rest of your career. After temping, networking, and leveraging my success doing that to get a full-time, legit position, I found myself surrounded by educated, qualified people who thought I had no right, as a barely 19 year old, to sit among them. This is a VITALLY important time. You have three options here:1. Dont perform, and either get fired after a year or two, or waste away there until layoffs, which very often just mean cutting fat.2. Perform pretty well; meet your goals and do your job, but be outshined, maybe assuming others are performing better due to tenure, and wait for promotions to come when all of the more tenured folks have moved on. This is a good way to see 10 years go by with nothing to show for it.3. Dominate. Make it clear from day one that youre there to work and produce. Making that plain to everyone in the first 90 days is pivotal, and that first impression will last even if you have dips in productivity in the future. If you have metrics, you have to find a way to get out front. This probably means working harder and longer than everyone else, and thats fine; its not forever. If you dont have metrics, MAKE THEM. Every job needs to have measurable goals, and if yours doesnt, present some proposed ones to your boss and knock them out. Winning in these early roles is so important; it really does set the bar for the rest of your endeavors.On the IT helpdesk that I worked on, I worked with management to determine which metrics were most visible and most important. With a case backlog, it was case closures. We had all of these techy guys working way too long on highly complex cases that should have been escalated, or they should have at least asked for help on, which drove down their case closures. So I took it upon myself to become closure king, and within 3 months I had 2-3 times as many case closures as anyone else, and everyone, especially management, noticed. For John, his IT shop was much slower moving, with less focus on metrics. They were big on developing folks for future roles, so they wanted to see an eagerness to learn and grow. He got on the same page with his manager about that and started learning as much as possible, making sure he quantified that in his review meetings. For Dan and Carl in sales, this was even easier. The beauty of sales is that the skills are universal. Sales managers dont care what you sold as long as you sold it well. Dan worked for a nationwide gym that published sales leaders every month. In the 3 years he worked there, among thousands of salesmen on the list, he was top 10 every month except for the first one. He also worked close to 80 hour weeks. Carl wasnt so blatantly successful, but he was sure to have clear communication about expectations from his managers and hit the important metrics, which was net margin in his case. So he had sales people around him selling way more in terms of gross revenue, but cutting deals too much, so he focused on keeping his margins solid and management loved him for it.Whether you end up staying with that original company or not, you have to knock low-level positions out of the park to be setup for our next step.Step 3. ExpectOkay, so maybe youve already done the first two and are thinking, So what! Here I am still making scraps!. I have encountered a lot of people like this; theyre excelling, well thought of in their company, and stagnant for years. Consider some of these thoughts.The power of excelling at your early roles is that it puts you in the drivers seat. As soon as youve made it clear that youre a contributor, your management is on their heels to keep you, and this is exactly where you want to be. There are three primary things that you want to get out of managers, and that youll only get if youre crushing it in your role:1. PromotionsThis is the most important one. Push for promotions andor title changes QUICK. If youre leading on your team, why shouldnt you be a lead? Dont you dare listen to the garbage advice that you shouldnt take on more responsibility unless you get more pay; thats crap. Early in our careers, the title is more important. Companies see that you were promoted a couple times quick, and its a great thing to have on a resume or in an interview.2. PaperPromotions are more important, but money is also important. Ask for a raise! Dont listen when they say that they dont give raises for whatever reason, its crap. Theyll pay you if they want you badly enough, and if they dont, they should at least give you:3. PlugsRecommendations. Ask them to write them on LinkedIn. Make suggestions for what they should put regarding your contributions. Draft one for them and ask them to sign it.This part of the game is so important. For me, I got 2 promotions from that original job; the second one into a supervisory role. I got a 10 raise per promotion. Now, at first, I was thrilled with those. However, when I peeked out on the market, I realized that while I was making under 50k, I was way underpaid as a tech lead, and if they had to backfill my role, theyd have to pay someone in the mid 60s. So I mentioned that, and asked for a raise to the mid 60s. They offered me another 10 raise to get me to about 53k, and I let them know Id have to look elsewhere, which I began doing.What I ended up doing was going, with my few years of experience now I was 23 at this point, back to temp agencies and looking for higher paying gigs to sort of start the process over. Without a degree and still with only a few years on the market, I knew I wasnt going to get directly hired for what I believed I was worth based on the work I was doing. I brought that same chip on my shoulder, and again having to make a good showing to the recruiters to gain some favor, and leveraged my experience to get a much more complex temp job for a major tech player that I was still way underqualified for at around 70k. I applied the same principles in that role, made friends, smashed metrics, and got a full time offer from that major tech player at 100,500, which after a large bonus and profit sharing, ends up around 125k. Im 25.Dan brought his 3 years of proof of dominating in gym membership sales to the sales job of his choice; he sells windows, roofs and gutters, usually runs 1-2 90 minute appointments per day, and rakes about 150k. He golfs a lot. Hes 27.Carl, upon not getting the appreciation for his contributions that he felt owed, made a few hops through other technical sales roles, always excelling and gaining a wealth of industry knowledge that he then leveraged to get a job selling telecom services to a high-dollar provider for enterprise customers. Hell do about 140k this year, and far more in the future, and is 26.John works for one of the rare companies that does give legitimate raises with promotions. Hes 29 and has been with his company for 11 years. If youre in a company like this, AWESOME. But they are exceptionally rare. He moved into more technical operations roles, and eventually onto their data analytics team, and makes about 120k, and also has a freakin pension, which is sweet.There are far more examples around me, which I think is a contributing factor as well; stop hanging out with bums if you dont want to be a bum anymore. Surround yourself with people who will ask you what youre doing to advance in your career and push you to make what you should make. All four of us are also in school now, being paid for by our employers, which is cool. In closing, Im about 99 positive that those who would have the ambition to actually apply some of these things based on reading this probably already have, and so no one who finds these principles to be illuminating will likely do anything about it. Prove me wrong.Cheers.Edit: Lots of great discussion, Im having a blast reading your stories and responding to DMs. There are some resources far better than myself who have commented, so be sure to pick their brains! One quick thing. If these incomes sound outlandish to you, all I would say is that you might consider seeking out young professionals in your area and making new friends. Is it average? No. But there are lots of young people out there doing far better than us. Find people who have gotten where you want to be.Edit 2: It might take a day or so, but Ill get to your DMs, I promise!Assistant: The gist ends up being is that you gotta dominate at any job you do. Give 110 even if you hate that job, gain any skills you can, and move on with those skills in hand. I agree 100 with your post OP.Human: I agree, but again, Ive definitely encountered folks who have worked hard, done well at their jobs, and been stagnant. Companies will be happy to use people who dont demand recognition for their accomplishments, so you have to go and get it a lot of the time.  <response>: Also, lets not forget the common thread in your examples: tech. WORK IN TECH! I have a similar background. No degree, early hustle, making 140k now. Would not fucking happen if I was trying to succeed in fucking marketing. 