Charlotte Chaze has made huge salary jumps in her career so far. The Philadelphia-based 32-year-old started off doing academic research in college, first in an unpaid position for undergrad at Towson University and a few years later making $28,000 doing research at the University of Delaware.
She wasn't happy in that line of work and researched what in-demand skills she could pick up to change careers. Chaze learned that data analytics, along with other emerging technologies, are projected to be among the biggest drivers of job growth in the coming years, according to the World Economic Forum. After taking a few free courses online, Chaze jumped into an analytics associate job in 2018 that paid $70,000 per year.
It was "life-changing" money, she tells CNBC Make It, and just the start of her upward salary trajectory. She switched companies and became a senior data analyst in 2019, scoring a $90,000 annual salary, and then got a promotion two years later that brought her up to $104,000.
Landing a $54,000 salary bump without looking for a new job
At the end of 2021, Chaze was "really happy" in her job and how much she earned. But then she got a message from a recruiter. They were looking to hire a senior analytics manager, and her experience fit the bill.
The recruiter stated the range they had budgeted for the role: $130,000 to $170,000.
"I was like, OK, that's much higher than what I'm already making. I'll do the interviews and just see what happens," Chaze says.
Chaze says that confident attitude may have steered the hiring process in her favor. As Chaze saw it, because she was already happy in her job, she felt she didn't have anything to lose by continuing with the conversations.
When it comes down to it, she says one big thing opened up that opportunity in the first place, without her ever having to start looking for a job: She kept her LinkedIn profile up to date.
It's a habit she started building once she started working in data analytics, she says.
"As you do projects in your job, add those to your resume and LinkedIn," she explains. "As time goes by, you're going to forget the details of those projects. And if a year or two later you're looking for a job, you're going to have a hard time remembering, what exactly did I do for this job? What technique did I use to get these numbers?"
She recommends building up your own habit and, making sure not to give away company secrets, continuously update your LinkedIn with each big project you complete, the skills that helped you succeed, and the final outcome. (Bonus if it made your company money in any kind of way).
It's also helpful to keep your LinkedIn profile active and updated with important keywords related to your work "so when recruiters are searching for people to fill new positions, your profile is fresh and it comes up to the top of the search results," Chaze adds.
Even if you're not trying to change jobs, she says, it's also good to have on hand for yearly performance reviews "because that can get you a bigger raise just by being able to cite the examples of all the work that you did."
Knowing the salary range for the job helped her negotiate
For her part, Chaze sailed through interviews and landed an offer for $145,000. Knowing the upper range of what the company had budgeted, she countered for $165,000 and ended up with a final offer of $158,000.
"I think I got such a high offer because I just played it off as if that was the salary range that felt normal to me," Chaze says, "and it worked out because of that."
"It definitely felt intimidating, and I didn't even think I deserved it," Chaze admits. "But I was so happy at the job I already had and already felt well compensated that I just figured, you know, if they deny this and give the job to someone else, then I'll just stay at the job that I already like."
Chaze ended up staying in her new job for just four months before she had enough savings for another big career change: By April 2022, she left the corporate world to go full-time on her own business, Break Into Tech, a career resource for people looking for their first tech job.
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