How to Get 10X the Salary For the Same Job?
By: Miko Ps
Tags: Emigration, Career Advice, Career Change, Careers

Let’s skip for a moment to a different industry altogether. A good friend of mine (let’s call him Karl for the purpose of this post) is an engineer working in Poland. He often collaborates on international projects with colleagues from his company’s HQ (located in a western European country). Their jobs are identical, their computers, projects, software, and job descriptions are the same. But the salary in Poland is 4 times lower. Now, there is the PPP again, and there are many historical and geo-socio-political reasons for the difference in pay. But on a human level, I understand Karl’s frustration when he speaks about his salary.

Recently, I’ve been talking to Karl, our conversation went like this:

- You know, there is a new Polish guy working at the HQ now! Why is it, that he gets that salary and I don’t. - Well, have you applied for the job at HQ? - No I haven’t. - Well, he clearly did.

But don’t leave just yet. This is not a “You miss a 100% of the shots you don’t take” post, there’s more.

In my career, I’ve met fantastic, hard-working people, I’ve collaborated with many devoted and ambitious colleagues in every country I lived in. And yet often, I’ve encountered a lingering notion that: “The colleagues in the more developed countries must be better. After all, they earn so much more for the same job”.

I’ve felt this in my own life, I’ve seen it in the experiences of my friends. The reason why Karl has not yet applied for that job at HQ, the reason why I’ve experienced so much anxiety when joining my new job is simple: “if those people earn so much more than I do, they are probably so much better than I am. Right?”

Well... Wrong, really. I’ve lived, studied, and worked in 4 countries in the last 5 years. I’ve met incredibly intelligent, ambitious, and inspiring people in all of those countries. I’ve also met a ton of completely mediocre, unambitious, and uninspiring people in every single one of those countries. And no, X times higher salary does not mean X times more motivated employees. Money, after the first few paychecks, and from a certain level of income, does not motivate people anymore.

I wanted to bring up a rather clichè quote by Steve Jobs:

“When you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it… Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”

Photo by Jukan Tateisi on Unsplash

There is so much doubt when it comes to making tough choices, taking the next step, progressing in one's life, reaching out for personal or professional goals. And I get that. But at the same time ,I very much believe in what Jobs said in his quote above. People who work in more developed countries and more competitive job markets, people who work for prestigious companies (BCG, McKinsey, you name it), they are also just humans. They are not necessarily smarter than you.

Perhaps they have better degrees or have been born with better opportunities. But if you truly have the motivation, you can outwork them. Just start the process, take the first step. And. Simply. Never. Quit.

The beauty of today's technology is that nearly all the resources you need are available online, and so many of them for free!

Need to brush up your CV? There's a ton of resources online! Have you heard about the STAR methodology?

Want to learn a new language? Do you know the FluentForever app?

Want to gain new skills? Skillshare, Udemy, Coursera, Codecademy!

All you need to do is to take that first step. If I did it, you can too! I come from a place where most people earn €400 a month. I had a student job all through my time at university to help me cover my expenses. My first salary there was €230. I made it work. And I know you can too. Don’t settle, there is no reason you shouldn’t reach out for what's best in life.

Ultimately, I am writing this post for everybody hesitating to take the next big step, whatever it might be. If you want to move abroad, change jobs, or start a company of your own, now is the time. There will not be a better chance. 2020 has been a year where so many of us were able to work from home (so much time gained on commuting and getting ready). If you want a big change, but you did not use this wonderful opportunity, a better one will simply not come. Take that next step. You’re as ready as you ever will be!

P.S. I wish you the best of success (luck is a fluctuating variable 😉)!