The three biggest excuses that make you earn less in your tech career and how to crush them
Tags: career, salary, compensation, tech
Published: 2021-06-05 12:36:06

Even though workers in the **tech industry** are some of the highest compensated professionals today, I spent many, many years working in IT while **being underpaid**.

It took me a long time before acknowledging that I don't make as much money as many of my equally qualified colleagues. And it took me even longer to consider that I should actively do something about improving my compensation.

A lack of knowledge of what a fair compensation for my work should look like didn't hold me back from earning more.

In hindsight, I realize, the biggest hurdles I had to overcome to make more money from my job were: **excuses**. For a long time they prevented me from trying, or even thinking of trying to put myself into a better position.

If any of this resonates with you, take a look at this fine selection of the **3 biggest excuses that held me back** from **making more money**, and how anyone can crush them!


## Excuse \#3. As long as I work hard, I will always be compensated for my labor's fair market value.

This excuse builds on top of the idea that there's always a direct correlation between the amount of effort you put into your work and how much your client or your boss is willing to pay your for it. It also assumes that you don't have to do anything else other than what you're already doing: coming to work, doing a great job and waiting for the results to show off in your paycheck.

What's wrong with this excuse though?

In the real world (TM), employers and companies don't compensate fairly based on individual effort or impact, but with a [focus on maximizing their profit](https://opentextbc.ca/principlesofeconomics2eopenstax/chapter/the-theory-of-labor-markets/). Besides the monetary value your work generates for someone's business, many other factors play a role in defining your rate, such as how much overall capital a company has available or how easy it is to find an equally qualified candidate as you for your position.

Other major factors that play into your compensation are [your willingness to negotiate](https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/research-shows-not-negotiating-your-salary-could-cost-you-1-million-especially-.html#:~:text=%22I%20tell%20my%20graduate%20students,doesn't%20include%20company%20retirement), [your race or gender](https://www.payscale.com/data/gender-pay-gap), [your height](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/mar/08/genetic-study-shows-mens-height-and-womens-weight-drive-earning-power) and [whatever other unconscious biases](https://www.payscale.com/compensation-today/2018/06/biases-in-pay-decisions) your manager is carrying around when trying to evaluate your work's "fair market value".

To crush this excuse, **let go** of the belief that you are always offered exactly what your labor is worth. Try to lean into the idea that besides your actual work, opportunity, your willingness to change things up and a good portion of luck need to come together for you to earn more in your career.


## Excuse \#2. I will never figure out how to make more money.

This powerful excuse is similar to the previous one as it reminds you that you don't need to change a thing to increase your compensation. The excuse justifies complacency by telling you that trying anything new regarding your work will inevitably be futile.

Sometimes this excuse resonates like an echo of what other people, be it your managers, your friends, your partner or your parents, told you about the assumed limits of your earning potential based on their own experience.

The belief that you can't find a way to earn more in your tech job, usually stems from past, negative experiences and doesn't take into account that, in the here and now and all things considered, you are most likely better equipped to handle a challenging situation that you didn't succeed in before.

Maybe early on in your career you worked at a couple of random web agency startups which totally underpaid you, but as a junior developer with limited job opportunities you felt the pressure to work at these low rates anyways. After gaining more work experience do you still have this obligation to work for low wages today though?

The vagueness of this excuse obscures what the actual reasons are that stop you from doing whatever you need to be doing to make more money: Is it that you don't find the energy to apply for higher-paying jobs? Are you afraid of salary negotiations? Do you see potential in starting your own business but you already feel exhausted thinking about having to do everything on your own?

To crush this excuse, refuse accepting "I will never figure out how to make more money" as truthful; instead identify the specific reasons why you couldn't find ways to make more money in the past. Figure out which specific problems stood in your way for making more and if you see potential in finding a solution for these problems today. Once you start **identifying problems** and think about **possible solutions**, you might realize that the "I will never figure out how to make more money" starts to sound more like a "I might figure out how to make more money, if I do X and see how it goes".

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/me4ijxvfgyrjq1cx4sqs.png)


## Excuse \#1. I don't deserve more money.

This excuse might only reveal itself to you after you made the effort to cut through plenty of other, more shallow excuses for not earning more and it can be a tough one to tackle.

Oftentimes life experiences and our environment can make us believe that we don't _need_ or even that we don't _deserve_ anything more than we already have.

You might also think that, well, Tech in general already pays so much better than many other industries, who am I to ask for even more than that?

If you encounter this thought, validate if it's a valid observation or if it's just another excuse. Honestly ask yourself: Do I make enough money to make ends meet and to provide for myself or my family in the future? Do I feel resentment when thinking about my work and my compensation or do I feel valued and respected instead?

Crushing this excuse may not be easy (it definitely isn't for me) and your mileage may vary.

Try talking to colleagues and friends you trust and who are successful in achieving their financial goals on their views on money, challenge your own thoughts on money and validate what you truly deserve through **market research** (to do so, check out sites like Glassdoor, Levels.fyi and Payscale) and through job-hunting / negotiating for real-world job offers.

By far, **therapy** helped me the most in dealing with the persistent beliefs I had that made me think that I don't deserve to earn more; and do consider if you can benefit from **professional guidance** by a coach or therapist as well to reach your goals. 

# Why crushing your excuses matters


**Excuses** often do have a **purpose**. They keep us content enough with the status quo we find ourselves in and this can be beneficial if it is too difficult to change our situation in the short-term.

But eventually, it is important to re-evaluate if our **excuses still serve us** or if it's **time to move on** from them.

If you want to **make more money** working in **tech**, you definitely can find many opportunities to do so. But before being able to tackle the real challenges that prevent you from making more - be it polishing up your CV, interviewing for new roles, building your brand or starting your own business - you need to deal with the excuses that hold you back from **building the career** and **getting the compensation** that you want.

Because once you crush your excuses, only the sky becomes your limit.