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How to Land a Six-Figure Job

Goodwin Recruiting | Career Tips, Leadership, Opinion | November 11, 2024

Achieving a six-figure salary during a job search, or in other words, a job with an average salary ranging from $100,000 to $999,000, is very doable for many of America’s professionals. These salaries are reflective of prestigious or lucrative jobs and careers and they’re often associated with a mix of professional assets, such as bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, specialized skills, years of work experience, relevant credentials, or the ability to effectively manage broad responsibilities.

Earning $100,000 to just below $1 million per year may not guarantee financial wealth, given that buying power varies by geographic location, cost of living, and personal expenses and budgets. Nevertheless, this level of income provides financial security. Many professionals consider it a mark of professional and financial success, which they intend to build upon with each step along their career path.

Where do you start on this upward journey? We’re going to focus on approach and tools for success.

3 tangible steps you can take to land a 6-figure job

1. Obtain the needed skillsets

High-paying jobs and careers can be a short sprint to the top or a strategic commitment to the long game. Sometimes it can be both, taking one strategic career step and job search at a time. If you know what you want as a career, you’re halfway there. If not, or if you want to change your career path, you can make faster strides in the job market through enthusiastic discovery of what you need to know and the required skillsets and experience.

You can do this in three steps:

Explore the highest paying jobs and industries in general. You never know what might spark your interest as the best job to earn six figures. Some industries known for higher-paying jobs include healthcare, legal, finance, technology, and engineering – among many others. It’s worth noting that specialists such as software developers, software engineers, cybersecurity specialists, data scientists, artificial intelligence experts, and other fast-growing IT occupations command high-paying salaries in today’s job market, across multiple industries.

Identify jobs or careers that are most attractive to you and that align with your career goals.

Learn everything that’s involved in becoming a true expert in your chosen field. Try not to be intimidated by what a particular role might require, and by the same token, consider that some requirements are easily and quickly achieved. If it’s worth having, it’s worth your commitment, and there’s no time like the present to start.

2. Build your network

Professional networking is one of the most powerful tools you can use to open doors to high-paying job opportunities, and specifically, facilitating introductions to the right people. It also makes you a more valuable professional through sharing knowledge and providing and receiving support and insights. Here are 7 Ways to Build a Strong Professional Network in creating relationships with professionals in your chosen industry. Beyond building relationships with industry peers, strike a relationship with a good talent recruiter.

The bottom line is that the more people you know and the more networking you engage in, you’ll find doors that would otherwise not be open to new job or career opportunities.

3. Use effective negotiating tactics

Negotiating compensation is a normal part of the hiring process, whether you engage in this on your own or leverage the negotiation skills and expertise of a talent recruiter to do it for you. If you approach this on your own, the key to achieving your salary goals is knowing how to effectively negotiate. Negotiating a job salary can feel intimidating, but you can increase your success with the right preparation.

Get ready with some fundamental necessities:

Know your worth. Knowing and selling your professional worth for a given role (required skillsets, hands-on experience, performance achievements, education, credentials) is seen by hiring managers and executives as a sign of confidence and professionalism. This can make the difference in being offered an average salary or the six-figure salary you’re after.

Do your research to learn what industries and specific markets pay for the role you are pursuing, which can vary by industry segment, company size, and geographic location. If you’re informed going into salary negotiation, you’ll have the upper hand in moving the salary needle in your desired direction.

Consider partnering with a recruiter like Goodwin Recruiting to ground yourself with valuable market intelligence. Our experts are industry insiders who provide candidates with current insights on salary and industry trends, including by geographic location, and the advantage of keeping a pulse on great jobs before they’re publicly available.

Be sure to factor in the value of benefits

Six-figure salaries typically refer to base annual pay, or the cash compensation you receive – not including company-paid benefits. Benefits can boost your total compensation by 30-40%, so keep the value of the full benefits package in mind. For example, if you earn a base salary of $100,000, company benefits might add an additional $30,000 to $40,000 in value beyond your base salary.

Depending on the size and type of employer, the value of company benefits can widely vary. Typical benefits include health insurance (medical, dental, vision); retirement contributions like 401k plans; paid time off (vacation, sick leave, paid holidays); life and disability insurance; and various perks and fringe benefits. In higher-paying industries, such as tech, finance, and consulting, just to name a few, many employers offer signing bonuses, annual or incentive-based bonuses, or stock options, further increasing total compensation beyond base pay and benefits. In some jobs, bonuses and stock options can boost total earnings into six figures when base salary falls short.

Consider, too, that many employers offer education assistance and pay for professional development, increased technical skillsets, and certifications that increase your value in the hiring market. There is also financial value in hybrid and remote positions, which reduce or eliminate vehicle fuel and maintenance costs and commute time.

Explore open roles on our job board that commonly pay six-figure salaries

Goodwin Recruiting’s job board is an evergreen source of high-paying and rewarding jobs and career opportunities in fields such as healthcare, hospitality, technology, finance, engineering, legal, business management, sales, marketing and advertising and many other fields.

On any given day during your job search, you can find sought-after, six-figure jobs in high-demand fields. Many require advanced skillsets, college degrees, and hands-on experience. But you’ll also find six-figure salaries in other areas of the job market with more flexible requirements. For example, experience and demonstrated achievements alone in a particular field or industry can carry the most weight with some of today’s employers. Six-figure jobs in the trades are a great example of this.

For starters, here are some consistent examples of jobs on our job board that pay six figures:

Be informed, line up your networking supports, and go for it

Being informed will prepare you to achieve your ideal job and desired compensation. As mentioned earlier, part of being informed is that the actual value of a six-figure salary can greatly depend on location. In high cost-of-living areas like San Francisco, New York City, or Los Angeles, a six-figure income may feel less substantial, but it goes much further in areas with a lower cost of living, providing a higher standard of living.

And again, the total compensation package must be considered, with benefits that can increase the value of annual compensation by 30% to 40%.

Let us support your journey. If you’re a professional who is ready to find your ideal six-figure job, or if you’re with a hiring company looking for talented candidates to join your successful team, reach out to the executive search experts at Goodwin Recruiting. We specialize in placing managers to executive-level and C-suite professionals in key positions across multiple industries.