Stuck at mid levelI' m 34, soon to be married and I have a pretty decent job with a public University. My BA is in History and I have a MFA in TV/Radio production. I quickly learned after graduation that production pays very little and is quite unstable, so I took a low level web job with the university I graduated from (both degrees are from two different colleges within the same university). As online media grew, my job needed my expertise in media more and more. Now I produce online media content. I' ve been here 7 years, manage two assistants, several projects, but I' m stuck at mid-level. My benefits are amazing, the work is tolerable, vacation abundant and the pay isn' t so bad ($67k/year--but in one of the country' s most expensive cities). But that is my top pay for the position I' m in and there is no clear path for advancement. I work in the PR department and most of the bosses have had stellar careers in journalism, winning major awards like Pulitzer Prizes and one of them was recently published in the NY Times. I don' t see any way to rise to that level from here. I don' t have the computer programming/development skills required to rise on the tech side and I don' t have the NY Times level journalistic background for the content side. The upside is, school for me is free (not continuing ed classes, only undergrad and grad courses). I' m happy with $67k now, but I want that to be $90k in 5 years and I' d like to be well into the $100' s by the time I retire (or whatever is equivalent to that pay in 30 years). I' m willing to change careers. I' m willing to go back for a second BA, even or take undergrad courses to prepare for a second masters. I like what I do well enough, but I' m willing to do something I like less for more money (I have a mortgage and family and it is tough to live where I do on that income). In the most simple terms, if you want to make $100K in 5 years, you need to learn to do something that someone will pay you $100K for. It doesn' t sound to me like what you' re currently doing is that thing (except for a rare few). So, it is time to look at related topics and see what you can break into. How about commercial training companies? They produce on-line and institutional films and media for companies to use for training. How about advertising agencies? They' re hard to break into but your expertise might be a good fit. Thanks for the post. I actually have worked producing industrial videos, both for online and traditional formats, and I've had some pretty high-end clients, but the work is sporadic, there are no benefits and if you work for someone else (as opposed to freelance), the pay stinks. If I just wholesale move to another industry, I'll have to start on the bottom and it will take another 7 years to get to this pay level (scale for an NPR reporter, which is someone already nationally known and probably beyond mid-career, is $70/k, about what I make). I make a little more than most of my friends in advertising, a little less than one on an executive track, but again these people all have 7-10 years of industry experience. How can I walk into an ad agency and say "make me a VP?" Let me rephrase the question. I'll repost the basic info: Question: Should I change careers (take accounting classes for free and become an accountant or even get an MBA and go into finance, for example)? Or if I stick t out because of my years and benefits, how do I advance? Should I have a mini-career change in my current organization? I could get an MBA (for free) in corporate communications, but none of my bosses have that kind of profile. I could get a second BA in computer science, but that might make me too tech. Or I could become an accountant/get the finance MBA and move over to budget and finance? (although I'd probably want to work in the for profit sector at that point) I suck in math, but if I set my mind to it I could do it. I get the question, you' re not getting the answer. What you do and where you do it isn' t worth $90-$100K. You either need to do something else (which may take you another 10 years to build up to $90-100K) or you need to accept that you get paid what your job is worth or you need to shift your job into something else that may pay better but not have all the benefits you have now. I can' t see that you' re going to get executive level pay out of this because executive level media production doesn' t exist. Getting an MBA isn' t going to help because it doesn' t advance you into a position if none exists. Getting a BA in Accounting makes you a junior accountant and you' d be lucky to make what you' re making now. You MIGHT be able to get a job in Corporate Communications but getting an MBA isn' t really going to help you do that. The sticking point there is going to be lack of corporate experience so you' d have to start at the bottom of that pile. You might be able to get into that loop now however with your current skills and education. Financially, it would probably be a lateral move, perhaps even a step back a bit, but it would position you for some career advancement. You would have to expect to pay into medical, etc. etc. in that kind of move however. Hardly any companies offer full health anymore, and of course damn few offer free education. Those will be things you' ll probably have to give up if you make any sort of move. So, my point is, that adding up a bunch more degrees (BAs or MBAs) is not the answer (especially not in a field you' re really not interested in like accounting/finance). If you want an executive position, you have to start building a corporate career. Everything comes with trade offs. You have to decide which trade offs are most important. Thanks again. There is a communication breakdown here. I understood your point that you feel that a web producer isn't worth 90k. My question is what job is worth 90k that I could work toward and where my general skill-set would be an asset? Journalism isn't, which is why we have ace journalists working for us. You say that corporate communications is a possible path, but I lack the experience. I work for a communications and marketing department right now and have been for 7 years. What kind of communications and marketing experience could I get while keeping my job that would prepare me for the next level? No, I don't work for a corporation, but I do work for the nation's largest urban university system, with over 400,000 degree and non-degree students and 40,000 employees. We've been getting positive press nationally and even internationally. We had a full article singing our praises in The Economist magazine, which isn't a bad PR achievement for a public school. Now, I'm not the guy getting articles placed in The Economist, but I refuse to accept that my experience isn't worth anything because it isn't corporate. Good storytelling is good storytelling, whether it is private or public, digital or print. This is where I don't understand what you are saying. Are you saying a PR or marketing firm wouldn't take that as experience? Are you saying that the fact I work with technology rather than print is a liability? You also say "If you want an executive position, you have to start building a corporate career." We have executives too and the non-profit and profit high-ed industries are as robust as their corporate sisters. My question isn't about becoming corporate necessarily, it is about going up. Let me try again. A UNIVERSITY web producer isn' t worth $90k. A CORPORATE web producer MIGHT be worth $90k, but those jobs are hard to get and not that common. A firm that makes corporate training films MIGHT hire you and you might make $90K there. There are serious differences between academia and the corporate sectors. Just as there are with government jobs and non-profits. They' re really different genres. I didn' t say you have no experience at all, but you have no CORPORATE experience at all, so to get into a corporate position (where you might get to your $90K goal), you might have to take a step back first. If you' re interviewing in the corporate sector you can make your case for how what you' ve been doing matches what they' d want. Yes, I know you have executives in academia. You don' t have MEDIA SPECIALIST executives in any sector. You may have a head of PR type activities but when you step up to that level, you need broader management skills, not just the technical ones. You need experience managing people, budgets, strategic direction, business analysis, etc., not just 25 ways and types of media production skills.
I fully understand your predicament. I'm sort of in the same position, but my salary isn't capped. If i were you, I would look to perhaps transitioning into a PR position in the Pharma industry. Perhaps a pharma marketing agency? The pay will be better. 90K ? maybe? Maybe not. but you'll have a path forward. I work in I.T. from bouncing around to jobs, my salary in the same job market is about 15-20% more working in the pharma industry. The other plus about working in pharma is 99% of the time the benefits are awesome. hell i don't even have a copay and it costs me pocket change per month for my wife and I. good luck! | |
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