This article is based on a conversation with Janelle Romero, a 30-year-old employee and employment attorney in New York City. It has been edited for brevity and clarity.
• By using a job-hopping strategy, Janelle Romero increased her salary fivefold in six years.
• Despite initial skepticism, the job change gave Romero valuable skills and experience.
• Romero’s career plan emphasizes skill development and salary growth over job satisfaction.
As an employment attorney, I advise people to quit their jobs to earn more money. Switching jobs also helped me triple my salary from five to six figures in three years.
Regardless of the industry, changing jobs is a great way to increase your salary, but you need to make sure that the skills and experience you gain in each position help you achieve the big picture of the professional you want to be.
When I changed jobs in my late 20s, I was making over $200k in my current position.
Everyone told me that changing jobs was the worst thing I could do.
My parents strongly opposed changing jobs and thought that it would ruin my career. I also received a lot of negative feedback from employers saying that I was doing too much work in a short amount of time, but I had a plan.
After graduating from law school in late 2018, I was interested in changing jobs to advance my career.
In 2019, at the age of 24, I landed my first job after graduating from law school and worked there for over a year. I was hired as a paralegal, making $40,000 per year, with the promise of a promotion once I was admitted to the bar.
After joining the firm, my salary reached $60,000, and then rose to $65,000.
I realized that it would be difficult to make good money if my salary was $5,000.
Over the course of a year, I gained some insight into the field of wage theft because my firm often involved me in litigation. I realized that our clients often discriminated fairly, but we as a firm did not discriminate.
I didn’t have enough experience to handle discrimination cases on my own, and I wanted to learn, so I went to a discrimination litigation firm.
This change increased my salary to $85,000.
I also received insurance benefits, a 401(k) match, attorney fees, bar association fees, and class registration fees.
I worked at the firm for about six months and gained the experience and knowledge necessary to be confident in pursuing discrimination claims. The more experience you have, the less time you will need to learn the responsibilities of your new job.
I told my former employer, “You used to practice employment law, but you don’t discriminate, I do.” Let me digress for a minute. “I went back to work and opened a discrimination department there.
This change increased my salary to $110,000 plus commission.
They were willing to pay me more because I brought back some of the experience and knowledge to expand the company’s operations.
Trying to sell and attract clients through discrimination led me to TikTok. I made a video on my TikTok account explaining the sexual harassment allegations against Andrew Cuomo so that I could take them with me when I left.
The visual impact was great. I took these videos to my boss and showed him how I could reach thousands of people with just three videos. I received a few emails asking questions from potential clients.
He agreed and asked me to market the app to attract clients. As my page grew, the number of cases I could bring to the company grew, and my revenue increased. I used this to talk to my board.
Later, I discovered how companies handle HR complaints and got a job as the Director of Employment Law at an international startup. I manage their department, which has over 700 employees and contractors.
The startup made me a salary of $130,000
Everything happened quickly and I learned a lot. In the four months I worked there, I helped the company expand to about 27 countries.
The startup faced some financial obstacles and went through a major layoff process, which I participated in in early summer 2022.
I was laid off a few months before my planned wedding, so looking back, the layoff was a blessing.
In December 2022, I decided to start my own company.
After creating my own brand, I made a profit from my street yoga class in the first year: I reinvested the profits back into my business. By the end of 2023, my business volume would be strong enough to expand.
I began to explore the possibility of merging with someone else and returning to work and earning money.
In March 2024, I accepted a full-time position as an attorney at Consumer Justice Law Firm. Once the settlement is finalized, I will transfer all of my contract terms to the new firm for a higher commission rate.
In my current position, my salary is $225,000 plus commission and bonuses. At the age of 30, my salary has decreased.
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