How to earn more money this year
Tech workers have experienced a tumultuous few years. Since industry-wide layoffs began in 2022, even the lucky ones who escaped job losses are still feeling the wobbles of instability.
For this reason, many employees are keen on building a nest egg to shield themselves from the winds of change.
Beyond budgeting, earning more is a sure-fire way to boost your buffer. Here are five ways to earn more money this year.
5 global jobs to check out now
●CS Senior Backend Software Engineer Java FAANG, Client Server, London
●Cloud Architect – Professional Services, Amazon, Nanterre
●Cryptography Engineer (Expert), Apple, Ile-de-France
●Cyber Security Engineer I (PAM), Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York
●Software Architect DevOps Software Application Management (m/w/d), Bundesdruckerei GmbH, Berlin
Consult on the side
Social media is awash with advice for generating passive income streams. However, much of this involves creating low-quality advice PDFs, courses, and e-books that are so broad, they appeal to everybody and nobody.
If peddling lacklustre digital products doesn’t sit right with you, consider what you can really offer the world. And tech professionals have a distinct advantage: niche expertise.
If you have in-depth knowledge of in-demand topics like AI, cloud, cybersecurity, compliance or data, there’s plenty of companies out there who could benefit from your know-how. Check your employment contract about permissions and non-compete clauses, put the feelers out, and use professional networks to position yourself as an expert in your field.
Participating in panel discussions, adding repositories on Github and crosspromoting them, and posting thought leadership content on platforms like Medium and LinkedIn can lead to higher-paying opportunities and consulting work.
Go for promotions
Moving up the ladder within an organisation requires deliberate positioning. Take a look at the company’s broader mission and get involved in projects that drive this forward forward.
This may mean prioritising glory projects in topical areas over what you think is actually necessary, but you need to be strategic.
If you’re technically-minded, start thinking about how technical decisions drive business outcomes and if you can articulate this, this can add real value at more senior levels.
The path to promotion often involves expanding beyond pure coding into system design and infrastructure, technical leadership, and strategic planning, so ensure you upskill, and act up in a way that’s appropriate and appreciated.
Ask to meet with your manager to sense-check your plans, explicitly discuss your career goals, and ideally, create clear advancement plans with measurable milestones.
Keep your interview skills sharp
Whether you’re seeking internal career advancement or looking at other opportunities, maintaining strong interview skills is a must, and this goes for technical interviews too.
Regular practice with algorithm challenges and system design problems will keep your confidence and your skills current.
Dedicate a few hours each month to mock interviews or coding challenges, so you’re ready if a dream role suddenly becomes available. Tech moves quickly, and those with polished interview skills can readily pounce on new opportunities, whether they’re internal or external.
Learn how to negotiate
If you are going for promotions, it’s worth your while refreshing your negotiation skills.
Conventional wisdom advises against making the first offer since it gives away some of the power. But according to recent academic advice, people who make an initial offer that “anchors” the negotiation in your favour tend to get better results.
However, this is only true if you have a solid understanding of the range on offer, which you may not have in an internal promotion situation.
You can have your research done though. Look at what similar-sized companies are offering for your current or hopeful title on the Worldcrunch Job Board, and use comparison sites like Glassdoor and Payscale too.
Look at industry averages too. In European tech, the average salary increase in 2024 was 5%, a decrease from the previous year’s 5.8%. The mood across the Atlantic is even less generous.
In worldwide advising, broking, and solutions firm WTW’s Budget Planning Report, it projects that overall pay budget growth in 2025 would be approximately 3.9%. This chimes with similar findings from the research firm World at Work, where companies anticipate a 3.8% average pay increase in 2025. A slightly more pessimistic view is offered by a PayScale survey, which projects an average wage gain of only 3.5% in 2025.
Job hop
Often, the best way to see significant salary increases is to go somewhere else.
In the past five years, 58% of Americans have changed employment instead of waiting for a promotion, according to a research released on November 26 by online resume maker Kickresume.
If you’re a generalist, FAANG companies (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google) all offer high salaries, but if you’ve more niche knowledge, you can still find a very healthy salary at non-FAANG that will appreciate your tech expertise, and maybe even offer stock options.
And when you’re ready to start looking, WorldCrunch’s Job Board is the perfect place to start.