Being stuck in the wrong job, feels miserable. And if the money is a sad amount, you could literally frustrate yourself to getting fired. You have got to be careful long before that happens. Because losing a job is worst. Why not prepare the ground first? Because, we all have got bills to pay, don’t we? Clothes to buy, and other necessities in life? And not everything is about necessities, we also need vacations to take, a nice one at that. We cannot possibly afford to lose a job. Now here we need to map our grounds first. Think about it, what is that unique skill set that you possess, what exactly does your job pay you for? Let me start with an old Plumber Joke. Who comes to a man’s house to fix the toilet. It’s gross, but important. The plumber first looks at the leakage. He goes ahead and pulls out a $1 washer and fixes it in its place. And this entire job takes him less than a minute. And then the bill he hands over is of 100$. The man now is not convinced. He thinks of the payment as extraordinarily high. And he demands a breakdown of the charge. To this, the plumber responds, here’s a clever one, “$1 for washer and the rest $99 for the knowledge of where to put it”. This is what you get paid for. In this case the knowledge and in your case it could be the value that you bring to the table. If your job requires minimal skill set and it could have been done with no effort at all, by possibly anyone, you will not be paid much. A job like being a cashier at the supermarket. Imagine how many people under the sun could accomplish the job? I will tell you, the number is nearly 5 billion! Now factor in the same logic in case of a neurosurgeon. The number of people with that skill set is, compared to the cashier’s job, niche demography. So the amount charged will be a lot more that what a cashier at a supermarket might draw. Now is the time for you to factor in what unique skill set you posses which you can sell to your employer? You need a job that requires the particular combination of your skill set. This will make up as your competitive or comparative advantage. Once you figure that out, you will be able to earn a lot more than what you are earning now.
