walkinwood
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
The majority of the discussion here is on saving, investing, taxes etc., but not much on ways to preserve/increase earnings. Chinaco's post on Economy & Jobs got me thinking that there we, on this board, probably have a HUGE knowledge base in this area that should be shared.
Here are a few of my thoughts (based on my narrow perspective)
a. Keep Learning
In my career, I think this was the single best thing I did. I did not go back to school, but kept up to date on the goings on in my industry and related industries.
b. Network
A network is extremely important in good times & bad. My network has helped me get identify new opportunities (within & outside the then current employer) and I have been able to reciprocate with advice and job leads.
c. Look for the next thing you want to do. (Get out of your comfort zone)
I never had a "career plan" and bounced around a lot. However, 3-4 years into a job, I started thinking about what I wanted to do next and began moving towards it. It kept me from being bored as well as gave me a wide range of expertise. If you have the foresight and discipline to have a career plan and follow it, that's probably even better.
d. Perform & demand to be compensated for it.
For the most part, I enjoyed my job, worked hard at it and did well. I did not do as well in demanding higher compensation and realized in my later years that the difference in compensation was based performance and demands. In other words, the squeaky, high performance wheel got more than the quiet one.
e. Move to a growing industry (or where the jobs are)
I was lucky to have started in a growing industry (computers), but even within that, I moved from mainframe dominated companies to cutting edge networking to the emerging PC Servers to software. In following this haphazard career, I moved around a bit too. I think a lot of people came to this country in search of a better life and found it. Moving in order to further your career or speed up your path to FI is a tough, but good option.
Please share. A lot of this will be common knowledge, but there may be gems in here that will help someone.
Here are a few of my thoughts (based on my narrow perspective)
a. Keep Learning
In my career, I think this was the single best thing I did. I did not go back to school, but kept up to date on the goings on in my industry and related industries.
b. Network
A network is extremely important in good times & bad. My network has helped me get identify new opportunities (within & outside the then current employer) and I have been able to reciprocate with advice and job leads.
c. Look for the next thing you want to do. (Get out of your comfort zone)
I never had a "career plan" and bounced around a lot. However, 3-4 years into a job, I started thinking about what I wanted to do next and began moving towards it. It kept me from being bored as well as gave me a wide range of expertise. If you have the foresight and discipline to have a career plan and follow it, that's probably even better.
d. Perform & demand to be compensated for it.
For the most part, I enjoyed my job, worked hard at it and did well. I did not do as well in demanding higher compensation and realized in my later years that the difference in compensation was based performance and demands. In other words, the squeaky, high performance wheel got more than the quiet one.
e. Move to a growing industry (or where the jobs are)
I was lucky to have started in a growing industry (computers), but even within that, I moved from mainframe dominated companies to cutting edge networking to the emerging PC Servers to software. In following this haphazard career, I moved around a bit too. I think a lot of people came to this country in search of a better life and found it. Moving in order to further your career or speed up your path to FI is a tough, but good option.
Please share. A lot of this will be common knowledge, but there may be gems in here that will help someone.
You are quite right - what WAS I thinking of 
