How can I make more money in my industry?

By: James M. Tobin, Edited by: Marie Custodio Collazo

Published: June 24, 2025

If you've hit what seems like a salary ceiling, you may be considering pivoting into a different industry or switching careers. Before investing time, money, and effort into a major change, consider some targeted, high-impact tactics for enhancing your earning potential in your current field.

Consider these strategies:

Upskill with purpose

Stagnation can limit your ability to advance. Recognizing this, many higher-earning professionals actively embrace opportunities to build new skills and further develop existing ones. To maximize your returns, look for efficient ways to earn credentials that can help you level up in your career.

Start with these ideas:

Identify in-demand skills in your industry that align with higher-paying roles

Research the skills you'll need to succeed in higher-paying roles in your industry. Target advanced or technical skills in high demand and/or short supply.

Examples include:

• Blockchain technology in finance
• Predictive analytics in marketing
• Interaction design in web development

Look at job postings for higher-paying roles you'd like to have. What skills do they typically require? Do you notice certain trends, or any gaps between those skills and your current credentials? Use those insights to guide you.

Choose short, stackable credentials

Short courses that award microcredentials or professional certificates can add up fast. Stackable credentials, as they're known, serve the dual purpose of validating your skills and illustrating your commitment to career-long learning.

Relevant options include professional certificate programs and microcredentialing programs that you can stack all the way to a bachelor's degree or a master's degree.

Take on high-impact projects at work

If your role affords you the opportunity, take on high-profile projects with the potential to generate a meaningful impact. Volunteering shows that you accept the risks that come with responsibility, and solving pressing problems tends to impress higher-level decision-makers. Both qualities can support your advancement potential — and the salary growth that often comes with it.

Along similar lines, make a conscious effort to align your work with organizational objectives. Examples could include:

• Increasing revenues
• Reducing costs
• Improving productivity
• Eliminating inefficiencies

You enhance your visibility when you make tangible contributions to core near-term business goals. This can lead to rewards that may include:

• Bonuses
• Pay raises
• Promotions

Document and express your successes in quantifiable metrics like revenue growth or cost savings. That way, you can back up your efforts with details and data during performance reviews and salary or advancement discussions.

Build your internal brand

The higher your internal profile, the easier it becomes to secure a desirable assignment, pay raise, or promotion.

While it's certainly important to have good relationships with influential people, networking is only part of the equation. Complement networking with a consistent effort to brand yourself as having leadership potential.

Employers often present their team members with opportunities to raise their internal profiles. Consider:

• Contributing to required meetings and attending voluntary ones
• Creating or leading initiatives built around mentorship and knowledge sharing
• Volunteering for projects or duties that others are reluctant to take on

You can also take part in internal training programs, even if they deal with skills or topics not directly related to your present position. Doing so shows that you're interested in growing beyond your current role, and higher-level management may take note.

Explore lateral moves

Businesses frequently seek to fill vacancies internally, as it reduces recruitment costs and provides current employees with performance and professional development incentives. These types of lateral moves can lead to higher-paying roles with your current employer.

Consider these strategies:

• Prepare for opportunities before they arise. Take advantage of internal skills development and training programs, especially in areas beyond your current professional domain.
• Look for higher-paying internal roles aligned with your current experience. Skills like advanced research, compliance knowledge, interpersonal communication, and conflict resolution transfer well between roles. Seek out opportunities to develop and apply transferable skills in a new context.
• Target high-growth operating areas where your skills are relevant. As an example, consider a proven sales professional at a company that has just invested heavily in a new product line. You could look to raise your profile by transferring to the team responsible for selling the new product.

Ask for what you are worth

Securing higher pay could be as simple as researching your actual labor market value and using those insights to negotiate a new salary.

As an example, consider a situation where a person lands a new job during a period of economic uncertainty. Given conditions at the time of the hire, the employer may have started that employee at a lower salary than they would currently offer for the same role.

Such scenarios happen all the time. If you don't perform your own salary research, you could be affected without even knowing it.

Start by using salary research tools, such as:

• Glassdoor
• Payscale
• Industry-specific and/or location-specific salary reports

If market conditions reveal you're worth more than you're making, choose the right moment to negotiate a new salary. Examples include:

• Immediately after a major achievement or success
• During your annual performance review

Documenting your achievements equips you with evidence to support your case. Track the positive impacts you make with data-backed specifics, and present them during salary negotiations.