Never work for money. 3 life hacks of the career relaunch.

From my own experience, I’ll tell you how to restart your career at 30. And I will try to prove that money is the most useless thing you can focus on in your work.
From 20,000 rubles per month to your own online agency. But you can’t do that, because… you continue to run around and look for a bigger salary and less work.

By Innokenty Fefilov
Marketing Department
The text is published with the permission of the author.
The original text is here.

In 2014, I moved from Lausanne to Perm. I had a profession as a technical specialist at an exhibition center, but I couldn’t use it because I had parted ways with the only employer. In Perm, I was just sitting with my son, as in Lausanne.

My mom gave me 5000 rubles for living. My wife had a job, but with my son, we couldn’t make ends meet on her income alone.

I had some knowledge of logistics and got a job at “Delovye Linii” (Business Lines). The essence of the position was to coordinate truck routes. As it turned out during the test, I wasn’t a logistician at all. However, I solved one of the tasks mathematically correctly but logistically incorrectly. And the second one correctly and through the center of mass formula. The manager, seeing something like that for the first time in his life, decided to hire me immediately. I passed the test day and received a job offer.

Indeed, it’s nice when the workplace provides corporate clothing.

Seven night shifts, seven day shifts — 36,000 rubles. Not far from home by bus. A good earning base and plenty of time for my constant “sort of” breakthrough ideas.

And then my friend Kolya asked me to check a website. The idea was that he was an auditor but decided to make a rational proposal to management to improve web performance. He considered me smart and asked for help.

The condition: he gets a bonus — treats with cognac. In my database were 2-3 marketing books that I had somehow read (“What Big Mac is Silent About,” “And Botanists Do Business,” and the third) and the entire blog of Artemy Lebedev up to its foundation. I wrote my rational proposal, and it became clear that the work was too extensive, and we wouldn’t claim it as Kolya’s authorship.

The boss (who was also the owner) came up with the idea of trying me out at work. He understood that I was 30 years old, with no work experience in the field and no education.

…

They assigned me a different position.

Kolya immediately mentioned that the company pays little at the beginning. But I didn’t care. I was excited. I went for the interview, and my new boss, Alexey, outlined the scope of work, placed expectations on me, and gave me a carte blanche. During the interview, I didn’t ask about the salary. They offered me a basic salary of 20,000 rubles and the position of “Project Manager for Online Sales Development.” And I had to travel to the middle of nowhere. And I love walking so much… 12 km, darn.

Lost: Almost half of the salary.
Won: An interesting occupation.
Won: The opportunity to grow.

…

I started learning the topic for 5 hours every day, seizing my last chance, and things started to pick up. After a month, Alexey asked how much he was paying me. I said 20,000 rubles and received an increase to 30,000 rubles. Life became easier, but I didn’t really care.

After six months, website traffic doubled, and sales significantly increased. Alexey announced that now it would be 45,000 rubles. And then it reached 55,000 rubles.

After 1 year and 3 months, I got bored. The new website still hadn’t been released. The job became uninteresting, growth opportunities disappeared. I checked out a competitor’s website (not a direct competitor, some SEO phrases overlapped a bit). I found a serious flaw, remembered that a friend of a friend was the commercial director there. Sent the problem, asked for a bottle of cognac, and a video of beating up the perpetrator. I got it— an invitation for an interview.

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…

The company was a leader in windows and related services in Perm and Yekaterinburg. They showed me the scope of work during the interview, and I immediately agreed. My eyes lit up, my palms got sweaty, and ideas started racing in my head. On the way out of the interview, they asked me about salary expectations. I was afraid to ask for too little and be seen as a weak specialist, so I mumbled, “50,000 rubles.”

Lost: Almost half of the salary, as my colleague in a similar position was paid 80k.
Won: An interesting occupation.
Won: The opportunity to grow.

…

Well, what did you think?

Over the next two years, I continued studying for 5 hours a day. I established a complete in-house department with all the employees in internet marketing — from 0 to 10 people. As an internet marketer, I won a competition of classical marketers in Perm (jury by I. Mann). With such power, I could tackle any task and grow in any direction.

I grew. I got bored. And I resigned. I took on a project job for 40k, started my own agency. Honestly, I quit because I convinced myself, “And now, do I have to get up at 7:40 for the rest of my life?” I still do a lot of work for free to this day. It’s interesting to me, so I do it. Then someone comes along and offers to pay for it.

We created a free quest on VK — several clients with some wild budgets for Perm approached us.
I got into comprehensive analytics, did 25 projects for free — now we’re building a whole department.
AB tests were done for free, under a hundred. Clients keep coming, and I’m not sure what to do with them.
Wanted to teach. Invited to HSE. I’m building the teaching branch and enjoying it, but not for the money.

How much do I earn now? I don’t know, it doesn’t bother me. I have 60 clients and 10 colleagues. It’s interesting to me, and I can improve. Any idea I have, there’s someone to try it with and someone for me to help in it.

The story doesn’t end there. But let’s move on to the conclusions.

You have three chairs—money, interest, and self-improvement. Perhaps, it happens that the stars align, and you get to sit on all three. Well done.

But if you have to sacrifice one of them?

Interest.

This is a boost; it enhances any indicator. As long as it’s interesting and fun for you, you’ll rejoice in every new discovery and every challenging yet solved task. As long as you’re driven, you’ll wake up at 3 in the morning, jotting down work thoughts and falling asleep. You’ll have no problem heading to work on a Monday because there’s so much interesting stuff there.

Who are you without interest? Stressed and tired office plankton? A regular visitor to psychologists? A reader of articles about procrastination?

You don’t even need to be that person.

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…

Leveling up.

Not every job allows you to boost your skills or do it with sufficient intensity. You need tasks that are slightly above your level, so that each solved task compels you to reach higher. I’ve never looked at competitors, only at the tasks. To this day, I don’t care how things are done in other agencies if it doesn’t help solve the tasks.

Who are you without improvement? Treading water. Is that bad? No, if you’re in your comfort zone. But if the zone becomes uncomfortable, how will you get out of it when your skills haven’t grown? Improvement opens up new interesting challenges, sketches out new possibilities, and pulls you into new adventures.

Money.

Let me not sing praises to you about money.

What’s wrong with them? If you’re not an investor, money doesn’t make more money for you. You can invest them in yourself, but not everyone does, and the resource is limited. Money replaces interest, but only temporarily. Each month, the growing income brings less joy until it becomes ordinary. You rarely celebrate the fact that you’re breathing, your heart is pumping blood, and similarly, you’ll rarely remember that your salary is a bit higher than last time. Only occasionally will someone lament, “My 50k rubles are not enough for living,” and you’ll slyly smile with your hundred.

Work. What to do?

Choosing between today and tomorrow. Today is money, and tomorrow is the same money. Or today is interest and self-improvement, and money tomorrow if needed.

And here, someone in the comments will insert: “If you don’t ask for money, they’ll sit on you, squeeze every drop.” It’s your life; you decide what you take from each job. By default, the employer is not your brother, not your mom, and not universal justice. They may deceive you, lie to you, and use you as they please. But if you find it interesting in this mode, and your skill is gaining momentum at x10, then let them use, squeeze, and throw. It’s a battle with yourself, not with someone else.