Millennials incomes $130,000 say expertise improvement and social media are important

Kennie Bukky, a millennial skilled, earned a six-figure wage in 2024 and attributed her excessive earnings to 2 key methods: constructing an viewers on social media and studying high-paying expertise.

Regardless of being underneath 30, Bukky works a number of jobs and has earned simply over £100,000 (round $130,000) in 2024.

Nevertheless, it was not all the time this fashion. When she earned her bachelor’s diploma in forensic science in 2017, she felt her prospects seemed bleak.

“Proper out of faculty I used to be very involved about cash, trying on the salaries, it simply wasn’t that nice,” she informed CNBC Make It in an interview.

However she knew she wished a excessive wage – and that’s why she labored to realize it.

“I used to be very intentional in regards to the profession paths I adopted and the way I traded my time for cash,” she defined. “Cash has all the time been an issue… [and] I spotted it was essential to go for high-end careers to have the ability to mitigate that,” she defined.

This angle led Bukky to maneuver into the monetary providers business, the place she realized there was cash to be made.

She educated as a compliance supervisor and labored on this function for corporations comparable to KPMG and Visa. Immediately, though she’s been on a 9-5 break for the previous yr, she’s making six figures as a full-time content material creator, in addition to by way of her work as a content material supervisor. youth digital engagement, profession coach and speaker. .

Bukky selected to maintain his authorized title and age confidential for privateness causes, and CNBC verified his revenue by way of invoice statements.

Bukky stated constructing a private model on social media was the important thing to incomes a excessive revenue.

She has almost 130,000 followers on TikTok and over 35,000 followers on Instagram and creates content material round profession recommendation and wealth creation for her demographic of primarily younger, bold girls of colour.

“I simply wished to share my profession and information in private finance, as a result of I felt like these had been issues that I mastered at a really younger age and did very well at,” she stated.

“I felt like I had a lot worth to share, and it not directly allowed me to construct a private model.”

Because of her rising viewers, she has been in a position to collaborate with manufacturers like LinkedIn, German Bank, MicrosoftACCA, Bing and HSBC on social networks.

Turning into a social media persona gave Bukky the impetus to co-found The Pivot Place in 2023, an organization that helps individuals study expertise wanted to maneuver into tech roles with out coding.

Bukky stated she was in a position to cost greater charges for the providers she presents as a result of she had invested in expertise improvement.

“I consider that if you spend money on your self, your expertise and your information, it may generate a really excessive return on funding. [return on investment] by way of how a lot you may make as an individual, which is usually greater than the inventory market will ever pay you,” Bukky defined.

When she was 23, Bukky labored as an integration analyst at RBS on a wage of £28,000. She then rose to a administration function which paid £40,000.

“I used to be very intentional in realizing that I wished to make an enormous leap. I did not wish to simply be right here and get a 3 p.c increase each two years,” she defined. “This concerned accepting a way more senior function than the one I held and studying to promote myself confidently for fairly senior roles.”

Though she was affected by imposter syndrome on the time, Bukky wished to problem her notion of what she was able to. To arrange for this function, she did a whole lot of self-study utilizing free on-line sources.

She suggested younger individuals making an attempt to achieve a six-figure wage to search for methods to study “high-income expertise” that can improve the worth of their time. Bukky really helpful taking courses, becoming a member of communities or boot camps, and even beginning a facet hustle to take action.

“Expertise pay the payments. It’s worthwhile to study expertise that may generate excessive revenue. You should not keep stagnant by way of the worth of your time,” she added.