I worked in consulting for over 8 years before moving into a corporate role.

And in that time, I got to do a lot of cool things:

Build data products to serve private equity and investment banking clients
Analyze potential investments in high profile technology companies
Design machine learning models to help customer support teams at public SaaS companies
Lead and mentor a team of 30+ young ambitious data practitioners

There isn't much I would change about my journey.

But if I could go back, this is one big mistake I made—and what I would have done differently:

Not discussing salary with my peers

My philosophy has always been to put money second (or third) in priority behind interesting and consistently new challenges.

In some ways that mindset served me well:

Led large teams
Received rapid promotions
Selected first for cutting edge projects

But in another way, my failure to discuss salary cost me. Literally. In the days before my departure, I found out my salary was lower than some of my peers.

The funny thing is, I'm not upset with my former employer. I think they (and any good employer) do everything they can to retain talented and hard working people.

The lesson—swallow your pride and smash stigma by consistently checking in with peers about salary. You'll find that most people want to talk about it.

As for your intimidating boss, he may be receptive to a raise. Especially If you're a top performer. But he's not going to go out of his way to give it to you.

One Huge Mistake I Made In My Career—And What I Would Have Done Differently

I worked in consulting for over 8 years before moving into a corporate role.

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