People tend to knock starting at the bottom or say it’s only for people without experience. Some even scoff the idea of starting low even when they have no experience. But I’m here to tell you: sometimes it’s the best way to start with a clean slate and really learn a new set of skills. It's ok to start at the bottom.

If you don't already have an established career or a well-respected, in-demand degree, then keep reading.

Starting from scratch

Back in 2013, I started my entire life over. My career had forcefully ended due to circumstance out of my hands (you can read more here on my Medium profile). I moved back across the country, just me and my two small children, at 28 years old. The entire life that I thought would be the rest of my life was gone with one phone call.

I moved into one room with my kids at my dad’s house and began immediately job searching. I was determined to get back on my feet and provide for my kids without doing anything that would compromise my integrity nor my character.

Within 3 weeks, I landed a job “at the bottom” using the little finance/bookkeeping experience I had. About a month later, I secured a 3-bedroom apartment. The master bedroom and two bedrooms for the girls.

Paycheck-to-paycheck

It was enough to pay the bills, but certainly not the end-all-be-all of what I knew I could do and become. Like many of you, I was budgeting every penny, saving dinners at a fast-food restaurant for a special night each month, and painstakingly keeping an eye out for lights left on.

So I started exploring every department at work. Asking questions. Solving problems and improving processes and making things more efficient with every week that passed.

Within 6 months, I had been promoted with an $8,000 raise.

Nothing is sure

Unfortunately, a few months later, new owners bought the company and soon fired everyone. Except for me. I had so much knowledge of the former company that I became an asset to the new company, even outlasting the former CFO. However, I watched and waited, and saw the signs it was time to leave. I landed a new job, with a similar analyst position at a higher pay, and much closer to home.

Continuously eager to improve

I jumped to a few different companies for the next few years, while studying to get my bachelor's degree in Finance. There was always a desire to be better, to grow, and to provide a secure life for my family.

I also avoided and ran from toxic workplaces. They say that you shouldn’t jump just because the grass always looks greener. But if you’re standing in a toxic wasteland, dying within, any grass is better than none.

New opportunities to excel

At my last company, within 5 years I moved into 5 different positions. I had established myself so well and learned the business and the processes so deeply, that the positions were more-or-less offered to me. My last position there was handed to me, literally.

A new agile framework for IT was starting, and due to my knowledge of the business and my relationship with the dev team, I was chosen as the Product Owner for the first pilot team. When they saw it was a success, agile exploded in the best way across the entire IT organization.

Unfortunately, they hired an extremely toxic manager who ran off me and 5 others under her. The grape vine told me that she hired many others after us, and that they also quit after a short period under her. Eventually, management figured it out and fired her.

Long story short, I took every opportunity to learn as much as I could, making myself valuable to not just my team, putting myself in front of leadership to sing the praises of my team.

Perseverance pays off

Now, 10 years later, I have increased my salary over 100k from when I started at the bottom. I have experience and skills that some people take decades to earn. And I have a life story of overcoming terrible storms to come out stronger and better.

Before you say that there's no way you'll start from the bottom, take a moment to reconsider. Your new future could be right behind that entry level job description.