Whatever you spend your 20's doing, you’re probably going to end up doing for the rest of your life, unless something very extraordinary happens to you along the way. It doesn’t matter what you get paid in your 20's, as long as you’re learning something that you know will be valuable for your life.
An intern on the job
Just imagine if you spent your 20's working in retail. What do you really know how to do? Is there going be demand for that going forward? The goal is not to make bad decisions, so you’ll be much better off. With this in mind, even if you take a reduction in pay one should aim to go into a field where there is plenty of growth potential. Try and pick an industry that is going to grow for foreseeable future, then you’ve got to get involved somehow.
So, in your 20's, when you don’t have to have a lot of money, do whatever it takes to get a job where you can learn and be a part of an industry that’s going to be successful. This is not a myth, it’s reality. Many people, especially millennials, have this attitude that they don’t have to work very hard, that they can have work life balance, all these buzzwords. Maybe that is possible if you have it all figured out… I certainly didn’t. All up I think you should do in your 20's whatever it takes to get an education in something that’s very valuable, and to network and build connections. If you do that and you do it well, by the time you’re in your 30's, your work should be recognised as being very good. Then at that point, that’s when you can demand higher salaries, and you can demand bonuses, and you can play the corporate game where you switch from one company to another to get more money. If you do that, and if you’re successful with that, you keep working hard, by the time you get into your 40's, you should definitely have an ownership stake in what you’re involved in, and you should look to acquire more.
In attempting to gain a start do try and “demonstrate some value.” Try and say, “Hey, I’m gonna work for free or very low cost, but also let me show you how I can add value from day one”. Most people come to the door, or send me an email that says, “How do I get a job?” In effect they’re essentially asking for something. Most people seem to get that wrong, when really they should be saying, “Look, what can I do to demonstrate value…with the realisation that I’m young and I will learn, and am probably going to get more out of this relationship than you will?”