This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Mitchie Nguyen, a former product-marketing manager at Google and Meta about her salary journey in her 6-year career. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I've spent about six years working in the tech industry at companies such as LinkedIn, Meta, and Google.

In college, I studied sociology and media studies. I had no prior exposure to the tech industry or even the corporate world, and I didn't know what I wanted to do after college.

I found it really hard to convince companies to take a chance on me with my sociology degree, especially for roles that I was looking for within tech. They typically look for students majoring in business or computer science.

Finally, I decided to start a club in college called Diversatech, a tech-consulting club that would bring students of all majors to gain experience with companies like Google, LinkedIn, and Figma.

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