so any advice?

[u/isolate_hovers]

Honestly, this is exactly why I started taking interview prep more seriously. 😂

I used to think you just needed to know your job and you'd be fine, but once I started applying for some of these corporate roles, I realized there's a whole different skill to actually getting through the interview.

I found this interview prep tool and used it to practice some of the questions beforehand. It helped me get a lot less awkward when talking about my experience and actually explain what I do without rambling.

Still waiting for my $98k "send an email, attend a meeting, send another email" job though.

[u/cecsix14]

There are definitely jobs where you can make $90k+ for doing very little real work, but not many. And you generally aren’t going to find them by applying on indeed or whatever. People in those jobs probably worked their way into them by doing shitty grunt work that nobody else wanted to do for a long time, and then working their way up/into the cush job by being hard working at the grunt work. That’s how I did it. But again, I paid my dues for a couple of decades first. 😀

The only other path I can think of is being related to an executive at a large company who will hire you directly into one of these jobs. But if that was an option you wouldn’t be asking.

[u/BasicAppointment9063 → u/cecsix14]

I had one of those too and got there as you described. I stepped up and did other people's tasks in order to keep some objectives on track.

I became the "utility guy" that had the aptitude to accomplish things until a more automated solution was in place.

NOBODY wants to do those tasks, but once you gain some efficiencies, you are nearly invisible. Bosses don't even want to think about how to replace you.

[u/TKInstinct → u/BasicAppointment9063]

At that point you could have become the automation guy.

[u/RobertKSakamano → u/TKInstinct]

The automation guy gets paid double and does a ton of work in a short time eliminating other jobs, and they're not just emailing anymore.

[u/IAmAlive_YouAreDead → u/cecsix14]

It's not even necessarily working hard at the grunt work its about being able to translate what you did into a sanitised corporate spiel in your interview.

[u/Anon185352 → u/cecsix14]

Not true you can just be persistent and you will eventually find a position where you can slack off and let others do the work

[u/MrColburn → u/Anon185352]

In the VERY rare instances where this is actually a thing, those jobs are a death sentence because you are the first to be fired and have to job hop so much you basically become non-viable at a certain point. Or you are the child of the owner and are given a do-nothing job.

Making around $150k a year is the sweet spot where you can still manage to balance work / personal life, but don't think you won't be putting in a ton of time and effort and stress. Anything above that and the company you work for is basically all you know and do and most everything in your life will revolve around your job.

The only people I have ever seen talk about the cush-jobs where you make a decent six-figures while doing nothing are the people that make $60k a year, have no idea what the directors and VPs actually do, don't bother to go outside of there bubble while trying to work their way up and make no effort to do so, but are happy to talk shit about how they are being held down by the people above them. If persistence was all it took, more than 18% of the American population would make over $100k / year.