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Thread: 4-Year College Degree, starts at $8.10/hr, plus 4 more years Walmart gets to $17/hr

  1. #1
    Donna Reagan's Avatar
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    4-Year College Degree, starts at $8.10/hr, plus 4 more years Walmart gets to $17/hr

    Amazing, that a young women invested thousands of dollars in getting her 4-year degree, and then lucked out getting hired for $8.10 at Walmart.

    Then she spent another 4 more years nickeling and diming her way up to $10 per hour as a Department Manager, and got another lucky break to work for Walgreens at $14 to $17 hr.

    Eight years she invested, and she's happy at $17 an hour.

    It did not take me eight years to go from nothing to getting licensed as a private investigator. But I was smart, and started out spare-time working Integrity Investigative Cases (Mystery Shopping) through the International Private Investigators Union.

    Yes, it took me 3 weeks to fill out all of the paperwork that IPIU provided me, but it did not take me 4 to 8 years of my own money and time to start earning an average of $25 to $45 per hour!

    Once I was able to go full time, I was able to get licensed through IPIU and now have cases that pay me up to $150 an hour (sometimes $250 per hour if electronic surveillance is used).

    I don't work as many hours as I used to, and I am among many private investigators who now only work 20 hours a week earning 2-3 times per hour of what a regular 40 hour week person would earn.

    But this news story of how this young woman invested 8 years of time and money to end up with a $17/hr job just amazes me.

    As a volunteer here at the Private Investigators Forums, I find there are some IPIU members who have invested $200 and have taken a whole year to decide that this kind of work requires they manage their time more efficiently, and have therefore dropped even applying for the work that is available. They are the complainers who put off and put off.

    Then there are the other IPIU members who start applying (like I did) and take the three weeks to get set up with assignments. They are the ones who take on every case (like I did) and work for a solid three months until their checks start coming in. They are the ones who may not be college math wizards, but they know how to do basic math and average their earnings to see that $25 to $50 per hour is real when you work as smart as a fifth grader. They are the ones we rarely see any more at this site because they are too busy earning and enjoying their lifestyle.

    Thousands of their own stories are posted in the public testimonial forum (using their real first and last names and locations) at the following link:

    UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS FORUM Link:
    www.ipiu.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?48

    But more importantly, I have posted the complete story of this other young person who was starting to starve. She has done very good for what she had. But read her story, and then decide for yourself if you can do better without waiting eight years to earn $17/hr:


    When I graduated from college in 2004, I couldn't find a job in my degree field so I went back through my resume and looked at all the companies I had worked for during college. One of them was Walmart, so I applied at a Walmart store in my area. To my surprise and relief they called me back. They had an open position as an overnight stocker that paid $8.10 an hour. I accepted. I needed the money, and after sending out 50 resumes in 30 days, I was pretty sure this was going to be my only offer.

    College Degrees
    My college degrees in Aviation and Human Resources Development didn't help me get the third shift stocking job, but they would prove invaluable in my getting promoted quickly.

    Department Manager
    Luckily, I had worked at a different Walmart store during college, so I already had a year of experience with the company. That, along with my degrees, got me a promotion from overnight stocker to Foods Department Manager in four months. The main reason was because I had scored a 98 percent on their Telxon test (handheld inventory computer). The raise meant that I was then making $9.10 an hour.

    Six months after that, I applied for the open Sporting Goods Department Manager position. There were more than 10 in-store applicants, but I managed to stand out because of my degrees, manager relationships and experience. That promotion bumped me to $10 an hour. I could now afford all my bills and a little bit of food, but it still took very careful budgeting.

    I needed another promotion, but in order to make more money I knew would have to become an assistant manager. I applied and was turned down.

    I waited three months and applied for the assistant manager position again. Again I was turned down. I talked to my store manager who said he would keep me in mind, but I still didn't see any results. I knew that my time at Walmart was drawing to a close. I needed a better paying job or I was going to starve to death. At 5' 9" and 134 pounds, I was running out of weight and time.

    Walgreens
    It was a call to my brother that changed my path. At the time, he was working for Osco and loved it, so he encouraged me to apply at a drug store. I took his advice and applied at Walgreens. Two weeks after I sent in the application, they called and invited me for an interview with the regional manager. I went. I explained to him my experience, my degrees and my strong desire to be an assistant manager and make a difference.

    I'll never forget the call I received about two days after the interview. The woman who called me said that I had the job and asked me if $14.25 per hour was all right. I told her it was. It was a $4.25 raise over what I was making at Walmart. I was ecstatic. I had gone from $8.10 an hour to $14.25 an hour in a little more than a year and a half. I could now pay my bills, but health insurance and afford to eat. Two weeks after I got the job, Walgreens decided to give everyone an across the board raise of .50 cents.

    Six months after that I received a cost of living raise of $1 per hour. A year after that, I received my first evaluation and received another raise of .75 cents and another $1 per hour cost of living adjustment. In two and a half years, I managed to go from making $8.10 an hour to $17.50 an hour.

    It took a lot of hard work, determination and job changes, but I did it. Between July of 2004 and May of 2008, I had more than doubled my income.

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    I wish you all a better start next week for 2012,

    Donna

  2. #2
    Petra Post -'s Avatar
    Petra Post - is offline Retired Administrator
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    Re: 4-Year College Degree, starts at $8.10/hr, plus 4 more years Walmart gets to $17/hr

    Well put, Donna Thank you for sharing that. I know I have to do some re-planning and re-thinking for 2012 myself. Seeing others succeed through IPIU helps.

    Happy New Year.

  3. #3
    William Deas's Avatar
    William Deas is offline Private Investigator Forum Member

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    Re: 4-Year College Degree, starts at $8.10/hr, plus 4 more years Walmart gets to $17/hr

    That was a very nice story, of don't give up, keep trying.

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