From Minimum Wage to Six Figures: The 6-Step Roadmap That Changed My Career

September 21, 2025

📌 This week, I’ve been sharing my personal story of how I went from minimum wage to a six-figure career, and the six career levers that made it possible. Each day, we’ve looked at two parts of that journey: what I got wrong at the start, the shifts that changed everything, and the lessons you can apply to accelerate your own career.

Today, I want to pull it all together into one roadmap. This is the exact framework I followed and the one I still share with executives today.

Because here’s the truth: if I could rebuild my career after a five-year gap, outdated qualifications, and a minimum-wage restart, you can too.

Step 1: Rebuild Your CV — Tell a Story of Impact

When I started again, my CV was holding me back. It was full of gaps, outdated qualifications, and lists of responsibilities that sounded just like everyone else’s.

But here’s what changed everything: I stopped treating my CV like a diary of jobs, and started treating it like a business case. Hiring managers don’t care what you were responsible for. They care about what you achieved.

📊 Research backs this up: recruiters spend just 7.4 seconds scanning a CV before deciding whether to keep or discard it.

I rewrote mine to highlight outcomes:

“Secured and served a pipeline of 20+ new customers per month, consistently exceeding sales targets and building repeat business.”
“Conducted detailed market research and ensured 100% compliance, reducing risk exposure and strengthening client trust.”
“Built and managed long-term relationships with key clients, driving a 30% increase in account renewals and repeat revenue.”

And as I said in yesterday’s Q&A:

“What helped me push through was realising my skills weren’t gone. They were just hidden. By reframing my CV, investing in LinkedIn, and making my achievements visible, I began to rebuild my professional story. Once people could see my impact, opportunities followed.”

👉 Lesson: Careers stall less because of a lack of talent and more because of a lack of visibility.

Step 2: Build LinkedIn Into Your Storefront

Even with a sharper CV, I realised I had another problem: no one could find me. My LinkedIn profile was bare, which made me invisible.

Today, LinkedIn is often the first place recruiters, boards, and investors go. They’re asking: Does this person look credible? Do they look worth meeting?

📊 LinkedIn reports that 6 people are hired every minute through the platform. Profiles with professional photos get 21x more views.

When I finally built mine out with a strong headline, a story-driven summary, and visible achievements, the difference was immediate. Recruiters started contacting me. Opportunities came to me, rather than the other way around.

👉 Call to action: If you’re not sure, grab our Professional CV Review Service to stress-test your document.

And as I shared in the Q&A:

“Too many executives recycle the same CV they’ve used for years, hoping it will ‘speak for itself.’ They neglect LinkedIn, assuming their track record is enough. At senior level, safety is the riskiest strategy. Safe blends in. Safe is forgettable.”

👉 Lesson: If you’re not actively shaping your LinkedIn presence, you’re leaving your career to chance.

Step 3: Build Reputation and Sponsors

Once I had visibility, I realised something else: the higher up you go, the fewer jobs are ever advertised. Roles move through networks, referrals, and reputation.

📊 Adler Group studies show that 70–80% of senior jobs never reach job boards.

For me, the game-changers were sponsors; people who advocated for me when I wasn’t in the room. A line manager who said, “Zoe should do that project.” A director who put my name forward for a role. Those interventions created opportunities I never could have engineered on my own.

As I explained yesterday:

“Your CV and LinkedIn get you noticed. Recruiters and trigger events open doors. But your reputation is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. That’s what gets your name raised for opportunities you didn’t even know existed.”

👉 Lesson: Reputation isn’t built overnight. It’s built through consistent results, visibility, and ensuring people know the impact you deliver.

Step 4: Commit to Continuous Learning and Mentorship

When I first came back to the workforce, I thought my old qualifications would be enough. They weren’t. The market had moved on.

So, I became a student again, reading, attending training, and seeking mentors. Every new insight became something I could apply immediately at work. And every mentor accelerated my thinking further than I could have gone alone.

📊 OECD research shows workers engaged in lifelong learning enjoy higher lifetime earnings and greater resilience to market changes.

👉 Call to action: If you’re not confident in that answer, explore our LinkedIn Review Service to make sure you’re not leaving opportunities on the table.

And here’s how I put it yesterday:

“Start with clarity and visibility… Once those foundations are in place, build networks that put your name in the right conversations. You don’t need hundreds of connections. You need the right ones, and genuine relationships.”

Continuous development isn’t just about courses. It’s about staying intentional; building skills, relationships, and confidence that compound over time.

👉 Lesson: You can’t network effectively or approach recruiters strategically if your foundations are shaky. Start there.

Step 5: Partner With Recruiters, Don’t Wait For Them

Early on, I made a classic mistake: assuming recruiters were there to “find me something.” That misunderstanding wasted months.

The truth is, recruiters work for clients, not candidates. Once I reframed them as partners, and made it easy for them to place me, everything changed.

📊 Korn Ferry reports that executive search firms place more than 40% of executives worldwide.

But as I often tell clients: not all recruiters are great. Some chase quick wins. The key is identifying the good ones, building relationships, and staying visible.

Or as I summed it up yesterday:

“If you’re not actively shaping your narrative and positioning yourself, you’re leaving your career to chance.”

👉 Lesson: Don’t wait to be “found.” Help recruiters help you by being clear, credible, and memorable.

Step 6: Use Trigger Events to Create Opportunities

By the time a role hits a job board, it’s usually already half-filled. The best opportunities come from getting ahead of the curve.

I learned to track trigger events; funding rounds, mergers, leadership changes, contract wins. Each one creates new leadership needs. Reaching out at the right time made me part of the solution, rather than one of hundreds of applicants.

I also built relationships with “door openers” local business journalists, chamber of commerce contacts, networking organisers. They had their ear to the ground and could make introductions that changed everything.

📊 Jobvite reports referral hires are 55% faster to onboard and stay longer. McKinsey shows proactive pipelines slash hiring timelines.

👉 Call to action: If you’re not sure, grab our Professional CV Review Service to stress-test your document

And as I said in yesterday’s Q&A:

“That minimum-wage contract didn’t look like progress on paper. But it was the springboard. It gave me the chance to prove myself again, rebuild my story, and create momentum. Sometimes the opportunity that doesn’t look glamorous is the one that unlocks the next big move.”

👉 Lesson: Don’t wait for opportunity to knock. Go where the doors are already opening.

The Complete Roadmap

Looking back, these six levers weren’t optional. They were the foundation that took me from invisible to in demand.

Your 6-Step Roadmap:

Applied consistently, they don’t just get you a job. They put you in control of your career.

You can read my Q&A here, where I talk about how I put each of the levers to work for me.

The Final Takeaway

When people ask me how I did it, they often expect a silver bullet. But there wasn’t one. It was these six levers, applied with clarity and consistency.

And the truth is, if I could go from minimum wage to six figures, so can you.

The only question is: are you ready to take control of your story?

Because opportunity doesn’t just happen. It’s created.

📌 This blog is the wrap-up of my From Minimum Wage to Six Figures series.

Your next career move deserves more than guesswork. At Resume Pilots, we specialise in crafting executive-level CVs and LinkedIn profiles that get results. We showcase your impact and position you for six-figure roles.

If you’re serious about taking control of your career story, let’s talk.

👉 Schedule a call with our team today and take the first step toward your next big opportunity.

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From Minimum Wage to Six Figures: The 6-Step Roadmap That Changed My Career