Top 10 jobs that will pay you over $100k per year
Two years ago, I was sitting in my car and doing math on my paycheck for the tenth time that month when a notification popped up on my mobile phone. An old coworker had posted on LinkedIn about her new job based on salary, about 118,000 dollars. She did not have a master’s degree. She did not come from a fancy college or school. She’d just spent about 14 months methodically switching lanes.
That post bugged me for a week. Certainly not out of jealousy – more along the lines of “Wait, can this even be done by an ordinary individual?”
That’s right, I followed my instincts and fell down a rabbit hole. I interviewed people working in those positions, attempted a couple of the certifications myself, took some horrible classes online, and finally helped some of my friends transition into it as well. Some of it worked fast. Some of it took way longer than any YouTube thumbnail promised.
Here’s what I actually learned about the jobs that pay six figures and the real path into them—not the “just learn to code in 3 weeks” fantasy version.
Top 10 jobs that will pay you over $100k per year
First, a Quick Reality Check
Prior to presenting the list, an honest point upfront: $100K means different things in different places. $100K in Texas or North Carolina goes a heck of a lot further than $100K in California or New York. Some of these jobs hit six figures pretty quickly. Others take five to ten years of grinding first. I’ll be straight about which is which.
None of these is “get rich quick.” They’re all about “getting skilled, then getting ‘paid’—which is slower, but it’s real.
1. Software Developer / Engineer
This is the obvious choice that pops into everyone’s head, and rightly so. The mean salary on all these platforms, such as Glassdoor, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and Payscale, is found to be within the range of $130K to $150K, whereas entry-level software engineers earn about $85K-$95K.
One thing that no one ever tells you about being a software engineer is that you don’t actually need a computer science degree.
I have seen it happen first-hand myself, as three people I know started learning through The Odin Project and Free Code Camp, which are both free learning resources. While most people spend countless years going after a degree, these individuals dedicated themselves to making useful projects, learning how to code better, and creating an outstanding GitHub repository.
Within a year, they all found employment as developers.
It turns out that what companies need from prospective candidates is not really a degree at all, but rather the ability to develop software and problem-solve. A GitHub account loaded with relevant projects, along with the ability to explain how you did it, can often be much more important than having a degree itself.
Step-by-step reality:
- Pick any language for coding (JavaScript and Python are the easiest ones).
- Build 3-5 projects that offer some value; they are not mere tutorials but small programs that perform a meaningful function.
- Solve coding interview questions on LeetCode for several months prior to applying.
- Apply through referrals wherever possible — cold applications on Indeed have a brutal response rate.
2. Cloud / DevOps Engineer
This one surprised me. A buddy who was an IT tech on the middle support tier managed to earn his AWS certification and became a cloud worker, moving from $58K to $124K in less than two years. Cloud computing and DevOps jobs are typically paid in the range of $120K-$160K after a couple of years of practical experience.
The path here is more certificate-driven than software development. The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification is the real deal that companies understand. There are similar certifications for Azure and Google Cloud, should you work on those systems.
Mistake I watched him make first: he tried to study cloud concepts purely from YouTube videos without ever touching a real AWS account. He wasted two months. Once he opened a free-tier AWS account and actually broke things (and fixed them), it clicked in weeks, not months.
3. Cybersecurity Analyst / Engineer
Cybersecurity pay is all over the map depending on the source — anywhere from $85K on the low end to $140K+ for mid-career analysts, with security architects and engineers going higher still. What’s consistent across every source is the demand: hundreds of thousands of unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the US alone.
CompTIA Security+ is the basic certificate that everyone gets. Then, they specialize in either penetration testing, cloud security, or governance compliance, and this specialization is where the big money kicks in.
One thing I got wrong personally: I assumed you needed to be some kind of hacker prodigy. All the analysts I spoke to had IT help desk experience on their resumes, which led them into the field of security through one certification and one job change after another.
4. Data Scientist (and Senior Data Analyst)
Entry-level data science can actually start below $100K, so this one takes patience. But once you’ve got two or three years in, most sources put data scientist pay somewhere between $120K and $160K, with senior and specialized roles going higher.
Honest-to-goodness problem? The fact that many companies require a master’s degree. However, I’ve seen individuals bypass this requirement by creating a solid portfolio through the use of actual datasets (a good free source for this would be Kaggle), mastering the languages of SQL and Python, and then becoming a data analyst.
Roadmap to success:
- SQL first; it is more important than most would like to think.
- Python/pandas/numpy or R.
- Do 2-3 portfolio projects using public datasets and actually write up your findings like a real analysis, not just code.
- Google’s Data Analytics Certificate on Coursera is a decent, cheap starting point if you need structure.
5. Product Manager
Product management is a weird one because there’s no single “correct” background. I have seen PMs transition into the role from engineering backgrounds, from customer support, and even from marketing.
Being one typically isn’t even an achievement, but more about demonstrating your ability to be a bridge between the needs of the business and the technical implementation of the need. There are numerous people I’ve met in my life who have successfully switched careers to become a product manager. They usually begin as either a customer success representative or an analyst, before volunteering for inter-departmental assignments and getting promoted by their company to become PMs.
6. Senior UX / Product Designer
The salary for junior UX designers may not seem very impressive, thus discouraging many graduates of coding bootcamps. But once you’ve built a couple of years of experience and a strong case-study portfolio, senior UX and product designers commonly earn $110K-$140K+.
Figma is the tool basically every company uses now, so it’s non-negotiable to know well. What actually gets people hired isn’t a pretty portfolio — it’s a portfolio that explains why you made design decisions and what business problem you solved. I’ve reviewed a lot of junior portfolios that were just pretty screens with zero reasoning behind them, and those get passed over constantly.
7. Technical Sales / Sales Engineer
This one doesn’t get talked about enough in “high-paying career” content, but it should. Sales engineers—people who know their products inside out and can demonstrate and sell them—earn between $110K and $180K+.
It doesn’t require any knowledge of programming languages, but a person must know the product he sells and be at ease talking to customers. A former teacher I know moved into SaaS sales engineering by learning one software product inside and out, then interviewing specifically for companies using that tool. In just 18 months, her compensation package had almost doubled!
8. NP (Physician’s Assistant)
This is the non-tech option people sleep on. Nurse practitioner salaries currently average somewhere in the $110K-$140K range nationally, with plenty of states and specialties pushing past $150K.
The catch: this path takes real time and licensing. You need an RN license first, then a master’s or doctorate in nursing practice (many programs, like Georgetown’s or WGU’s, offer this online while you keep working). It’s a 3-6 year commitment depending on your starting point, but the job security and demand are about as strong as it gets in any US industry right now.
9. Actuary
Actuaries are the quiet six-figure earners nobody talks about at parties. Once you’re a few exams into the Society of Actuaries (SOA) track, pay regularly clears $100K, and fully credentialed actuaries (Fellows) often earn $150K-$200K.
The path is entirely exam-based, not degree-based. You pass exams (P, FM, and beyond) while working an entry-level actuarial analyst job, and most companies actually pay for your study materials and give you paid study time. Coaching Actuaries is the go-to prep resource nearly everyone in the field uses. It’s slow — expect 6-10 years to full credentialing — but insurance and finance companies hire people straight out of undergrad math/stats programs to start this track.
10. Skilled Trades Business Owner (Electrician, HVAC, Plumber)
I would have actually left this one out due to it not being very sexy, but it is probably the most dependable way to make six figures without any kind of degree. An electrician or HVAC specialist who gets into the field as an employee and finally becomes a contractor himself can easily make above $100k per annum and usually earns more, depending on his location.
The process: 4 to 5 years of apprenticeship training (via IBEW for electricians or via trade unions/community colleges for HVAC workers); licensing; some years of work experience with another company to build your reputation and clientele; and then begin working on your own.
Mistakes People Make While Pursuing a Six- Figure Salary Position
I actually did some of them myself while watching my friends do the others:
- Buying an expensive bootcamp before testing the free version. Before spending thousands of dollars on a bootcamp, you should try freeCodeCamp, Khan Academy, or even an auditing course on Coursera.
- Ignoring location and cost of living. An annual salary of $100,000 in a low-cost area will beat an annual salary of $130,000 in a high-cost area when you factor in the cost of rent and taxes.
- Application using a general resume. It is also important to tailor one’s resume according to the specific keywords used in the job application, contrary to popular belief, as many firms continue to screen applicants using automatic filters.
- Skipping networking entirely. Every single transition I saw go well, the fastest always had one thing in common. It was having conversations with actual people who do that job through networking.
- Anticipating that it will take 60 days. The vast majority of career changes typically take between 6 and 18 months of work. It is the people who don’t give up after being rejected several times that end up succeeding.
Conclusion
None of this is accidental, nor does any of this happen overnight. But it’s also not some secret reserved for people with connections or Ivy League degrees. Almost everyone I mentioned in this piece—the AWS friend, the teacher turned sales engineer, the help-desk guy who moved into security—started from a completely normal job and made deliberate, unglamorous moves over a year or two.
If you’re staring at your own paycheck right now, wondering if any of this is realistic, pick one thing from this list, spend a week actually researching what the entry point looks like, and just take the first small step. That’s genuinely how everyone above did it.