This story is a part of CNBC Make It is Millennial Money sequence, which particulars how folks world wide earn, spend and save their cash.
When Sora Lee was an undergraduate pupil on the College of California, Berkeley, she acquired what she considers to be fairly dangerous career advice.
“‘Pursue a major that you just’re enthusiastic about,'” she says an advisor advised her and her friends. “Good for her that her profession labored out, however I do not suppose that was very useful recommendation for somebody like me who was a world pupil.”
Lee started finding out political science, which she was involved in, till she thought of the way it could affect her earnings and skill to get a job down the road. As an immigrant from South Korea, Lee was already serious about her capacity to remain and work within the States, which might require an employer-sponsored visa.
In her thoughts, that might be troublesome to achieve with no job in a extremely aggressive discipline. She did not suppose a bachelor’s diploma in political science alone would lead her there.
“I do not suppose it is mutually unique to pursue cash or pursue ardour, however I do suppose you’ll be able to’t not take into consideration cash as a result of plenty of us must assist [a family] or haven’t any household to assist [us],” Lee tells CNBC Make It.
She wound up double majoring in political science and economics to broaden her job prospects, and the choice appears to have paid off.
Sora Lee is the international head of product advertising and marketing for TikTok.
Mickey Todiwala | CNBC Make It
Now 34, Lee lives in San Mateo, California, and earns a base wage of $320,000 a 12 months as the worldwide head of product advertising and marketing at TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance. This 12 months, she’ll obtain $80,000 in restricted inventory items, which brings her complete compensation as much as $400,000.
She began at TikTok in 2023. That 12 months, she acquired $48,000 in RSUs and a $50,000 sign-on bonus along with her base wage.
That wasn’t her solely compensation. Cash from a severance bundle, inventory gross sales, renting out a room, promoting a home and dealing her side hustles introduced her 2023 earnings to about $840,000.
Lee did not know she would go into tech. Her first job out of faculty in 2012 solely paid round $46,000. However she’s championed for herself in negotiations, realized how you can succeed at work and utilized these classes with every profession transition she’s made alongside the way in which.
“It is onerous to dream of changing into one thing that you have by no means heard of or been uncovered to,” Lee says. “I strive in my life to point out that there are these profession paths, however going into tech was not likely a objective I had in thoughts. I simply sort of fell into it.”
Working with a few of ‘the world’s smartest, most competent folks’
Being in Berkeley helped Lee get publicity and jobs at startups within the space that have been keen to rent worldwide college students. After incomes her bachelor’s diploma, she began working at a small video analytics startup referred to as TubeMogul.
Whereas working at TubeMogul in 2012, she grew to become conscious of Netflix because it was starting to take off. TubeMogul was competing for an advert tech partnership with Netflix, so Lee realized concerning the firm’s personal know-how and tradition.
“My coworker stated, ‘For those who’re annoyed concerning the working tradition [at TubeMogul], it is best to learn this deck,'” Lee says of a Netflix company culture assertion. “I believed it was so refreshing, simply sort of pondering it is one thing that would occur to me far, distant sooner or later.”
She would not have to attend lengthy. A Netflix recruiter reached out to her that very same week.
Lee began working at Netflix on its digital advertising and marketing programmatic shopping for group in 2014, incomes a wage of $110,000. She stayed there till 2016, and took as a place at WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta, in January 2017. She stayed at Meta for six years in a number of totally different roles for Fb, finally incomes over $200,000 a 12 months.
By this level, she knew she may command a large salary and loved the advantages of working at extremely regarded tech corporations. However her satisfaction did not primarily come from the free lunches.
“I believe the largest perk is attending to work with a few of the world’s smartest, most competent folks and studying from them,” she says. “We are able to speak concerning the workplace meals, journey and all of the glamour that comes with it. However on the finish of the day, I believe that is the profit that every one corporations ought to try to offer.”
Lee continuously travels for work, primarily to New York, Austin, Texas and Los Angeles.
Andrew Evers and Lisa Setyon | CNBC Make It
By the tip of 2022, Lee felt she was outgrowing her function at Meta, and had begun on the lookout for new alternatives. However the ultimate determination to go away wasn’t fully hers. “It was really excellent timing that I acquired laid off,” Lee says of being a part of Meta’s November 2022 job cuts.
“I acquired laid off on Wednesday, acquired my provide from TikTok on Friday, and had one other provide from one other agency on Monday as a result of I had already been interviewing,” she says. “I negotiated between the two, and I acquired this TikTok function and I used to be capable of get the [Meta] severance and begin my new job.”
She started in her present function at TikTok in January 2023.
‘I felt like I made it’
By now, Lee’s annual earnings has grown almost 10 occasions from what she earned recent out of school. And whereas she’s loved her wage development, her more moderen pay will increase have not felt as candy as getting her first massive verify did.
The soar from incomes $46,000 a 12 months to $110,000 when she began at Netflix was enormous. “[I] felt like I made it,” she says. “That is after I purchased my first designer purse.”
Now working alongside senior executives and administrators “making hundreds of thousands,” Lee says she would not really feel as rich as when she first joined the six-figure wage membership.
Whereas she needs to proceed growing her wage, cash alone is not sufficient. She needs her work to really feel significant and difficult, so she would not essentially take a better-paying job until it glad these psychological wants.
“You spend so many hours in every week [at work], why spend it on one thing that you just’re not excited by?” she says.
How she spends her cash
Lee did not all the time have the monetary cushion she has now. She opted to graduate from college in three years so as to lower your expenses, and whereas she was a pupil, she donated her eggs thrice for money to pay her tuition.
“I do not remorse it,” she says of that call. “I believe it was a great way to assist fund my training [and] on the similar time, give kids to households who wished their very own youngsters.”
In 2019, she had a toddler of her personal, Jackson. She shares custody of him together with her ex-husband after their marriage resulted in 2021.
Lee enjoys spending time together with her 5-year-old son, Jackson.
Andrew Evers and Lisa Setyon | CNBC Make It
“I wasn’t tremendous prepared for the divorce regardless that I had initiated it,” she says. “I haven’t got any regrets. I used to be at some extent the place I might be wonderful, even when my internet price begins at zero.”
She earned greater than her husband on the time and was ordered to pay spousal assist for a 12 months after the divorce was finalized. Moreover, she needed to pay hefty lawyer charges and promote two of the properties they owned collectively, one at a loss.
“My ex was managing all of the funds, so I used to be fairly oblivious to something like private investing,” she says. “I did not know how you can do something, which sounds sort of humorous as a result of I am the one with an MBA diploma.”
This is a take a look at Lee’s spending in March 2023:
- Housing and utilities: $2,787 for her portion of the lease, cut up together with her present accomplice, plus Wi-Fi and utilities
- Discretionary: $4,445 on a necklace she purchased herself, a digital camera, family items, cleansing providers, books and presents for buddies
- Little one care: $2,339 for Jackson’s pre-Ok
- Financial savings and investments: $2,326 towards her 401(ok) and versatile spending accounts
- Transportation: $1,203 on her automobile fee and charging charges
- Subscriptions and memberships: $487 for Pilates courses, Netflix, a water filtration system, ChatGPT, Audible and an indoor playground
- Meals: $427 totally on groceries; her accomplice buys meals once they dine out
- Pupil mortgage fee: $246
- Items: $200
- Insurance coverage: $125 for well being, imaginative and prescient and dental insurance coverage
Lee’s solely excellent debt is round $36,000 for her Tesla and simply over $3,200 in pupil loans from her grasp’s diploma. She has a mortgage in her title for a house in Lake Tahoe, however her ex-husband makes the funds.
Lee’s firm covers her telephone invoice, and she or he pays for automobile insurance coverage bi-annually, so she did not make a fee in March.
Although she would not frequently contribute to financial savings, she has over $21,000 in money throughout a number of private and enterprise checking accounts and over $8,000 in company-sponsored versatile financial savings accounts. Moreover, Lee has $755,283 invested in retirement accounts, a 529 financial savings account for Jackson, and crypto and common brokerage accounts.
All advised, her internet price is round $843,000.
Shopping for again her time
Between her son, her job — which regularly has her touring cross-country — and her burgeoning facet hustle as a content material creator, public speaker and creator, Lee has a full plate. Consequently, she all the time seems to be for tactics to optimize her routine and profit from every day.
“I solely have [Jackson] half the time and I need to be actually current after I’m with him,” she says. “After which when I haven’t got him, I additionally need to go full-in on my work and my different endeavors.”
Consequently, she pays for a home cleaner to return twice every week and is completely satisfied to spend money on experiences together with her son, like an indoor playground membership. Lee says these particular actions and high quality time assist hold her grounded.
I solely have [Jackson] half the time and I need to be actually current after I’m with him.
“I nearly really feel like God or some kind of greater being gave [Jackson] to me so I can take a pause and revel in life versus continually serious about how I can do higher and be extra, and feeling anxious about how I’m not doing sufficient, and the way I am not making sufficient cash,” she says.
Lee says she struggles with anxiety round whether or not she’s making enough, or if her house is “good sufficient,” which stems from how her dad spoke about cash when she was rising up. “My father continually talked about cash and he would place worth on folks primarily based on the place they reside or what sort of automobiles they drove,” she says.
She hopes to show her son to view cash in a more healthy method.
Lee and her son, Jackson, take pleasure in internet hosting buddies for dinner events and play dates.
Andrew Evers and Lisa Setyon | CNBC Make It
“I like having grownup discussions with him,” she says. For instance, Jackson can determine sure automobile manufacturers like Porsche and is aware of they’re costly, however she’ll inform him issues like, “Simply because somebody has a pleasant automobile does not imply that they are rich.”
She is aware of a 5-year-old could not absolutely grasp the idea of a depreciating asset, however he can begin to perceive that having costly issues would not all the time mean someone is rich.
‘I need to see how far I can take this’
The way forward for TikTok within the U.S. remains uncertain, however Lee is not anxious about her profession.
In actual fact, after showing on a Netflix actuality present, “Love After Divorce,” she noticed her social media following start to develop and realized she had a chance to leverage the viewers to raise her profession another way.
Her rising follower rely helped her safe model partnerships and talking engagements, “which gave me plenty of pleasure as a result of I do love sharing how you can turn into a simpler worker and how you can navigate company careers,” she says.
On her TikTok, YouTube and Instagram accounts, Lee shares profession and way of life recommendation primarily based on her experiences. At talking engagements, she offers related recommendation on how girls particularly can climb the company ladder. Final 12 months she introduced in over $8,000 via these avenues, and she or he expects to usher in over $19,000 this 12 months, because of extra occasions and a guide deal.
Lee enjoys {golfing} in her free time.
Andrew Evers and Lisa Setyon | CNBC Make It
“I really like creating partaking or instructional content material to assist others,” she says. “It has been actually enjoyable and actually rewarding, so I need to see how far I can take this.”
Lee encourages her followers to get comfy talking about money as a result of it is helped her study private finance after her divorce.
“Do not be embarrassed about how little you are making, or do not be embarrassed that you do not know how to do that,” she says. “We’re all figuring this out collectively.”
For earnings earned in South Korea, conversions from South Korean Received to USD have been executed utilizing the OANDA conversion fee of 1 Received to 0.00077 USD on December 31, 2023. All quantities are rounded to the closest greenback.
What’s your price range breakdown? Share your story with us for an opportunity to be featured in a future installment.
Wish to be a profitable, assured communicator? Take CNBC’s new on-line course Become an Effective Communicator: Master Public Speaking. We’ll train you how you can communicate clearly and confidently, calm your nerves, what to say and never say, and physique language methods to make an important first impression. Join at this time and use code EARLYBIRD for an introductory low cost of 30% off via July 10, 2024.
Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get ideas and tips for achievement at work, with cash and in life.
