Cinneah El-Amin had come to a turning point. She had gotten her first job and was making a decent salary, but she was still saddled with a lot of debt and was living paycheck to paycheck. After learning about the F.I.R.E. (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement, she decided to be intentional and figure out a way to improve her financial situation. Using a budget and leveraging her professional and networking skills to get a job with a higher salary, she was able to pay off her $23,000 debt in one year. Now, she takes what she's learned over the years and uses it to help others on their own financial journeys.
El-Amin is now an influencer, motivational speaker, and CEO of Flynanced, a company and community that assists women on their journey to financial freedom. El-Amin did not start out believing that she was going to be an influencer or financial advisor, but once she saw that she could be a resource for her community, she decided to start her company and provide advice that could help women build their financial future. She didn't come from a foundation of generational wealth and she believes financial and career advice from someone who has had to make their own way can helpful to those who are also making their own way. Flynanced provides wealth-building advice as well as career advice for people who have traditional 9-5 jobs. El-Amin herself, until recently, worked a 9-5 job while operating Flynanced, which gives her a unique insight on many aspects of corporate life. In her courses, she shares how she job-hopped over the years and managed to more than double her salary in a short number of years.
In this slower economic period, many are trying to make better financial and career decisions and for young workers, it can be daunting to try to move up the career ladder or to determine when it's time to leave a job for greener pastures. El-Amin shares her experiences and expertise to help empower employees to make important decisions.
In The Gaudy: Insights interview with El-Amin, the CEO gave some advice about how to know whether it's worth it to stick it out at the same company or to job-hop in hopes of a higher salary: "If you stay at a company for two or more years and you have not seen- not only just in terms of your compensation and title- in terms of the opportunities that are being presented...are you given a chance to really shine? Are you given a chance to get exposure to more people? Are you being tapped for cool stretch assignments? If your skills, salary, and title aren't changing and it's been a few years in that role, it's time to leave...it's time to go somewhere else where you can fill up those gaps."
El-Amin encourages young workers to look at their professional skills and figure out how they can apply them to a variety of jobs in a multitude of industries. "You have skills within your toolbox...that you may not be highlighting, that can get you to jobs that want to pay you the salary that you want," she advises, using an administrative assistant as an example, who might have transferable skills that could apply to a program management position in the tech industry. She suggests that job hunters do the research to determine what their top skills are and how they can apply them to get the career they're looking for.
Interested in more advice from Cinneah El-Amin? Please check out her website: www.flynanced.com or her Instagram account @fly.nanced
