The WA job market is flush with opportunities offering more than $100,000 annual salaries with little to no formal qualifications required – and they’re not all remote.
While mining related jobs are driving the higher paid end of the entry-level jobs search, data shows the demand for managerial roles, trades and services, community services and defence careers are rising, and so are the wages.
From restocking apples to store manager, Todd Pearson is a shining example of how hard work and determination can lead one to success.Credit: Woolworths
Rockingham resident and local Woolworths store manager Todd Pearson is one such worker who knows all too well that a university career pathway doesn’t always offer the best incentives to a well-paid, work/life balanced lifestyle.
The now 30-year-old, a father of three, says he has no regrets about leaving part-way through a Bachelor of Education degree for a Woolworths career that offered on-the-job training, work flexibility – and, of course, a healthy $110,000 pay packet.
“I was at a bit of an impasse … I really wanted to be a teacher but wasn’t really enjoying the university side of it, but I absolutely loved working in retail,” he said.
“It seems to be the old fable story, I took a gap year as second-in-command in the deli and then went from department to department, I ended up opening a couple of new stores as the grocery manager, and then I was offered a regional position in Esperance as the assistant store manager.”
From restocking the apples as a 14-year-old to managing his own store by the time he was 24, Pearson had some words of advice for other aspiring jobseekers searching for mentally, and financially, rewarding roles.
“Be open to change and open to learn – that open attitude and open mindset is the best thing,” he said.
“When I started, I didn’t want to work in the deli because I didn’t like handling the chickens and the hams, but I knew it was an opportunity to show what I could do.