Between 2015 and 2024, data scientist Sundas Khalid more than tripled her Big Tech pay and then built a content business that out-earned her day job. For someone who grew up lower middle-class and unsure about money, seeing those numbers still feels surreal.
As noted in a Business Insider account, Khalid’s story began with an Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) internship in 2013 and a return offer as a data engineer the following year. In 2015, her first full year, she earned around $77,000. By 2016, after she’d already been doing higher-level work, she moved up to data engineer II and $127,000.
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Her playbook was simple. She put in the work at the level she’d work and then documented the impact. By 2018, she had pivoted into data science at Amazon, making about $232,000.
In 2019, competing offers from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet Inc’s Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) gave her something most candidates underuse, which is leverage. She used Microsoft’s proposed $255,000 package to negotiate her way into Google, where she’s a principal analytics lead in search and ads, earning $292,000 in 2024.
Khalid started posting career wins on Instagram in 2016 to connect with other women in tech. After Instagram launched Reels in 2020, she doubled down on short-form advice about breaking into and growing in tech, plus longer YouTube explainers.
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Ad revenue was nice, but the real money showed up when brands began paying for integrations. Today, she estimates 90% of her creator income comes from sponsorships, supported by a virtual assistant and video editors, so she can focus on ideas and scripts.
She now spends about five hours a week on content, has 735,000 followers across TikTok, YouTube and Instagram and generated $302,000 from her creator business in 2024, which is more than her Google paycheck, and a second income stream that helps her sleep better in a volatile tech job market while she continues to support her two kids.
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