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How to Make More Money in your Job

2025-03-25 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali, Jenny Wood · recording, 25:07 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Work and career · mode: List of tips or lessons · tags: Lesson from a book, His medical past, His own numbers, Sponsor segment present, Feel-Good Productivity thesis

Drawing on his conversation with former Google executive Jenny Wood and her book Wild Courage, Ali gives nine strategies for earning more without quitting your job, built on becoming your boss's favourite employee: prepare your one-on-ones, send a shameless Monday morning email, lead with 'you', tame the octopus, use a grab first slide, become an energiser, hold a career development conversation and partner with your manager on a raise.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Making more money as an employee; Jenny Wood and the nine strategies

  • ★★★ Ali says entrepreneurship is not right for most people: only about 7% of the population will be entrepreneurs, and the vast majority are employees in regular jobs. — 00:00:00
  • ★ Ali says how to make more money without quitting your job gets too little attention, while people are bombarded with messages about side hustles, passive income and entrepreneurship. — 00:00:00 · passive income
  • ★★ Jenny Wood is a former Google executive and Harvard Business School researcher who founded Own Your Career, Google's largest career development programme. — 00:00:29 · Google
  • ★★ Ali recommends Jenny Wood's book Wild Courage to anyone who wants to make more money in their job. — 00:00:58

  • ★★★ Jenny Wood says most people think they must start their own business for financial freedom, but you can find it within your own company: promotions and raises compound, up to a seven-figure salary. — 00:00:58 · work optional

    “you can find financial freedom right within your own company.”

  • ★★ Ali adds that Jenny Wood worked at Google in the US, where seven-figure salaries are not uncommon, so viewers outside tech, finance or other high-paying fields should not fixate on the number. — 00:00:58 · Google, United States

  • ★★ Whatever your industry, Ali says, a lot within your control can help you earn significantly more in your job. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Ali adds his own takes as an entrepreneur with a team of about 20 people, on the other side of conversations with team members who want more money. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ Jenny Wood's first strategy is to try to become your boss's favourite employee, because your boss can determine your success, your career and your financial freedom. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ Ali says your boss is most likely the one who approves your raises, recommends you for promotions and assigns you to interesting and valuable projects. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ Jenny Wood says how your boss feels about you has a tremendous impact on your happiness, productivity and motivation, and would almost argue it is a more important relationship than with your partner or spouse. (hedged) — 00:01:56

00:02:08 — Strategy 1: become your boss's favourite employee

  • ★★ Jenny Wood says a partner or spouse gives a baseline of trust, so an argument at 2 p.m. can be resolved by 8 p.m., while being unsure how your manager feels about you is almost more damaging. — 00:02:41
  • ★★ Jenny Wood says that when your boss does not like you, work feels frustrating and stressful, you feel anxious and sometimes sleep-deprived, and you start thinking you will not grow, get promoted or get a raise. — 00:03:10
  • ★★ Ali recalls that when he worked in medicine, working with a manager, boss or senior doctor he knew did not like him made going to work very stressful. — 00:03:10
  • ★★ Jenny Wood says that when your boss values and likes you, you feel like you are walking on air and your career is on a rocket ship. — 00:03:49
  • ★★★ Ali says step one towards making more money as an employee is to get your manager or boss to really like and value you; the other strategies show how. — 00:04:18

00:04:46 — Strategy 2: prepare for your one-on-ones

  • ★★ Ali says most people prepare absolutely nothing for their one-on-ones with their manager: an empty Google Doc. — 00:04:47 · Google
  • ★★★ Jenny Wood's second strategy is a one-on-one doc with three standing categories, business, operations and people, plus career every four to six weeks, filled every week with bullets, numbers and links. — 00:05:33

  • ★★★ Jenny Wood says preparing for one-on-ones is the best use of your time, because it is not just what you do that matters for your career but what your manager thinks you do. — 00:06:03

    “it's not just what you do that matters for your career. It's what your manager thinks you do.”

00:06:15 — Strategy 3: the shameless Monday morning email

  • ★★★ Jenny Wood calls "keep your head down, do good work, your work will speak for itself" the biggest career fallacy: it won't, and visibility matters. — 00:06:25
  • ★★ Ali says managers are not mind readers and usually just have too much on their plate, so being proactive about showing what you are working on is super helpful. — 00:06:48
  • ★★★ Jenny Wood's third strategy, the shameless Monday morning email: every Monday send your boss a short "mini-festo" of what you accomplished last week (week of 17 March 2025) and what you will work on this week (week of 24 March 2025), taking only 15 minutes to write. — 00:07:17
  • ★★ Ali says the Monday update can be sent as an email, a Slack DM or a WhatsApp message. — 00:07:46 · Slack, WhatsApp

00:08:16 — VoicePal sponsors the video

  • ★★ Ali tells managers to imagine how great it would feel if direct reports sent a Monday update unprompted; so few people do it, though it takes 15 minutes and gives the boss far more visibility. — 00:08:16
  • ★★★ Jenny Wood's fourth strategy, you versus I: when communicating with your boss, spoken or written, start as many sentences as possible with "you" rather than "I". — 00:09:14

00:09:24 — Strategy 4: you versus I, and what to say in a job interview

  • ★ Ali shows Jenny Wood's example: after giving a keynote she rewrote her thank-you email to the organiser so that it focused on "you" rather than "I". — 00:10:04
  • ★★★ Jenny Wood says that in a job interview or when showing your boss you are ready for promotion, they want to know how you can move the business: which metrics, such as customer satisfaction, revenue or speed of operations. — 00:10:33
  • ★★ Ali says he has hired lots of people, seen thousands of résumés and done dozens of interviews, and most candidates are bad at job interviews because nobody taught them. — 00:11:03
  • ★★★ Ali's job interview tip: recognise that the person interviewing you does not really care about you but about the value you can add to their company. — 00:11:03
  • ★★ As an employer, Ali does not want to hear that a candidate wants the job to learn: he is the one paying their salary. — 00:11:32
  • ★★ Asked why you want a job, Ali suggests answering that you can add a lot of value to the employer and their business, and naming the skills that will help. — 00:12:01

00:12:52 — Strategy 5: tame the octopus; three options with a point of view

  • ★★★ Jenny Wood's fifth strategy, tame the octopus: communicating with conviction is one of the most critical skills at any career level, and the tool is about more succinct communication. — 00:12:52
  • ★★★ Jenny Wood: To tame the octopus, Jenny Wood pauses, writes down five to seven things she could say, circles the three most relevant, leads with just those words, says a little on each, then buttons it up by repeating the three. — 00:15:16
  • ★★ Jenny Wood says people fear that pausing before they answer will make them sound unprepared, but it has the opposite effect: they sound more prepared, poised and smarter. — 00:16:00
  • ★★★ Ali loves it when his team give three options with a point of view, and it annoys him when they don't. — 00:16:00
  • ★★ Jenny Wood says you will always impress your boss by setting out three options, such as three ice cream flavours for next year's (2026) strategy, and recommending one with the data behind it. — 00:16:00
  • ★★ Jenny Wood says people do not present options this way because they do not practise it and think it looks like trying too hard. — 00:16:40

00:16:56 — Strategy 6: the grab first slide template

  • ★★★ Jenny Wood's sixth strategy, the grab first slide: people spend hours perfecting a 40-slide deck, but the first slide is critical and should grab attention so they know exactly what you are asking for. — 00:17:09
  • ★★ For an executive or manager at a presentation, Ali says, it is much nicer to get the information and the point upfront than 27 minutes into a half-hour presentation. — 00:18:13

00:18:16 — Strategy 7: become an energiser

  • ★★ Jenny Wood's seventh strategy is to become an energiser: no asset is more in demand at any organisation than being a net positive energy contributor. (overstated) — 00:18:35 · energisers and drainers
  • ★★★ Ali asks whether your manager looks forward to or dreads meeting you: as a net energy contributor you are far more likely to be your boss's favourite employee and get the promotions and raises. — 00:19:34 · energisers and drainers
  • ★★ Ali cites research from his book Feel-Good Productivity: organisations that map energisers and drainers find energisers make more money, get more promotions and get better evaluations from peers and managers. — 00:20:03 · Feel-Good Productivity (book), energisers and drainers
  • ★★ Jenny Wood says a net positive energy contributor builds a relationship with their boss that helps them stay longer, get promoted and get a raise, because people like working with people they like. — 00:20:03 · energisers and drainers

00:20:30 — Strategy 8: schedule a career development conversation; a business is a social group that needs customers

  • ★★★ Jenny Wood's eighth strategy: schedule a dedicated 30-to-45-minute meeting titled "Career development conversation" rather than your regular one-on-one title, to signal it is about your growth, raise and promotion. — 00:20:32
  • ★★ Ali directly manages only his general manager, Angus, and almost no one on his team asks him for a call about their career development, though he would say yes. — 00:21:19 · Angus (general manager)
  • ★★★ Ali says a career development conversation with him directly, beyond a team member's own manager, would be very helpful for their career. — 00:21:48
  • ★★ Jenny Wood says that for her first 10 years at Google she held back, insecure and full of imposter syndrome, terrified to set up a one-on-one with her boss's boss. — 00:21:48 · Google, imposter syndrome
  • ★★★ Jenny Wood says relationships with your manager's manager and their peers make raises and promotions far likelier, because in most organisations these are decided by a group of people. — 00:22:30
  • ★★★ Jenny Wood (quoted): A point that recurs in Jenny Wood's book Wild Courage: a business is simply a social group that needs customers. — 00:22:59

00:23:22 — Strategy 9: work with your manager on a raise; closing

  • ★★ Ali agrees his team of about 20 is basically a social group that needs customers, so what works in a friendship group, such as being an energiser people look forward to seeing, goes a long way towards getting ahead. — 00:23:25 · energisers and drainers
  • ★★★ Jenny Wood's ninth strategy is to work with your manager on a raise: lead with what and how questions ("How can we work together to achieve a raise in six months?"), never yes-or-no questions. — 00:23:25
  • ★★ For viewers in a normal job who want a career they love, Ali points to his Book Club episode with Professor Grace Lordan of the London School of Economics on shaping a more meaningful career. — 00:24:39 · Book Club

In the description and comments

  • ★★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked whether the advice ignores office politics, the channel says office politics are usually outside your control; being liked and visible helps, and if you are still held back by office politics, it might be time for a job change. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: energisers and drainers · Jenny Wood · shameless Monday morning email · tame the octopus · Wild Courage

Also: People: Angus (general manager) · Grace Lordan

Projects: Book Club

Works: Feel-Good Productivity (book)

Organizations: Google · Harvard Business School · London School of Economics

Concepts: grab method · imposter syndrome · passive income · work optional

Places: United States

Products: Slack · VoicePal · WhatsApp

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