Amazon intern tripled her big tech salary and built a $302,000 side job that surpasses her day job – Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Data scientist between 2015 and 2024 Sundas Khalid more than tripled her Big Tech salary and then built a content business that outpaced her day job. For someone who grew up in the lower middle class and is insecure about money, seeing those numbers still feels surreal.

From Amazon intern to Google director

As noted in a Business Insider accountKhalid’s story started with one 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 about $77,000. In 2016, after already doing higher-level work, she rose to data engineer II and earned $127,000.

Her script was simple. She did the work at the level she was supposed to be working at and then documented the impact. By 2018, she had started focusing on data science at Amazon, where she earned around $232,000.