On her career-oriented blog, Penelope reports that men typically reach the top of their earning potential at age 45, while women hit a ceiling at age 38. With this in mind, she offers some tips to maximize your earnings potential:

Pursue male-dominated career paths. Pay is usually better in line management career tracks than support-oriented roles, such as human resources, Penelope writes, suggesting some women gravitate toward lower-paying, gender-segregated career paths.

Rework your resume. Resumes should advertise your accomplishments rather than responsibilities. Employers value action and ambition over titles. She also says you should cut jobs that aren’t in the last 15 years and drop the year of your college graduation, in order not to date yourself.

Find and own a specialty. It tends to be more lucrative to hone a particular skill to perfection rather than being a generalist with no particular overpowering strength. The best at any profession can command the highest salaries.

What have you done to make yourself more valuable in your chosen career?

Salaries top out at age 40 [Penelope Trunk via Lifehacker]

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