You work in a local burger joint with three other employees and a maniacal owner. The owner has just promoted you to HR director, adding to your other duties as chief cook, bottle washer, bookkeeper—all without a pay raise.

You've jumped ship, and now you're HR director for a local doggie daycare chain. You specialize in hiring and firing and health and safety, and you can't wait to see the end of mediating dog-bite cases.

Your ascent in the HR world continues, and you're out of doggie daycare and into high-tech at ten times your old salary. You assist in hiring and firing decisions and help set up employee compensation plans, stock options, and all.

You're at an even bigger tech company, and the brass is so pleased with your work that they're footing the bill for law school, all while you continue working as an HR director.

You're a newly-minted lawyer and you're promoted to the top, where you help set company policy on just about everything that affects company life. Life at the top is lucrative, but a bit lonely. But you're making over a million bucks, so who's complaining?