Latest / Career Skills with Fexingo: Hard Skills, Soft Skills, and Future-Proofing Your Career / The Skill Chokehold That Keeps You Underpaid
Transcript
- Lucas: There's this pattern I keep seeing in career conversations — someone is really good at one thing, gets paid decently for it, but then the raises stop. The promotions stop. And they can't figure out why. Luna: Right. They're stuck, but they're not underperforming. It's almost like their one strength becomes a ceiling. Lucas: Exactly. I call it a 'skill chokehold' — when a single narrow capability is so valued by your employer that you become the go-to person for it. But that same capability traps you in a role. You're too valuable to move, and your skill set is too narrow to compete for broader roles. Luna: So you're not being punished for being good — you're being punished for being only good at that one thing. Lucas: Right. And I have a concrete example. A senior data analyst at a Fortune 500 retailer — let's call her Priya. She was incredible at building sql based reporting pipelines. Her dashboards were the gold standard in the company. She earned $95,000 a year, which felt good for a while. Luna: But she was doing that for years, wasn't she? Lucas: Four years. In year four, she asked for a promotion to lead analyst. Her manager said she was indispensable in her current role and they couldn't lose her from the reporting team. They gave her a three percent raise and a nice title — 'Senior Associate' — but no real change. Luna: Classic chokehold. She's the only one who can do what she does, so they won't let her stop doing it. Lucas: Meanwhile, another analyst who had a broader skill set — SQL, some Python, basic machine learning, and presentation skills — moved into a product analytics role at $130,000. Priya had more depth in SQL, but the other person had more range. Luna: And range is what the market pays for. Depth gets you hired, but range gets you promoted. Lucas: That's the phrase I've been looking for. LinkedIn's 2025 Workforce Report found that professionals with four or more distinct skill clusters — not just four skills, but clusters — earn on average 38 percent more than those with one or two clusters. Luna: Thirty-eight percent. That's not a small bump. That's the difference between $95,000 and $130,000. Lucas: Exactly. And the chokehold isn't just about compensation. It's about mobility. If your company hits a downturn, the person with one skill is easier to replace than the person who can do analytics, communicate insights, and build models. Luna: So how do you know if you're in a skill chokehold? What are the signs? Lucas: Three signs. One: you're the only person in your organization who does what you do, and people say things like 'we can't afford to lose you from this role.' Two: your skill is a noun — like 'SQL' or 'Excel' — rather than a verb phrase like 'analyze data to drive decisions.' Three: when you look at job postings you're interested in, you're missing two or three of the requirements. Luna: That third one is tough. You're qualified for your current job but not for the next one. That's a real signal. Lucas: So what do you do about it? I think there's a three-step framework. First: diversify your skill portfolio. If your only skill is SQL, add Python or a visualization tool like Tableau. But don't just learn the syntax — learn how to use it to solve a different type of problem. Luna: So it's not about collecting badges. It's about expanding the kinds of problems you can solve. Lucas: Right. Second: build adjacent capabilities. If you're a data analyst, that might mean learning how to present findings to executives or how to design an A/B test. These aren't technical skills, but they make you more versatile in a business context. Luna: And those are the skills that let you move into product or strategy roles. I've seen that happen. Lucas: Third: signal range. Update your resume and LinkedIn profile to show the breadth, not just the depth. Instead of 'SQL expert,' write something like 'built reporting pipelines that saved the marketing team 20 hours per week,' but also list the other tools and contexts you've worked in. Luna: It's interesting — the chokehold is almost self-inflicted in a way. You keep doubling down on the thing you're good at because it feels safe. But safety becomes stagnation. Lucas: Exactly. And a lot of companies encourage it because they need that deep expertise. But the employee pays the price in career growth. Priya eventually broke out by spending three months learning Python on the side and then applying for a role that required both SQL and Python. She got a $115,000 offer from a competitor. Luna: So she didn't even need to leave the skill behind. She just expanded it enough to unlock a new level. Lucas: Right. And her old company countered with $120,000, but she took the new role anyway because she wanted the broader exposure. That's the thing — once you break the chokehold, you realize how much more is possible. Luna: I think a lot of listeners probably recognize themselves in that story. The question is: how do you start when you're already busy doing your day job? Lucas: Start small. Pick one adjacent skill and invest 30 minutes a day for three months. That's about 45 hours total — enough to get conversational. And look for low-stakes projects at work where you can apply it. That way you're learning in context, not in a vacuum. Luna: And if your current employer won't give you those projects, create them. Offer to help a colleague in another department. Lucas: That's a great point. And it ties back to something we've talked about before — skill bridges. The adjacent skill is your bridge out of the chokehold. Luna: You know, we spend a lot of episodes helping people think through these career moves. And it's something we genuinely enjoy doing. Lucas: Yeah. And one reason we can keep doing it is that this show is ad-free. We don't run commercials, which means we can talk about whatever we think is actually useful — not what a sponsor wants us to say. Luna: Exactly. If you find value in that approach and want to support it, there's a simple way. You can visit buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, but it helps keep the show exactly how it is. Lucas: And we appreciate every bit of support. Now back to the chokehold — I want to mention one more data point. The same LinkedIn report showed that professionals who added a second skill cluster saw a 22 percent increase in promotion rate within two years. Luna: Twenty-two percent. That's huge. So even if you don't leave your company, diversifying your skills makes you more likely to move up internally. Lucas: Exactly. The chokehold becomes a springboard once you add that second capability. Your value goes up because you're no longer a one-trick pony; you're someone who can connect dots. Luna: And that's the kind of person companies want to promote. They want people who can handle ambiguity and bring multiple perspectives. Lucas: So if you feel stuck, look at your skill set. Are you the Priya in your organization? If so, the path out is clear: diversify, build adjacent skills, and signal your range. It's not a quick fix, but it's a reliable one. Luna: And it starts with one small step today. That's really the takeaway. Lucas: Yeah. One step. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk next time.