For the recent college graduate, finding a high salary entry level job is of paramount importance - however not every job comes equipped with a high salary. In fact many entry level jobs fetch a salary in the range of $40K-$60K. To earn a high salary at an entry level job, preferably in the range of $80-$120K, one needs to seek to enter into fields that have two key qualities: working in an industry that typically deals with large sums of money, and secondly, working in a position that helps consummate large deals.

Some natural industries that deal with very large sums of money are:

1. Investment Banking
2. Wall Street Brokers
3. Hedge Funds and Mutual Fund Managers
4. High-end Realtors
5. Commission based Sales Force for high-end products in any industry

It is important to realize that while any industry deals with large sums of money at its highest level, it is important for the deal size at entry levels to be substantial if you are seeking a high salary at entry level. In other words, while it is routine for say $100 million deals to be consummated at the top levels of most Fortune 500 companies, there are only a few industries where the high-level deals run into billions of dollars, leaving the entry level folks to work on $10 million-$100 million deals.

At the entry level, if you are already working on deals of the size of $10 million or more, giving you a salary of $100,000 becomes a very reasonable cost. Usually if 5 entry level folks, averaging a salary of $100,000 each, are needed to consummate a $10 million deal, it offers the company a multiple of 20 when measuring revenue against cost. This is a very acceptable number for these firms. In other words, to earn good money, go where the money is. Note here that we have not mentioned the nature of these deals, because it does not matter. It might a complex service engagement, sale of some very high-end products or any mix of these. The important thing is the size of the deal.

Commission driven jobs such as realtors or sales can lead to very high entry-level incomes if you approach your work at the high-end of any market. Winning at the high-end is an art form, where you have to build your network, earn your reputation and trust before you can entice your clients to buy from you. However, once the wins begin to add up, your "salary" goes through the roof.

One must realize however that for any entry level job that earns you a high salary, you will be expected to work very hard, and learn your skills very quickly. There will not be too many opportunities to make mistakes, as the stakes will be high from the get go. One way to learn the trade quickly then is to shadow an expert, become their apprentice, and then branch out on your own.

Best of lucks!