High earning ideas

[Ambiturn]

I'm considering retraining from teaching (12 yrs as an English teacher, Head of department). Hard worker, degree in English Lit.

I know that money isn't everything but I'd really like the chance to get to a higher salary, hopefully 80-120k. I'm not interested in higher management roles in teaching so I'm looking elsewhere. And I know that very few people do earn that much, but I'd like the chance to be one of them.

Is it realistic to expect to be able to earn like that moving into something like HR? I realise it would take a good few years. Law unfortunately isn't an option as I have a young family and worry that I wouldn't be able to commit to the hours you need to to progress.

Any ideas for a career change welcome!

Unless HR director then probably not.

IT?

What about looking for jobs in the Department of Education in London?

I left teaching (at department head level) and joined the Civil Service.
I got a few rapid promotions to HEO level, on a roughly equivalent salary to when I left teaching. I then succeeded in getting a place on the Fast Stream programme. That's a 4yr experience accelerator that should put you in a £5-65k role. There is a specific stream for HR if that's your interest. I'm on the digital scheme, where the majority secure their £50+k role sometime around yr3.
Fast Stream applications go live September, and the process lasts until April/May, for a role take up in one of 3 cohorts in Aug/Sep/Oct.
If you decide to pursue this further, or any other Civil Service avenue, make sure you speak to someone who knows how to draft CS competencies, they seem obvious but they are a dark art that rewards the practised. Happy to help if you want.

If financial reward is your main driver, then working in HR probably won't get you there. HR jobs often pay less than comparable jobs in Finance for example.

I work in HR and the only people I know who are on that sort of money are HR Directors with significant experience.

Areas which seem to pay quite well;

Digital - I have no idea about specialisms though.

Charity fundraisers - are you can move up quite quickly in these roles.

Senior software dev can get to that level (salaries are pretty variable between companies though you could look at 40-80k for senior, 50-120k for lead).

The majority of jobs that pay those types of salary require long hours - it's not exclusive to law. My DH works at university earning that type of salary and the expectation is that he puts in the hours required to do the job. No clocking off at 5pm.

Have you considered academia? You won't earn that initially but a senior academic can earn up to £50k and heads of division, professors, etc earn more.
It's a lot of work though and you'd probably need to do your PhD ( although you may get it funded by the university) and to earn the big bucks you'd need to be a very active researcher. Good way to use your current skills and knowledge though.

DevOps (Software development and operations) will offer positions in that higher pay bracket. You'll need to rapidly accumulate a lot of coding knowledge though - there are a fair few paid courses that will set you on this line, but they're not cheap. For a few years, you'll need to work closely alongside other DevOps folk, but after that you'll be able to branch more into remote working.

I work in a senior HR role and I’m in that salary bracket, but i work in central London and it’s taken 15 years to get to this level so possibly not the best idea to be honest. What about something in finance?

Thanks for your ideas! I pulled HR out of thin air as something where I might have transferable skills. I can't say I have a natural aptitude with numbers, so I worry that finance/coding would be hard area for me to excel in but I'm going to do a bit of research.

Adam, the CS sounds interesting. What do people who've done the fast stream end up doing? What's it like being on it?

Management consulting pays very well, although most of the jobs are in London. If you're a relatively recent graduate and have a very good degree then a graduate program in one of the big firms may be a route in. They don't tend to care about the topic of your degree, as long as you're higly analytical and a good communicator.