High salary jobs for current teens

[Yoollyball]

On the back of the then and now salary thread it got me thinking.

What is different now? Can we predict what jobs will give our current teens the best opportunities, if they want to, to make a very good salary. What will pay well in 10 years time?

My dd is 13 and is thinking about exam choices so this a part of our family discussions atm. She is clever and wants up have a well paid job so she can travel and live well.

Civil or structural engineering, construction PM, building surveying, town planning.

Nit going to be in the 200k bracket but conceivably 100-120 at top level at the moment.

Will always be needed and can't all fall to AI.

It greatly depends on location. I fell for the “do what you love” lies and got qualified in a field where jobs are few and mostly in London. It left me unemployed in North Yorkshire. Around here the best jobs seem to be in medicine and finance - these wouldn’t be the best paid in London but round here they’re good options and there are lots of openings (which increases your chances of being picked).

You need to research salaries and number of job opportunities. I always thought architecture was a good career but it was in the news yesterday that they’ve formed their first ever union to fight against low salaries, long hours and unpaid overtime.

I think it’s depressing the emphasis is on salary first and not what she actually has an interest in. She’s going to be doing this job for a long time ( potentially) and it should be fulfilling as well as well paid. ( or just fulfilling) I’m sure all these jobs are well paid but they wouldn’t suit all personalities - and that’s assuming she’s academic enough to achieve the necessary qualifications.

Encourage accountancy (not necessarily an accounting degree as just end up duplicating studies when you do your professional qualification!), can work pretty much anywhere and quite recession-proof.

My husband was talking to a financial chap the other day who said highest paid graduate job at the moment was Bitcoin mining.
I don’t even know what that really is. The jobs will change and things we didn’t imagine would be jobs will appear.
As a young person there were lots of current money earners I could never imagine paying someone enough to live - influencers, DJs, gamers, IT specialists, windfarm fitters, etc.

The most important principle for GCSE choices is to keep her options as wide open as possible. Students in the UK (although to a slightly lesser extent in Scotland) specialise very early compared to many of their counterparts elsewhere and some schools compound this by pushing pupils into their own ‘pathways’ for GCSE options.

So, beyond the usual compulsories - dual science at minimum, triple if she enjoys the content and has the capacity amongst her other options. Science A levels are possible with dual award GCSE. At least one language and one humanity. Creative subjects like art and music if she is really passionate or talented but be mindful that they are very time-consuming.

She doesn’t need to have a career in mind yet if she has a broad academic curriculum behind her, and early specialism can be unhelpful; viz. all the prospective lawyers encouraged to take the unnecessary A Level Law.

Chartered engineering has always served our family well. Never been out of work,it's of high paying contracts around

I think you said she's good at maths - I work in construction, and we already have huge skills shortages, which are only getting worse. Engineering, quantity surveying, project management are all roles that don't have to be permanently on site. I'm in Scotland, a senior PM (so 5-10 years post degree) is commanding £55-60K currently.

If she's interested in travel, all three professions offer great scope for that.

Data analysts, engineering ( maybe not well paid),

What is your child good at? Because if she does the job badly she won't go far anyway.

My son is a materials chemist working in the nuclear industry. He is very comfortable but his job doesn't dominate his life. He has a reasonable work life balance and enough money that he and ddil have a lovely lifestyle.

My DD is training to be a biomedical engineer. She should have no difficulty finding employment that will give her a decent standard of living in a job that she enjoys. It's about more than making lots of money, tbh. If you hate your job or have no life outside of work, no amount of money is worth it.

@Charles11, my DS2 is a marine ecologist and conservationist with a 1st from St. Andrews. There are practically no jobs and the ones that do exist only pat about 20k. DS2 is currently looking at jobs in Iceland because there is nothing available here and Brexit is only making things worse because most of the funding for these things comes from Europe.

Posted too soon If I were you, I would advise your son against pursuing this kind of degree. DS2 had offers for other courses but chose to follow his heart. He doesn't regret it, per se, but is disappointed that he hasn't been able to get a job in the field.

@Lessstressedhemum I figured as much. It’s sad.

Mechanical engineering (design the automation that takes everyone else’s role)

Chartered surveyors (huge shortage)

Agree, accountancy is good because it’s far easier to qualify than the above two. Being an actuary is hard and should be reserved for the math geniuses

Construction/ housing development project managers - even working for the council and housing associations you can be earning 70k plus.

It isn't necessary (or necessarily desirable) for a 13 year old to have a specific career destination in mind, or for them to be encouraged to fixate on what they are 'good at'. We expect kids in the UK to specialise far too early.

Maths (with some kind of computer science / coding element) or proper Computer Science will probably earn the biggest salaries long term but this needs to be combined with constant upskilling. The days of knowing just one programming language for your entire career are over as these roles are generally offshored and anything offshored is game for being AI’d).

@Yoollyball how about diplomacy? It's not as well paid as people assume, but she could be on 40-60k by early-mid 30s, and later in career could go for top roles (lots of travel and postings all over the world though). She'd need to do very well academically, good uni, good degree, civil service fast stream selection for the foreign service (highly selective). She'd also need the ability to pick up new languages (usually shown by an ability to speak at least 2 already). Very interesting and exciting work, lots of critical thinking and analysis skills, plus soft influencing skills and languages.

Engineering - engineers in high tech industries typically get around 28k after a Masters, rising quickly and can be on 60/70k by the time they're 30, 100k+ by mid to late thirties.

Law - If you go to one of the prestigious 'magic circle' law firms, they pretty much own you, but I think you get about 40k whilst doing your training with them, and rises very quickly to the 100k+ in your late twenties/thirties.

A proper science or engineering degree, from a top university, will get you into not just science and engineering jobs, but also open up the graduate programmes, well-paying banking roles, and you can always do a law conversion and go into law.

Esteban speaks sense. Do a range of GCSEs in traditional academic subjects. Get the best A level results she can and go to the best university she can (History at Oxford will open more doors than Law at University of the West of Scotland). Get relevant work experience as a student (e.g. if doing Biochemistry do a placement in a lab over a summer, it makes a massive difference when apuing for jobs as a graduate).

Avoid 'glamorous' careers that have more people wanting to do the job than there are jobs, a PP mentioned architecture. We have architects in the family, it requires a lot of unpaid placements at the start of your career and the building industry is very sensitive to changes in the economy. See also: the performing arts. Also, do a job that warns enough to travel but not necessarily a jpb that requires travel, it's no fun, exhausting and is destructive of relationships and family life.

The headline salary is not the most important thing. What is the pension like (the big advantage of public sector)? The job security and additional benefits? How demanding is the job, is it flexible and where can you do it (a couple both on £50k in the north will probably have more disposable income and a bigger house than a couple where one earns £100k in a demanding job in London and the other is a SAHP)? How easy is it to change careers, if she hates a high pressure, high paying job what are the opportunities to change direction?

You can earn a very good salary as a software engineer. There is excess demand everywhere for these roles (both London and in big regional centres) and you can have the pick of the jobs. I work on the business side of digital development, and we just can't get the people to fill the roles (and I work at a very attractive company).

The route to this would be through maths/science based A levels, then a Computer Science degree. I would suggest they are building up some coding skills while they are at secondary school - there are various coding clubs and many people teach themselves.

IT Technical type jobs are the growing market, and you can get pretty high salaries despite not being particularly experienced.

Dev ops engineers, scrum masters, data architect, etc etc these will all earn your DD good money.

Thank you all ! Dd has read this thread and its given her so many ideas.

Sparking interest is economics and particularly with an international element and she is going to do some research on the UN and international development type jobs. I'm not sure IT is sparking the love!
We are Scotland so lucky that we can keep things very broad for a long time - the advice to focus on solid academic subjects and a prestigious uni is good and very good to have reinforced by you randoms

If that's her interest, then yes aim for a top uni to do a good solid degree that involves analysis of some kind. Keep up with languages. Then she can go on to do a Masters in international relations/development, there are lots. If her school has a mini united nations she should definitely join that, debating clubs. Our international development teams often have science, geography and economics backgrounds. Many are also into extracurricular activities that show independence as well as teamwork, and an ability to cope with less than perfect conditions, so Duke of Edinburgh, hiking, cadets etc