High paying careers to move into in your mid 30's

[Reearry]

Hi....I want to change my career and am looking for suggestions. I have had to move countries following my partner which has lead to periods of unemployment and now find myself in UK. I have experience in training and development and am looking to retrain. Tensions in marriage have made feel very vulnerable being financially dependent on my partner. Over the years I opted to take up jobs that paid low because I prioritized job satisfaction over salary but in hindsight seem like a bad move when I find myself with no savings. I might have to move again with my partner so careers which translate well to working in other countries would be ideal. IT and tech, online jobs come to mind but coding is not my strong suit and am unsure what other options are available. Counseling is something I am considering. If any of you have moved into a different career in your mid 30's I would love to hear from you

Watching with interest

You might find it best to gain a qualification or accreditation that is recognised worldwide, for example, the RICS is worldwide, so that accreditation is somewhat transferable. Actuarial qualifications can be used worldwide as well or something like the CFA.

How about doing an online ITIL project management course and moving in to IT Project Management?

I understand ITIL is a global standard of delivery and qualification and projects tend to be for a specific amount time, therefore you could contract or work full time for a software type company who are continually running delivery type projects.

If you have the type of person to become a counsellor, you could definitely be a project manager.

Personality not person.

What skills do you have? What do you mean by highly paid?

There are lots of tech-adjacent roles in things like project management- you don't have to be a master coder to work in the tech sector.

I retrained as a lawyer in my early 30s. As a PP says, it's reassuring to have a widely-recognised qualification. And there are obviously lots of different areas of law to suit all sorts of interests, lifestyles and personality types.

It's likely challenging time to get a law training contract as firms are understandably wary of taking lots of people on at the moment. That said, the big firms obviously have to keep an eye on their talent pipeline and while most did reduce their trainee intakes during the 2008 recession, they obviously still took people on as they knew they'd need new qualified lawyers in the future.

If anyone is thinking about law, the one piece of advice I'd give is do not self-fund the LPC (the vocational stage of legal training) unless you have a training contract - the big firms will typically fund it for you and there is absolutely no benefit to having that qualification unless you know you're going on to complete a training contract. Law degrees/GDL are a useful qualification in their own right though, as you can use them in all sorts of jobs.

Whatever career you end up aiming for, OP, I strongly recommend getting some work experience in that field before committing to it - both in terms of being sure it's what you want to do and because it's helpful to show prospective employers that you've considered this move thoroughly and know what you're getting into.

Thank you all for your suggestions. I am looking into every recommendation to check if it is something I can move into. I find that every time we move countries my DP career is flourishing and I feel like I have to start back from step 1 all over again trying to look for a job.
It is the reason I want to get into some sort of a professional role that gives me a clear line of progression and doesn't hamper my growth as I move countries.

My undergraduate degree was in accounting but I never worked in any accounting roles.

@Reginabambina I started my career working with Google in an online advertising role but moved into training right after. I have worked on and off for the past decade in various corporate training roles. Mostly part-time and freelance so when I did work it was good pay but it wasn't full time.

It's hard to say what I mean by highly paid roles. I am looking for financial security. I would like to be able to buy my own place, fund for my retirement and my living expenses. I feel like I have lost a decade of earning opting out of the corporate track

I enjoy training and mentoring but found that training came under HR and many countries have strict polices to hire only locals for HR roles. I was unable to work for 3 years due to this reason before I moved to UK. I am struggling to find full time training roles here in UK as well as most companies seem to be outsourcing the roles to training companies.

While I would like to play to my strengths and work in roles that have training and mentoring, as I mentioned in my OP financial security is of primary importance to me atm.

I’m a well paid accountant (not 6 figures but not far short with bonus). And I didn’t start training until my mid 20s (and didn’t have a relevant degree). Do you have DC? Because the more hours you can put in at first the more choices you have. I wouldn’t have survived my training contract with DC (was Big 4) and have taken a step back since DS2 was born to normal FT hours in industry but couldn’t have got the job I did without the decade Big 4 experience.

most companies seem to be outsourcing the roles to training companies

Have your thought about setting yourself as a freelance trainer?

Realistically, OP, I think it is going to be difficult for someone career-wise if their partner's career is pulling them all over the world. It's must be difficult to establish oneself and feel sufficiently settled and invested in a career knowing all your hard work might come to nothing if your OH gets another promotion and you have to move again.

The other option is to look at roles you can perform solely remotely (and these are obviously on the rise at the moment so it's the perfect opportunity), so that you could work with UK companies/clients regardless of where your OH's work takes you to live.

@DelurkingAJ I do not have any children. We are planning on starting a family. I am going to be 35 this year and so don't feel like I can continue to push it forward. Timing is terrible. When I wasn't working, I didn't want to have children as I had just gotten married and didn't want to have children right away. And now I am looking to make this big shift into starting a new career and family at the same time. It is likely to be too much to do both at the same time but I feel like I can't postpone either of them

@LonginesPrime I set up a limited company in the UK and worked on a project but it wasn't full time.

I have been looking at online and remote roles but most of them seem to be leaning towards being tech heavy. Another poster recommended ITIL, I will be looking into that.

I was considering counseling because it plays to my strengths and is something I have always considered moving into and will be able to work regardless of the country. However, I am unsure about the financial stability. I do not want to take up loans and do my master's only to find myself working part time again with not enough financial independence

Good luck with both, OP. It's definitely do-able but you need to find something you're passionate about other than just financial gain, or you won't enjoy it.

However with that said, I spent my twenties enjoying a low paid but happy and enjoyable job (in a school office) and now, aged 34, regret it very much. I have no financial security and never will earning 20k a year.

Don’t have a baby in an unhappy marriage

And when you have no financial security

And when you might be moving abroad , where you could either lose custody of your child or be forced to stay there for 18 years.

OP, I'm in a similarish situation to you, although I've never really had a 'career'. More stop gap jobs and I've been a SAHM for over a decade. My DP is financially doing very well, so I'm able to do this, but whereas we are good, sometimes I hate the dependency, but just like you, I'm at the cross roads of another baby or start a career? I'm also 35. The biological clock ticking is deafening, isn't it?!

My DP thinks I should do both, but as a pp has said, if it's big bucks you want, then that might not be that realistic.

I guess the real question is, if you're feeling insecure in your relationship, should you maybe rule out having a baby for now?

I echo @LonginesPrime - law is a good option if you can get a training contract with a big firm, and then there are often options to work in other countries (although you may sometimes need to become dual qualified). And yes, don’t self fund the LPC!

Quantity surveryors and commercial managers and estimators are in high demand in the construction industry right now

Starting salaries of around £40k and upwards of £70-90k with experience

Since you have an accounting degree what about taking your professional exams. ACCA is the most global and very flexible in training. Your degrees will give you some exemptions from exams.

With regards to my relationship, it is something I am looking at closely. I am also seeking advice of a therapist. Suffice to say, I will not be having a child unless I feel absolutely confident and comfortable to take it forward. However, my lack of career and financial dependency on my partner is something I need to work on with or without children or partner in the picture.

After a marriage break up I got a job in recruitment (had been in sales previously but out of work for 4 years). I didn't choose recruitment - I had no income, two DCs, a house in negative equity and debt. I just had to work and that was the first job I was offered.

It worked well for me. Initial salary barely covered childcare and outgoings. Once commission started coming in and I got a few pay rises, everything got a lot more manageable. It's very much a sales role, and bloody hard work, but I was driven because if I couldn't pay the bills I'd have no home. It is financially very rewarding (although I believe a lot tougher now).

If you're interested in project management in IT, I would highly recommend you do some other basic courses on IT as well to give yourself an overview. I have worked with project managers who clearly have enough computer experience to know how to switch it on and that's about it. Makes the project go very badly generally.

How about doing an online ITIL project management course and moving in to IT Project Management?

I understand ITIL is a global standard of delivery and qualification and projects tend to be for a specific amount time, therefore you could contract or work full time for a software type company who are continually running delivery type projects.

Just to clarify, ITIL is not project management.

ITIL stands for IT Infrastructure Library, and it provides a framework of disciplines and services to ensure successful IT applications in organisations are fully supported from inception to retirement.

Project Management : APM, PRINCE2, and MSP (Managing Successful Programs)

I know of someone who is an accountant. Don't know the details but they move around different countries (or did!) and work remotely.

If you are currently a trainer, and also were interested in counselling - have you investigated being a corporate coach?

It's a few years ago since I had much to do with the corporate world but from what I saw it was an interesting job and paid well.

If you're doubtful enough about the marriage to want to have therapy.. sorry but the writing is on the wall.

Would you enjoy training and mentoring young people? Plenty of roles there.

TEFL is always in demand, can pay quite well, opportunity to travel and get away when you decide to end the marriage. Or outdoor sports teaching.

I wouldn't recommend ITIL as it tends to end up with very IT support/infrastructure type roles. Do a prince 2 qualification and combine with learning what agile is - which you probably already know. I also started in a dotcom, which back in 2001 wasn't quite the same. I moved a bit sideways into financial services, working in business transformation. It's rather dull, but pays well. If you have training experience it's quite a good sell as you're often trying to get people to adopt change, analysing processes, negotiating with IT or with vendors, managing senior stakeholder expectations. Look for business analyst roles initially. They pay about 80k in London FS. Also try other online companies and just try to sell your skills - nearly all the roles need people skills, there are far smaller number of pure developers these days, and most of them are in India. Try someone big like WPP, they have a shedload of white label digital agencies.