If you enjoy your job and earn £50k+, what do you do for a living?

[Querymary12]

I'm thinking about a career move and I'd be keen to hear about what other options there are out there.

Brand strategist in a creative agency. The traditional route in is Oxbridge and then training with one of the big ex-advertising agencies but you can totally do it only with A levels if you have the right personality and skills - you need to be analytical, creative, numerate, literate, nurturing, empathetic, extrovert.

It is very deadline driven and involves international travel at managerial level, which is hard to combine with parenting. I found that very difficult and freelanced for local clients while my DC were small.

I’m a scientist in big pharma (expat, Switzerland). Love my job. Not easy to just switch into though, you need a PhD in chemistry/biology/physics/maths.

Also have to travel a lot internationally, which can get tedious after a while. Although on the whole I enjoy that part of it too.

Secondary school teacher (London - not sure salary would be over 50k outside london)

Sustainability consultant. Four years of an engineering degree, eight years work experience then a sideways move into sustainability. Its a huge growth area. It can be quite technical, so being good with numbers helps. As well as being good with clients, problem solving and balancing competing interests.

@Iwanttenofthose

Digital learning. It's pretty easy to learn and to earn a fair amount doing it.

@Iwanttenofthose do you mean e-Learning? If so, I worked in that industry for 20 years and it's very exploitative. Was very glad to move on.

Ooh interesting, yes I do. I've been in the industry 10 years. What did you find exploitative about it?

(Asking with genuine interest, not being goady!)

@Ticksallboxes sorry, forgot to tag you in my reply below.

Also, what did you move into from e-learning? I'm having a bit of a mid career crisis and am wondering where my transferable skills could take me without having to take a massive pay cut to start at the bottom of a different field.

@Iwanttenofthose I actually stepped back in 2018 to help grow my DH's business.

I found every e-learning company latterly seemed to struggle to make a decent profit. As everything became faster and more automated, clients were less willing to pay decent amounts.

I was freelance with long term contracts and I found I was either doing loads of unpaid work if paid per contact, or having to account for every minute spent if paid by the hour.

It was very stressful and unrewarding in the last couple of years. Has your experience been similar?

Data Governance - 55k, could earn more elsewhere, but I like my team

HR Manager but you need to be a certain kind of person to love it 😉🤣

I'm in B2B sales in the south. Not particularly stressful if you're good at it and incredibly lucrative.

Run my own business. Worked as a publicist in creative industries for 20 years and now run courses and teach PR & marketing.
I love it and I choose my own hours. Work equivalent of 3 days per week.

@ticksallboxes I only freelanced for a short time, and hated it. I hated constantly having to assert and validate why I was worth paying for.

Most of my roles have been in-house and I think that's why I'm largely enjoying it. Budgets and value for money are always an integral part of the project, but it's not commercial in the way agency work is. I can focus more on the impact and the return on investment, and subject matter experts are largely engaged and grateful for the exposure it gives to their area of expertise.

Seems to be a few main categories here:

1. "Traditional" career such as accountant, doctor, lawyer, senior teacher, civil service, architect, vet etc.

1. Business owners.

1. Highly specialised niche jobs like tech, science etc.

1. People high up the corporate ladder in big companies HR, procurement etc.

[quote Onaloop]@8Track I'm interested in changing careers to become an accountant and trying to find the best way to train and work. How did you get a training contract? Looking for some advice thanks![/quote]
@Onaloop When i applied the firms had one or twi intakes a year, September and January ish. I think lots now just have one so there are recruitment 'windows'. I knew I didn't want to apply for the Big 4 firms, so googled for ACA training London.

I needed to do some online assessments in data handling and I think English, then was invited to assessment centre where there were group tasks and an individual interview.

I did also end up at one very dodgy 'recruitment agency' near Angel so would recommend looking directly at the mid tier firms. They were very open to my experience as a career changer, and our group was a great mix. Good luck!