For those on 6 (or almost 6 ) figure salaries - how old are you, what do you do, and how did you get into it?

[savebuckbeak]

Just the above. Curiosity is all!

"For those on 6 (or almost 6 ) figure salaries - how old are you, what do you do, and how did you get into it?"

60, solicitor (have worked for myself since the 1990s).
How? best A levels in the school in NE England. Put myself in for 3 x 3 hours of exams for a niversity entrance scholarship in upper sixth. Won it. Top of the year in my year 1 at university - won a scholarship for that. Top and joint top of 2 subjects in my final year. Applies on time before I graduated for London law jobs. Applies to 139 firms, had 25 interviews before getting the job in the Jan of my last year of my law degree (there were 3m out of work that year, the worst for 50 years in the UK at that point - much worse than now).

Deliberately chose commercial law modules at university like tax and company law and trade competition as paid more than criminal law. Deliberately only applied to London commercial law firms as they pay more.

Did my post grad year at law school, married, started law job in London.

Took 2 weeks off to have first baby after a year in that job - used annual leave and worked until I went into Labour. Back full time after the 2 weeks as we had found childcare and had just moved into first house. Husband had left his teaching job and sold his house and moved to London to follow my career. We had also moved away from all family in the North of England, for my work.

Moved jobs when I qualified to arguably the best law firm in London. Moved jobs again after 3 years to improve partnership prospects in London. Wrote law books, gave 50 law courses a year, did vast amounts of things to increase my public profile, TV, radio, travel abroad even if been up all night breastfeeding. Had baby no. 2 at 24 and no. 3 at 26. Each time took about 2 weeks off only.

Set up on my own in the 90s, had twins - took even less time off.

Never had many maternity rights, not even the 6 weeks at 90% pay!

Never tolerated even for a day any sexism at home so we both did as much washing cleaning childcare as each other and both worked full time.

When did I move into 6 figures? in 1994 I was earning £60k when i left my last law firm - that is £102k now applying an inflation calculator since then. I was about 9 years qualified as a solicitor in London and was probably on similar at 7 years after qualification too. This is similar for London solicitors today doing commercial law. Then and now it is very hard to get those jobs even if you have very very good exam results at school and university. Most people who apply are rejected.

@Xenia thanks ring xenia that sounds like quite an interesting career and you clearly worked hard to get it.

Yes, I still enjoy it now 40 years into it as on day 1 studying law. May be that is part of the key to doing well at sometinhg - when you like it so much long hours are not work but play in a sense.

Sadly I'm not but my brother is. He earns circa 200k. IT. Director level. Not bad for a lad from a council estate.

Mid-forties, academic, not in UK. Did a PhD, got a lectureship.

39
I manage a massive department in the corporate side of a very well-known company (think Head of Finance, Head of Risk or similar).
Sheer dumb luck.

Mid thirties but hit £100k earnings for first time 10years ago. In tech. Bit of luck, part being I mix being smart /academic with high EQ too so am good with people - less common than I’d realised.

made a lot of sacrifices ie short maternity leave, away from home a lot, never felt a great deal of job security & constant imposter syndrome in a world dominated by middle aged men.

I often wonder if it’s really worth it

IT/business change contractor.
Rates equating to £100k plus (anything above £450/day) are commonplace in that sector and have been for decades.

I am 32. Lawyer. Made 6 figures right off the bat in my first job out of graduate school (so at 25) by being lucky enough to pick the right career. Did apply to dozens and dozens of places, interview at probably over 25 firms across two countries before landing on my current job.

Have just taken a step down as it was all too much, but another solicitor.

Earned about £102k last year (first year to do so, due to a decent bonus). With my new job I am now on mid 60s. Work in house rather than private practice. In the higher paying job, I was on regional leadership team (EMEA). Very stressful, very long hours.

I'm 45. Qualified as a lawyer when I was 29 (previous unrelated career)

I’m like grumpy old person except I’m permanent employer so took me longer to get there. No real magic just some luck and hard work. Shit business degree but had a sandwich year in industry. My boss really rated me and employed me after uni. Spent the next 20 years climbing the ladder now work in Investment Banking. Now contemplating whether I go for next promotion or whether I stay put. Is more money (which I lose 40%+ of in tax) worth the fact that my employer will basically expect to own me.

Just for balance after Xenia's fabulously interesting starting post, I have 2 children and took 9 months with both of them and DH took 3 after me.

Very similar to me

IMO a lot of corporate jobs aren’t as difficult as they sound, you get an “in” early on and it’s relatively easy to climb the ladder and continue to enhance your prospects and salary

A number of successful women I’ve met have started as EAs / on reception and then made a move to marketing junior / project management junior / ops executives then worked their way up from there to senior positions

I’m 32 and my salary has just gone up to £92k plus bonus. This year’s bonus was 13% so just about 6 figures in total. I got good A levels and an economics degree. I did a year in industry as part of my degree (10/350 students did this) which really helped me get my first ‘proper’ job.

Professional services marketing senior management (although I would class myself as a middle manager level). I’ve worked my way up. It’s not been hard to do, although the stress levels are high and I almost feel embarrassed I earn this much.

About to take my third mat leave and childcare costs will make returning to work almost pointless, so I might have a big life change next year.

@ShirleyPhallus

still able to work your way up from entry level so you think?

I tried that after graduating and found that I very quickly got put back in my place. Moved to another post, same thing.

bad luck maybe and city firms might be different (first post was suburban London, second European small city). Am in a good temporary post but will be looking for sometime next year that pays decent. Aiming for tech sector of civil service due to age (40 plus). Am flexible and can travel, London based - should be something right? Currently learning Salesforce

Why would childcare costs make it not worthwhile if you're on 100k pa? Get a full time nanny as she can look after multiple children at once and it's cheaper and more flexible

I'm 37, work in IT consulting and am on 120 ish
Been earning this amount for the past 4-5 years but my salary has stagnated as I took time out for 2x May leaves

My dh is 49, and earns 1.2 million. He works in cyber security and is very senior.
His salary has doubled in the last few years but he's been earning 6 figures for quite a while.
It was pure dumb luck that he started working in a field which 20 years ago wasn't that big a deal. He's an industry expert and well respected now.
He works really hard and fairly long hours (0800-2000) but is perfectly aware that it's a ridiculous amount of money.

Just shy but just over with bonus. Private school brat followed by NatSci at Cambridge. STEM PhD then (realising I wasn’t brilliant) jumped ship to accountancy at 26. 10 years at a Big 4 firm, making it to senior manager and considered ‘partner track’ despite two years off in that time on mat leave (they promoted me to senior manager 8 months pregnant). Jumped ship in house because I wasn’t willing to do the hours and have had gentle increments (but worked roughly 9-5:30) since then. Now early 40s. Very content with my work life balance in terms of interesting work, salary and hours.

I'm a 36 year old single parent and do executive recruitment for a software company and earn £90k + bonus. In one job move I went from £32k to £72k from agency recruitment to in-house. I went back to work full time when my son was 8 months old.

I’m early 30s and a head of department at a national firm. Got into it through sheer grit and determination working my way up, plus a bit of luck/tactical moves along the way. My next step would be C-level but I’m probably going to stick where I am and go part time while I hopefully have a family. Might look to start progressing again when future DC are in school, assuming it all works out!

DH earns six figures. He’s a science PhD working in the private sector. For ages and ages he earned very averagely. Then he got lucky with his last job move and the pandemic. His science speciality is immunology so it was useful!

The OP asked about what YOU earn, not what your husband earns. Your post is not relevant so please go and boast somewhere else.

Ooh jealous much!

It’s nothing to do with being jealous 😂 I earn a perfectly ample salary myself. It’s just SO cringe when women are obsessed with boasting about their husbands earn. Why not boast about your own achievements instead? Women have completely different challenges climbing the career ladder and I’m sure their experiences are far more relevant to the OP.

Jesus how much is child care if £100 k isn't enough to go back to!