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!

Just shy of 6 figures, 27 went from base 40k to 53k to 90ish in 1 year. Single mom had DD at 18, highest level of education is masters now work in product tech.

£130k aged 47. I earned £120k at a different job when I was 34 but took a step back when I had kids. Ramping up again now. I work in professional services marketing. I'm bloody good at it and enjoy the challenge of working with lots of senior people in the business.
I took the standard over privileged route of private school and good uni. I'm clever so did well academically.

I hope this helps someone!

Im 31 with 2 kids and I earn 97 thousand a year (not quite 6 figures but one more promotion and i’m there).

Very average a- levels, a degree and a masters from an ok (but not brilliant) university.

I fell into my sector by accident but it’s been the luckiest break I’ve ever had. I work in cloud computing as a solution engineer. I had no technical experience when I started as a graduate and I’ve slowly built it up.

The job is a mix of tech and people skills and I really think that most people could do it. Its interesting and varied and I genuinely love it. Would recommend it to anyone, it’s brilliant and tech is a fantastic, benefit rich sector.

I earn about £90k plus a car. I’m early 50s. Charity CEO running a £14m turnover organisation with about 120 staff. Service is 24/7, 365 days a year. Work about a 55 hour week plus almost always on call (although not disturbed that often out of hours).

Standard comprehensive school in Midlands. Oxford law degree. Worked my way up through the charity sector via events and fundraising. Never touched law after uni!

Married with two DC now at uni stage themselves. Married almost 25 years. DH is the higher earner and his job always took precedence with me as the default parent. I have had two periods of about 18 months not working whilst he had the pressure of guaranteeing our income / lifestyle. It was unbelievably tough to juggle at some points but I’m glad we did. I love my job and we are able to help our DC as they become adults. Incredibly aware how lucky we are because, even though I know I work hard and earn my money, plenty of others work just as hard, or harder, without the same reward,

52 now, hit £100k about 10 years ago. Like some others, a mixture of graft (the majority), getting lost and good luck.

Abusive childhood in a ‘naice’ MC home. Saw that education was the ticket out. Grafted. Drifted a bit post-uni and ended up doing higher degrees. Joined the civil service (that did not make me £100k).

Then got into abusive marriage - the personal side was still fucked up. Had 2 kids. Financial abuse plus lived in the middle of nowhere and had to work flexibly around the kids. Decided management consultancy was only feasible option.

Graft, graft and more graft. Travel too, which was hard when the kids were small. But hit £100k due to building a reputation for being hardworking and committed, plus having a talent for what I do.

now I’m 2 years out of the abuse, the kids are teens and live with me, and for the first time I am able to start actually enjoying it.

So I suppose what I’m saying is, not everyone’s trajectory has been straightforward. And it can happen despite dire circumstances, if you hit that combination of talent, hard work & luck.

@FTMFML I’m trying to find out if there’s a market for an OF account that is just basically me doing laundry with my clothes on 😂

@Itslookinggood wow 😮 I am sure you have some good people around you now but I will say this anyway in case nobody else has - I’m proud of you and you are amazing 🤩

So for balance …. Work in public sector, public facing. Lead a team of 200+ with nowhere near enough resource (money or people) or expertise but expected to hit impossible targets. I work 12-15 hour days and some weekends. Absolutely loathe it and find myself living a very unhealthy life style - probably drink & eat a little too much and don’t exercise enough but there aren’t enough hours in the day and I’ve prioritized time with partner & child after work. Am always worried/anxious/stressed. Am desperate for a way out but degree is niche (& not at all related to the job!) but and as others have said it seems that in the uk people want qualifications. Should have saved more to enable a career change but somehow always seem to spend what I’ve earned - not sure how as I don’t have much to show for it. Divorce about wiped out any ‘asset’
Did well at school, got good A levels but then had no idea what to do. Took the wrong degree as I didn’t know what else to do and then got trapped in public sector that has just become more and more horrendous every year.
Not trying to bring the mood down and am in awe of the fabulous women on here but sometimes the money ain’t worth it!

£80k (& benefits almost doubling that) on 4 days/week. Work in banking. Fell into it but really enjoy it. Could probably increase my salary if I moved but I’d probably lose benefits as I am on a legacy package…. I’m 39.

I’m ‘only’ on low-mid 70s in the civil service however the package is equal to well over 100k. I work 35h per week and genuinely leave at 4pm (I may choose to reply to a few emails etc but there’s no expectation of this), I have a 28% employer pension contribution and I started 30 days AL plus 3 or 4 extra bank holidays (eg Maundy Thursday and the queens birthday).

I’m 31 and worked my way up. I got straight A/A stars in GCSE and A levels, did a degree and a masters in social science subjects at oxbridge and worked in a public sector role every holiday. I’ve moved round the civil service in a couple of operational departments working all the overtime on offer, taking any piece of work on and generally being keen. Now I’m a deputy director of an operational area and have a department of around 70/80FTE (headcount is always going up and down with new starters, leavers, Mat leaves, secondments etc) I would say I adore it and it has its frustrations but I know I am genuinely making a difference and the work life balance is much better now than it was earlier in my career. It’ll be easy and encouraged for me to take my full maternity leave (6m full pay, then tapering) and then come back on a flexible working arrangement.

I could probably earn more in the private sector but this works for me right now. And I’m not sure I want to move out of the CS pension scheme!

that should read I wouldnt say I adore it!

Engineer. I go and fix things on projects that have gone wrong. I fell into it after going to a company as a temp and finding that everything about the industry was fascinating. I had a degree and masters in subjects that weren’t relevant, so did a second masters. The good things have been a constant stream of interesting work, and able to work at home. Downsides include hardly any maternity leave, relentless stress and pressure when you are in a really difficult project. Some jobs require working away from home (either UK or overseas) and that can be tricky.

I'm 38 and earn £115k plus 20% bonus

Always academic did corporate law pathway but lost job due to 2008 crash (luckily sponsor law firm paid the fees). At 25 decided to have first child then started as PA in city bank.

Within 6m was assistant manager but then laid off due to another reason. From then on did bank contracting from £230-550 per day getting £50 a day more while has 2 other kids in 4y. Took 6-12m off with each one.

When youngest 15m took job at U.K. bank. Managed to make sure always do 9-day fortnight and stop work at lunchtime Friday the other Friday. Collect kids from school 2 days. DH always done 50% and very committed

Learnt the difficult stuff others don't want to do eg it audit. Analytics. Engineering. Application tech. Whatever. And stay in each internal role max 10m before moving for 5-10% payrise. Started in £63k in 2017 hit 100k 2021 now on £115k.

Force myself into more and more resp. Often scared! Has very stressful year now fun team
Of 40 high profile projects etc. but I make myself. It's high conflict but I like the mental challenge and pushing myself to the max

Lots in my family are very bright but mental / neurological conditions so can't work and get more unwell over thinking so I have to do something to exhaust myself (I know others like this swell)

Other people who started same group in 2017 still on £65-70k and complaining but they took the easy route ie didn't challenge themselves, coasted.

Mid 30s, now a Salaried partner at big 4 firm - make about 150k plus

. Went to a very good uni, then law school, Trained and qualified at a city law firm, slogged it out for a few more years (lots of early morning finishes, sometimes weekends) then transferred into big 4 and worked my way up. Did a part time masters and also specialist tax exams. Work hard now too - plus attend lots of meetings, and write articles - it’s a lot.

next step would be equity partner which is big bucks but lots of responsibility - and I’m tired

I have one DD - came back from Mat leave and got promoted to salaried partner - which was a surprise - so they were supportive up to a point

but not sure about next step - could stay in role, push for equity or go in house but am expecting again and not sure how I’ll manage it

got here because of luck (have lawyers in my family so knew it was an option and my current team is very supportive) but admittedly also lots of hard work and grit over the years

again I really enjoy my job but am tired - only became very tired after I became a working mum in this role though - before that it was tiring but more than sustainable

@TerrazzoChips is it unusual in the civil service to reach to deputy director at such a young age?

I can’t imagine being able to leave at 4pm every day on that salary level. Can I ask what department you are in?

@Mellowyellow222 i think it is fairly unusual, I’m probably around 10 years younger than my next youngest colleagues and all my direct reports are quite a lot older than me. That being said a couple of my good university friends are the same level in different depts.
I’d rather not say which dept I’m in but know people aged 30-35 at DD or Head of Levels in the treasury, home Office and several of the smaller NDGBs.

I may have underplayed how hard I worked in the early years of my career! The CS fast stream also helps bright and promising grads kick start their careers.

hope that helps?

@Xenia Thank you for that, unfortunately DD was completely shafted by the algorithm used for grades when the government were scrambling for a an appropriate system. She was predicted A* and allocated D. It took a whole week to get that changed to a B+. She is very ambitious and hard working, wants to work in one of the largest companies. I’m concerned that she may be disappointed. I will pass on your advice. Thank you again.

I presume you mean an accounting firm when you refer to the big 4? And your salary as a salaried partner is 150k plus? I don't mean it in a demeaning way and I don't know why but I expected it to be significantly more...

I'm curious as my degree is in accountancy but I never entered the profession. At that time salary for fresh grads into accounting was low but they told us that it would be so much as you climbed the ranks.

@TerrazzoChips thank you!

I am sure it was hard work to reach that level. I was just intrigued by the excellent work life balance.

I am older than you and have a couple of friends who are at that level (I think!) in the civil service. They work quite long hours - and it always like a very stressful job for the money.

but you have given me a different perspective😊. Thank you

@Mellowyellow222 my experience is you can leave on time if you are very organised and quite disciplined, I could easily stay until 10pm every night but I don’t know if it’d make much of a difference in the long run.

I should probably add that I’m generally logged on by 7am if wfh (but will scroll emails and read reports while having my breakfast) or I’m in and at my desk for 7.45/8am ish if I’m in the office. What is excellent is I could just as easily do a 10am-6/7pm if that is what suited my lifestyle too.

Im also lucky that there is no on call component for me in this role. When I have had OOH work in more junior roles this was much harder to manage!

Hi yes I mean big 4, tax

ive just got promoted to that role which is why it’s that as a starting band - it can go up to 200k-230k if I wanted to stay as a salaried partner long term - some do

but usually the goal is equity partner which can obviously be a lot lot more

also - I do get a bonus on top of that which i forgot about - that’s just my base

To be clear equity is a lot lot more - average for my firm was about 600k per equity partner

so if you want to do accountancy it can be a lucrative career- but it can be political and it’s hard work

@Namechanger355 can I ask what you earned when you were a lawyer if you don't mind?

@Namechanger355 yes I'm also curious as to why you decided to switch from law to tax? As far as I know both professions work crazy long hours but law pays significantly more. Did you have a huge interest in tax?

You've done very well for yourself!