If you are fully WFH (or almost) and earn around £50k, what do you do?

[YouCouldUseAFlakeOrTwo]

My job feels like a set of golden handcuffs at the moment - decent-ish salary, lots of WFH, decent-ish pension, plenty of annual leave, nice people - but I am bored to tears and fed up. I've been working in the same area for over 15 years and really, really need a change. However at the same time I feel a bit paralysed because of the above benefits. I know, for example, that I absolutely want to maintain WFH and I need to maintain a similar salary, at least for the next few years.

I have job-searched but I don't really know what I'm looking for, sector-wise. I tend to stick to what I know but obviously that just brings up the same kind of thing I'm doing now, which I want to get away from!

So I'm looking for random inspiration. If you've got a fully or mainly WFH job and earn around £50k, what do you do? What's out there?

And my role ensures that before that software is allowed to be used by the public (release management) it is safe and has been tested and signed off. Any further updates and changes to that software are managed through a robust process (change management).
I posted before but my role is WFH and involves working with various teams. Part operational as above and part strategic looking at future ways of working.

Civil service - but they’re due to cut a load of G7/G6 grades shortly and freeze recruitment at all grades so it’s gonna be harder to join for a few years.

I mostly WFH but my hours are rough - I’ve not had a day off since the start of October (worked 10hr+ days at weekends to), often work late or unpredictable hours and have to travel for work. But my jobs interesting and I enjoy it. Definitely not ‘stable’ and nice core 8hr days though.

There's always one 🙄

To everyone else, thank you! My current job is actually mentioned more than once on this thread, but there are some really interesting-sounding jobs out there that I'd not even heard of.

Obviously I agree with everyone who has said that you are unlikely to step into a brand-new career at that salary, and at 50 I don't know if I'm up for (another) complete re-training anyway! But, inspired by this thread I spent some time job-searching yesterday and thinking about my actual transferable skills rather than the details of what I've been doing day-to-day. I found something that I'm actually quite excited about, so will start my application today. It's related to my current job, but in a more strategic / operational role. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

(Anyone else absolutely loathe writing job applications, though?!)

I assume these jobs with £50k wages are based in the south... Are these wages possible in the north or England for those who don't live in cities?

Some of them are, especially if they're fully WFH.
The team I work with is in California, the wider group is global. Where I live in the U.K. is irrelevant as long as I've got decent broadband.

I'm in a northern, non city and earn more than 50k and am 100% WFH.

There's lots of business with head offices in unexpected locations. Not many, like in a city, I agree!

I'm in the south, though not London. My exact job in, say, Newcastle or Glasgow would mean a salary drop of about 10-15%, but still decent. And that doesn't change with WFH.

I earn £60k as a senior business analyst for a university in London (which includes London weighting). We're officially hybrid, with 2 days per week in the office, but it's flexible - I go in when I want or need to, which is usually once a week or less. If I was a new member of staff, still building my network, I probably wouldn't take advantage of the flexibility quite so much (which is part of the reason why I haven't moved jobs).

Actually, 'my' job is currently being advertised based in Carlisle, for only £2.5k less than I am on down in the SE.

(Maybe I should move to Carlisle?)

I work full time but WFH 4 days, sometimes 5. Salary just over £50k, I work at an investment firm.

Freelance translator

I'm fully wfh, I compress my hours so full time over 3.5 days a week spaced so that I get 2x 4 day weekends twice a month, really good pension, good AL, but half your salary because I changed careers and have gone in at entry level data management. Progression opportunities are not bad - the next salary bracket is 35k then 46k then 54k.

My BiL is in a similar situation to you in that he is so safely wrapped in a good package that leaving is totally unappealing, but he doesn't want to do upper management/lots of responsibility etc.

Can you compress your hours and do some training alongside to up-skill a bit?

@askmenow So that shows the wastage in the NHS...£58k for sitting on your a..se! Get a proper job that contributes to society.

What? NHS analytic work (loosely) means that they can figure out where the lowest uptake on vaccines are and can roll that out more effectively etc. Arguably pretty beneficial. That's without pointing out that they're spending their 58k and putting that into the economy.

Being pissed off that someone else has a different job to you that earns (presumably) more doesn't mean it's not a "proper" one. Grow up 🙄

@allhellcantstopusnow funnily enough the upskilling idea is part of the reason I'm frustrated with where I am. I've identified an area in which, if they gave me a bit of extra training, I could make a real contribution.

But I've asked and asked and nothing has happened. My manager is supportive but she doesn't have a budget to just sort it out for me herself, and I can't do it out of my own pocket. I am banging my head against a brick wall with it.

Freelance writer. Currently on target to earn around £45k this year, but haven't been working particularly hard for various reasons, so 50k plus totally possible.

Dhs cousin lives near a farm that’s diversified by converting a barn into car storage but they store high end/classic cars. The whole thing is insulated, proper flooring, the cars are maintained with professional cleaning if needed and batteries charged. It’s very secure so they don’t get stolen.

He stored his Porsche there while he was moving.

Same, not on £50k but close, and it saves me money to WFH now rather than London commute. Lots of flexibility in my uni role, good pension, sick pay etc.

I assume these jobs with £50k wages are based in the south... Are these wages possible in the north or England for those who don't live in cities?

I’m in the north west but work for a global company, so pretty much fully remote. I earn £70k.

Industry/sector has a big impact. I’m in tech which tends to pay more - if I did a similar job in another industry I’d probably be on £20k less.

Some private companies do offer more ££ to those living in and around London - my last employer did, but my current employer doesn’t.

I recently changed employers, previously earned £66+bonus at a digital services company (private) full time remote worker. I've just moved into public sector full time remote WFH, earning £52k+bonus. I hated my previous job, I had no work to do and the management just didn't care, they liked having the role fulfilled as it helped with sales to say they had me on staff.

I took the pay cut to move into something more fulfilling, and I'm actually much better off as I no longer have to buy additional holidays and have the added job security of being a civil servant. My role is in Knowledge Management, but I have project and change management experience which is desirable in my new employers field of work.

I work remotely (only go in to the office about once a month) and earn 57k FTE, but I work 4 days so £45.6. I'm a chartered tax adviser for a law firm. Can be stressful at times in the run up to tax return deadline but on the whole, I really enjoy it. (I did not enjoy the years of studying though!)

Reading these posts with interest. I earn around £33K and go into the office 2 days a week. I would love to earn more and preferably in a fully remote role. I have lots of experience and transferable skills. Don't suppose anyone has a list or we could start to compile one of businesses that are fully remote? Although I am lucky enough to WFH 3 days a week, I am one of the few people at my work who can do this and would prefer working somewhere where remote is the rule rather than the exception!

Surely you look for jobs and pick those companies which offer fully remote roles? Why do you need a list of businesses? You can also filter by location on job sites.
Certain companies have a WFH first policy but they may not offer fully remote for all jobs.theres no way of knowing really until you apply. I find that many fully remote don't state it upfront they say something like 'flexiblr working'

@ImADevYo thanks but I'm perfectly aware of how job searches work. I'm interested in working for a fully remote company where the company culture is 100% working from home and thought it was worth asking if anyone knows of any such companies. A quick google brings up the usual suspects - Amazon, Google, AirBnB etc but I was thinking of lesser known companies where perhaps the competition would be less fierce.

Freelance translator, fully remote, around 50K, can earn more if I take more freelance jobs. You need to be native/near native in the language pairs you are working with.

EA in a creative sector on £43K, other EA in company on £52K. WFH three days a week.

I'm not questioning your ability to job search - just sharing my experience in an industry that was very open to it, even before COVID.
Those companies you mentioned - not true at all. It varies depending on office, role and even team. For example I know two sales engineers at Google. one is hybrid the other fully remote. Reason being the first one serves more, erm, 'traditional' clients that prefer F2F and the other doesn't. Still others are hybrid because their managers want everyone in for a team day at least once a week.

I know several people (including DH) who work fully remote , all startups/scale-ups based in the UK and Europe. In the AI/ML space. Their salespeople are not fully remote
Others with fully remote for sales but not their engineers.

So you need to look at the role first, before looking at the company.