BIG careers what are they? Magic circle accounting? Law? Helping dd choose a levels and future career.

[StuckintheRutt]

Hello my dd is choosing history and biology and is stuck as to what to choose for her next a level. She had no idea what to do for the 3rd.
Obviously her interest is history and biology and she's done very well in mocks with 8s and 9s predicted for all subjects...

She's considering pyscology, possibly chemistry, possibly English, possibly geography.

I was thinking if I can collate the big careers that may help.
Am I correct in magic circle accounting and does anyone know what you can do there eg I know bookkeeping and forensic accounting.... Is accounting interesting and is it maths pure..

Investment banking, how would she get in and are there equivalent to the magic circle. Same with law or is it law that has the magic circle 🤣..

What other big jobs, classic are there please and what's the way to get them what to aim for...

I'm sure this one isn't necessarily at all accurate re accountancy but the lawyer one reminded me of it.

Well, a few will win the Nobel Prize or whatever. The reality is most scientists aren't that well paid relative to their skills and intelligence but for some of us it's why we get out of bed in the morning.

My gut feeling on 'big jobs' is that someone who's got what it takes to get one in any profession is likely to have the nous and drive to figure it out for themself.

@Xyzagain. Wow!! That sounds like the thing we need!
I've directed her to some of the search options mentioned here.

@coxesorangepippin I agree. The problem is it's hard to see how important money is when you are so young and everything is provided for you.

I'm much more creative /humanities.

If I could get her into what I want it would be film /theatre / journalism /tv and so on.

Or design but something creative.

Her grasp of English and clarity of thought astounds me. As I said previously in my mind she would be flown into glam places to Polish scripts. 😂

She can go straight from Gcses into an accountancy apprenticeship starting off with AAT and work her way up. Just need to look out for a jobs in the big 4. Accountancy A level is good or Law A level if she is unsure what route to go down. If that's what she wants to do.

I disagree with this. My brother went into a job be loathed (investment banking) purely for the money. For ten years he hated his job and was stressed.

Then by age 32 he had enough money to buy a 6 bedroom farmhouse with some land and retire and never need to work again while also supporting four kids and he can pag for private healthcare whenever his family wants it. And that’s when I realised the point of banking.

Anyway OP, traditional big jobs where she can earn more than £500k by age 35 include investment banking, management consulting, law and accounting. The ‘magic circle’ just refers to the top 5 companies in each of those professions.

Bear in mind though that most women who start out on the ‘big job’ path are eventually forced to choose between succeeding and seeing their kids. She’d need to either have a nanny or a low earning husband (or both).

If she has no interest in maths bit is good at English I’d recommend law. Barristers earn a LOT more than solicitors by the way.

I’m a patent attorney. In terms of earning potentially, it’s probably the sort of thing you’re thinking of from the science side. You need a STEM degree. (Nearly all the attorneys I know have a masters or a PhD). You study the law bit on a training contract, and getting one is competitive (I’m in-house, so I transferred over to the patent department from R&D - which is probably an easier route - only 16 people interviewed for my role). Language skills are important (although the MFL requirements were dropped back in the 2000s).

History and biology are not a natural fit unless she does something like a classics degree and coverts when she knows what she wants to do, not uncommon.

It is absolutely untrue that (a) a job in a Magic Circle law firm guarantees earning 500k plus by age 35 and (b) that all barristers earn more than all solicitors.

I know this because I used to be a lawyer in a Magic Circle law firm and I’ve been working alongside barristers for 25 years.

And I can assure you that someone with no interest in business will find it very hard to fake it enough to meet the required standards/commitments to progess to the big bucks.

Depends on the area of law @Leyenda . You absolutely can't generalise about barristers. Someone doing publicly funded work could be barely scraping by. There's the full spectrum of incomes.

She should pick the A levels she’s interested in. They won’t hamper her from a ‘big job’ should she want one in due course.

An academic degree at a good university will be important though.

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