Anyone go to Oxbridge but not earn very much?

[OhFreedom]

I just went to a careers evening with DC at the local 6th form college he goes to. It included a talk about Oxbridge, and it mentioned the high earning potential for Oxbridge degrees. It just made me think (and - to be honest - wonder about the choices I'd made)....

I went to Oxbridge, and did a degree in a highly competitive subject. Then - being young and idealistic - I went and did an interesting (and I thought morally-driven) job, which is not very high paid. It's not bad pay (about £50k fte)- I'm not complaining - but not exactly high. I also married a low earner, and it literally never crossed my mind to think about this aspect of him when I fell for him, all those years ago. We're still very happy together (after 25 years), but often don't have much spare cash, especially these days.

Now that I think about it, almost all the people I know from uni are high earners (or at least higher than I am!).

Is it bad that - just for this evening - I feel like I really missed a trick?

No one I know well from my Oxford days earns megabucks. I wasn’t close to the ones who went into City jobs afterwards, but I assume they’re raking it in. Of the people I am in touch with, we’re academics, journalists, medics, psychologists, actors, artists, opera directors, novelists, teachers, in scientific research of various kinds. One underwater archaeologist, one professional singer, a couple in arts admin, politics, nature conservation, charities, farming.

The only people who are mad wealthy were people with family money all along. In fairness, they’re using it to do interesting non-profit work in several cases.

I'm a Sahm with a very part time job. DH did the career thing (Oxbridge too). He managed without the connections or family ties. Couldn't cope with both of us having the career (I did earn more than him for a while).
Interesting my friend who does have the impressive career said she would swap with me in a heartbeat as she has to cancel events/miss holidays/miss her kids growing up.
Might not have the career but I'm happy and our family life is balanced.

I have known a library assistant, admin assistant, SAHM who are all Oxbridge grads and have never earned much at all.

DH is an Oxbridge graduate and him and one other friend are the lowest paid amongst their peer group, those two chose academia. Max they will earn will be about 75k. They are Professors, I mean it’s not a bad wage many junior academics earn nowhere near this. Their friends that went in to the city were earning more than that 25 years ago not including bonus.

I will say they do both love their subject, a science one and both of them have done research that benefits the human race. Personality wise academia suits them both.

People I know are academics or work in some sort of clever IT job. One for the civil service. So not mega bucks but comfortable. I don’t know any finance hedge fund type of people though!

Just remembered the Zadie Smith line “I saw the best minds of my generation accept jobs on the fringes of the entertainment industry”

Yep, me. I'm a teacher and married a teacher! It was always my plan though (being one, not marrying one ). I decided age 12 I wanted to be a teacher and never changed my mind (I'm in my 50s and still doing it).

Hmm. Yep checking in. Tbh I'm in a low paid job and would love to earn 50k...... That would be amazing.

Yep. I finished my degree pretty burned out and not in the least bit engaged with careers/life after uni. I promised myself I would never beat myself up about it because at the time it felt like I was staggering to the end of my degree. I had NO life wisdom or confidence, I was completely naive, sheltered and pretty terrified of the world tbh. I've never earned much.

I'm not really still in touch with anyone from uni, which probably also speaks volumes!! I made better friends at my summer job than at uni 😕

I went to Oxbridge and my friends from those days are a real mix of earners. I do know how much most of them earn as we are open about it - more so than with people I've met later in life. There are the city types who earn loads, but also academics, civil servants, SAHMs who have very average earnings. A lot of them weren't motivated by earnings but interest/ principles in choosing a career.

My sister went to a Russell group uni and her peers are considerably better paid!.

I work in a professional role in an Oxbridge city (won't say which) and half my colleagues are Oxbridge grads who stayed in this city - we don't earn much at all - but we have a great work life balance .

Those with family money and connections can afford to not "work for the man". A lot of my peers suffer from poor mental health which has held them back in the work place too (eg in the 2nd year all 6 of my housemates were on anti depressants)

I do something meaningful and hard but super low paid. It's so many years now since I've left I've genuinely no idea how to increase earning power now.

I'm super clever. But not in the area of careers.

Heh … All my former pals are in the House of Lords. (Or so it seems, sometimes.)

I’m currently too poor and sad to want to contemplate my many failures …

Not gonna lie, I feel SO much better about my choice at 18 now 😂 Was given extra coaching in order to apply for Oxbridge but I decided I didn’t want to be part of that “elitist bullshit” 🤦🏻‍♀️ (see, this is why it’s insane that we expect teenagers to pick GCSE subjects at 14, then a level subjects at 16, no-one has any idea who they are or who they want to be at that age!).

Ended up going to uni but not getting a degree (picked a subject I enjoyed, but really should have gone a more vocational route), but I made THE best friends and those friends are how I met my husband, and now it’s been 23 years since I left uni, and there’s no way the 90’s was 30 years ago absolutely no way im still down with the kids… 😬

My husband went to Oxford and earns about 25k full time now in his early 60s. The most he has ever earned was about 38k ten years ago.

I know two or three others who are teachers and midwives (retrained from a low-paid job in media).

A friend of my husband’s who also went to Oxford is unemployed and hasn’t worked for years.

The company I work for tends to attract Oxbridge graduates - the pay is little above minimum wage, for shift work, 365-day operation.

Quite frankly, Oxford itself is paying peanuts. Did anyone see the article about slave labour in its “casual workers” in the Private Eye the other day?

People I have stayed in touch with:

Quant analyst at hedge fund
Partner in hedge fund
Runs own business in san Francisco programming
Project manager in the city
Research chemist at big pharma firm in Switzerland
Programmer in Tasmania
Modeller at the Bank of England
Three more programmers in the Cambridge area
Economist in the city
Consultant at one of the big four
Quant analyst at an investment bank
Teacher
Professor in a RG uni x 2
another programmer
Professor of stats
Works at Google doing god knows what
GCHQ
another teacher
another consultant
Head of cloud computing at a bank

My friends were mostly maths computer science and economics.

Three of us from my year at school went to Oxbridge (early '90s). One of my friends was going to be a playwright, the other a poet. Now they're both City types. I wonder if they regret their choices?

I was always going to be a teacher or an academic, and ended up the former.

I didn’t but it was certainly the case when I was there in the 90s. The non-stipendiary JRF tutoring finalists was very much a thing.

A real mix here of “ normal “ and v highly paid city jobs- teacher, public sector, accountants etc, plus SAHM, massage therapists, kids entertainer, Ad/media, tech, construction/engineering consultants, lawyers, city escapees turned entrepreneurs / hippies( some v successful some not). I do find it funny seeing the odd one in the paper or a trade magazine.

Background has no discernible impact, though private school gave some more choices and confidence early on. I’m in the middle - top end and mostly always been v happy with that. When 70% went on grad programmes on seemingly mega bucks that was crap- but I got to go to the pub/home at 5.30pm…

Not sure whether this would make you feel better but I went to Oxford and the LSE....but ended up in academia so will never be earning mega bucks. I was never really friends with the city kids but back in my day uni profs could still send their kids to private schools so it's not like I assumed that I'd be the poor relation. The UK has changed a lot in the last twenty years

I did Natural Sciences at Cambridge. I had dreams of going into academia but I suffered from imposter syndrome and struggled to fit in socially. After graduating, I ended up studying a random mix of postgraduate courses, a second undergrad elsewhere, married DH who went to a US Ivy League, and started a hobby business which pays me a p/t min wage. I am mostly a sahm as I only work 1 day a week. DH luckily works in tech so we have a healthy income due to his salary, and I've dabbled in the stock market and niche investments, which has ended up bringing us up to a very nice standard of living.

Interesting how pyscology comes up in jobs.

Dh and I both went to Oxford. He's a doctor so earns about 55k. I was a teacher and now work in a similar field. I earn £24k. All my Oxford friends are very rich and we are really struggling. To be completely honest I do regret my choices somewhat.

Lots of people I know went to Oxbridge and are in museums, libraries, social work, academia, publishing, heritage sector, secondary teaching now so… I’m not sure any have cracked 50k yet! I know one woman who went into law and earns loads, but that’s maybe one out of 10 people?

A colleague of mine said the first 20 years of your career is about making contacts and the second 20 is about using those contacts. Therefore, being around Oxbridge peers can really help your career.

db works in economics to do with gas and oil predictions and earns well (Cambridge but found that wasn’t enough in uk market without money to enable him to live in London on an intern salary - moved to North America and they loved the prestige)

best friend - Oxford maths grad first with honours and had a calling to teach. She loves her job.

db’s friend from school - Cambridge, now lives in a commune and is anti capitalism

db’s other friend from school - Cambridge, now chief finance officer for fat face.

DH and I both went. I went into the city and feel like I sold out not pursuing my passions. But I’m from a working class background and was terrified of not earning enough money to support myself.

DH is in the arts and earns a pittance but loves his job. He is lucky he has me to fund him!

Our friends do a real mix of things but definitely not all high earners.