Which professions do you think offer good prospects, pay and progression for bright young women?

[LesFlamandes]

I’m asking for DD, but also more generally. In helping our daughters to think about future carers, I think we do not always talk enough about the importance of decent pay and future work/ life balance. It’s all very well to ‘do what you love’ but not if it won’t buy you a house or if you have to quit once you have kids.

DD is 15 and is now thinking quite seriously about next steps. Her strengths are in maths, physics and computing but she is a decent (dyslexic) all-rounder. Several of the professions she is considering require specific A-levels for the degree courses so she needs to choose carefully.

At the moment her interests lie in electrical/ mechanical engineering or actuarial work/ economics/ maybe investment banking. She has also considered medical physics which sounds fascinating, but she is unsure about a career limited to the NHS, because of limited pay and work prospects. Her only red line is, ‘not law.’

DD knows she hopes to raise a family. She has seen that several of our family friends have had to step back from their careers as the balance was impossible, so this is also on her mind. She wants to live in London or another big city.

What professions (maybe you own?) do you think offer good pay, prospects and balance for young women, and will continue to do so?

I’m not really after free career advice (well, maybe a bit), a wider discussion would be really interesting.

Whereabouts in the country are you @LesFlamandes? Are you near any pharmaceutical companies? These are great companies for progression, pay and benefits.

Thank you. She’s considered that, and is getting keener on chemistry! We are close to Cambridge and Harlow (under an hour by car) so might be a good option, at least starting with work experience.

She would get in to pharmaceutical by doing engineering too. The company I work for has tons of female engineers and they don’t always have to be on site. They can work from home too because it’s not a hands-on job such. The closer she gets to the manufacturing process the more money she makes as such. Pharmaceutical companies are great to work for because you can step into other roles and other departments. Once you know how it works on the processes of the industry you’re in.

it would be well worth her looking at some engineering summer schools- headstart, Sutton trust etc or placements with companies- There are loads of high tech engineering consultancies etc around Cambridge.
Also uni run master classes/ summer taster courses.

Not investment banking if she wants a work life balance

Engineering can be flexible for family. Part time, project basis, WFH, compressed hours for mothers and fathers. Mech/Chem/Elec can all work in pharma too.

Software developer

Yes, we’ve had this conversation! I think it’s the geeky maths that appeals to her, and the bankers we know tend to be maths fiends who spend their bonuses on llamas, not Ferraris.

Thank you! She applied for a work placement this year but it was hugely oversubscribed. She’s going to try for an Arkwright scholarship and I’ll encourage her to look into work experience locally as we have lots of options about here.

If I were doing things again I’d become an actuary. Plenty of options in industry, well paid and I know some very successful well respected women. I work in finance, which I’d also recommend. Slog for a few years, get qualified and then you have lots of options depending on what you want.

Sustainability! A first degree in engineering with a specialism or masters in sustainability.

What about IT/Tech? Something in tech sales like pricing is very numbers based. And is good on flexibility/balance.

Cyber security

Also following for my DD

My little sister is a trainee surveyor on a grad scheme. She LOVES it and is always off doing/seeing something interesting! She did Sociology for her undergrad and then a Masters in Real Estate. Had no idea what she wanted to do when she was at school, but is now absolutely thriving and I’m very proud of her

Data analyst, Clinical informaticist, Systems Administrator, Mechanical engineering, Epidemiologist, Chemical Engineer.

I am a lawyer with 4 lawyer children (youngest 2 (twins) qualified this year, but it sounds like the daughter in this thread had ruled out law. I work for myself. I have worked hard over the years but I decide when and how I work now. Other high paid careers will be investment banking, financial services of various kinds - what about accountancy? My son's friend did a degree not related to that and then they got a graduate job where you do the ICAEW exams whilst you work for a very big accountancy firm? Management consultancy and actuary are other ones.

My advice to my5 children is always pick something you will enjoy, which pays you what you will need for the life you want and finally where ultimately you could set up on your own and work for yourself. Now we are old all 3 of us siblings work for ourselves, even my NHS doctor sibling who is no longer NHS but works for himself now.

Definitely not investment banking for a work/life balance. and surely work/life balance should be a consideration for anyone, not only women. She's 15 - I'd be encouraging her to just study what she enjoys, and see what happens. I had zero career plans at that age, I still don't in my mid-30s! Our work lives are so long nowadays, most people I know switch careers at least once or twice. She also needs to very clearly know that it's not only women who should make career sacrifices if they have kids.

Think about where she would like to work as well as what she wants to do. Some careers are good money but may be restriced to the financial centers and she would have to live in London. Other careers are very flexible and you could work in any city or even aboard

Accounting or tech. After a few years will be earning £££, plus the work is interesting.

Financial services has always worked for me. I disagree about the comments on investment banking ( where I worked for 10 years) not being an option. It depends which area within investment banking. M&A is always a nightmare, some other area s not. I always worked in risk/ finance/ accounting and managed a good work life balance and it had an excellent maternity package and great career prospects.

Climate change and net zero.

I'm a chemist - I write scientific software. It's a bit niche but I've found it a pretty women-friendly field, and plenty of geeky maths involved along the way.
I've worked from home since 1995, and part time ever since my dd started school. Pay is decent imo, I've not sought 'progression' as I prefer doing development to management but other women in the company have.

My DD is now 25 and is an electronics design engineer - she's very much enjoying it. For some reason there are very few women in this field yet, her perception is that good companies are keen to redress the balance so she thinks this should be good for her prospects.
She got an Arkwright scholarship - do encourage your dd to do this! The monetary award (both to her and her school) helped enable her to do an 'artefact' EPQ (buying kit etc for a robot design project).

everything in STEM. But be prepared to have minimum 2 degrees (BSc+Msc). I have 3 (two Mscs), and just about reached my perfect level of comfort 6 years after graduation.

At the moment her interests lie in electrical/ mechanical engineering or actuarial work/ economics/ maybe investment banking
That is perfect actually. I have an engineering degree that includes electricity/mechanics/it and specialisation in finance. I have never been out of work and earn 6 figures (despite a very passive approach to my career progression). The IT dept of the bank I work for is actually under strict instructions to apply favourable biais against women when hiring in order to correct the severe men/women imbalance.
I started as a software developer, then software consultant then developer lead.

Ha I was going to say law before I read your full post.

I would recommend either something in IT or qualifying as an actuary.

As a lawyer in-house I've written up many IT project managers' contracts and at my company they'd earn around 500-1000 a day! And I never saw them do overtime. I honestly wish my skills were more maths/tech based than words!