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.

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.

For engineers, they should get two for the price of one and do an integrated MEng. This is the norm for professional engineers nowadays, afaik they typically don't do PhDs or MScs. Otoh I've got a PhD, that's entry level in my field of chemistry really.

Friends DD did theology at uni and has become a diversity officer through a graduate training scheme. Works for a US law firm. Earns enough to have bought a £500k flat on her own at age 28.
I hear end user interfacing is good area of IT too.

Thanks so much to everyone who has replied. This is really helpful (and I hope helpful to others with DC at the same stage.)

There are professions here that I’ve never even come across before. Law is out as she sees too much of it when DH works from home. I’m a clinical neuropsychologist is a million miles from her interests, apparently about the dullest job ever.

I will definitely encourage her to get some good quality work experience after her GCSEs and to try for the Arkwright scholarship.

If she stays in the UK, she hopes to study/ live around London, but would definitely consider a post grad spell overseas, and we have lived in the US so would be happy there. I know that many of these professions are very mobile (her dream job is probably at CERN!)

Accountancy. You don't need a specific degree but it is quicker to qualify if you have a degree.

It leads to a wide range of accountancy and finance related jobs. Ultimately within a business, accountants are often well paid as they know what every one else earns. I genuinely find my job interesting and have done a range of different things at different life stages.

At the moment her interests lie in electrical/ mechanical engineering or actuarial work/ economics/ maybe investment banking.

All excellent choices with good prospects, both in terms of the number of opportunities as well as salary.

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.

Is she intending to the bulk of the childcare while working parttime, or does she want an equal partnership.
If the former, any job that can be done from home such as jobs that are largely or fully deskjobs. If the latter, she needs to be extremely careful who she settles down with and vet, vet, vet the relationship constantly before getting pregnant.Even then there will be limitations, as she will need time off to give birth and to recover before she'll be able to get back to work.

I agree with PP that pharma is very lucrative. The two biggest earners in our family, generation below mine are both in pharma.

For a straightforward life, accountancy can work well as it is a good WFH job once DC are born.

Also, not to rule out the Law, she might consider doing commercial law in house. A few friends do that and love it. Good pay and only one client!

Just a bit of a random one - my nephew is doing a fully funded PhD in materials science in another European country (after a degree in an aligned subject in another European country!) with a guaranteed job as a lecturer at the end with the university. Depends how adventurous she is but might be an option? My DN's undergrad degree was taught in English and was around 1k a year

I’m in Big4 accountancy (tax advisory). 10 years from graduating I was on £120k in the North (I’m now 12 years post graduation).

It’s currently 6pm, I’m at home in my back garden on Mumsnet and have been for an hour. Tomorrow I’m doing a day of voluntary work while still being paid. I’ll finish early on Friday as we have flexitime over summer, and I thoroughly enjoy my job (which is a combination of accountancy and law and sales).

Actuary is very well paid. A focus on maths and stats.

I would agree with others that investment banking is not family and child friendly although if you do a few years and then get out you can get money. No-one ever seems to though - they get caught in the high income trap.

Lots of economic modelling jobs - Bank of England a possibility. Not massively well paid.

Some anecdotal/some personal experience..

Tech/software development for sure if she doesn’t mind the culture/is happy to get extra degrees

Yes IB is notorious but other types of finance definitely worth considering - trading, hedge fund, asset manager, etc. The hours are not as bad and the pay is v good. Also worth remembering a 1-2 year stint in IB would set her up well for good exit options. Actuary will pay less (still good pay though) but better hours.

I’m not totally convinced by accounting as a lot of training/difficult exams and not as well paid as the other options (unless you can get in a very good business role in the long run) but maybe others can say otherwise!

Actuarial is decent for work life balance and they are desperate for more females which helps.

Also I don’t think it’s worth making decisions based on childcare etc at 15. She most likely won’t be having kids in her early (or even late) 20s - I think go all out on your career in your early mid 20s so you have the most options to pivot when you want to. Most people I know who now have the well paid cushier jobs really paid their dues in their 20s. I also think it’s important to keep her options open and not rule things out automatically so early on because people in a generation above her have said their WLB sucks - things change!

Smallpeice is a organisation that provides engineering and stem work experience days and courses. The website is worth looking at as it shows all the different aspects of engineering. They do female only courses as well.

Regarding account tency, consider an apprenticeship. I know people who have done it and are now earning good money at the age of 24. No student debt either.

Also accountancy isn’t just glorified bookkeeping, there’s lots of different options available. Ie. More business stuff as well.

For maths geeks, financial modelling is a good field to work in - I know a graduate who ended up earning 75k less than three years after starting a grad scheme at a big four.

A job in a support function (eg Finance, Risk or Treasury) at an investment bank still pays well whilst having a much better work-life balance than the front office teams.

I'm just being nosey so feel free to ignore me but do you have sales targets to meet?

If not, I may consider a change of career!!

DD is doing a risk management degree for similar reasons to yours it sounds.

She did engineering./ maths & business at school and this ticked all her boxes.

Meanwhile we, her parents, are none the wiser lol

From her A-levels and degree choice, she'll find the accounting exams a breeze, as long as she works at them. Most firms get their graduates through the exams within 18m-2yrs of starting, then spend the final year of the training contract gaining sufficient work experience.

I started as a grad trainee on £20k many moons ago, after 3 years and qualifying, I was on £42k. 5 years later I'd doubled my salary again, 5 years after that I'd doubled it again.

20 years after my initial start I'm in industry and so much of what I do is about commercial knowledge and experience and less about pure accounting. I don't work all hours, and salary is great, enough to comfortably afford a full-time Nanny for my DC as I'm a single parent now, own home, car etc.

Accounting is a great career for someone numerate, and interested in how things work (I also did Maths and Physics A-Levels).

Yes, but they’re quite relaxed and achievable - and there are others in similar roles to me (paid the same but with a different focus) who don’t have any sales targets.

There are commission based relationship managers, so most of my sales work is building relationships with them so that they can go out and find businesses that need my services and then introduce me.

If DD is interested in Medical Physics she could widen her interests to the whole radiation protection field, so including industrial applications, nuclear, waste management, regulatory etc.

It's a shortage profession that's really struggling with recruitment and retention, probably because the money isn't as good as other careers that attract science graduates, but it can be reasonably decent and salaries do seem to be improving albeit slowly. It's also very varied, a possible 'job for life' and very hot on work life balance/family friendly.

Get her to have a look at:

https://srp-uk.org/careers-and-registration/career-information

Training is mainly on the job so she'd be able to get an entry level position with a first degree in a physical science. Some people do have MSc/PhD but it's not really necessary.

Love that you're doing this with your DD. Very much agree with your rationale.

Asset management is generally (much) nicer than investment banking. Some also have apprenticeships that not nearly enough girls are applying for. I would at least explore that route.

Asset management would be a great choice - analysing companies and trying to work out where they might be heading. It's pays v well - into 6 figures in first few years - and has a better balance than investment banking,.
You are managing clients money for them. Companies like Schroders, Wellington, Abrdn, M&G etc

It is difficult to predict what any industry or profession is going to be like in 20 years time when this will be relevant to your daughter 'raising a family'.

Any professional training and education opens doors and provides options that emerge as career develops and trying to predict those is impossible.

Lawyers can go in house, go to the public sector, become knowledge lawyers etc. bankers can become managers or consultants. Scientists can be in 10,000 different jobs.

Commitment and dedication in the first decade of work are key to later having flexibility.

I'm an engineer in the nuclear industry. It's flexible, well paid and I am happily climbing the ladder. We get more female apprentices in each year and we're starting to see more senior women in my company (including me). My pension is decent and the job is varied and often a lot of fun. There's a huge push to get new blood into nuclear too - massive decommissioning projects on the horizon. Radiological protection is a very important part of our work, but there are mechanical, electrical and civil engineers on site too. My company sponsors people to do degrees/Master's as well.