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.

Surprised people are suggesting actuaries for good life/work balance.
I know a number and they're all very rich, but workaholics who are definitely not having a good balance, especially in the younger ages when they're doing those exams.

Surveying/Construction as mentioned before...internationally recognised qualification (through the RICS) means you can work around the world and it's immensely varied and multidisciplinary depending on your speciality. All of the women I trained with are still working in property in one form or another, full or part time on good salaries, and have never been out of work - unless by choice!

The exams are torture, but I know a lot of actuaries with good work life balance, decent enough pay to go part time, lower hours than doctors or solicitors etc.

ETA - many of us are far from rich too though! If the actuaries you know are very wealthy then they've probably chosen more demanding roles.

Thanks so much for all the replies on this thread. It is so interesting to hear about the jobs people do. I wish

I’ve shared some of the ideas with DD and she wants to look further into the nuclear industry, sustainable energy and construction, as well as the other jobs due was already considering.

We are going to send a few emails over the summer to various firms seeing if she can make some contacts or get some work experience (she is mildly so email writing is very much a joint project at the moment.)

My daughter is going into Big 4 London with a First Class Degree in Biosciences from an excellent university. She is really keen and happy but I’m worried that the starting pay is so appalling and it will take years to make a decent salary. It seems really low compared to Law or as others have said pharma even sales. How long does it take to get to about £60,000 London? The starting salaries seem really low, she will barely be able to rent a room and have much money left over for eating.I have been seriously trying to get her to look at Law instead but she has a clear vision of what she wants and it’s Big 4 with the ACA etc.

It depends on the dept she's in - tax and audit have a reputation for being less well paid compared with business consultancy, financial analysis and modelling etc.

I mentioned construction further up the thread, just because there are so many opportunities in different professions, but it's surveying I'm in. Have been for almost 40 years, and would do the same if I had my time again. It's given me a very comfortable life, but probably more important from a careers advice point of view, no two days are the same. In the last week, I've worked on a windfarm project, a commercial retail sale deal, luxury residential, a dispute in court, and a McDonalds drive thru. If she wants variety, it's worth serious consideration

And as @PanicMode1 said, you can work all over the world.

I'd say in tech, many different types of roles but WLB is better than for example investment banking. All roles pay pretty well (no role is at minimum wage ) and you can earn very well in certain roles and/or choosing right companies (stock etc)

Asset management (also known as investment management) is a great career. We need more women in this industry but it's not sexist -at least comparatively!

I've been doing it for 20 years and it's a lot better work life balance than investment banking. I've worked part time at points and usually work 8.30-5.30.

It is investing clients money to help give them a better return e.g, in equities or bonds. It uses creativity, numeracy, and interest in digging deeply into companies or countries to come up with a view. There is a lot of variety.

For example, BlackRock, Fidelity, Vanguard.

Have a look at www.gainuk.org - it's a charity focusing on getting women into finance.

Or www.future asset.org.uk

Engineering
actuarial
data science

Engineering, if she is of a practical, problem-solving mindset. I work in construction, it's of course not as well paid as finance/banking but it can be an interesting and satisfying career. There are many opportunities in sustainable energy transformation, transport etc. Definitely worth looking for work experience.

If you mean well paid enough to afford a home and childcare in London then it will probably be a stretch, but it's nice to have a job you love and that doesn't burn you out too.

Think about "where" the jobs will be. In careers such as actuary, there are relatively few employers in relatively few locations. Same I assume with pharmaceuticals or bioscience etc and investment banking. You're probably limited to a handful of larger cities.

Alternatives, like accountancy, there are jobs literally in every town and city, practice and industry, good self employment options ultimately once qualified and experienced, so fully portable around the country (and World really) and flexibility of employed/self employed, full time/part time, etc. Same really with teaching (schools in every town), medicine (hospitals in every town), etc where there are similar opportunities for flexible part time working, but maybe fewer opportunities for self employment.

My only concern re accountancy would be her refusal to do law as ICAEW and ACCA accountancy exams do include business and tax law. If accountancy was an option, and she was adamantly against law, then I think it limits you to CIMA management accounting qualification which is more industry/business and not as suited to practice (where tax law is important).

If I had my time again I think I might have become an optician. I know several, and whilst they are not "rich" as in investment banker rich, they are certainly comfortably off and have a much better work : life balance than I ever did in the NHS. I'm not saying it's easy - my optician friends have worked hard over the years to develop their businesses - but it seems a lot more family friendly than medicine and marries physics/maths with biology and people skills quite nicely. Plus of course if you have your own shop there's the business side of things too.