Highest paying jobs in ten years time

[2025willbemyyear]

DD has. Very sensible head. Currently thinking about a level choices and had a conversation about what vocational courses would be good at uni to end up with a high paying jposition job.

she isn’t materialistic, just influenced by us having low wage as a family (generations of this).

she is academically strong all round and prefers stem subjects. What advice can I give? School not very helpful here!

Ai programming. I did Maths at uni, and a lot of friends from the course work in related fields. I can guarantee they are on 10 x my salary whilst I stupidly did a conversion degree to medicine.

Don't bother with medicine. I work 70 hours a week for not much more than minimum wage. I make more from doing admin for my partners groundworks business. If I make a mistake at work (even from being exhausted working a 24-hour shift), I could go to prison. The risk/reward balance is hugely out.

i disagree somewhat i recruit from the Big 4 into investment banking generally - and would still prefer someone with a strong academic degree in a hard subject over accounting (historically as well they tended to do better in the accountancy exams than those with accounting degrees)- but i think to a degree its the quality of the degree and the institutions that award it that matters (sadly) - i think as well there is now increasing need for higher degrees as batchelors degrees are becoming devalued.
That said the recruitment directly into the front office in banking is entirely different - i think more the combination of great academics, great all round skills (club leadership etc) and interview/group assessment skills.
I think the view is AI will take out some roles but others will be created and will morph
I am very well paid and enjoy my job - that said i don't know if i'd choose this route if I had my time again and would seek out either a more rewarding job in terms of self fulfilment - eg medicine, criminal/human rights law or a different work-life balance

Threads like this really depress me. I work in a creative job and can’t imagine teenage me being pushed into something corporate or being made to do a STEM degree.

I too don't know which jobs will still exist, because of AI, that are well/high paid, with a good work-life balance.

Not medicine for the money!

My daughter has just gone into Big 4 with a neuroscience degree. She did what she enjoyed and got a first. Many of her contemporaries have Science and not Finance degrees. Noticeably they are from places like Durham, Cambridge and Exeter etc.However, her friend got into Big 4 with a music degree.

I don't think she would go wrong with maths / comp sci type subjects and have some kind of job in tech.

Definitely include Maths and Physics t A level. They’re the door openers to engineering and financial careers. Accountancy and actuaries will be in demand for decades to come as will law and as will engineers. Also IT especially systems analysis and design as there’s so much more to “computerise” - we’ve barely scratched the surface.

Architect is not a well paid job compared to others in Construction Industry. I would suggest Engineer, Planner, Cost Manager (QS), Building Surveyor or Project Manager. Generally architects never get the same level of pay Lawyers or Doctors do. You are looking at 50-60k max for a Senior Architect (over 10 years experience).

Marketing Operations, I manage a lot of AI systems, most of our marketing and sales is now automated and I'm working on currently automating an admin role, the job role with my skillset is in high demand and wages are very competitive for this reason.

After renovating a house and employing painters, plumbers, plasterers, carpenters, electricians - I would say these jobs have to be the most well paid and also you'd reach the high pay v v early into your career !!

Fascinating and scary thread. Another one depressed by what feels like the death of creativity.

But, the person I most envy in terms of jobs right now is my vet friend.

Shortage globally of vets and the nature of the work means she can pick up really well paid locum shifts anywhere she wants (within language restrictions). She’s moved around countries doing a few highly paid night shifts per month which are enough to pay for life, and could easily walk into a highly paid perm role.

Interested on how you think someone could gain the skills to do this job, are there courses or is it learn on the job would you say?

Yes, the "trades" will see a massive return in popularity. People are starting to wake up and smell the coffee after a couple of decades of everyone with a good aptitude for learning being almost forced to Uni. Even with automation, robots, etc., you'll still need a real person to change a tap or wallpaper a room. Yes, robot built new buildings are on the horizon, especially after the boom in pre-made wooden buildings, but robots can't do all the work needed in existing/older houses, factories, hospitals & schools, that aren't standardised.

Surely doctors such as GPs will be replaced by a ?nurse or similar who will use Google a clever piece of diagnosis software and you feed in all the patients data and come up with a diagnosis and prescribe if necessary. Seems a sensible thing to do and if patients are honest should work well.

I think most people in her position will be looking at AI for a future role so I imagine the competition will be huge.
Depends on what she’s interested in. I think Geo-technology will be huge in 10 years time. Climate change is happening, there’s an increase in fires, floods and extreme weather. So anything that helps mitigate the damage done or uses the current changes in climate for energy production etc.
AI is good for rehashing stuff that’s already out there but lacks the creativity of novel ideas.

I would encourage computer science and maths. I don’t think I would encourage medicine if she wants high wages and good quality of life.

AI, cyber security and other specialised computer sciency type things while also making sure she can code very well. Not only can you then keep up with the changing landscape, but often these jobs can be remote which really helps for obvious reasons.

But only if she’s sufficiently interested. I study AI and data science and the AI side is very complex where you are building all kinds of models for different things. It’s a lot and a lot of people are struggling. I wouldn’t suggest data science as a lot of that is farmed out to AI now and so I believe the number of jobs available are reducing significantly.

I think theatre and live performance ( music) will be sought after in an AI world. High end hospitality and trades.

Right now, she should pick subjects she enjoys - that way hopefully she'll end up working in a job she enjoys/wants to make a difference with.

Not sure what it's like in others areas, but it's really hard to get electricians and plumbers here (let alone reliable). Anyone who is interested in those lines of work are highly likely to have work, and work guarantee is just as important to income.

Two things that are guaranteed in life are taxes and death, so whilst some of these jobs might not be highly paid jobs in those areas (a Probate Solicitor might not be badly paid though) will give you guaranteed work.

Yen years from now the world of work will be unrecognisable.

I speak to developers as part of my job and what's happening now is both fascinating and frightening. Basically, the great unwashed public is only given access to applications which have been tested for years before release. So we are really about five years behind what is actually happening inside closed doors.

For example, there is an application due to be released late this year which will kill call centres overnight. If you work in one, in any capacity, you have three years left. It is 100% certainty that call centers won't be around by 2028. This includes anyone who answers phones for utility companies or other organisations. I imagine the same will happen for other industries.

Influences didn't really exist ten years ago, now they are everywhere. Tictok didn't exist. YouTube was an obscure geek website, now people can make a living from it.

Knowledge used to be valuable, and you could charge for specialising in something, A.I means knowledge is now worthless.

With STEM what about something like dentistry or optometry? Really well paid, and likely not to move to AI.