Is it possible to achieve a career change and WFH at £50k

[BlumminNora]

I’ve been a sonographer in the NHS for 20+ years. Band 8a, so full time salary of £60k, but I work part time.

At the moment my teenage son is unwell and I’ve been off work for a few months looking after him. It appears he’s unlikely to be back in school any time soon so I need to be home to look after him and help him access his education. I’m a single parent so my salary is the only source of income. My NHS trust don’t have any work from home options above band 3, and the best they can offer me is a years unpaid career break. My job is highly skilled and in demand, but is 100% patient contact so can’t be done remotely at all. Other than that, my department are great - they don’t want me to leave and I’ll be sad to leave a great team but my sons health has to take priority.

To be honest, I think I’m probably done with the NHS and the medical world in general, but I do feel financially trapped (as well as the practical element of being effectively trapped in my home for the past 3 months already!). I know I have lots of valuable transferable skills, but I feel my actual career experience and degrees are so niche that I’m now stuck as to what the next step is. All work from home jobs I look at don’t pay well enough to keep me afloat as the single income.

Ultimately, I need to find a career where I can work from home, with a starting salary of around £45-50k to be able to pay all my bills, mortgage, kids activities etc and that seems like I’m searching for the holy grail.
I’m not afraid of hard work, have a decent brain and am a keen learner. I’ve successfully held positions in management before but have been patient facing through choice for the past 10 years. What could I do as a career and where do I start looking for work that will still pay my bills?

At the moment, I feel overwhelmed and have no idea how I’m going to make ends meet which to be honest is a bit of a shock to the system after purposely seeking a career with good job security ... I just didn’t plan for not being able to leave the house!

Any useful suggestions would be gratefully appreciated.

Have a look at other NHS sectors (ICB etc)

I don't see how that would be possible. I mean, I work from home most of the time (but not exclusively) and earn 60k, but I'm very qualified in what I do and have been doing it for a good few years.
I can't think of any exclusively WFH job that you can walk into with no specific qualifications or experience and make that kind of money.

The NHS has terms and conditions that are incredible good - bear in mind that your pension probably takes your total package up to around 90k in real salary terms.

There is also no other industry that will allow you paid time off for months to look after a relative!

The suggestion of looking at ICB is a good one - they are desperate for good staff so it might be a possibility.

Some Inside Sales roles are fully remote and don't involve travelling in the field. Base salary would be much lower but if you hit targets you could earn around that much depending on the company and their commission structure.

How about the civil service. You can often get a home working contract or at least a carers passport which might enable you to wfh full time. SO or G7 salaries would be in or above your target range.

What are your transferable skills? Help us understand so we can help you.

Just wanted to say that I have been in your shoes (ill teen, not in school, single parent) and it's incredibly hard. Hoping that things improve for you both soon.

The only thing I can potentially think of would be some sort of sales maybe? Even then (I’m a BDM In a different sector) there is usually SOME form of travel for meetings. If you specialised in medical sector you may get a higher base salary as it’s more niche, but the only other pitfall is that your salary is usually weighted towards commission rather than a base wage.

This is what I was trying to say, but they were much more succinct!

Hi BlumminNora. Did you find a solution? I am in a very similar situation to you. I may need to take a step away from my very niche area within the NHS and unsure how to maintain our outgoings with a wage drop. I need to prioritise being at home. I too have so many transferable skills but can’t see the wood through the trees.

Have you considered going into research? I work in biomedical research (systematic reviews, health tech assessments, diagnostic test accuracy, economic modelling), and have worked with some brilliant ex-clinical staff. Your clinical insight is a massive bonus