How do people get in to £50k pa jobs?

[bushproblems]

im 38, and in a lowish (compared to some) paid, financial services role at £30k. I’m not very detail oriented so I do struggle with it sometimes, but I'm so also really bored.

I’d like to switch industries but I’m really worried about taking a pay decrease as well as not having a bloody clue about what to do.

I was hoping for some inspiration for careers that could possibly bump me up to £50k ish. After qualifying, experience etc.

Any tips or advice very welcome!

Well, I've just been sacked from my 75k job. (Finance Director), but, as a general rule the higher paying jobs often require professional qualifications that can take years to get. Notable exception is sales, where money follows the sales.

Good luck, OP, I'm sure you'll find something to suit.

I teach, no additional responsibilities, in a special school. I’ve done it a long time but don’t want to take on more work so have been on the same point for years. It’s about £50k.

No risk of being bored in my job.

Teaching? Might take a few years though unless you're willing to work all hours and switch jobs in which case it might not take as long.

DD has just started a new job for £52K as a senior software developer. She’s 26 and miles away from London, so that’s a pretty good salary for her.

You may need to do some training or a postgrad masters or something to change industry.

As a former employment advisor, I think you’re asking the wrong Q. You need to focus on aspects that’s you’re good at and corresponding careers as your starting point. I recommend you complete free online skills assessments to recommend feasible careers. Thereafter as you already stated, it’s a case of then once you’re in to build your experience and qualifications as most jobs are on a pay scale which you can climb and £50k definitely sounds achievable in most professional fields.

I earn 50k as a senior teacher. Can’t say I would recommend it though.

I’m a teacher on just over £50k. I’m top of the salary scale and just taken a small pay cut to move from HOD to assistant head of department. I have additional training in assessment and SENCO qualification which make me quite marketable.

DH is in sales with no degree or formal graduate level education and earns far more than me, he is extremely good at his job and it’s very high stress.

There are loads of £50k+ jobs in financial services. Do you have an intranet with internal jobs posted? How much pay does the next grade up from you earn? Are there any big cities near you? If you are making an internal move to a still relatively low paid job (say £40k) then generally they would overlook lack of very specific experiences and hire you based on your knowledge of the organisation, enthusiasm, good reports etc.

I was earning just over 50k when I was your age, in a Financial Services Compliance role. Did professional exams while working.
Could you transition into something like that?

Lots of civil service jobs pay that much if you look at grade 7 or grade 6.

I’ve doubled my salary in 4 years since leaving the charity sector for the CS.

My friends DH has no qualifications past A-level and out earns all our friends by a long way, including me with a science PhD and my software engineer DH. He worked at an estate agents from school and has stayed with the same company for over 20 years. Even when he was just an EA he earned well, then he was branch manager making loads more. Just recently he's more like an area manager so earns significantly more. While I'd hate to be in any form of sales, it has often made me wonder why I bothered studying so hard! I keep myself sane by telling myself that the work I do benefits the whole of society. I am only just getting up to £50k after 20 years, although I could have earned more sooner if I'd have gone into the private sector instead of public.

I'm a high-tech marketer, which pays quite well.

It means understanding the finer points of new technology products and then understanding who will want to buy them, and why. But I've been doing it a long time and I like what I do, which helps.

Can you aim for a job you actually enjoy. It makes it much easier to be
absorbed and time passes.

Try being a chippie! One has just charged me the best part of £3k for a bloody fence!

Same here. Charity leader.
Might look at sales next then!

I’ve actually reached out to a few recruiters who specialise in compliance. Their feedback was that my application will be lost in a sea of applicants that have KYC and AML experience. I’m actually a finance broker so I’m already aware of the rules etc.

thats brilliant. How did you find the CS interview situation? I’ve heard it’s notoriously difficult to get right!

I actually liked it! There were fewer questions than in other interviews and I appreciated that I had information beforehand about what they would be testing through the interview questions (behaviours and technical skills). That felt preferable to the complete wildcard experience of most interviews.

Occasionally I look at jobs outside government but they never tell you what you’ll have to do to apply without you going through some awful form. I actually appreciate that government adverts have this all upfront.

I bet you have loads of transferable skills.

Sales for me... was stuck at the 40-45k mark being an operations manager for years, slightly down step into a sales team manager role but my basic remained the same and within one year was making 67k by sales top up. Did that for a year then moved to become head of sales and now I make 65k basic salary and bonus on top

@bushproblems just seen you have finance/compliance skills - what about selling compliance software? Quite a lot of companies specialise is compliance software but they need people who know what the customer needs to sell it successfully

My first compliance role was an internal move. Are there any internal roles that you are interested in, that you could gain new skills in?

You’ve said that you’re not very detail oriented and this is likely to be a blocker for you. Sorry to state this but it is an important factor. Good luck though.

A lot of it is moving into roles that pay for responsibility managing people budget, owning a specialist area or doing work that’s hard to replace rather than just doing more of the same job. Switching employers can make the biggest jump too, because internal rises often lag behind market rates.

Have a look into doing project management qualifications. Or Business Analysis.