DH is a high earner at a senior job level - this has been a very interesting thread and has really made me think about why he has got where he is.
Like others have said:
- good at his subject matter, genuinely enjoys it and reads around it in his spare time, works hard, travels at a moment's notice, prepared to do long hours and take conference calls at unholy hours (global company), etc etc.
More specifically:
- he has two degrees, which has on at least one occasion has tipped the balance in recruitment selection. Faced with several equally impressive candidates, his MEng seems to be a HR/manager shortcut for 'heck, I need to pick 1 of these 3 people and be able to justify why THIS one... quick, find a differentiator... oooh, there's one!' It's made him an easy 'sell' for managers to explain why they hired him and not others.
This is luck - at the time, the extra study year was more 'shrug, can't think of much else to do, why not?'; we had no idea it would be so valuable decades later.
- he is happy to take decisions. We've long since concluded that that's really what they're paying him for: because he can quickly assimilate information from a wide range of sources AND THEN MAKE A DECISION, and has the people skills and strength of character to drive it through without naffing everyone off (trying not to use the cringy phrase 'gets people on board' but that's what it is). Many, many people are uncomfortable with 'pinning colours to the mast' as I believe someone put it above, and it's a skill that has a monetary value.
- we have moved. A lot. My son was on his 4th primary school by the age of 8; either luckily or perhaps because of this he is a great embracer of exciting change too
. DH manages factories in the UK where he can't get someone to take a fabulous promotion an hour or two down the road, 'because the wife won't leave her mother, like', whereas we now live in a different country.
This is perhaps not so relevant for London-based jobs where there is more scope to job jump without physically moving.
- you need a 'wife'. I don't work, as our life would be otherwise unmanageable (we've moved a lot, hubby travels a lot, we don't live near our families for any help with childcare for school hols. Oh, and here the kids come home for lunch from school for 2-3 hours!). DH is terrific at his job because that's all he does. He still spends a lot of time with the kids, more so now, because as mentioned above it's easier to flex hours/ telecommute/ delegate when you're quite senior, but it's all fun time: he doesn't have to clutter up his head worrying about whether their PE kit is washed, is the homework done, do their shoes still fit them, must book that dentist check-up, etc.
He comes home to a moderately clean house (I'm not the best housekeeper by a long way), all the bills are paid, the fridge is full of food, the car has been serviced, those slightly tatty cushions have been replaced and so on. When his work says 'there's a problem, we need you out in the US for a couple of weeks, from tomorrow', he can go effortlessly, without needing to re-arrange childcare, clear out fridge stuff that will go mouldy, or even cancel and re-book next week's dentist check-up.
I know this is all terribly 1950s, but it really has made a huge difference to his ability to do his job well. And we're savers rather than spenders; me not working means we only need one car (I have plenty of time to shop by bike, with an old kiddie trailer), we don't live in an enormous house (I'd only have to clean more), I cook everything from scratch, etc.