To ask your salary, profession, location and years of experience

[Nosey77]

I know I am being really nosey and it's not very British to talk money. I was inspired by another thread where people are asking questions to all sorts of careers.

I was just wondering if people could take part and say what they do, how much they earn and where they are. Also, could you also provide advice on how to enter the profession and whether you recommend it. Thought this might be more u self than just go ogling as I get real life opinions and have found the other thread really insightful

Please let's not make anyone feel bad for what they are. I'll start

Retail assistant, 3 year, Leeds, £6.50ph. Whilst I actually enjoy it, I'm looking to leave. No advice needed - just hand in tour CVs

Child protection social worker

I am newly qualified (this is my first SW role) after 2 yrs ft MA and an undergrad in another related field.

Currently earn £26,500 in Home Counties.

It's not bad pay for an NQ and I am enjoying it, but seriously for the extra hours I put in, and the amount of work (and worries) I take home, I have often wondered if it's worth it.

You cannot do Social work for the money, that's for certain, because it is very poorly paid in relation to the amount of work (and stress) that you do.

nosey I posted already. I'm not a management consultant, but I do work in a management consultancy (I'm the Finance Director). I sometimes do the odd bit of consultancy for them when it suits.

Nearly all the consultants are qualified accountants or former managing directors who now sell their expertise to other firms.

All but one started out doing their chartered accountants exams in one of the "big 4" accounting firms, moving into industry and then consulting. No-one has less than 10 years post-qual experience, most have been finance directors (we're not a big firm). The big outfits (PWC and the like) only tend to take graduates for their training programmes.

I trained "on the job" (not in an accounting/consultancy firm). I started out in temp admin/data entry jobs (well: council, NHS, Housing association (while at uni), then insurance, advertising, architects (temp), then perm jobs in advertising & marketing firms and eventually consultancy)

It is entirely possible to be an accountant/in finance for a law firm (as I said up thread, every firm needs a finance team), but (in my very personal experience of being from a legal family) there can be a bit of snobbery from lawyers about accountants (or at least some healthy professional rivalry ).

Teacher
South East
9 years
53K

Service Manager for a national charity
34k
10 years in the subject area. 3 voluntary. No qualifications.
Midlands.

Part time children's bookseller for 15 years. £10,000.

I work with schools, celebrities and the general public. ..

The job is as rare as hens' teeth. I don't get to read books all day (common misconception)

Usual stresses of working in retail. Not a job for the overly sensitive.

Teacher
South West
BA and PGCE
9 years
34k

Assistant sales manager at a high end jewellers
Central London
4 day week £33k pa
I've been here 7 years

looking I really hope you manage to stick it out. Every CPSW I know has left for their own health. The service has been pulled apart, just stick up for yourself and try not to get bullied into doing things you aren't comfortable with

rightsaid thankyou for all the inforinformation !

atticusclaw thankyou so much - that was very detailed and helpful. I wasn't aware that you don't get much choice. To be honest, I do think I'm more inclined to finance/business anyway.

I liked a PP suggestion of tax for a law firm or other organisations. I'm looking into that as we speak

Thanks again for all the responses. I'm sure they've helped others and not just me.

Over 20 years. Lawyer. Very good qualifications/exam results. Worked in the City for 11 years. Work for myself now. Earn quite a bit...actually, a lot. However under £1m that someone else above earns so there is plenty to aim for. All good fun. Very happy as I keep all the money (work for myself).

I'm a freelance literary translator working from home in the SW. Have a relevant language degree + 4 years living in the country. Got my first couple of jobs by approaching a publisher directly (and being prepared to work for a pittance / fill out extensive application forms for grants), subsequent jobs through personal recommendation and (I like to think!) a reputation for reliability and quality of work. It's very, very hard to get UK publishers to take a risk with unknown foreign authors so unsolicited pitches rarely meet with success.

Have been doing it since middle DC was 6 months old as I desperately needed something to balance out the all-consuming-ness of being a SAHP, now have 8 years experience. It suits me as I can fit my working hours around the family, but the weeks leading up to a deadline usually involve working late into the night - my last job was submitted at 6.30am after a proper all-nighter.

I usually get £5-7k per novel, but I couldn't do more than 2 per year without it taking its toll on family life and/or my mental health.
No one goes into literary translation for the money!

Just to add, I realise translating is quite a niche/specialised thing so not widely relevant, but I am considering retraining too and have found it v. interesting reading about everyone else's jobs/careers/professions, so just thought I ought to contribute!
Good luck with whatever you decide to do next Nosey.

I'm surprised by the disparity in teaching salaries. Above we have 2 teachers (after and mindthe) , same years of experience and £20k difference in pay - how is this possible? (Not including the DTs where I understand the pay would rise with the managerial responsibility)

Zebda same thoughts here.

I am Head of Department. 10 years experience, 40k. And that's including my TLR.

So mindthegap's makes total sense, not sure where after's 53k come from. Not judging or so, just really curious. Are you having any extra responsibilities after?

I am actually pleased to see teachers earning decent salaries. Would salaries depend on whether they are at state or private schools?

Fudge - will DM you. Don't want to out myself!

Manager and technical expert for a team of scientists in a biotech company. South east. Earn approx £40,000 pro rata. I have a degree in a relevant subject, 10 years experience as a bench scientist and a further 5 years in an office based position learning all the additional skills I need for this job.

It's really interesting, I love playing with data sets and trouble shooting technical issues. Managing people, not so much...

Communications Director, Financial Services. Central Europe. Circa 150k. 10 years experience in this particular field and a few years of doing various marketing roles in London before. GREAT career. Travelled the world, made loads of friends and learned a solid trade. I actually fell into my career by accident after getting an average humanities degree from an average UK uni. Now, I know I would not be so lucky.

Professionally, I have more to learn, but am not too interested to go further up the corporate ladder. I'm now contracting (mainly maternity covers). I'm aiming to work for only 8-9 months a year so I can spend the rest of my time in my holiday home in Southern Europe doing art and design (which is probably my real career).

No kids. No regrets. Just turned 40.

Finance Manager for a charity, £27k full time salary. I'm a chartered accountant with a degree and 25 years' experience, so obviously not in it for the money!

Full time student: £0 per year and some debt mounting
Bank Registered Nurse practitioner: earn about £25-30ph when I work
3 year nursing diploma, mentorship course. Access to medicine course and now on 5 year medical degree. Been a qualified nurse almost 6 years.
Decided to change career partly for slightly better finances (often many nurses end up doing a lot of doctor jobs but not being paid or recognised for them) and partly due to more interest in medicine than nursing.
I would recommend nursing despite my leaving the profession
I can't really comment on medicine as haven't "worked" in it yet

Actuary, London, 5 years experience, £67k + £6k car allowance.

Numerate degree to get training contract, during which I had to take and pass 15 exams to qualify, whilst working.

Was told by careers advisor that if you like maths you'd like this career, but spend most of my time staring at spreadsheets, reading dull EU legislation on Insurance and working out if we comply etc. Not a fan of coding tho current role doesn't involve a lot of this. A bit boring and soleless.

Would prefer if DC went into something different like medicine, pharmaceuticals, teaching, architecture.

Industry is very male dominated, and hours can be long (but much more reasonable than law/ banking). Not sure how I'll fare post mat leave, as most women tend to leave after DC...

Retail head office - marketing.
35k Central London
Don't recommend - loads of stress for low salary in comparison to level of education. Been working 13 years in the same industry.

Veterinary receptionist
Midlands
7 years of relevant admin experience and an unnecessary arts degree
13k

It's lovely to work in an animal-related industry but the salary is appallingly low and I can't afford to do it for much longer. No qualifications or experience needed, only a thick skin (think GP receptionist but having to extract payment as well!)

Social worker with an Older People's Team in a LA. Qualified 20 (eek!) years ago. I had a degree already but went back to uni in my mid 20s to do a Masters in Social Work coupled with a CQSW.

I earn just under £30k full time. I took some years out of the statutory sector to work for a charity when dc were young, as it was more flexible. If I'd have stayed in then i would probably be a senior social worker or team manager by now (with higher pay) , but I don't think I'm very ambitious and I'd much rather be doing than managing.

I really enjoy my job but hate the way social workers are slated by the Daily Mail press. Plus the workloads are ridiculous. And no, we don't get gold plated pensions when we're 55. Our LA has just switched retirement age to 68 and a "career average" rather than final salary which means I'm f*ed.

Vet, West Midlands, seven years qualified, £33k. Unlimited hours, no overtime. Needs relevant degree to get in. Wouldn't recommend it personally; people suck the happiness out of the job.