to worry that DD's chosen career can only earn a maximum of £27,000??

[soups1]

dd is clever. she has 3 a-levels in maths, psychology and law. She has a lot of potential for many areas. They are not amazing a-level grades, so uni is possible but maybe having to do 4 years or just a local uni, but there are lots of jobs she could do with those a-levels and go on to earn well.

She has decided she wants to do embalming/funeral work. I don't have an issue with the chosen career (although i don't get it!) but it doesn't pay well. A maximum of 27,000 and that is a lot of graduates starter money! she is hoping to go on an embalmer 2 year course soon and a lot of the time they can get jobs through there, as people contact that school and ask for people who are finishing. i am just worried about her choice.

aibu? 27000 forever isnt that much

She can own her own business in the future. Get her Robert Kiryosaki's book "Rich dad poor dad" (read it yourself first) and you'll see there's a lot of options available in the said business... As has been said, with a growing elderly population there'll probably be plenty to do.

Depends where you live soups my dp did a sports science degree and couldnt get any work so then had to do a pgce whilst doimg crap jobs to teach and even teaching he is only just getting 27k a year now or just under and he's almost 30. Admittedly he is.fairly new into it so it will go up but he doesnt enjoy it and thats a real shame.

£27k is an average salary IMO.

Let her do it but encourage her to see if she can get some sort of job in a funeral director's for experience. I think it is very hard to know if you will like something without working in that environment. It may be that she decides that it just won't pay enough later on but everyone's values are different. Perhaps money isn't as important to her as it is to you? We often do the opposite to our parents!

I was offered an amazing opportunity when I was 18 which could have turned into a very good career. My parents didn't support me and although I started I ended up crashing and burning. I doubted my decision as I had no one to support me/encourage me. I still regret it now to an extent.

Why are people going on about childcare for a 18/19 year old just beginning her career? This is one of the reasons for the pay gap: women are encouraged into 'family friendly' jobs long before they actually have children, while their male peers are encouraged to follow what would work best for them. And then everyone pretends it's a massive coincidence that it's 'easier' for the woman to give up her career. Pay is a valid and important issue to raise, but I can't be the only one who dislikes this idea that a very young woman's salary is just future nursery fees anyway?

But OP - it's not just about the dead body is it - if she's going to take the next step to earning more than this, then she'll have to run her own business, and to do that, she'll have to deal with the living, not just the dead. With the benefit of hindsight having seen a few deaths over the years, I don't think the harrowing bit will be the dead bodies (unless she's unlucky enough to get ones who have died brutally), but helping to deal with people going through grief.

Dealing with people who are grieving and broken - dealing with family fights (apparently people having arguments and even physical fights at the chapel of rest aren't unusual) - that's going to be the hard part, not the dealing with a dead body.

Work experience will help massively to see if she thinks she's cut out for the trauma of seeing people at their most vunerable.

(And before you get your hopes up about looking after babies, worth remembering that if £27k really is the most she can expect to earn by her late 20s, but that it's pretty much the same nation wide, it's unlikely she'll chose to settle down near you unless she has a high earning DP, not just childcare, but she clearly will not be able to buy a home in Essex if that's the best she can ever earn, but in many parts of the country she could live very well on that.)

She can do well in the future. There's a good place in forensics, archeology etc. with those skills.
Also, she won't have many customers complaining or talking back. Get her a trip to North Korea and Russia for some networking and she could earn big bucks on occasional bigger jobs.

I'm about to look up how to retrain to work as an embalmer just out of curiosity, thanks to this thread. Due to the work I do atm I know I'm not freaked out too much by dead bodies (obviously would be if they were unexpected, but not within an expected context), and quiet, steady, self contained, purposeful work sounds rather wonderful...

I actually have a very good degree and an MSc. but the only job I have ever done which needed a degree was very stressful and I hated the fact it hung over me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, making me feel constantly frazzled (paid ok but not brilliantly). I have spent more years working in jobs that don't absolutely require degrees than in a graduate job. The best paid job I actually ever had was as a PA in the city about 20 years ago - back then I earned over £50k including bonus and my degree was unnecessary except that it made my CV an amusing curiosity to my boss, who had left school at 16...

I won't push my kids towards uni unless it's what they want - and it can be better to go later rather than use your one shot at a student loan listlessly doing a mediocre degree you're not really interested in and saddling yourself with debt just so your parents can feel they succeeded because they got all their kids into and through university.

Most graduates won't earn £27k. Only the top ones (with a 1st and 2:1) based in London/Birmingham/Manchester may ever top that in their career.

She can do well in the future. There's a good place in forensics, archeology etc. with those skills.
Also, she won't have many customers complaining or talking back. Get her a trip to North Korea and Russia for some networking and she could earn big bucks on occasional bigger jobs.

Yes, I 100% agree with that.

And if she loves it? I earn more than she does. But, and I don't think I've ever told anyone, I genuinely hate my job.

She can always do a degree in a few years if she changes her mind. Once you've had student loans you can't have them again if you want to do a different course, so it's worth making sure of your course before you invest.

Good grief stop thinking you can, or should, try to change your dds life choices.

This may be absolutely what she wants to do forever.
She may do it for a few years and change career.
She may start her own business.
She may decide not to marry/have kids

And finally, at least in this job she can work anywhere in the country! I'd rather be on 26k in the wilds of Northumbria than on double that and working in central London

Embalming is not eco-friendly misses point of thread

But I have never met a poor funeral director and I suspect there are ways of moving up the ladder.

I'd be pleased. Much better to go into a career at 18 now than go to a sub standard uni and come out £££ in debt. Graduate roles even for the best qualified are few and far between now. To start at 27k she'd probably need to be in a scheme at a professional company based in a city.

and that is a lot of graduates starter money!

Love to know (outside of London) where all these graduates jobs with starter salaried of 27k are

Our best man is an embalmer ...now independent and has a very nice home and lifestyle. DH also trained after he left the forces but as we had young kids it wasn't enough to manage on one salary so he left, but plans to go back soon as our kids are now growing up. He loved it.

Realistically good graduate jobs are not as easy to come by as you are imagining... my eldest is a doctor and they start on under 23k basic! Hardly a fortune (and she had stellar grades and went to a great med school..that's just how docs start)

DH worked for the co=op and enjoyed it. If it what she wants... she should go for it!

As a prize-winning graduate who has consistently outperformed my colleagues with ten years on management am)nd leadership experience whose salary is currently less than £12,000, being in something specialist and stable, that you love saying about yourself seems like gold dust!. My understanding of the whole funeral world is that the few chimpanzees that do it are often linked with families who were doing the same profession in victorian times, and were often quite separate and regarded very seriously and suspiciously by the general population.. which sounds fabulous. .a real hidden world of serious sinister people

There must be ways to extend income..if its needed..or ways thata funereal business can buy a residential property to operate from...my part of town has traditionally been the area where funeral directors work from, and two have big old houses above their offices.and cars in old stable blocks..

I imagine spim offs could be exotic funeral organising, pet embalming, stuffing old relatuves in glass cases etc (oops went off on a tangent there!)

I am sure its possible to earn more if she wants.

er sorry about the autocorrects..no offence intended!

I would be encouraging her to get experience, do the course, then if she wants to pursue it support her in starting her own business while still young.

My understanding of the whole funeral world is that the few chimpanzees that do it are often linked with families who were doing the same profession in victorian times, and were often quite separate and regarded very seriously and suspiciously by the general population..

That sounds quite fascinating. And whilst the initial thought is a bit creepy... well, people like her will always be needed. And in a way you're doing a quote beautiful thing for the family of the deceased, don't you? You're a bit like a midwife... I think your daughter's choice sounds quite admirable!

Are you sure OP that you're not a bit about her choice of career? Be honest.

Maragret - It is important now because if she stays in Essex, it is unlikely in a couple that hers will be the higher wage. It is typically the lower wage of the couple that is compared against childcare costs. I would point something similar out if someone's son wanted to take a relatively low paid career for an area. (However most people would tell a boy that he'd never be able to buy a house on that in Essex, with girls there's an assumption she will get a partner who's wage will mean they could buy a house.)

If £27k is the most she can ever hope to earn working full time, in Essex a full time nursery place for 1 child will be approx £1k a month (or possibly higher). The monthly take home pay on that will be around £1800, so not covering the costs of 2 DC (you rarely get a significant discount for 2). If hers is likely to be the lower wage, it is likely she is going to be the one to make the hard choices.

We pay £27k to graduate trainees in a very niche safety consultancy role outside London/south east and almost complete lack of applicants suggest that science graduates can do better elsewhere but we are tied by current public sector spending restrictions.

Qualified salary = £40k and £50-60k in management. Do the same job in the private sector and these salaries all increase by 30-50% plus benefits/bonuses.

Op, its not all about money.

I did an engineering degree, worked steadily and now in early 50s doing 3 days (& have done since going back after DS almost 19yrs ago) earning just above mid30s. Still a reasonable salary I know but not compared to some graduate professions. DH also an engineer, works on Contract, with a reasonable but not mega hourly rate. We are happy, mortgage free and not particularly stressed. I work 1 day a week at home, but still home by 6ish on other days and have had plenty of flexibility for time off/WFH when kids younger.

I am sure I could earn more if I moved, but don't want the hassle of a new job at my age!

Compare that with my uni housemate. She went into corporate HR, has worked for some accountancy firms and other corporates. Married but chose not to have children. No idea what she earns but expect well into 6 figures and she is v much the higher paid of her and DH. They are both fairly careful with money and would imagine a millionaire now.

But - every single email and text I get contains some reference about how stressed she is, how many hours she has to work, how much of her weekend is taken up by work. She thinks we are odd cos we hardly drink - too many years of needing to drive kids around and not liking hangovers. They get through a bottle a night each at least 4 nights a week. They just had 3 weeks off, two of those away in a cottage, but she is still very stressed!

I wouldn't swap my life and job with her for all the tea in China.

I have a fair few family members and friends who have graduated with 2:1s and 1sts from good universities in the last few years. The vast majority are now in jobs earning £16-21k, several of which don't actually require a degree. Career progression is also very stagnant.
The only exception is one who got a 1st in engineering, did her year in industry at one of the top companies in the country, and is happily now on their graduate scheme. Out of all the younger people I know, the person who earns the most is a welder who did vocational qualifications after GCSEs.

I'd also caution that she understand exactly what the job entails. I think funeral directors are different from embalmers? I think embalmers pretty much just pump chemicals through a body? I looked into it a few years ago (I was working in Pathology at the time).

Personally, if I had a child of that age, with mediocre A-Levels in soft subjects, I'd encourage them to go the vocational route. And if she's found something she's interested in, then even better - we spend so much of our lives at work, that it's almost torture doing something we hate.