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

It's more than double what I get and I've been a Teaching Assistant for 8 years!
DH has worked for a well known supermarket for 12 years and it is about double what he gets!

I think it's a good job to have. People will always need embalmers.

Is she really interested or is it of interest because it makes her look 'cookie' or 'cool'? (That may wane somewhat when reality of long term hits home).
Is she thinking it's an OK salary for a non graduate? (there are better paid options like armed forces officers).
Can she get work experience over and above attending a PM?
Let's be honest she'll always find employment and I suspect it can be quite emotionally rewarding.

i got a biscuit??

thanks everyone.

i don't think i should get to pick her career, i never said that, this was just a post about my worries, i havent expressed much of this to her.

no, she wants to do it because she is interested, she actually said she thinks people will judge her but says she doesnt really care about that, but definitely not because she thinks she will be cool (she thinks she will be the opposite!) and a post mortem is actually a really hard thing to get, she was very lucky to get it and only because dh's friend was a doctor and she had to get some approved shadowing of a health care assistant before she even could do it so she was under their trust, it was very hard to get.

I have a friend who is an embalmer. She was originally a lab assistant in a pathology lab (now that was really poorly paid) and retrained. She's probably on about 25k

BUT she's happy in her work, found it very family-friendly and as it's mainly 9-5 with on-call (which attracts a call-out fee) there's lots of opportunities for part time working which she did when DC were small

Part of embalming is also the make-up/plaster of paris work where you reconstruct faces for open viewings. This is actually highly skilled and she has also got additional freelance work with a local university doing tutorials with their arts undergraduates in this area. She initially took this on as more of a hobby, but it pays her about another 2-3k per year for semester-only work, and of course looks good on her CV should she ever wish to move out of embalming and focus on this area.

So essentially the salary is OK, it's a family-friendly career and you're not necessarily trapped doing the same job for 40 years once you qualify. Good luck to your DD!

It sounds as though she's quite committed to the plan.

I can't think of a good reason for her not to follow her plan. £27k is easily enough to live on if she doesn't have hugely high expectations for disposable income. On my similar salary I am enjoying life hugely, have a good social life and have enough money for occasional big purchases (like £500 on a new bike, £600 towards a surprise holiday as a gift for my parents). An extra £10k a year would give me slightly more security and the ability to afford a package holiday to somewhere nice more often (luckily I enjoy camping holidays anyway ) but I don't think it would actually improve my quality of life that much.

DH & I earn £27k with possibly potential for more but I still have student loan debt which was a waste of time. We have a nice 3 bed house, go abroad once a year & couple of U.K. Holidays a year (termtime) so it can definitely be 'enough' if you're happy with a normal life & don't want a Porsche!

As a salaried employee she may only warn that much, but it's a fairly varied profession when you get in to it. Many people go on to direct/own their own funeral homes, there's additional income streams in the form of teaching/lecturing and more people are becoming interested in alternative funerals such as natural burials etc so that is a definite growth area.

Besides, people very rarely stick with one career their whole life anymore so what's the issue?

I'm a recent graduate (2 years) and I don't know any of my friends who earn more than 27k! Jobs are hard to come by these days. Most of my friends have moved back with their parents and are on an 18k job!

I would encourage her 100% to do the job that she will love. It's her life.

There are lots of similar jobs where the apparent 'top' salary isn't high but once you reach that stage you move into management and take on different responsibilities. She could look at starting her own business either employing other embalmers or as a funeral director and then opening more branches.... Or she could change direction completely. I think you need encourage her.

I changed careers from one that was pretty well paid but I hated - (I could have expected to be on £55k plus by now) to one that paid about 2/3, but which I love.

So want from £30k to £21K 12 years ago. Have since gone p/t too, so what with that and public sector pay freezes am actually on less. I've never regretted it for a moment.

"but there are lots of jobs she could do with those a-levels and go on to earn well."

There aren't. I think your daughter is very wise - hope it works out for her.

Is she familiar with the Order of the Good Death? Lots of excellent reading, although a bit US-Centric.

Yeah, £27k for a non-graduate job is actually really good. As I said, she won't be short of work and funeral directors are nearly always looking for more staff because they can't keep up with demand and because it's not an obvious career path for a lot of people.

As I said, my friend went into it from school and when he was about 30, his boss retired and my friend bought the business off him, later expanding it to several locations. This seems to be pretty common nowadays.

God how fascinating. There's so many facets to doing this job well. I'd bet good money she will be on way more than 27k.

The FD that prepared my friend for her funeral was nothing short of a genius. She looked like she was made up to go out for dinner and had just dozed off. It was so comforting for her family and friends to see her looking so beautiful and peaceful when she had looked so awful (obviously) prior to her death.

It's a highly skilled profession - if you are good word spreads.

I agree with you TSSDNCOP my aunt died in a car crash, was really badly mangled and yet when we went to see her in the chapel of rest she looked beautiful, like she was just sleeping after having been out somewhere nice. It's why I think funeral directors are undervalued - we tend to forget just how much work they do. Our family have been using the same funeral directors for about 100 years. I'm always thankful people go into it because it's not something I could personally do myself, you have to admire the people who can.

I think 27k as a non-grad with pretty good 9-5 hours is decent.

She oculd earn more if she took on her own FD practice if the business side interested her.

That's more than I've ever earned. It's a good salary. Why do you think it's not. If she makes good choices about where she lives she'll be fine.

This is my first try at posting something on mums net, so bear with me! Firstly, I originally trained in Careers Guidance, and in that time, did not see my yearly salary get to £27k. It would have been great if it had! That's a pretty good wage. Secondly, all the previous points about your daughter being happy in her work and having a stable job are absolutely bang on! In my time working with young people, yes I was on a good salary, but also very unhappy, and took time out on the sick at one point. Hubby and I are currently managing on his salary and doing ok. Your daughter will be absolutely fine I'm sure. Don't sweat it!

YABU :) If it's what she wants to do and £27K max pa is a 'high' wage in our area, for example. It's all relative to her outgoings.

I think you're worrying over nothing

It's not up to you.

You should look at NHS graduate jobs if you think £27,000 isnt much. DD2(26) earns about that after 2years experience .It includes enhanced pay for some shifts. And working shifts is no joke
She lives in a Northern city and manages fine . Has a flat mate to help her pay the bills on the flat she bought last year but could cope without

Really?! Firstly I've worked in recruitment for the past 8 years in the south near London and for a wage that isn't bad at her age at all ! Why is that the complete maximum?? Surely moving to another funeral place could pay more ? She could always go into coroners department which pays £50k+ even more! Secondly, she's young and will no doubt change her mind several times - everyone usually does - if she doesn't then like other posters have put job satisfaction overrules pay! I'd rather do a job I'm happy in and enjoy for less wage than hate my job and get paid well. I think others would agree with me !

She might decide eventually to do something different if it doesn't fund what she wants out of work or she might love it and be happy, either way life doesn't begin and end with work. As long as she's happy and has the A-levels and intellect to change directions should she want to I'd say it's fine it's not and un-liveable wage.