To ask what jobs you do that earn 40k/50k plus

[TheresAlwaysAnAskHole]

As DD heads to FT school, I'm reconsidering my career. My existing career as a teacher has a salary of around £24,000 - £28,000. I am unemployed right now.

I'm wondering how quickly I can study and what jobs I can quickly move into that will bring big money.

Tube/train driving is a good one. Traditionally you start working on stations and apply for driver when you have Railway experience behind you. This was because they found that direct recruitment for drivers doesn't work well - there's a massive amount of candidates who don't enjoy the isolation/shifts/responsibility and drop out of the training course. Then out of those who pass the course many will be sacked for safety errors, such as passing red signals, opening doors in tunnels/on the wrong side, derailing, failing drugs and alcohol tests etc. The consequences of human errors can be grave so it's easy to lose the job.

There is a way in via night tube now though, as they do advertise that fairly regularly. The roles are advertised on the TFL website and no qualifications are required but there are a lot of tests to pass.

construction Project manager.
site manager
quantity surveyor/valuer/general practice surveyor

Both mine and OH's job are family friendly to a degree and we're 43k and 50k. I work from home 2 days per week, start late so I can do drop off, OH finishes no later than 5pm, half day Friday and has quite a lot of flexibility around illnesses and emergencies, appointments etc. So do I but a bit less as I cannot really catch up with work out of core business hours due to nature of work. But usually no late evenings, travel or working at home after bedtime kind of thing (except odd occasions).

I’m a math teacher, but also a head of year. My salary is £36k as I’ve only been a teacher 4 years though but obviously will increase if I hit targets.

I opted to go down the pastoral route. Being HOD didn’t appeal to me.

My OH is an architect and is on 45k but thisntook 7 years of training!

OP - family friendly to me is being able to do some drop off, not being home too late (ie not later than 6pm-7pm), and the ability to take some time off for emergencies and medical appointment. The ability to do all drop offs and picks and attend school assembly is quite restricted and VERY family friendly! I don't need that. I also understand the pressure to be in work even when child is sick, we all have that although I can now work from home when oldest is sick. Not so with younger ones.

A sales role - crucially one with commission split as a team. It's better that way as everyone works hard and everyone benefits, and also balances out inevitable crap runs here and there.

Why can't you just work your way up in your own profession?

All these teachers with salaries of over £40,000 give us FE teachers a thought. I've been teaching for over 22 years - 5 abroad and here for about 17. Head of department, great appraisals and I am on£29,000. We've had no pay rises for years apart from 1% last year. No increments in FE.

Like a PP said, most jobs work up to £40,000 +

mizu- come down to secondary- there’s always loads of vacancies

Honestly by the time I’ve factored in summer holiday childcare x 2 kids x 7 weeks (not always possible to have time off in summer) that a pretty big chunk out of what’s at surface level a decent chunk:..
What about education afilliated careers?
I have had friends who left as they’d had enough... and returned 18months later pt and loved it

I work in sales - 4 mornings per week - and earn at least 20k every year. Some of my full time colleagues earn up to 100k. I love sales, but as others have pointed out on this thread it isn't for the faint hearted. I think it's the type of job that you really have to love doing in order to be able to do it well and therefore earn well.

I work part-time but my FT equivalent salary is just over £40k. I work in publishing. DP is in IT and earns around £65k. I’ve been in my current industry for 8 years, after changing careers in my early 30s, whereas DP has been in his profession for 20 years.

My job is family friendly in that I can work from home a couple of days a week, do all pick ups from nursery, get time off for doctor appointments or sickness etc. DP works from home one day a week, does all drop offs and is always home in time for DS’s bedtime. We both have to do some travelling though, so work around each other for that.

When DS goes to school, I’ll do four days over five, so I can finish at 2pm and do all pick ups. DS will need to go to breakfast club as DP needs to drop him off by 8am. I will need to be prepared to do the occasional call to US clients while DS plays or does homework after school though. Publishing is female dominated so fairly family friendly all round.

I used to be a hairdresser and now earn that working for the railways

Cyber security apparently that’s where the money is! If you find you are good at that there is a lot of money to be made..😀

DP works in procurement as a category manager and earns 42k a year. He's ony been working in this sector for 3 years, has progressed pretty quickly.

Finance wise, I’m also qualifying as a chartered accountant and would say after 3 years you can be on more than 40k even outside London. But being comfortable with numbers is definitely a requirement!!

I'm a programme manager in civil service. Has taken me a long time to claw my way up to this point (including 10 years where i just took whatever jobs i could get around childcare), though. I really did think I would be earning more by this point in my life (late 40s).

It's not terribly family friendly and I can only do it as my DH provides childcare during the week (kids are tweens now but he gets them out the door for school and supervises homework, makes tea when they get home). I think it could be a lot more family friendly if it were a local civil service role instead of national as I have to travel several days a week, but then again it probably wouldn't pay as well.

Ime the higher paid positions expect greater flexibility on your part, but are rewarded by greater flexibility on the employer's part.

I think this is true. I've certainly found that being a senior manager gives me far more flexibility than I had in more junior roles. I start and finish work when I choose, can take time out during the day if needed and work from home when it suits me. TBH, as long as I get the work done and my team are well supported in their roles, I don't think my boss really cares where I am at any given time.

It's interesting, though, as I have witnessed male colleagues with every bit as much flexibility as I have ringing their wives and saying that they couldn't possibly leave early/work from home/pick the kids yup from school or whatever. I think some blokes just don't see that stuff as their responsibility, so they wriggle out of it by saying that they're far too important to get away...

Ime the higher paid positions expect greater flexibility on your part, but are rewarded by greater flexibility on the employer's part.

The people on training contracts in my Big4 accountancy firm have an equal right to work from home whenever they need to (most work a day a week from home at least) and can take time off at very short notice providing their work commitments are met. They don't earn much but they value the flexibility and because we value them we retain more of them post-qualification

Good and fair treatment is not restricted to high earners. Of course being in charge of my team means that I have a lot of flexibility but we believe in equal treatment and flexibility comes with the territory nowadays.

Look at block management, London you could be looking at £45k in 3 years with relevant qualifications. There is huge demand for them in London, salaries are being pushed up because of that.

Just to add not unusual for block management staff to move to operations on site & be earning 60-70k