To ask how people get these jobs.

[Ecriture]

I'm over 30, I come from a working class background.

I grew up with a mum on benefits single parent, 3 kids.

I tried though.

I went to iffy poly uni and got a crap degree (2:2) because I worked three jobs just to stay on the course.

It's not been easy but I've been willing to work as hard as it takes to make a life for myself unlike my childhood.

However, in the past 7 years I'm working I've barely scratched the surface and I am only on 25 grand and still at the bottom of the pile.

Today I had to attend a meeting where 60% of people present were some type of chief officer, cfo or head of major departments.

They all seem to have very distinguished careers and have attractive salaries way beyond my own.

My question is this how did they get there?

A lot of women on this site also seem to be high earners with lots of responsibility.

Does one have to be born into a wealthy family, know the right people or go to the best university. I have none of this.

Can hard work actually get you anywhere in life?

Am I destined to spend the rest of my life doing a low paid work despite my ambitions?

Am I being unreasonable do you think that someone from my background could ever rise higher?

Can anyone give me any advice about what I can do or how they progress in the phone their own career?

Try thinking differentlt OP. You came from a disadvantaged background and after you studies and then working for 7 years you are earning 25k - that's double what a huge amount of people on minimum wage earn and many will only earn half of that every year for the rest of their working life. Great, you've got a good start, an advantage in life already so you can do things, right? You can climb. Excellent.

Now tell yourself that you can keep doing that...

What is it that you want to do? Why do you want to do it? What will it give you (other than just pounds in the bank!)? Can you take/do you need more qualifications? Can you pad out your CV with additional experience and qualifications? Are you limiting yourself by selling yourself short? Can you change career paths? Etc etc

I'm from a very similar background. I'm 30, grew up on the breadline, single mum with two children. I was the first in my extended family to go to university, got a first but in a stupid subject I never should have taken (had nobody to guide me and didn't know what I wanted to do anyway).

I'm now a high earner because I fell into a niche career that few people are good at but which every company in certain industries needs. A big part of it is writing, which I've always had a talent for.

I don't know what to tell you. Part of it is natural aptitude, part of it is luck, part of it is being brazen and pushing yourself forward for development and promotion. At work I often ask myself, "What would a man do it in this situation?" Sadly, you can get away with being mediocre at a job if you're a white man with a face that fits. As women we have to be extraordinary to make any headway.

I suppose my advice would be to examine where your talents are and look for a mentor who can help you pursue the right career path.

Poor working class background, got a job straight after leaving school, paid my own way through night school. Company I worked for saw potential and put me through further college and university. I constantly do training and courses to learn and better myself. I’m 50 now and I’m still learning.

Hard work and determination, lots of crap job roles. Always put myself forward to assist and help out, kept my nose clean, don’t gossip, treat everyone the same regardless of their level in the Company. I’m a well respected engineer, frequently asked to work on high profile projects. Love my career.

I've a similar background to you but I didn't bother with uni. Kind of fell into my job and have worked my way up to a semi senior but well paid role. I earn more than my partner who has a masters from a Russell group uni.
Echo the pp - moving jobs every couple of years. Lost my regional accent.
Also have confidence in your ability to do the job you're going for. That goes a long way. Remember nobody really knows what they're doing and as soon as you know everything it's time to look for progression. I aim to be slightly out of my comfort zone.

'A lot of women on this site also seem to be high earners with lots of responsibility'
OP you don't actually believe them do you ?
I think there's a lot of Stealth boasting and telling porkies on here re careers, housing, education, jobs, money, weight, looks etc etc not to mention the sheer unlikelihood of the great careers these women have, when in the Real World it is well documented that things are not like this.

Luck and contacts. Plenty of people work hard, obey the written and unwritten rules, even spend silly amounts of money on ridiculous self-help books, and still get nowhere. Those with wealthy, well-connected parents have a substantial advantage (though it doesn't always work) in that their parents often have friends who can put in a word for them, or know before it goes public that a lucrative job is about to become available.

I was in and out of care growing up, never finished uni, and fucked around for most of my 20s flirting with drug addiction and working as a bartender and briefly as a stripper. Got a temp office admin job at 28 and now at 40 am a programme manager managing a team of 20-odd project managers and make 100k+.

It’s 50% being clever and, at least at the start, 20% dressing up my CV to make my job history look more impressive than it was and 30% applying for things I didn’t quite qualify for and being bolshy enough in the covering letter and interview to convince them to give me the job. Now it’s 50% clever and 50% proven experience. Took a while to get there though.

If I were you, I'd do the following:

1)Decide what type of job you actually want to do, rather than just to progress. Ie people management? Process management? etc.
2)Ask the person currently in that role about their job / career path
3) is there anyone in a more senior position that you'd feel comfortable asking to be a bit of a mentor for you? Ie just meeting semi-regularly and discussing progression opportunities etc?

Don't let opportunities pass you by out of a sense of loyalty to your current employers. They will fuck you over at the drop of a hat if it makes sense for them economically. Apply, apply, apply for anything that catches your eyes and looks possible based on your experience rather than wait/hope/dream of promotion. That might happen, but you need to have your best interests at heart so keep a close eye on all possibilities and tweak your CV accordingly. Sooner or later you will hopefully progress. Good luck.

Re the working class accent comments: one of the most able reporters around, I think, is Beth Rigby, the political editor on Sky News. She most definitely does not speak RP, but she's a bloody good journo. It's not how you sound, it's what you can do. OP, you've already done really well, so just keep on keeping on, and I 100% agree with those saying to apply for jobs outside your comfort zone.

Agree,on mn I think there’s a lot of hyperbole about finances,family,lifestyle
On mn most dh/dp are described as high flyers,big earners,top of their game
All mn kids are horsey,sporty,eat vegetables,and are studious and get great grades
And finally the mn chicken feeds 8 for 4 days, makes risotto,soup,sandwiches

Work in USA. I hired several engineers who were "maximum salary" in UK at £35,000. Same role in US was paying $85,000 and now on $150,000. US respects hard work and not "proper" school ties.
I know UK employees who make a great deal, £85,000 but know nothing but have "proper" school ties and so in management. Those who know and do the work for £25,000 with no hope for salary advancement.

I would say that one of the key things is to believe in yourself, as ‘meh’ as that sounds it really does make a difference to the way you come across in the workplace.

It means that you will have the confidence in your abilities to go for promotions, to stretch yourself and to speak up and be noticed.

Take every development opportunity offered to you and don’t be afraid to ask questions so that you’re always learning and improving.

Oh and never say “that’s not my job”! You’d be amazed how many times I hear that 🙄

Depends on your industry. I was the first in my family to go to uni, working class, got a third. Earn a comfortable salary now, 20+ years later.

Good advice in here - basically don’t think you went to a crap poly so this is as good as it gets. Number one rule - ask lots of questions, always show an interest, always speak up. Be the person that fills the printer with paper when it’s empty rather than legging it before anyone’s noticed. Even better, fix the system that lead to it being out of paper. But don’t volunteer for anything and everything and get snowed under, it’s more important to make sure you have a reputation for delivering on time. And great quality work, not just “good enough”. And make sure the people that matter know you do great work and deliver on time. And if in self-doubt, fake it till you make it. Many of the people you work with will be shite at their job but good at blagging it. Be better than them and you’re laughing.

I only ever managed to move up/earn more by finding a new job

I grew up with teacher parents,who viewed anyone in corporate jobs with suspicion...so no legs up for me, no contacts, and am foreign

Stop worrying about class, really, it does not define you. Write a cracking cv listing everything you have done and can do, and aim high.

But you'll need to look for a new job to negotiate from your now experienced position

I'm from a working class single parent household who grew up in the arse end of lincolnshire and if I was to apply the IDPOL oppression stack am a significant minority, I'm in my 40's and my white mum worked in the local corner shop and then upgraded to woolworths.

I fucked about in my youth, dropped out of college as I was a deep house rave DJ and then got into IT, I am now a senior dev in a household name that 99% of the country use and have a team of in the hundreds mostly male underneath me.

For me and some like me it was taking the jump into personal responsibility and moving outside the comfort zone, I started out earning £70 a week.

Whilst there is a definite, obvious drag on being a women in the workplace, I have faced the same hardships, and if you squint could be seen to be advantaged wrt positive discrimination because of my gender, but at the end of the day I have had to produce just as much as any male I have worked with.

The situation is personal drive, life is shit and you have to make your own agenda, we could get into a sexism/patriarchy pseudo intellectual route discussion but it will ultimately reduce to personal responsibility v government intervention.

In short, you are in globalised world, you are competing with not just UK citisens for jobs, it's you that has to step up not the system to bend to you.

I find this thread fascinating. I wish I'd have done all these things, moving jobs every 2-3 years!

A good friend of mine is a CFO (of a small company) with a high salary. He comes from a lower middle class background I'd say. Both his parents were teachers. Went to state school. He got a 2:1 from a good uni, then got a graduate finance job and worked his way up from there.

I always had a plan,wanted to go to uni.growing up poor sharpens your thoughts
At school I was quiet,geeky.wanted to leave where I was from,had a plan
Didn’t want to settle down (hate that phrase makes we wince)
Didn’t want to get married.

Well what is the next step? How do you get there? Do you take things on at work without moaning 'it's beyond your pay grade'?

The people who get on and get up are those who know what the next step is (sometimes it's a sideways move), and who take everything as an opportunity - even if it's a bit more responsibility without the initial pay award. I always take extra stuff on as even if they don't pay me for it I can use it as evidence when applying for my next post.

Yes to changing jobs when yiu need to get promoted or diff experience
In a settled job you can unwittingly get overlooked or not want to initiate change

Moving jobs every two years with a pay rise each time is the only way to climb the ladder, at least in tech and probably in most other industries. Staying put is a sure-fire way to find yourself with 50k worth of responsibility and a 25k salary. Loyalty to a company is idiotic- the moment it makes sense to the bottom line for you to be gone, you’ll be gone. You should show the same loyalty in return.

WellI think we can conclude that if you want to get on then you will, its as simple as that:-)

The simple answer could be that there aren’t enough of ‘those jobs’ around for every single person who deserves/wants/needs/works hard for (insert your own wording) etc etc.

PS: I’ve never earned over 25K and I’m 54 (slightly misses point of thread).

Getting onto a grad scheme helps a lot as you have accelerated progression and are earmarked for promotion and good opportunities. My salary nearly doubled between starting a grad scheme and finishing. Throw in an extra promotion after that and you can see how some people have a relatively easy path to middle-lower senior management and good salaries. After that I think it’s harder to get to very senior levels (particularly for women) and you have to be really committed, be good and have some luck.