Job with 50k salary... Feeling weird...

[Frostysunshine]

Okay so this is a strange one, I've nobody in RL to ask for advice, so I'll give you a brief back story... I'm having a bit of, what can only be described as, a quarter-life-crisis at the moment. I'm 25, I graduated from uni two years ago and have been working as a teacher since then. I enjoy my job, but I always have this niggling feeling that I will get bored of it eventually, and bored of the poor pay if I don't want to become a head teacher. But at the same time, I battle with the fact that relative to my parent and partner, it's decent and stable money (28k) and that I wouldn't be guaranteed this money if I left and did a non-teacher job. So basically I worry that if I leave i wouldn't know what to do or what I'd enjoy doing, and I would definitely have to take a pay-cut and may never out-earn what I do teaching anyway.

So to my feeling weird part... I was staying with a friend on the run-up to Christmas, who was telling us about someone who we went to uni with. We all went to a pretty low-rate uni, this person studied business there. After graduation, they were working in restaurants and bars, alongside a part time office job and applied for a job on a whim. They got the job and have ended up on 50k within a matter of months.
I can't put my finger on why it's impacted me so much, but I can't let it go. Not so much about them, but more-so about what the hell I'm doing with my life. My partner earns less than me, he's trying his best to persue promotion and we are scraping to buy a house together. I feel like I'm failing him and myself because I can't gun for a payrise/promotion in my job. I just can't let go of the fact that I could be earning 50k VS the reality check that I keep trying to give myself that it probably doesn't work that way for most people. I'm feeling like I'm failing to provide at the moment, and I'm worried that if I stick at this job I'm going to reach 30/40 and wonder what I could have done/been earning at this point. My degree is in education and psychology (regret), and so I feel like I'm pretty pigeon-holed.

I need some realistic advice because I can't let this go and I have nobody to ask who might offer helpful suggestions.

Seriously, go see a careers adviser.

Education and psychology is a great mix, have a friend who now works for the autism service because of this mix and she has specialised outside the classroom, delivering training and advising schools. If she wanted to work outside of education her cv would be quite diverse. Give it a go to get something else as you’d always feel disappointed you’d never tried. There will always be teaching to come back to now you’ve qualified. Life is too short at 25 to feel you didn’t give it your best shot and if you did give it a decent go and it wasn’t what you’d wanted then at least it’s no regrets.

Isn’t psychology a huge growth area. I think I read that there is a shortage. So with some further training you could move in that direction? Otherwise management consultancies tend to have an open mind wrt qualifications for their grad schemes.

I think you should focus less on the money and more on what career would actually make you happy. Working in a job you hate will be soul destroying irrespective of income.

You need to be realistic. Your salary is not a bad salary, especially for someone who graduated 2 years ago. You cannot put yourself into this philosophical pickle of “failing everyone for your low salary” if you are just sitting there, doing nothing, waiting for the job to come to you.

This is difficult to accept op, but what you are feeling is just ENVY. It is a horrible feeling that is difficult to take away so you have 2 options:

1. put it out of your mind

2. Use it to progress your career ambitions

3. become resentful of your bad luck and feel the world is unfair to you.

Avoid 3 by all means.

Every teacher I know well enough to trust their concessions with me (about 20, across primary and secondary - from 2 years post NQT to a secondary HoD and a primary head) is happy with their work life balance.

That’s overall. Yeah sure - there are moments. But there are in my big insurance company office job too. Some periods those moments are have been long and hard. But overall, the working days are OK, and every single one of them says the holidays massively make the work life balance - well, balance.

I am not saying “oh but they shouldn’t complain, they get lots of holiday”. I am saying that my experience of teacher friends is that they have had interesting careers, many with progressing, many with good money.

Are you in the wrong school for you? Environment is everything.

Do you have a mentor - formally or informally? There is a lot of negativity around teaching. If you can ally with someone who actually says “I love teaching!” (as my friends all do) you might be able to see a more positive future than “inevitable stagnation”.

I’m a teacher as well.

Just out of curiosity price up holiday clubs for 13 weeks a year for 1 / 2 / 3 children and then decide if your salary looks so rubbish then...

If you don’t enjoy it then leave. But don’t do it because you think the grass is greener elsewhere because it probably isn’t.

Friend's sister got a really well paid job straight out of uni, back in the days when management consultancy was all the rage for graduates. After a few months she found herself in the office late at night sobbing hysterically and decided to pack it in. Your £50k associate might love the job, but it's not everything.

Nobody really knows what work environment is going to be like until they get there. Look at loads of job ads and see what appeals. Employers invest a lot in recruitment and selection and don't want people dropping like flies so you should hopefully get some idea what it would be like as you go through the process. If you realise it's not for you at some point along the recruitment process, you don't have to proceed.

You don't get 50k at 25 without them wanting their pound of flesh. You do something you value and enjoy and you don't have the pressure of living up to the expectations of that kind of money. Relax !

It's affected you because you want to do the same, and you can. Nit saying you'll get the job. But look very carefully at jobs in that salary range, at the fine print of what they are looking for, and if you have the abilities for over 50% of what they ask for, apply.

Some people apply for jobs they meet some criteria for, others do this only when they meet every criterion.Some apply for jobs way above their current salary. Others apply a couple of K raise at a time. The bolder ones get on faster. They also pick up if they crash and burn - the company goes out of business or similar.

Just apply! Spend time individually tailoring your CV to each job so you look like the dream candidate (not lying, but highlighting relevant experience and downplaying less relevant.)

Lots of people feel this way, including those who earn more than you - people always think the grass is greener elsewhere.

If you want to earn more you almost certainly could. There are lots of grad schemes that you could try, and I'm sure that you will have good transferable skills. Teachfirst is a scheme for people to teach for a couple of years before going into corporate jobs, so those companies clearly value the skills teachers have.

However it isn't clear from your post whether you like teaching? If you like it I would probably do it for a year or two more and then see how you feel. If you don't like it, start looking at those grad schemes!

Just on that environment I mentioned... I used to hang out with a group of primary teachers regularly, they were all friends, and my boyfriend played 5-a-side with 2, so we became part of a social group in the pub regularly in our late 20s, pre kids.

Some of these are still my friends, and as I mentioned - are happy with their careers.

But there was a subset (of 3 or 4 from 10) who could be guaranteed to bore on about how hard teaching wasn’t, hardest job in the world, crazy hours... always the same people, in some of the same schools as the “happy” ones.

They made me because I’d come straight to the pub from work, having worked late in my office job, knowing I was logging on again when I got home. Whilst they’d been home first, and whilst very vocal about lesson prep - oddly it was always me saying “sorry guys, got to go early, month end financials due” not them saying “I am leaving now to do that lesson plan”.

Not all teachers are like them, at all. But there was a real culture of “teachers have the hardest job, the shittest pay, the longest hours...”. I imagine if you were an NQT and happened to fall into that group - you could be really affected.

Surround yourself by proactive and positive people!

'Or is money the primary indicator of fulfillment?'

This was the first question that came into my head reading your OP. If the money is so important to you, I'm wondering how you'll last in teaching, which is a vocation (as is psychology, at least in the clinical direction).

As for the rest, what PotteringAlong said (except I'm not a teacher).

Some of those high starting salary jobs and grad schemes (especially ones where you don't need an absolute top degree etc) turn out to be nightmares and often have a high drop out rate. I had a friend on the Aldi one and she said most people were gone within 3 months as it was so awful.

I am two years older than you and a teacher. I am on 45k. Yes working in inner London but on middle management. Work hard and do tactical job moves (when you move jobs you can negotiate pay with your new school and move up the scale much quicker). Also look into doing private tutoring at weekends or in school holidays.

You can't pick the luckiest and most proactive person in your cohort on 50k and compare yourself to them. Also, it's fairly obvious if they did Business they were going to be interested in a different type of jobs with a higher salary ceiling than you.

This is an odd thread, some of the advice on how to make the best of your existing pathway, or jump off and do something else is great. But there aren't 50K jobs two years after graduation for everyone, even if you have a first from a great uni (which you don't sound like you have). Many are not on your salary either. I wouldn't change out of teaching hoping for 50K as this is not realistic- change because you don't like the job, or because you'd like to do something else, but if you switch into marketing or HR you won't be on 50k very soon.

Be careful what you wish for OP.

At 25yo you are at the start of your career in real terms, and it is highly likely in today's world of portable career paths, there is nothing to say that you have to remain in teaching for the rest of your life, unless that's what you choose to do.

You would be well advised to do your own personal skills audit, to identify the attributes and talents you possess and how you can apply that to a variety of different roles. You could, for example, take your teaching skills, and apply those within a commercial industry setting where they need staff to run internal training/ Continuous Professional Development courses etc. Or you could move into a delivery role as a Project Manager.

Think of your value add first. If all you ever do is think about chasing a pay scale, you'll find yourself lacking at interview as to what you can do to add value to the organisation. You need to be authentic and show what you have to offer before you ever get them to agree to £50k.

If you want to earn a high income, go and earn it. Nothing can hold you back but you. I left school with nothing but always earned a high salary, I was never qualified for any of the positions I took and always ran multiple money making projects on the side. No one will come and find you and give you money, you have to work hard to go and get it.

"I wouldn't know what graduate schemes to even apply for, I have no experience outside of schools and my degree is pretty awful when it comes to being eligible for schemes."

If you can't work this out for yourself then you're not going to be employed by someone in a high earning/problem solving/solution orientated capacity or have the drive to earn it by yourself. You are so young, you have the time to earn anything you want but only if you have the drive to go and get it. I do however agree that money can't provide everything in life but if you want security, travel and 'stuff' it sure helps.

OP a Pp suggested a careers advisor and I agree. There are lots of options available to you but you need to work out if they will suit your personality and values.

One example
Education, psychology and teaching are a perfect background for Account Management aka professional business to business sales. These jobs will command high starting packages around £50k (including car and benefits) and can increase over time to well into 6 figures.
But you have to be self-motivated, driven, focused, happy to work alone. Is that a good fit for you OP?
You also have to be really good with people, lots of charisma, charm, plus able to be firm and challenging. Is this you OP?
Plus your work/life balance will likely be shit and you may well have to travel away from home overnight at say 3 hours notice so parenting/caring responsibilities are challenging (eg probably need a stay at home partner or live-in nanny if you have kids) and hobbies/personal relationships take a kicking. Are you prepared and able to compromise on that OP?
Plus in UK most people treat sales reps as idiots so your massive income may be no substitute for lack of respect in who you are and what you do. Personal choice OP but how much of your identity is tied up in others’ opinions of your career choice?

There are lots of other career choices you could make. I suggest focusing on learning about those rather than envying your old friend.

What I mean is you would probably have to do a Masters, then work up for lots of jobs. To become an Ed Psych or any Psych role it would be years of training. These aren't jobs you can just jump into and within a year or two be hitting the big time any more than in teaching which actually offers some decent possibilities if you are prepared to move to progress.

My friend is a teacher and was earning 36k within 6 or 7 years. We live up north and I think that's a great salary.
Another friend of mine is an educational psychologist after being a teacher for a couple of years and earns a high salary, well over 40k.
Are you happy working as a teacher? If you're someone who equates money with success then this may not be the career for you?
You've nothing to lose by at least applying for other roles if you want to.

We don’t know enough about this £50k job/ is it permanent? Is there a bonus or commissions involved? What is the long term security like?
On the face of it teaching is a secure and stable job with reasonable pay and conditions.
If you aren’t happy you should make plans to leave.

I think you also need to look at the flip side. If you decide to have children in the future a career as a teacher will be ideal - think of the holidays and reduced childcare. Everything is relative - your friend probably has to work horrendous hours for the money and will need to make sacrifices. If I were you I would do some extra training to move up a bit in your chosen profession - your earnings will go up, you will be in a secure job (which your friend probably isn't) and you will have a good pension.

He took the risk and when he got the opportunity he was able to make sure he stood out enough to be considered for a good role.

If you won't take the risk or push yourself then you will stay still. So either push for gold in education - aim for head teacher for example or take a different path and see where you end up. Personally if you go for a different path I would suggest getting a couple of industry qualifications while in current role before you take the leap.

teaching pays off when you have children and can do it part time plus save a lot in the holidays. You don't sound that happy in the job though? That would make me look into other options at your age. Of course, a period of retraining at this stage isn't going to immediately make you more mortgage worthy so do it carefully.

You need some careers advice. You're only 25 and you've only been a teacher for two years! That's barely any time at all and there is so much time to make a change if you want to.

It sounds like at the moment you are focusing on the money, but being happy in your career and life in general is about more than just the amount you earn.

The first thing to do is stop the idea that you are somehow trapped because of your degree subject and current job. There are so many opportunities to get on graduate schemes or to do extra training or even an MA etc in something using the education and skills you have.

There's also traineeships around, volunteering opportunities - so many things you can look into to build skills in addition to your current ones and figure out a role that has better prospects. But if the money is that important to you you need to start looking at the careers where you can earn higher than in teaching.