To ask if you earn £50K+ what do you do?

[Poppi89]

I have seen a lot of posts on here where people say how much they earn and I am shocked how many people earn over £50K, so I was just wondering what it is that you do?

Also, do you think it is more important to have a high income or a job that you enjoy?

Fedup

It took me 4 years to get that salary in London, I did a degree and an MA but not in marketing. But I couldn't have got a foot in the door without good academics, companies in my industry are very snobby about having a good degree.

@mochajoes

Oh I totally agree with you. Most companies I work in there is an interesting trend.. Women progress quicker into junior manager roles than men, then there is a divergence when they hit their 30s, some women have babies and their career stagnates for many years then in late 40s they might get back up to mid management level, but all those I know who are very senior do not have children. I'm 30 and I have a one year old, I don't know a single person my age in my industry who has a baby... Usually women have them in late 30s.

The tech industry is good at flexible working... It's not a strict 9-5 but part time options are never offered so it means nursery full time which is £1800 per month where I live.

Sorry to take thread on a tangent!

Conference Interpreter.

HR Manager. Although I'm currently taking a massive temporary pay cut due to coronavirus. I'm a single Mum (lone parent) living near London so it doesn't actually go very far!

It is very inspiring to hear from especially women ( and even more especially single parents ) who are in high-income careers, most of which are quite powerful positions.

@dodeer I think it's really useful to hear from women who have achieved it. My career before babies was quite female dominated & getting to 100k was possible but no option of part time & very demanding. My new one has top earners on around 80k but those jobs are few & far between. DH works for a big law firm & some partners get 500k plus a yr, no women though.

These threads always have lots of people coming on saying what DH earns but as you said the reality is it's still much more challenging for women to reach the high salaries.

My friend works in banking in a senior role on a high salary, since her baby is off nursery she is really struggling because she's expected to do a full time role and all her colleagues are men with stay at home wives who do 100% childcare. There is zero understanding of her challenges.

It’s at this point in these threads where someone pops up and says

“ Hi everyone, please tell me how I can get a job that earns £50k? “

“ I have no qualifications and I’m not prepared to get any, unless I can get paid to do them”.

“Oh and I can only work part time as I have two young children, their father isn’t willing to do anything and that’s fine with me because he’s a man and men’s jobs are more worthwhile “.

“Oh and did I mention that I can’t work evenings or weekends because Quality Family Time? “

Then they sulk and whine when posters point out that

Many ( not all ) jobs that pay £50k involve working for less than that for quite a few years. And need qualifications and / or experience. And involve working long , hard and sometimes anti social hours for years.

And that taking a significant amount of time out of the labour market in your 20s will almost certainly have a huge and lifelong impact on your career and pension. And that even going part time in your 30s will have an impact.

And that sacrificing your career and lifelong earring potential for another adult is almost always a bad Idea that will not work in your favour in the long term. Very rarely do such life long sacrifices receive life long appreciation. If anything , they often cause resentment in the medium and long term.

Lawyer.

DH has done all the childcare for many years and it would now be far more difficult for him to achieve a high salary as a direct result of that.

My earnings are likewise a consequence of his being prepared to step back from work.

He is struggling with self-isolation far more than I am without the routine of kids at school/me being out the house a couple of days a week. It makes me wonder what he was doing when I wasn't here that he now misses

@I0NA I think your post is slightly unfair.
Noone on this thread has said anything like that and you're suggesting that those who earn below £50K are lazy and want something for nothing and not willing to put in the time, get qualifications, work weekends etc. There are midwives, nurses and teachers on this thread that I can guarantee put in just as much time, hard work and sacrifice as you do but they just get less money.

I'm an epidemiologist at a tech company, and I really enjoy it.

I think enjoying your job is more important than money but it doesn't have to be one or the other. Most of my friends also enjoy their jobs and are well paid. It does depend what sort of thing you enjoy doing I guess!

Disappointed to hear that doadeer. I have people in my team (banking head office) where both husband and wife work FT, now from home and they have small children. I am expecting them to ‘tag team’, work out a schedule of childcare between them & not to worry if an hour or two drops here or there. And to keep revisiting it to make sure it is working.

What is the quickest route to earn something in the region of 50k? For example, in 5 years time to start earning that amount.
@Fedupandpoor this is probably an annoyingly vague answer, but it depends what position you are in and what you are good at!
Do you have a degree? What experience do you already have? What are you good at? How much of a pay cut can you take for 5 years?

Trying to think of people who I know reached that salary quickly (it took me longer, I posted my job under another name):

• recruitment consultant in a scientific industry. Zero relevant experience or qualifications, started earning a very basic wage (50k has taken longer. Less than 5 years from the end of a degree in many cases though

bingo

Those sorts of jobs probably require a certain type of person to succeed - assertive, confident, outgoing, as well as a general graduate or masters level background to demonstrate the right level of ability.

Definitely need to be the right sort of person to succeed and if you're not, you've little chance, and you'd probably not enjoy it either?

Jobs with high salaries that don't require many years of 'working up' involving long hours are probably vanishing rare. There might be the odd person who has fallen into such a job due to luck, but the vast majority will have earned their position, and beaten many other equally high calibre candidates to positions they've held along the way - eg there are often many applicants for every vacancy in a graduate scheme, and only a minority of entrants will actually stay in the scheme long term - many will either be told they're not right for the job/company or opt out due to their own choice that it's not what they want to do.

Without a degree it took me 5 years in construction industry - high end sector to earn £50K plus
And think that’s quite common for the most part

Many people doing my job are on £70k plus in certain larger companies but I wanted to work for a smaller company

@bingoitsadingo Thank you for the detailed response.

I'm a single mum to preschoolers. One year of uni then dropped out. No real experience in anything besides minimum wage jobs. I have 10 A to C gcses, access to He certificate. (Horrific childhood and abusive ex partner before anyone comes on to call me a waste of space).

I'm on UC now so I don't think it's possible to take a pay cut! 😁

I had just started my own little business that had potential to be successful. That's on hold now, so I'm wondering whether to pick up where I left off or retrain/start a new career. I'm open to absolutely anything that would give my kids a better start than me.

@Fedupandpoor

Become a Chartered Paraplanner to an IFA will take you < 5 years if you can manage the exams. You'll need to take about 10 - 12 exams and have fairly strong maths. If you become and IFA you can earn more than that if you're good.

You can study in your own time and work part time. It's a very good job at the moment as there are not enough paraplanners so their salaries are going up.

I did 18 professional exams studying just in the evenings. Bloody hard work and took me 5 years. It's doable, but you've got to want it.

@Wrinklesareenhancing Thank you. Is that something I could begin without a degree? Do you have to pay for your studies and exams?

@Fedupandpoor

No degree needed. The Advance Diploma is degree level so it's challenging, but you build on the knowledge.

Yes, but MUCH less than a Uni degree.

Have a look at the CII website it's the R0 and AF exams.

@Wrinklesareenhancing Thank you 🙂

Head of a marketing department for large fmcg company. Love my job

@BarbaraofSeville I completely agree - they are not jobs that 'anyone' can do. I was just trying to give some ideas of roles I know of where people have risen to 50k+ rapidly. I am in a science role and it took me about ten years to get from having nothing more than A levels to earning 50k, but the money wasn't the driving force for me.

The recruitment consultant I mentioned started after A levels and a gap year and plenty of their colleagues also don't have degrees. 5 years in he's earning 100k. You need to be competitive, a good talker, able to read people, slightly manipulative (not in a nasty way, but treat it like a game of matching up people/jobs) and hardworking. It can be high pressure and long hours, but not crazily long.

"Definitely need to be the right sort of person to succeed and if you're not, you've little chance, and you'd probably not enjoy it either?"
I think this is true of almost every job! It's about finding what you are good at. Writing? Technical/logical puzzles? Organising people or events or projects? Interpersonal relationships? And what you're interested in - if you are interested in the subject it's much easier to work hard and stay motivated. If it's the money that motivates you then something commission-based where you directly see the results of your work in your paycheque might be the way to go - but again that comes back to personality type.

I'm a university professor. Job/career/ satisfaction is paramount. One should always try to derive meaning from one's work; for many of us, it stems from trying to make the world a better place. If money had been important, I would not have spent a decade doing unpaid research for a PhD, and would not have gone into teaching/research/writing.

Housing association jobs are usually very supportive and good places to work and progress without always needing degrees. The money tends to be more on the land / construction side. my staff have joined me as junior / trainee project managers on circa 28k and progress to 55k with 4-5 yrs experience (the good, driven ones!)

Podiatrist £80k(profit) - gave up chasing NHS contract work back in the 90’s to start in private practice and work for myself. 4 day week no stress! Not a job for everyone but I love it and always have done.

I'm an accountant.

At my stage of life, it's more important to have a job that I enjoy than a high income. But the answer will be different for everyone, dependent upon a myriad of circumstances.