High Earners not in "bullshit jobs"?

[VirginWestCoast]

Inspired by a couple of recent threads, the"bullshit jobs" one and the one asking how posters became well off.
Mumsnet seems to have people on generally higher incomes than the UK as a whole, with people quite nonchalantly saying that they and/or their DH are on 150k+ and a lot of people were saying on the Bullshit jobs thread that they were very well paid.
In the other thread, lots of people out their success down to sheer hard work, which I don't doubt, but lots of people work hard in worthwhile (ones which are pretty much universally recognised as worthwhile) jobs but are never going to be on 150k+ like nurses, teachers, cleaners, care workers. I know there are others and these are the ones most often trotted out but bare with me:
So it cannot just be working hard, it has to be working hard in the right areas (finance etc, I'd assume) to be well off if you aren't born into it or inheriting it.
And yet, while you may have, for example, doctors on 70k or so, the 150k+ group don't seem to include the typical "worthwhile" jobs (though I know this may well be down to me not being very familiar with the jobs in finance, senior management etc)

So my question is this:
If you are a high earner, do you feel that your job is socially useful? "Bullshit job"? Something else entirely? Do you think that what you're paid is fair?
Also, with regards to hard work, what did you have to do to qualify for your job role/ how long did it take?

This is just for personal curiosity so any answers are greatly appreciated.

On this:-
" Jobseeker19 Fri 24-Apr-20 15:40:37
How could I go from my job into one that pays more?
What would I have to do?"
I do not know what job you currently do but to become a solicitor it would first depend if you had a degree or not and A level grades. If you do then you do 2 years of courses and then 2 years as a trainee solicitor (latter 2 years are paid).

DH earns 6 figures and works in the music industry. I suppose it’s a bullshit job, but on the other hand, the arts are important. He has a degree in an unrelated subject and his rise in his industry has been earned through hustle and results.

I’m a manager child protection and earn 45k. Definitely not a bullshit job, definitely not well rewarded financially, but I wouldn’t do anything else.

I definitely work in what most people would describe as a bullshit job. I worked like an insane person at school and did languages at Oxford. Then went straight into the dot-com industry in 2001. I now work in finance as a project manager and have earned about 150k for the last 8 years. I mostly roll out global operational change programmes, in the past I did projects that were in consumer facing technology, now it's mostly trading software. A lot of the time, it's very hard work in terms of hours and risk, but I don't really kid myself - being a care worker must be incredibly hard and more emotionally draining.

For those of you on reasonably high incomes, does your age and experience factor in this?

I started my own care agency from scratch. Ive worked bloody hard and no, its not a BS job. We have lots of feedback and client testimonials saying thank you for caring for their relatives when they were palliative care and for treating them with dignity and allowing them to spend their last few weeks at home.
Thats priceless to me.

I think my husband is paid a ridiculous amount of money for what he does and it's not worthwhile at all.

I work much harder for much less.

DH often describes his job as "spreadsheets"but he does actually feel that being an actuary for a life company is worthwhile as people need to save for their retirement.

He could have worked harder- he's part qualified and stopped doing exams when he started as a contractor. He could also commute further to earn more but would barely see DS.

He sometimes feels guilty about his pay.

I’m on around £150k and I think it’s pretty bullshit. I’m a consultant so support large companies in reassessing their strategy. I would say people from my company are incredibly bright (mostly Oxbridge, Ivy League) and incredibly willing to work hard (12-14 hour days are normal) and so we can get projects done in 6 weeks that would take a team at our clients over a year to do. So that explains how we justify our rates to clients and why we get paid so we’ll. But on a social level, despite supporting clients who are essential (NHS, utilities, charities) I as an individual do not think my work is worth that.

High earner here but it has taken a while to get here. Lots of firm foundation laying so had to make some monetary sacrifices in my 20s and 30s. Niche area of financial services at the B2B end. Hard work, and you have to spot change and be adaptive. I pay significant tax and NI each year and I like seeing that contribution made also. I Give some money away and prefer to do that and drive an old banger. We are lucky in the U.K. to have a stable legal and economic system. I am concerned there is not enough information out there for young people today to make informed choices. More concerned that those with large capital wealth pay so little tax on it yet youngsters earning above £50k per annum pay tax and NIC at a marginal rate of about 42% per annum and at that level of income struggle to get a 2 bed property in many regions of England. There is huge imbalance but it isn’t always where it might appear.

@reasonwith it has to go hand in hand to a certain level, it takes time to work your up to the bigger numbers with more senior job roles. I got to my current salary by the time I was 33 though from working up in the same industry out of Uni.

Spreadsheets ha yes that's all most high paying jobs seem to boil down to. A snazzy suit and lots of spreadsheets.

Well, if one can’t add-up, one shouldn’t be in charge of money.

My job is definitely what lots would consider a ‘bullshit job’. I’m an art director in the film industry. My age and experience are the main factor in my high income- it’s taken me years to get to where I am, many of which were completely unpaid and when I did start getting paid I was working for much less than minimum wage. I think on paper it probably looks as if I get paid for nothing but my job consists of a lot more than just making things look pretty- there’s an incredible amount of planning and organising for each film set and when working on films with multiple sets this is a huge workload. I don’t have set shifts- when I’m working on a large scale project I quite often work 9am-10pm days including on weekends. It’s also taken a lot of technical training to build the skill set I have for my job.

I’ve seen lots of interesting posts on social media recently with what’s going on pointing out how reliant we are on film and TV, and what a horrible place the world would be without it. I’m not for a moment suggesting that people working in the film industry are as vital to society as healthcare workers, but it is important when classing a job as being a ‘bullshit’ job to imagine what society would be like without some industries made up of ‘bullshit’ jobs.

I have no doubts that nurses etc should be paid as much as me. But the reality of it is that most public funded roles are never going to be paid as well as private sector roles, regardless of how much harder they might work.

Most jobs require progression to get to the big numbers. I started as a grad on 20k. It took me ten years to get to just short of six figures.

Whilst not in the 200k high earner category, both OH and I are in the higher tax bracket.

My last piece of work for a Public Sector client I negotiated over £2 million off a proposal for a project from a contractor.

The one previous to that I found £1million of work that was being claimed for in a final account.

OH implemented a system for his employer that increased their ability to take revenue from one event, the uplift was £500k. He has set up and is currently supporting 300 staff to work from home.

I wouldn’t say our jobs are bullshit.

@fluffdeloop I can agree to this, I'm 34 and as mentioned before, work in the finance industry as a QA analyst. After university I went to work at PwC, very lucky to land an internship then did a masters and went straight into working but it takes years of experience to get to a good level. I'm glad I didn't delay going into this career any longer as when you first start out, the pay isn't very high. What's your industry if you don't mind me asking?

I'm in marketing, but I'm in house at a company that provides a service I would class as 100% essential (training in environmental protection and hazardous waste handling) so no, I wouldn't class mine as a bullshit job. At present it also includes training in handling biohazards and medical waste so what we're talking about is all of a sudden very much in the spotlight.

As to whether I think what I am paid is fair, I suppose that depends on who is determining what is fair! I've got a few degrees and probably about 15 years' experience, which is how I qualified for this role.

Mine is a bullshit job. Grossly overpaid for what it contributes to society. Yes, I worked hard to earn the qualifications, but no harder than key workers do everyday. I just got incredibly lucky. I’m very honest about that in RL.

After I had my DC I dropped to part-time working, and now spend the hours I used to be working volunteering for various local charities that help disabled and disadvantaged children. It’s quite frankly the only way I can even try to justify how grossly unfair my paid job is.

I have a really socially useful job that pays well in banking but can’t mention it as I will totally out myself. Lets just say without my team and I a lot of people and communities in the UK would be devastated.

University management. Earn £70k ish. Is it a bullshit job? Hmmmm. Well there's a massive massive massive amount of bureaucracy, a lot of which is unnecessary, and a large part of my job is dealing with it.

However it's where we are, and if I didn't make sure we jumped through every bit of regulatory red tape my institution wouldn't be able to continue.

And I, like most of my colleagues, believe absolutely passionately that what we do is hugely worthwhile to both our students and the wider community so my role is genuinely a social good.

Without teachers in the widest sense there’d be no IT staff or actuaries or people who make rich people richer. Who do you think teaches them those skills?

I earn less than the national average salary and I trained for 5 years to do my job. According to one MNer it's not a real job because it's not public sector.
I agree with PPs that sometimes luck, innate talent, intellect (which is sort of luck) circumstances, education can have as much influence as sheer hard work.
I have been shouted down and patronised on other threads that I cant possibly understand how hard high earners work because I am not one.
We were talking about footballers the other day and using an example of a footballer who earned 350k/week. It would take us (as a household) about 7 or 8 years to earn that. Has he worked harder in a week than 2 people working FT for 7 years...? I also used the analogy of an estate agent selling a 2 bed terrace cottage getting 1% commission. It could cost 900k in London and 50k somewhere else. Has the London estate agent worked 18 x as hard as the other one...? Its not always a direct correlation.
I understand the mental load and responsibility means higher earnings sometimes but then I think of the carers at my Ddads nursing home. There is a lot of responsibility and mental load dealing with end of life care. I cant imagine having to deal with people dying regularly, as part and parcel of your job and they certainly arent financially compensated for it.

OP

It's "with regard to" NOT "with regards to".

Stop doing this! It drives me mad! You are not sending greetings, are you?

Aerospace engineer more commonly known as a rocket scientist.
Not BS.
Well paid but not saying how much.

Aerospace engineer more commonly known as a rocket scientist.

Pah...it's not exactly brain surgery, is it?