If you attended private/grammar school, what is your job role and salary?

[Z3lda]

Extremely nosey I know and obviously no one is obliged to share. But I'm just intrigued as it seems many are quite desperate to get their children into the best private or grammar school, but I just wondered what kind of jobs and salaries students from these schools go on to actually have? I know that education provides children with far more than just a path to a specific job and salary, but I do think many send their children to these schools for this reason.

@MapleMay11 I'd love to know how one even gets a job like that - please advice 😆👍🏼

[quote 68degreesnorth]@MapleMay11 I'd love to know how one even gets a job like that - please advice 😆👍🏼[/quote]
I have an MD and a PhD. DH and I are both consultants in a healthcare-related field with few people that have our particular specialist knowledge, so we're very lucky in that respect. I don't doubt for one minute that either of us could be in exactly the same position with a state education though.

Girls grammar school. Age 37, have a BA, MA and Doctorate. Chartered Psychologist. Work 30 hours per week roughly and term time only. 50% paye role and the other 50% I run my own private practice. I earnt 80k last tax year.

I think a lot of it isn’t to do with private or grammar schooling, it’s having parents ‘in the know’. So, if your parents know about City careers, or medicine, for example, have friends they can ask for advice or introductions for you, you’re always going to miles ahead of the equally bright comprehensive kid who has no idea these kinds of path could be open to them.

Then add money - if your parents are well off you don’t need a part time job to fund your studies. A high proportion of my Russell Group university friends had flats bought for them as their student accommodation so they had a foot on the property ladder in the 90s and have made an absolute mint on that alone.

I had no idea about Oxbridge until the application dates had already passed. I hadn’t a clue what any of the companies on the Milk Round did or why I might apply. My friends all seemed to have a really clear plan, which I now realise had been there since A Level days.

DH and I are now doing well (both state educated, neither went to grammar) earning six figures each, but we were late bloomers as we had to work it all out for ourselves by grit and wit!

My kids will go to state all the way through, BUT will have the advantage of everything we learned. I really think that makes the biggest difference.

@TheEconomista

I think a lot of it isn’t to do with private or grammar schooling, it’s having parents ‘in the know’. So, if your parents know about City careers, or medicine, for example, have friends they can ask for advice or introductions for you, you’re always going to miles ahead of the equally bright comprehensive kid who has no idea these kinds of path could be open to them.

Then add money - if your parents are well off you don’t need a part time job to fund your studies. A high proportion of my Russell Group university friends had flats bought for them as their student accommodation so they had a foot on the property ladder in the 90s and have made an absolute mint on that alone.

I had no idea about Oxbridge until the application dates had already passed. I hadn’t a clue what any of the companies on the Milk Round did or why I might apply. My friends all seemed to have a really clear plan, which I now realise had been there since A Level days.

DH and I are now doing well (both state educated, neither went to grammar) earning six figures each, but we were late bloomers as we had to work it all out for ourselves by grit and wit!

My kids will go to state all the way through, BUT will have the advantage of everything we learned. I really think that makes the biggest difference.

That’s exactly it and what I was getting at in my post.

My parents were a nurse and a security guard. They had no idea of any high flying careers.

Other people I went to school with - their parents had gone to good universities, had amazing careers, so of course they were going to be pushed and given good advice and contacts.

Despite the grammar school education, the only conversation I ever had with my father about my future was the one when I left at 16 when he asked which supermarket i’d be applying to for a “little job” until I got married.

So it’s no wonder I’m not a surgeon or a barrister like the girls I went to school with, it was just never on my radar and I never thought that was my place in life.

I know people can work their way up from nothing, but honestly, I never had the thought in my head that I could actually do anything with my life due to my upbringing. That life was for other people.

@DerTrotzkopf

Love to know what all these projects to be managed are ? Did you need a degree to do it ?

If my place is anything to go by, these project managers just spend all day stomping around trying to get those actually doing work to change their other priorities in order to attend totally unnecessary meetings.

Girls private school. Worked in investment banking my entire career (now mid 40's), well into 6 figures. DC also both in private school, as it worked well for me.

@Campervan69

I went to private school and was one of the poorer children there. All the children of very wealthy parents had a rung up on the ladder already as their parents had friends in high places who were able to give them internships etc. So they have all capitalised on their wealthy start whereas the friends I have from more normal backgrounds are like me fairly well off in decent level salaries but nothing spectacular. But also none of us were particularly driven to achieve that level.

I found this as well - most of the richer kids got a leg up with their parents businesses or friends and are quite high earners - I'm on a reasonable salary, over average, but not mega bucks.

My sisters all went to Grammar school and my brothers went to a Comp - all of us earn quite a bit - top 1%. Parents did little to facilitate us - if anything they were quite neglectful but success was expected.

@MapleMay11 yes I have everything including a PhD myself, but probably in the wrong area - or I'm just clueless how to get a high paid job! I think that's where private education probably comes up better, I've studied but never really learnt what I should be, or could be, doing next!

@TheEconomista

I think a lot of it isn’t to do with private or grammar schooling, it’s having parents ‘in the know’. So, if your parents know about City careers, or medicine, for example, have friends they can ask for advice or introductions for you, you’re always going to miles ahead of the equally bright comprehensive kid who has no idea these kinds of path could be open to them.

Then add money - if your parents are well off you don’t need a part time job to fund your studies. A high proportion of my Russell Group university friends had flats bought for them as their student accommodation so they had a foot on the property ladder in the 90s and have made an absolute mint on that alone.

I had no idea about Oxbridge until the application dates had already passed. I hadn’t a clue what any of the companies on the Milk Round did or why I might apply. My friends all seemed to have a really clear plan, which I now realise had been there since A Level days.

DH and I are now doing well (both state educated, neither went to grammar) earning six figures each, but we were late bloomers as we had to work it all out for ourselves by grit and wit!

My kids will go to state all the way through, BUT will have the advantage of everything we learned. I really think that makes the biggest difference.

This is so so true!! I work in the City now but I didn't knew it was even an option until I moved to London as a grad and heard people talking about the City. It was just something that was mentioned on the news occasionally, on a par with Mars being mentioned. Totally alien to everyone I knew, family especially. I'm pretty sure when I said I worked in a bank that my relatives thought I was a cashier in a high street branch.

I interviewed at Cambridge (there were 4 of us who did from my year of 200 kids at tertiary college - none of us got in) but because I was doing 'modern' French at A level rather than French literature, they said I would have struggled too much so only offered me a place for Economics (I wanted to do Economics and French, or rather Economics with Modern & Medieval Languages as it would be at Cambridge). I didn't have a choice of French A level syllabus and at the time was furious with my tertiary college that this cost me a place on the course I wanted. I can't imagine a private school would have made this 'mistake'. With hindsight, being able to discuss economics or law or the news in French rather than analyse Madame Bovary has been a damn sight more useful so I think my college was probably right. So Oxbridge was out for me (I refused to drop French) and I turned LSE down because my (no clue about uni) parents insisted it was "full of loony lefties" and threatened to disown me if I went there. I'm not joking.

@68degreesnorth Is it in a science-related subject? If so, I'll PM you

@TheEconomista I couldn't agree more. I have all the education including a PhD but my parents never had a clue what I was up to and I never had any guidance so it was a bit of a fumble in the dark experience. I sort of stumbled into university almost by accident and stayed a long time, but never had any help in what to do next. Probably why I never earned more than 20k.

@MapleMay11 I wish!! It's in humanities. I'm a quick learner though 😁. I've thought about retraining, but at 44 and with all the years of education behind me I just wish there was something I could do where all the skills I already have could be in use. It's tricky... I have my own business and I could really make that a much more successful venture than it currently is, it's just not where my heart is.

@68degreesnorth I think that's where networking can come in useful as there are so many roles you might never have even heard of. Do you know what your friends from uni are doing? Could they be of any help?

I didn't go to private/public school but over the years have mixed with many who did. I know people from comprehensives who've gone on to earn 6 figure+ salaries, often in their own businesses or by inheriting property and/or money; and I know people from private/public/grammar schools who've worked for non-profits earning a subsistence salary (though some of them are honest about the fact they couldn't really do that if they didn't have that family cushion behind them just in case anything goes wrong).

As others have said, a lot of success (if you're measuring it in exclusively financial terms, anyway) is to do with the world you're born into and the privilege, or lack of it: there's an interesting piece of film at - the quality isn't fantastic and it's set in the US, but the principles still apply.

I've personally been financially comfortable outside the UK with tax-free salary and perks; a decent salary (decent in my eyes though it wouldn't touch the sides of many on this thread) that wasn't worth the hassle and the insanity of the nutty senior management and the ludicrous workload; and following a very unexpected illness, had to take a huge cut in salary meaning I'm now on the "average" annual wage (not the mode, not the median, but the "average"). For many people, life doesn't move in a straight line, so while a current salary may provide a useful snapshot, it won't necessarily always apply.

@MapleMay11 yes I'm in touch with them and know what they are doing. Most of them seem have pretty good jobs, with one or two doing extremely well, but it's one of those areas where once you're out you're out. If you don't keep up with what's happening and carry on, say publishing, whilst not employed - then very quickly you've lost your chance. I've been out of it for far too long now, but was weirdly enough headhunted for a role just as the pandemic struck - and then said pandemic got in the way of things progressing, so I'm still waiting. If it all goes ahead (eventually) it will still only be a post for 3 years at probably no more than 30-35k a year. If it happens - great - but if not I'm back to square one. It's just one of those areas that even if you got the highest position you wouldn't ever earn a lot. I'd be thrilled if I ever got to 50k.

You're absolutely right about networking though, I'm always amazed to hear about the weird and wonderful jobs people have that I never even heard of or knew you could get with my background!

Attended girls grammar / convent school.
Got BSc, MSc. Then decided to study Medicine at Bristol but left in the second year.
I worked as a project manager, I was earning approx 55k. I only worked part-time termtime. Quit after our second child now 13 was born.
Been a SAHM ever since!

I went to a state school but there was one lad who's parents were loaded. He was gifted a brand new car at 17 and they bought him his own very, very nice flat when he started his degree a year later.

He wasn't particularly academic, didn't get the best results but he sailed into a job with a starting salary of almost £50k and is doing much better than anyone else I know of.

In the UK it's all about your background.

Sis and other posts above - I think there is evidence that after university private school and grammar school pupils do better. I would like to see statistics for 10 years after university but perhaps limit it to full time working women not part timers as they skew the figures and compare then.

This has probably been said but some of what you do afterwards has also to do with how important it is to you personally to be a high-flier.

For me, I had other options after my degree than going into the NHS - but I chose to work in an NHS lab, despite the abysmal pay, because it sat better with my personal ethos. I could have worked in industry at a much better rate of pay, or gone into biotechnology (ditto) - but I didn't want to.

I gained my Masters degree while working - part funded by my employers - and I will never be negative about my choices because I loved doing my job (although the employment side of it left a lot to be desired at times!) and I learnt a huge amount, which has all been very useful to me since.

I'm extremely grateful for my education and the breadth of knowledge and opportunity it gave me - and glad that I chose the path I did, despite the lack of financial recompense.

I think a lot of it isn’t to do with private or grammar schooling, it’s having parents ‘in the know’.

Whether or not parents are "in the know", many private schools arrange for alumni to give frequent careers talks, explaining which universities are best for law, medicine, economics and so on, along with details such as the huge difference between corporate law and criminal law, how to secure a pupilage after a law degree, the two-year foundation course that follows a five-year medical degree, the various specialty training programmes which follow on from that, and so on.

Grammar school, late 40's circa 40k pa but i took a 5 year career back and came back entry level 5 years ago. Prior to career break 10 years ago i was on circa 50k. I am all about data and IT

Not me but my OH..
Early 40s and an only child.
His parents insisted on putting him into private education (had to keep up with the rest of the family etc!) and even moved several times to allow funding for it ..

Drink and 'teenage lad' life got in the way during his uni days and he didn't actually finish.

OH has had a few managerial roles in hospitality but currently unemployed and he seems to be stuck at a dead end at the moment, not very helpful when we have multiple children and the bills etc don't stop!
Unfortunately from his experience private education doesn't automatically mean you're going to have a well paid job..

Private school. 86k. Legal sector business development. Early 30s. I could earn more by moving firms (100k ish if I really pushed myself) but job security, flexi working around childcare suits me for now.