I think what private school gives you shouldn’t be whittled down to a job and salary. The experience of going to a private school is greater than just that. It gives you confidence, connections, social lubricant (as one person described it to me), an all round education in arts music drama public speaking sports AND academia. And of course, some can help you develop that ‘British exceptionalism’ that public schools do so well. It introduces you to more than just good grades and financial success….. it gives you the ability to transfer skills and to understand that a job doesn’t have to be for life. Usually smaller classes, more personal attention….
All very true, except for the British exceptionalism comments. Certainly most boarding schools have a significant international cohort and a therefore a much more globalised perspective on the world. In my experience it's the state-educated folk with few foreign friends and acquiantances, and have never travelled beyond Med holiday resorts, who believe Britain is best, that we can't learn from foreign experience, and that we are exempt from international norms and customs.
To answer the question, I'm 45 and a SAHP on a salary of zero. Was a boarding school scholar, from overseas. BA and MA from Russell Group unis, MBA from Ivy League grad school, have commanded £1000 a day as a consultant in the past but finding every door slammed in my face at the moment.
And I've met people who in one breath are proud that they'd never employ a privately-educated individual 'because it's unethical' and then in the next tell me that I should go and get a job.