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.

Grammar, early 40s company director £100k.

My dh is also early 40s and earns £100k, company director, both our salaries are from companies we set up together although he does the majority of day to day running. He went to school in a village in a v poor country and dropped out of education aged 19

Husband grammar school & graduate, mid forties, 60k.

For comparison, me bog standard high school (Scotland), did not go to uni from school despite having the highers (A-levels) to do so. Did a masters as a mature student, 50ish, Director Public Sector £120k

I have many many privately educated colleagues in pretty junior jobs in the later stages of their career.

I think it really depends what sector people are working in, whether those recruiting value private over state education. I do a lot of recruiting and I’m not sure what private education would tell me about a candidate other than their parents could afford it. I’m looking for sound value basis, skill set to do the job, compassion. I manage senior clinicians at consultant level and it’s a real mixed bag education wise x

I'm 55, privsteky educated,. I work as a manager in local government and earn £45k. I trained as a social worker but took lower paid jobs with charities in my 30s in order to be flexible around the children.

Dh went to boarding school, has a PhD, Used to work in business and earned very well but was away a lot - hence me having to have the flexibility for the children. However, 15 years ago he left that role and went to work for a charity. He now earns slightly more than me. If he'd stayed in business he'd be earning a 6 figure salary.

I really don't think in my case private education made a difference. I didn't go into the sort of world where connections /confidence were important. It possibly made more of a difference for DH as he went to Oxbridge, and in his first career that counted for something. However, he is really bright and hardworking so probably would have got in anyway.

I dont think career/salary are the only measures of whether a particular education was worthwhile or not.

I own my own business. Turn over about 75k working 20h per week. My own salary is less, I'm mainly working towards retiring as soon as possible.

My own kids are going to state school and thriving. If the cost of private relative to our income was the same as it was for my parents, I would probably send them private for the better facilities, opportunities and more time focused on learning above and beyond the curriculum for the joy of it (due to smaller classes, selective intake, more freedom from the curriculum and less time spent on behaviour issues). Those are the real benefits of independent imo.

Since when is 50k poorly paid??

I'm pretty sure the national average salary is about 30k.
On MN it seems to be about 70k!

I'm early 40s and went to a really good grammar school. Was very much an average student in a very good school though. Loads of students got straight A's and A*'s at GCSE and A levels but I didn't. My results were still good though.

Now I am a partner in an accounting firm. Earnings are taxed efficiently so on paper I only earn about £60,000 a year but my take home pay is £4,750 pcm.

Lots of girls I went to school with have much higher profile jobs than me (one runs a large private hospital for example) and lots have got in to the medical profession or scientific research which isn't as well paid as it should be.

I know there's a lot said about selective schools but in my case I found I did better as an average student in a good school than I would have done as a good student in an average school, iyswim.

I'm mid 40s. Work at director level. Salary is £115k. Have income through property too. Attended highly academic private school.

My DD went to private, very academic school. She is a city lawyer and last year earned £850,000. Exorbitant, I know, but you did ask.

A much more interesting question IMHO is whether those who were privately educated can afford and / or choose to send their own children private. My anecdotal experience is that friends who were privately educated on one professional salary in the 80s and 90s cannot afford the same for their own children unless they are in very very high-earning careers, or the grandparents are paying.

Grammar school (loved it), 34 on £40k working in the Environmental field, that’s including 2 maternity leaves

Adults who were privately educated earn between 35%-43% more than their state educated contemporaries. According to various studies.
People I know who were state comp educated earn anywhere between 0 and 100k those who were grammar or privately educated earn between 30 and 200k roughly.

Grammar school, back in the 70s. Most of us went into teaching or nursing.

I'm no longer in education, but had I stayed I'd probably be earning £45-50k. Long hours though and I'd probably have burned out by now.

I now work in charity and poorly paid. DP left school with 3 o levels and earns £60k part time.

Grammar school. I work at a university and earn £65k. My peers are everything from doctors to lawyers to journalists to teachers to MPs to SAHMs. Most are professionals of some sort but not city high earners. The ones with the most money are those that married rich husbands (who exclusively went to private schools and work in the city). Depressing.

DH and I are recently retired (aged 52 and 55).

I went to a grammar school and worked as a care assistant, was mainly a SAHM. I earned £20 per hour for a few hours a week.
DH went to a comprehensive boys school and earned 185k as an IT manager.

Me - private school, Oxford. SAHM/volunteering job
Dh - private school, good university, lawyer, high salary

120k under 40 software development

Reality check
Only 8.7% pay higher tax rate.

Anyone on £50,000+ describing themselves as not highly paid should be ashamed of their ignorance about their privileged position

Oh yes and that was grammar school so state sector

If it helps I do the same job and earn the same (education) as someone who went to state school. I went private all As etc but I wanted to work directly with children on a daily basis and help and that’s never going to earn the big bucks.
Of my peers from private, some are highly qualified and/or highly paid, I would say more so than my state educated friends and that this was down to the expectations and pressures from family and school as well as the fact that the private was selective so has an advantage right from the beginning.

I’m depressed by the figures on this thread. It’s thinking £70k is a high salary, or that stepping down from a middle management job rather than taking on a bigger role on the board that pays five times over for greater autonomy that keeps people (usually women) of exceptional ability paid significantly less than their private and public school equivalents.

DH Grammar plus uni earns 30k
Me local comp, no a levels or uni 65k, marketing.
Both in 50's.
Live like kings in the North.

@Frazzled2207

Early 40s dh- close to six figures working in an anyalyst role in IT.

However he’s very academic and I don’t know think he’s done well just because he went to grammar school. He would have done anyway.

Early 40s me - c45k but I took several years off my career to focus on my children. I went to a private school and have several school friends who did extremely well in various careers. And others who went to become teachers etc (obvs that’s great too but not financially in most cases!)

However what strikes me about all the people I know who’ve done very well in life is although their school was probably part of it, they all had very supportive parents who in different ways helped them do well at school.

This is what I'm thinking. That parenting could help to achieve good outcomes even without private school and if I can save money sending my child, I could better help her in other ways like setting up a business or buying a home. I am probably influenced by my anecdotal experience of most people I know who went to private school either earning less in another profession to me or being in the same profession anyway and appreciate that involves alot of luck for me not just hard work. But does anyone who went to private school still think it is necessary/worth the investment versus state in terms of value for money/output?

I went to private school and an RG university and earn about £1500 a month as a dog walker, working about 25 hours a week.

DH dropped out at 14 and works as a plasterer. He earns about 1k per week.

We're both self employed.

@Bum1

I'm relatively poorly paid (50k)

Only on Mumsnet...

I went to a grammar school but am one of @Seashor 's 'bright but not driven' contingent.

Grit is fine if you want a heart attack in your fifties. Talents are for enjoying, not wringing out like an old sock in pursuit of £££.

Love this. So true.

Queen Mary's (Walsall) during the 70s. It was an absolute loony bin. I ended up driving a van.