Need a higher paying job if I want to get further in Iife

[Nooriginalusernameidea]

I've got a Degree and I'm a qualified teacher. I earn about 23k doing various supply/agency jobs. I know it isn't a terrible salary, but if I want children, a home, car etc. Maybe it just won't be enough.
Partner is on a low salary too and looking for higher paid work. However I noticed that my friends all have husbands/partners on very good salaries, not sure if this was deliberate but I would rather earn the money myself.
I'm currently a TA and care assistant. I make 23k by not taking many holidays and doing long hours, so it's not ideal. I haven't had more than 4 days off in nearly 2 years.
I'm considering my ECT year in teaching (put it off for a while) but too many horror stories of burnt out teachers, signed off with stress, bullying etc.
I know it would be a lot of work but everyone seems to warn you against it.
I'm currently awaiting to hear back from a probation services officer application, so fingers crossed. It's still 23k but there's progression.
I know money isn't everything, but our rent is going up too by £200 per month in a few months.
It's a shame as I do enjoy my work and it's low stress (apart from care sometimes) but feel like I will not be able to afford things.

Thanks for the encouragement :)

I applied for probation as I thought it could be a role I'd have skills for and it does have progression. But I suppose I'll have to apply for ECT....how easy it is to actually move up the pay scale? it's all performance based isn't it?

Honestly, if your performance is average or better, you can expect to move up 1 point on the pay scale most years.
So if you start an ECT role now, you'd be on about 39k in 6-8 years time.

ECT seems the way forward for you OP. Come on you can do it, you already have the degree and TA experience. Yes people get tired and burn out but, you're proving to yourself already you've got stamina and cope well. You're right, you need to live your life and if you've not got the means to live how you wish, then you need to invest in yourself to get that financial return. Run your own race, never mind what your friends are doing. We see plenty on here that struggle when relationships breakdown. Get the qualification and career you deserve. Whats the alternative? Not doing it to avoid risking failure and get burnout from working how you are now anyway! Its sounds like this is the one last thing you need to achieve, you've done the degree. Have faith in yourself. You don't want to be old one day regretting not having lived the life you wanted x

To be fair, probation would probably offer just as good progression. But I doubt the working hours/ pressure would be much different..
It depends what you want to do really.

You don’t have to apply for anything. You seem very passive. What do you want to do?

I can see both sides to this in that, I earn many times what I did when I had just a first degree, I'm on just short of 100k, but my lack of work life balance is horrendous. At around 80k I did pretty much nothing at work but direct other people and make important decisions.

When I was on 20k or less, I worked hard but got to not think about work after hours.

A lot depends on what you want.
Weigh this up.
Will you have regrets at 50 that you didn't finish your teaching education? Have you always wanted to be a teacher?
Will you just regret that you didn't earn more?
I am glad I achieved what I've achieved but I do see now that this is a fallacy, but I'm not sure if my regrets would've been different otherwise.
If you didn't always yearn to teach, but money is more important, leave teaching behind. Go back to university or train outside of work in IT and earn more.
We have 25 year olds straight out of uni earning 45k (and complaining it's not enough!).

That's good to know, I was under the impression people got stuck on MP1 for years if they didn't achieve very good/excellent results.

I think I'm just too worried about choosing a school with very poor behaviour/toxic staff/unrealistic expectations. Seen it a few times as a TA I'm on a Facebook group called exit the classroom and thrive, life after teaching. There are posts by the minute of teachers who are struggling to cope and desperate to quit.

Ignore the replies calling you lazy etc.
Teacher training can be brutal, lots of people feel quite apprehensive about how they will manage their first role post qualifying...you would be surprised how many people feel the same.
And I know the training for other careers can be brutal too, but we're talking about your situation here.
You will have got a good feel for different schools doing supply. Try and only apply for jobs at schools that you think will be supportive. It might take you longer to get a job but it will be worth it.

It’s strange to do teacher hating & then avoid teaching because you’ve heard it’s stressful! Why did you do the training if you don’t want to teach? You need a more positive, ambitious attitude. You could work your way up to senior management jobs and get a very good salary in teaching.

Whatever the job, more money means more pressure. I didn't say stress.

Pressure gets you out of bed in the morning. Stress puts you in bed in the afternoon.

The quickest route to more money is probably to embark properly on teaching

Ah I know the FB group you are talking about.
In the kindest way, that is a group entirely of people who have made the decision that teaching is no longer for them... it is naturally going to have a a negative view of teaching.
There will be difficult days whatever profession you choose, but you will increase your skills and resilience as time goes on.
Some schools are like that, but so are plenty of other workplaces in other professions. If you find yourself in one... move (whatever caeer you're in)!

Finish your training and work as ,teacher snd work hard to get promoted along the way.
You haVe to put in the effort with professions
Or stay as you are and dont moan

You can work 100 hours, never take a holiday and be lazy, lazy in sticking with what you know because it is easy/comfortable, too hard to change or you cant be bothered to make the change.

Lots of people change track, but it means you have to put the effort in to look at your transferrable degree level skills and take another direction. To establish a career requires effort, not just hours.

Hi OP. I find your posts a little contradictory, to be honest. You say you want to earn more money, but then you say you're not prepared to do the ECT. You say you're worried about the ECT being too much, but then you say you've only been able to take 4 days off in two years brcsuse you earn so little.

I'm not sure what the relevance of your friends who have high(er) earning husbands is in all this? Fair enough, if you want to earn your own money, but you don't know how you'll feel if and when a baby comes along. Also, those women with the higher earning husbands will be eligible for higher joint mortgages and over time their houses will increase in value at a higher rate..So even if they do divorce form the line, they will get 50% of greater assets. So don't just just think about "your money" as if that's it. It's not, especially when children come along. Don't marry a man who is a "my money, your money" type either! I get the impression from your posts this is how you're thinking (could be wrong though).

But joining the probation service doesn't worry you? That makes zero sense. Maybe you should come off social media if it's distorting your decision making this much.

Stop sabotaging yourself. Avoiding anything that makes you uncomfortable is not the recipe for fulfilment or success.

You're not signing your life away to a school here, it's just employment. ECT is two tiny years out of your life.

Thanks a lot, hopefully I can do it and succeed

You’re not a qualified teacher yet. You really do need to do your ECT. I dont know why you haven’t done this yet. Yeah teaching is stressful, but why wouldn’t you want to just keep your head down and become fully qualified and eventually have a stronger starting salary or the ability to command more of a daily rate on supply?

To me that’s much more preferable than only taking 4 days off, shit money and the stress of temporary work? I’d much rather be an ECT in a mental academy trust in the short term than have your employment situation.

Personal growth is uncomfortable and no high paying job is going to be without stress or difficulties. If you want to establish yourself and build a great life, you really need to stop shying away from the graft.

For comparison: I’m a teacher, I’m not 30 yet and my salary last year was over 45k due my leadership responsibilities and now being top of the pay scale. I’m now having a complete pivot away from that, being a SAHM for a bit then I’ll use part time masters to career change to something else. Teaching has been a great career for me in my twenties, but it’s time evolve again.

Surround yourself with people who are positive and successful in real life. Don’t waste your time on negative and irrelevant social media. So what if a load of people left teaching because they didn’t like it and now want to spend their free time moaning? Lots of people likes it and stayed and you won’t know whether it’s for you if you don’t try.

Definitely don’t become one of those people who flits about from one wasted qualification or ‘career’ to another without actually giving anything a real go.

It’s good you’ve recognised you don’t want to live on a low salary forever. Now get off your backside - and negative social media - and do something positive about it.

I dropped out of teacher training. I hated it, was the right decision for me.

Are you implying that low earners are low earners because they are lazy and just show up to do the hours?

Why train to be a teacher and take as job as a TA, if the TA pay doesn't work for you?

TAs are fabulous but you are a teacher. How would a teachers salary work for you?

Lol at probation officer being less stressful than teaching. I would’ve thought they’re both potentially very stressful in their own way! As a probation officer think about worrying whether your risk assessments and decisions are the right ones and the consequences of getting it wrong. The verbal abuse and potentially threatening behaviour you may have to deal with sometimes.

I didn't think it wouldn't be stressful, just something different