To ask how I can become "rich"?

[raincabin]

I know this sounds ridiculous.

I would like to be a high earner, I grew up working class and my knowledge in this area is lacking. I have tried to do my own research but found it difficult, with a lot of opposing answers and many sites/people just trying to sell!

I am doing a midwifery degree, I have always been academic and considered law but I knew I would find it boring.

What can I/should I do so that I can become a high earner?

I dream of nice cars, holidays and not having to worry about stretching until the end of the month. I'd also love to be able to send DC to private school.

I am open to anything.

Go and look at how a successful small business runs, and then start your own - or be a consultant on a decent day rate.

You don't need to know stuff if you can employ others, but for instance, a friend of mine worked at a contracting company and learned all the ins and outs of hiring plant, then went and did it.

Business Consultants can earn around £500-£800 per day (obvs there's tax to consider) and you may not work every day but even working half the year would earn you over £60k.

The people I know who are REALLY RICH are people working to make themselves rich, not other people. So either invest in the business you're working for or run your own.

So I would say most professions within the private sector pay pretty well the further up the ladder you go, but often are not fantastic to start. Somebody further up mentioned the big 4 accounting firms and those firms (and others) also have consultancy arms attached, which can also be a well -paying option. My own background is in fashion buying, I worked hard and was ambitious and within 10 years was on £90k plus car and usual benefits (over 10 years ago) outside of London. I was encouraged by parents to go down the finance route for a career, but the thought of it was a huge turn off! I now work in consulting in the retail industry. You don't have to be a techy or hugely mathsy to make "good money," in my experience it's the people who have the better people skills the ability to read the situation and adapt and are driven enough to do what they have to do are the ones who achieve the bigger salaries. But you do need to be a bit strategic, it doesn't just happen. Look at opportunities that could open up opportunities and put yourself in the best position. I purposely went to work for the business that was the "gold standard " within the industry. Hated every second and left as soon as it looked decent on my CV. It has paid me back in dividends and secured me interviews! Good luck!

50k is the market rate for 21 year old junior developers, is it, okie dokie then. I’d talk you through our agency pay model for London to compare but seeing as you keep reverting to insults, let’s leave it there.

By the way 22 (OP’s age) + 15 years doesn’t equal early thirties.

Have a nice evening.

I think @AliensAteMyHomework is totally spot on in everything she says, to be honest.

Really?! Depends on the industry. Definitely not all good developers get these kind of jobs. 50k baseline.... More like 30k. US pays at this level but the UK does not. Is this what Google are paying junior Devs?

.... Google requires degree and a lot of computer science theory. Not a JavaScript course

If a salary of close to 100K is your goal, have a look at air traffic control (ATC).

www.nats.aero/careers/trainee-air-traffic-controllers/

Not recruiting at the moment, but keep an eye open. You don't need a university degree. You will of course have to do shifts (including weekends and bank holidays) so it's not a career for those who prefer doing 9-5, but the work-life balance is very good overall (some would say extravagantly so). It's a safety critical job so there are no ridiculous 90-100 hour weeks as I've seen suggested in this thread for some careers.

You won't earn anywhere close to 100K when training, but you can easily earn that after a small number of years once qualified as long as you are working at a major airport (e.g. Heathrow) or en route centre (Swanwick, near Fareham in Hampshire or Prestwick in Ayrshire, Scotland).

ATC are unionised; if you work for NATS then collective bargaining applies to your salary (negotiated on your behalf by the Prospect trade union). Disputes do arise, but it means there's none of this nonsense such as having to individually negotiate your own salary increase, and having to earn 30% less than a colleague that does no better a job than you just because they are more bolshy and bold about pushing for an increase.

Only a minority of people have the natural aptitude to control aircraft which is why the pay is relatively high for fully qualified controllers. But the application process is meritocratic and anyone can apply.

I don't understand. You got a job in 2017 for £39k. But wages in the UK aren't keeping up with inflation. You expect that there has been a 30% rise in wages in 5 years?

You said experienced people got £100k. Are you close to that?

Again I would be very surprised if that was the case. I'm a tech manager and see salary scales.

My expectation would be that a good dev might be on £70k with a fair bit of experience. Management and leadership could boost the salary closer to 6 figures. Consultancy/temp work pays a premium but then you don't get other aspects of your package.
We tend to hire "juniors" with PhDs at about £50k.

I have a computer science masters which at the time was a 1 year conversion from an Arts degree.

As a graduate I started coding on a pittance of 13 k moving up to around £18k. After 3 years joined a top 4 management consulting firm on 28 k. Stayed 18 months after gaining experience in a ‘trendy’ technology. Salary at new Top 4 now 48 k. Stayed 18 months then went freelance in new technology as a consultant so not coding. £150 k/ year or approx £500-750 a day through limited company. Kept this up around 15 years gaining loads of experience and confidence so I’m now a good consultant. Had kids then did PT contracts but tough commuting. Found a company doing work from home business model. Kids were still little. Took a drop, went permanent on 60 k plus benefits . Company got bought in 1 year so got 21 k retention bonus and better benefits. Still WFH!! Then started getting promoted. All work from home. Now on 100 k plus full benefits and 20% bonus all working from home. I never thought I found my passion in life but liked the people, work interesting and dynamic. Plus I’ve always felt financially secure. So I think I’ve lucked out really. Yes it’s stressful at times but I work from home , 6 figures plus bens and headhunted for even more on a daily basis. I’d say I’m not really super bright. Just good at spotting opportunities and I do work hard / am diligent and still worked my way up. As I got older I got more ballsie at asking for pay rises and stepping into leadership. Never thought I could lead large teams either. I just suddenly - why not?!

Salary wise -these have increased hugely in the last year due to the ‘great resignation’ . So I’d say I’ve given pay rises in my team well in excess of inflation. Quite a few were being paid under the midpoint even for our own salary bands and I think we pay slightly below market rate Eg we had consultants averaging approx £45-50 k now they are £60-65k. Still below market. Seniors are 75 k Managers around 80-90k. What was most shocking when getting into a leadership position and being responsible for pay was the gender pay gap. Especially when I then looked at utilisation and saw so many females doing so much more for so much less. I soon flipped that around! It pays to be pushy if you are female and want to be rich!! You will need to also develop a good network.

This sounds more reasonable/relatable than starting at 50k and senior devs at 100k. There's a range, some push to 100, many don't get passed that threshold but it's possible.

Interesting you say the great resignation had an impact on salary. We have not seen it ripple down where I work. 20 people report to me. Salaries are reviewed in April, perhaps it's to come.

Where do you work now?

Most of this is all very well if you are in London! After a lifetime working, with a bachelor's and masters degrees, plus various postgrads, including leadership and management, plus professional qualification, I would say, make your career doing something you love.

If you love midwifery, why make money your god? You could go into management or lecturing, if making money is your only goal.

There's really good advice on here, plenty of routes to larger money if you're academic.

I do think it's sad to guve up a career you love to chase money though. Surely the point of the cars and holidays and bling is to bring pleasure, would you need it so much bringing hundreds of little souls into the world?

Also rather depressed by the very early blocker of 'you'll struggle to do that with a small child'. I know dc make everything more difficult but would anyone ever say that to a man? Must be no high earning fathers out there.

I'm not sure if all the people suggesting that the OP could or should I change to accounting, audit, IT etc realise that she doesn't have any A-levels at all. She got a place on her midwifery degree via an access course, which is a perfectly respectable entry route but isn't going to provide any possibility of switching to another degree in a completely unrelated area without first having to get some A-levels or an extended diploma or something. I definitely think her is best bet is to stick with her existing degree course and then build from that into pharma, medical sales or something related.

This is probably good advice. For many of the careers suggested it isn't just the qualifications but specific aptitudes that you need and having seen highly academic people struggle with professional qualifications, that might be a bit of a stretch even if you could get a place. There have been huge efforts to hire people from different backgrounds but there are limits when it's so competitive, if you can't demonstrate the quite specific aptitudes required.

No idea why I came back to this thread! Clicked on it by accident forgetting hiw rude the OP was before, aaargh. Ignore my comment, didn't mean to get involved again as clearly as waste of time.

Perhaps it doesn't matter but you just exaggerated every number. It's a very optimistic interpretation. You have added 10%-15% on the upper end of each salary scale, which is for the people who really shine at it. Or for people who start with excellent degrees.

I just don't think that is a realistic expectation to set for someone considering a career change motivated by money and not skills. Better to share the MRP. But even then a new starter without a degree might not but the MRP in my team.

I think we are saying something similar but looking a different points in the salary scale.

I'm not quoting individual salaries as I manage a large team and so see people's salaries. I see the range and what a large corporate will do to retain people.

It depends where you work, perhaps?. To be fair, I've never hired developers with such little experience as you describe and also my company doesn't pay them as much as you describe. Recruiters tend to reach out with dev roles at 40-80k, above that it's more leadership. This is my experience of tech.

I'd like to know where this land of milk and honey is that you work? Perhaps I'm in the wrong place XD.

It just seems fair to provide a realistic view to those considering career options.

What other industry, other than tech? It's fast to get pretty senior in management consultancy if you have a good degree and are talented (which was your premise). And if you go that route the salary is more than if you are talented in tech.

I suspect if it really is so easy to get a role in tech and be not very good, then quite fast the salary for average developers will drop. Look at what meta is doing this week.shaky road ahead. Do you think people are currently "worth" these sums if it's so easy?

Hopefully you don't mind the direct questions, I'm interested as you have a very different perspective to me.

Patent law would have also been a more lucrative career path for me. As would joining a VC, hedge fund, becoming an investment banker, lawyer.

With my educational background all were in reach but law would have needed more work for me but no more than I have done already

My brother does coding and was on sic figures straight out of uni. He initially worked for an American Bank, and is now with one if the tech giants. But he got a First in his undergrad and postgrad degrees (high Firsts in all his exams and dissertations- I don't think he had anything below 85%) and went to Cambridge/Harvard. Maybe that had something to do with it.