To think you can’t change career at senior level

[Purplewish]

without a big paycut?

DH is ten years into his career and doing well but no longer wants to continue down his current career path. He feels that it is possible to switch to something else and still get a promotion on the basis of his soft skills (which he is very strong on) rather than technical skills/subject matter expertise (which he is weaker on). He thinks the former are more important at senior levels. I’m not so sure that you can get away without having some technical skills/expertise/previous experience? I also only know two career changers - one did it in a company they had been with for many years (something DH does not have) and the other took on a more junior role. I guess time will tell but as I like to plan ahead and we had planned to upsize next year before the kids start school I would like to have an idea of whether this is even possible.

Too few details? Is he a corporate lawyer or a solicitor in a smaller firm? What is currently earning?

He works for a top 30 UK firm and is currently on £150k

I agree with pp, a good careers coach would be perfect for advice here. Work out all his strengths, which bits of his job he hates, so to look fur a direction / job that has all the bits he wants.

I think you are right OP. He’s unlikely to be able to match this salary with a career change. Let’s say he goes into banking for instance or oil and gas, he won’t have any proven track record of delivering in that environment. So he’ll need to start in a more junior role. His fastest way back up the ladder is to join the legal department of a big corp.

Out of interest, why does he believe that there he will get a different mix of work with a career change. You sound like you have a career too and know that strategy isn’t just about conceptualising a cool idea and then moving onto the next shiny thing. It has to be developed, inlvoves working with clients and getting involved in some level of detail, not matter how big your team is.

It’s perfectly possible not to drop salary, but law firms pay comparatively well. Would it really be an issue if he took a ‘bigger’ role, yet dropped salary? For example, the CEO of a large charity I used to work for earns £130k. Many top roles do not pay £150k. Obviously many do, but it depends where his interests and skills lie.

How senior is your husband? A partner? Head of department? What leadership and management skills can be put on his CV? Similarly, what does his BD work involve?
I think that one thing you husband should be careful to consider is whether he is genuinely good as people management and BD or is just better than his peers, whether in his department or across the firm. Most law firms don't spend much time training and developing these areas, just focussing on legal skills. Therefore, anyone with a natural aptitude for it can stand out in a law firm only to find, if they move, that they don't have the range of knowledge that those who have been working in other sectors have in these areas.

My DH changed careers at 57, he was an engineering manager in a well paid but stressful job doing 12 hour shifts. 12 months ago he left, spent £5k on retraining ( and six months with no income) and is now a self employed Gas safe engineer, he still feels like he’s not really ‘working’ as there is no stress, no long hours or weekends, he can pick and choose what jobs he wants, he wishes he could have done it ten years ago. He subcontracts with a couple of ‘big name’ firms for some guaranteed income while he’s building his business, he could literally work 24/7 if he wanted to but doing 25 hours a week will replace a £55k career.

He could go into banking, e.g. debt structuring which often have ex-lawyers or the franchise management side, and won’t earn less. But that is not a strategy job and is strongly sales/commercial oriented. I would advise him to think carefully about what strategy means to him. Setting strategy for a team who do it? Or setting strategy for clients who pay for advice? Two very different things and two very different expectations for those doing it.

He could also look into a consultancy type role, e.g. McKinsey or similar. His technical skills would be appreciated but equally the soft skills are very important.

The salary increase part is important. He’s not willing to forego that.

He would be open to continuing to work for a law firm or go in house, so it doesn’t have to be a complete change but he doesn’t want to do the exact same thing again that he’s done a few times (i.e. build a managed service type offering) and he feels that equity partner (the next rung) is some way off in this company.

His absolute dream role would be to be a Chief Communications Officer but there don’t seem to be many roles like that around

This is really not a good move. Never take a role near the top of a smaller organization, and for salary too, unless you are looking for a lifestyle change. Basically he will hit the career ceiling too soon and lose the kudos of working for a larger corporation and moving within that circle.

''His absolute dream role would be to be a Chief Communications Officer but there don’t seem to be many roles like that around''

I have worked in communications for 2 decades and you don't get to a senior level without having real experience of external and internal communications, marketing, PR crisis management, social media, dealing with the press, writing communications strategies and so on added to experience of managing staff and external agencies (design, comms).

People who are suggesting moving to the charity sector: again charity CEOs need to have real experience of managing teams, finances and so on. Charity CEOs spend a lot of time making sure a charity is financially sound and that it gets enough fundraising income and/or grants so if your husband has no financial experience that will count against him for these type of roles. He would be competing with people who have been at director levels for various charities and can bring that type of knowledge.

That said he should of course look at making a move to something that will make it happier but it is very likely that he will have to compromise on salary and job level.

@Purplewish it's 💯 possible I went from senior finance to senior procurement in completely different industries. Your DH is correct at the senior level soft skills are more of a focus though you have to have at least a rudimentary understanding of the area you want to lead and be able to draw on previous experience - enough to add insights in a meeting/support your team/know if juniors are making errors etc.

I made the move without skipping a beat and secured a significantly larger package as a result.

What about professional services/big 4? Either a firm or dept that provides legal services or more generic in a BD role. Lots of scope to move as you grow beyond director level.

Would he consider going in house?
A good friend worked for a US firm (in london and the caymans) on £250k + then moved in house to work for a client. She increased her salary and had a significant improvement in life balance

Entirely possible to increase both salary and overall income (through bonus) in a BD position. You mentioned something about him having experience there in your OP. I’m not in the law sector but BD position in the law sector and eventually a CBO position would be achievable. Seems like a path forward.

I agree with @Greenfairydust regarding the chief communications officer role. This is unlikely without having done the role or a similar type role for many years. I know a CCO who came into the role as a senior journalist who had had a lot of screen experience and was used to speaking with politicians, news agencies etc. It is quite a specific role to aim for.

Big 4 and in-house are both options he is considering. Just not sure how much subject matter expertise in specific areas is required (eg he has no experience in contracts work which is often required for in house roles) or whether the soft skills and having some grounding in the law will be enough.

@Savoury @Greenfairydust Yeah, I also know a journalist who switched over to a senior communications role at Netflix. We have pretty much discounted it for the reasons you have given but it really would have been a good fit for him in terms of his skills and what he enjoys. It’s just a shame he missed the boat on getting into it early on.

I took a very big pay cut aged 40 to move to a different industry. The relevant but not directly aligned skills I had from my previous career enabled me to move up quickly once I had made the move, but I don't think I'd have been able to swap without a step backwards

@CornflakeKerry Yeah I think you’re right. He will need to really identify what those roles are where management skills are the most important

Corporate strategy role. Selling the outputs of what he has achieved being instrumental to such strategies but wanting to take a role working with Boards to define it, and will no doubt work closely with comms on the communication of it. Whatever managed service he has built and run, maybe flip that into corporate roles where such knowledge would be useful but starts to transition him from the legal specialism. May be able to transfer without taking a pay drop (his legal background may be seen as a plus and something they’ll pay a premium for) and starts to give him more options in the medium to long term e.g. if he does a role well in a corporate setting the company are more likely to support opportunities to move internally which broadens he scope and options.

I think he could definitely find a good commercial/strategy role in a FTSE with that experience and not take a pay cut. Lots of people come from the big consultancies into FTSE companies, so no reason why he can't. He'll be very valuable with those soft skills.

He should definitely not go into this assuming he will have to take a pay cut. If he can't find anything after ages then fine, but law -> strategy/board roles is almost not even a career change. (Okay, fine, it is, but it's not like he wants to retrain as a doctor or something.)

He should focus on having a lot of chats with people in industries he's considering about the different entry points. For example I work in strategy consulting, think McKinsey. We have a very structured ladder. People put a lot of thought into timing it, e.g. if you wait a year or two then you might be able to enter as an associate partner instead of a manager etc, and that results in a huge salary difference. (Likewise for people leaving our firm for industry.) £150k is a mid-level salary for us and people have a range of different experiences.

The worst thing you can do is jump too soon and settle, so he should take his time, figure out timings, ruthlessly use whatever old boys / connections he has. In the meantime try to make sure what he's doing in his current job is as commercial as possible. Hope this helps

@sorcerersapprentice @CoralMist @yubgummy Commercial strategy roles sound like a good suggestion. I think there are probably a lot of opportunities in consulting but do many companies have internal roles like this as well? This will betray my ignorance about these things a bit but I’m curious whether something like the corporate development team in my multinational company who are focused on M&A transactions would fall under this or does an in house strategy role mean something else altogether?