AIBU to ask you to help me become a high/higher earner?

[VivaForEva]

I’m in my mid 30’s and currently work in a nursery earning a pittance.

Alongside this, I am doing a BA (Hons) Business Management (Accounting) degree through the OU.

DH earns £45k a year in a public sector role with a set rate of progression. His pay will always go up bands/increment levels, but it’ll be very much a gradual rise.

I have two years more to do of my 6 year degree (part time) and I really need some advice on how to use it to become a reasonably high earner? I know it’s not as simple as getting a degree and walking into a job and I’m totally content with beginning on the bottom rung of the ladder, as long as I’m working towards something more.

I just want to be able to offer more to my children than I can at present and really want to better myself.

Im very grateful for any advice.

If you are looking at a career in accountancy what aspect of accountancy interests you?

I am CIMA qualified and have had a varied career starting with basic roles in Accounts Payable. The key skill I learnt early on was double entry bookkeeping. It's a very old fashioned skill but lots of accountants dont understand the transactional side of accountancy. Get that debity credity nonsense pinned down. Be able to follow a transaction through the books without having to think too hard about it

This has been valuable for me whether as a financial accountant or a management accountant (I have held both roles).

Audit never interested me. Being in a business and working on the financial story of that business - reporting and building planning models which look to the future fascinate me.

Much of my role now involves accounting system development. I love my job and I am on just shy of £80k. No doubt if I was a contractor I would earn considerably more but I tried contracting and hated it.

Happy to answer questions if yo want to PM me.

Things must have changed, because when my husband was there and some of my friends, they work you like a dog

Oh do fuck off dear

I think it's really important that you do something you enjoy (well at least a bit). Do you have information where it shows you salaries in your area, that may help you to get some focus in types of roles. If you can find a mentor, then that would be great as well. I think you can get there with a lot of hard work, and also some luck. Having a supportive manager (or someone senior) is crucial. LinkedIn can also be a great networking tool. I also hate to say it, but sometimes who you know rather than what you know can also help alot.

If you think of a role, or career that seems interesting, do an internship with a large firm if you can. Lots of companies have paid (even if the salary isn't advertised) summer internships, which are great to have on your CV when trying to land your first role after graduation. If your course offers a year in industry, go for that too if you can.

What I saw was that big name grad schemes are so unforgiving. You are expected to pass all exams at the first time of asking which isnt always easy when there are small children in the picture.

Many of the baby auditors I have met (and I have met an awful lot) were struggling - though obviously this was never said when the audit partner might hear. Being expected to travel/stay away for audits then drop everything and give 100% attention to training/revision courses was hard going. Not so bad for 20somethings with few commitments but hard going for anyone with a life outside of work.

I'm a chartered accountant. I run a specialist team and I have been doing this 22 years. My salary is well over your target and I work part time.

It's family friendly and flexible but flexibility works both ways. For example I finished work this week at tues 6pm, weds 9pm (after school run and activities then worked in between), thurs 4pm and Friday 9pm (having been to pilates and out for lunch), I'm working on my day off next week to suit work but I will take the time off for half term instead.

Travel days to London are rare but a killer.

I have had to work very long hours on and off, or at weekends, over a long time. I've put up with a lot of shit to get to where I am.

I think you have to really like the job to be able to plug away until you get enough experience to get promoted to the better money.

It must be hard starting this in your mid 30s. One of my colleagues at pwc started at 30 in the grad scheme. Nowadays he is a partner in a small accountancy firm. So it can be done.

Big 4 is a great place to start.

I have a supportive DH who let's me put my career first a lot of the time. He has his own company to run and works away a lot but also shares school runs and activities. I couldn't do it without his help. I've always been career minded. I'm aware that there is a tonne of social and cultural capital that goes with the job as we as a natural level of academic/studious behaviour, strong work ethic and being intelligent.

Seems like you are heading in the right direction with your degree. I wish you luck.

Look up returnerships and see what you can find. They're generally aimed at mums going back in to the workforce. Also look at companies that signed the armed forces covenant as they signed up to support military families so may have opportunities through that. Then grad schemes at places like Aldi if you can as they pay really well for newly degreed. £80k is very do-able if you're willing to work smart and develop useful skills like commercial awareness and communication instead of just one technical one.

I agree with starting in an accounting firm. Gives you a very strong foundation to build a career on. You develop client skills and great time management. For me, in Australia, the higher education sector pays really well. Even for lower level. I was in unis for 18 years and up at manager level salary was around $150k (top of the scale). My observation is it's next to impossible to work your way up to there, but relatively easy to come in at a high level if you have good, solid experience.

@Keepyourmummysboys seems to be a bit hard of thinking. You have acknowledged in your post that the OP's DH's salary is higher than average but then you describe it as low.

Do you not understand how averages work? Or were you deliberately being a smug twat and sneering at what is a perfectly respectable salary?

You need more focused goals.

What do you want to fill 40+ hours a week doing? Actually doing?

How far are you willing to commute (I know you don't live here yet, but it has to be a factor)?

Find the type of job you want, find companies that employ people to do it and start there.

I'd also consider home working/office based/regional or national travel and international travel. How do these things impact on your every day life? Would things have to be different to do some of those things?

Id move towards tech and software as these are fields likely to keep seeing growth as this become more automated. Depending on the precise company, they can be highly paid and flexible. If you like maths and big data, business analyst? Or you could do requirements analysis at a software company.

OP, I think you’re doing really well to juggle studying with working full time, and I’m glad you’re focusing on how to maximize your income.

I’ve name changed for this as it’s outing but my husband and I each earn over £150k but took very different paths.

He studied business, joined a graduate scheme in a professional services company, then moved into financial services on the funds side.

I also studied business but was at a loose end after uni for a while and couldn’t really settle into jobs. Accidentally fell into a business/professional services job with a start-up in a highly regulated industry and just love it. I’ve tripled my earnings in the last 8 years, and I find my work rewarding.

I work with a lot of consultants from Big4s and have been approached to worked in them. Personally, it doesn’t interest me at all- they seem to chew people up and spit them out, particularly at entry-level. I know not everyone will have the same experience but the consultants I meet through work usually work seriously long hours and it doesn’t seem very family-friendly.

Wait, what? Missed what was rude....looked super helpful to me

Even when you're not a grad, my friend is high up in one of those places, it's insane (although she loves it). It does set you up well for life though so if you're up for it, it's worth considering for sure

Wow…..you’re fucking nasty aren’t you 🙄

Pack in the accountancy and do a coding boot camp. Way less work, way more money.

This is what I did…. Qualified as an accountant at a regional firm then joined big 4. I moved within the big4 firm to a more prestigious department. I left to go to a client. At client I became a divisional CFO of the technology group. Highly sought after skill set of accounting, finance and technology.

You need to qualify as an accountant, personally I recommend ICAS or ICAEW. I recommend doing it with big 4. Yes it’s long hours so I would recommend joining and then asking for PT hours. Do an 80% schedule spread over the week so you have time to study. Most of the work now on the audit side is deathly boring but it’s done remotely. During quiet periods make yourself available to the consulting groups. I learned more skills doing those projects than anything in audit.

Tech wise you need to learn how to work with data. Learn SQL and Power BI. PowerPoint is massively important. No one knows how to do a good PowerPoint.

Given your DHs career is in the military, have you discussed the impact of his line of work with your career plans. ie in the event of a future change in post which normally happens every couple of years, whether you'd jointly agree that you'd stay put in the family home - as moving around always has a detrimental and disruptive effect on the career of the non-military side of the marriage/partnership.

If you go for the big 4s, avoid audit and tax.

Many of them offer roles in a Manchester or Leeds so not as London centric although travel to London will be involved.

I agree with this. My personal views are wages in accountancy have stagnated. If you go self employed you will be up against people who can do the job without qualifications which dampens down the amount clients are willing to pay you. You ideally need to earn enough to make studying for the accountancy qualifications worthwhile which the big 4/top 10 will pay you for but expect long hours and not much free personal time.

Also do you like accountancy? I can imagine working in tech and software being much more interesting!

Do you actually want to be ACA qualified? Perhaps another route in might suit you better?

Only on MN would someone describe earning £45k as 'not very much'

There's a KPMG office in Leeds. You'd probably have a better lifestyle and have more chance of buying a house in that area, rather than London.

In my opinion high earner does not always work well with family life. It is something to consider. I am not saying dont do it,just that one of you ideally nerd a job that fits in with family life. Also you may find that some parts of the north of England is a better option re quality of life,cheaper properties and therefore less of a need to earn the big bucks. I would imagine a combined income of 125k in London is not much.

It's worth noting that whilst Big 4 won't discriminate against you for being older or having children, a training contract is typically three years of pain, and it's very difficult without family support. You will be required to go to college on and off on fixed dates on block release - some firms still expect this to be in person. With your DP in the Forces, arranging childcare is going to be hard. Working and studying is going to be hard. (Although your experience studying now whilst having children is going to be really useful, as you'll have undoubtedly gained some discipline there over making enough time.)

Not everyone passes exams first time. And whilst entry criteria have dropped in recent years, the standards once you're in haven't. Fail an exam, get fired. That's a lot of pressure to have over your head. For three years!

Once qualified, accountancy is very family friendly. But you have to stuck up those three years first.

£80k in the regions? You could be looking at, say, 20 years to get there. How does that timeline work for you?