To ask if you don't have a degree and earn a good salary...

[atcrossroad]

What do you do and how did you get into it?

I feel so depressed reading about people on £200k salaries. Like I'm a pauper/peasant class. For comparison, I have a degree and post grad and earn £30k. Public sector.

Depends what you mean by good salary.
My DH works in tech project management - circa 50k.
Some of my colleagues (recruiters) don't have degrees and earn £100k plus.

My husband doesn’t have a degree and is on £40k a year as a team leader. I also don’t have a degree but work in marketing which you would ideally need a degree to do my job!

@BringItOnxxx I hear you but, depending on your own circumstances, 30K is a decent salary.
Public sector doesn't usually pay the big bucks but the work can sometimes be valuable to society or rewarding. If it does you ok then that's what matters. If it doesn't then maybe switch it up 🙂

I, on the other hand, (and I know people may disagree with my stance) want to earn as much money as I can (job satisfaction is secondary although I love what I do) to try and give my two sons a better start than I had.
I grew up poor in a relatively deprived area.

DH has no degree and earns £100k
I have an English degree and work in retail

Not me but a cousin of mine left school before doing her final exams. She started working in a local business that only had one premises. She got on really well, was willing to do extra hours and training and was respected and well liked by the customers. The business went global in time and is still going strong. She oversees operations in European countries. Don't know her exact salary but its more than anyone else I know by a long shot i'd say 😀

No degree barely scraped a couple of GCSE's. Earn over 30k part time which is ok for where I live in Wales.

Admin manager £40k - worked my way up from a temping position on £17k over 7 years

I mean, it's all relative. But I consider my salary good seeing as I've only got GCSEs, no A levels , no degree, and no industry qualifications. I'm 46 and earn £55k, I was on £62k in last job (day rate contract, I'm permanent now).

I worked in retail from 17 and was assistant manager by 19, then I got a call centre job as retail pay was not enough to survive.

From that I got a IT helpdesl job, just logging IT calls, but turned out I was a quick learner, I pushed for opportunities and worked my way up through desktop support and sys admim, then as information security analyst.

THEN... Changed career to marketing. A sideway step from IT within my employer, I badgered the Marketing Director that I could do the job as account manager, I already managed projects, budgets, suppliers and deadlines, calm under pressure etc. It was all transferrable skills. I had to prove myself.

Four years later I got into contracting and gained exposure / experience to different roles and industries. Did some roles that included PR and Internal Communications. Then realised it was Internal Communications I liked best.

Been doing that solely for five years, mainly in fixed term contracts, but accepted a permanent job in my last contract as the current financial climate worried me. I'm an Internal Communications and Engagement Manager full time and permanent now on £55k. Which is a good salary for the role.

One of our directors is on six figures and only has GCSEs, they began their career at McDonald's and worked their way up to senior management. Before a career that brought them to my employer.

Market trader trading 2/3 days a week. Last tax return was I think about 68k or more (can't remember). Failed at school which I part blame on adhd and just being no good at it. Love my job 😍

I earn £63,000+ as a nanny, and have a totally unrelated degree in media.

No degree, poor A Levels (DEE) Operations Director, £50K, worked my way up through the PA/EA route after starting in 'admin.'

Dh has no qualifications from school at all and is dyslexic. He did an engineering apprenticeship

He now owns an engineering company and pays himself around 100k

I have two degrees and earn less than 40k but I can't really complain as he works way harder than me 😆

70k and package,professional services. Fell into it by mistake. I did two years worth of a degree in a completely unrelated field.

I am a farmer - big farm and several related businesses (so I guess you could say agribusinessman).
Not much formal education, mostly learned on the job from father and vocational training / odd courses here and there.

Personally I take home about £600k a year.

It's a family enterprise so we did have a good start being given the farm but my brother and I have massively scaled up what we inherited. We've tripled our acreage, added a lot of new elements to the business and generally taken it from a mid sized family farm to the biggest concern in the area.

My SiL took this route with law - she earns about £60,000 now, no degree.

Are you after ideas, OP?

The most upsetting thing here is the people in HR earning close to 100k 🤣

@TheRealKatnissEverdeen

You work on two contract roles at the same time?

I have a degree but don’t work in the field (psychology).

When I was 22, I secured a job as a civil servant on £28k a year. I thought that was amazing for my age.

2 years later, I have been promoted and now earn £34k. I have also passed an interview (on reserve list) for the next promotion which earns £38k per year. I feel my current salary is average as I don’t have much left after bills.

all of these jobs are in civil service. None require a degree. I think my income will plateau in a few years, so am retraining in IT.

If you'd actually ever worked on a building site you'd be aware of the rampant misogyny displayed by too many of the men working there. That misogyny is why women don't enter the trades or enter and then leave.

Yup. No one in that kind of overhead role is worth that much to a company.

Feminists spotted that back in the 70s. It's depressing that nothing has changed.

My husband. He never finished uni.
He joined the police for 7 years - I guess the salary was ok.
he then got lucky his very successful brother asked him to manage day to day finance etc in his growing company. The company is now decent size and doing very well and he’s the finance /hr director.

he wouldn’t have / and wouldn’t now, get that job as a regular applicant. He’s very smart and hard working, and gradually doing business accountancy certifications to back up his experience.

I do worry sometimes what would happen if say the company was sold or his role somehow made redundant. Qualifications are typically key these days if you want to be considered competitive.

To add to above - it’s also interesting that so many people have completely unrelated degrees to their job but are still very successful.
makes me question why so much emphasis is put on third level qualifications by employers over things like on the job / life experience etc.
it doesn’t seem right but is the way it is.