Please tell me where all these cushy, well paid jobs are...and how I can get one!

[malificent7]

Working in health care ...love it but high stress, poor pay. Not getting any younger.

Someone on the work thread said they know lots of people in cushy, well paid jobs. Posting here for traffic...where are they?!
Disn't have to be interesting or worthy...just cushy and well-paid!

OP can you just get a band 8 NHS post delivering fluorescent inputs or amending strategic disused flows? It would be helpful if you take six months off on the sick every year or so and pretend your email doesn’t work on the rare occasions you’re actually in work. 90K and a lovely pension too.

Because one person's cushy job is another person's nightmare. Many people would hate my job, I love it, I find it easy and enjoyable.

I've just had that for a library assistant role with the local council. 20k. I earned more than that 18 years ago ffs!

But how can anyone know if you won’t actually say what your job is? What’s the point of the mystic? 😂

I’m in compliance.

Often these type of jobs are extremely niche and identifying.

The best advice is find the sector you love working in and follow the money. Speak to seniors in that sector and ask how they got there and if you can shadow their team for a bit or can have a chat with them. Most seniors love sharing their knowledge and will happily let you learn

+1 for software development. It's pretty easy to make £100k+ after a few years if you're competent - plus autonomy, WFH, super-exciting industry, you get to make things. And it's fun!

It's really easy to get started these days with bootcamps etc. We need more women!

I'd warn though:

1. Probably only fun if you enjoy the craft of writing code. Otherwise it might be grinding. Though most jobs are grinding.
2. It's male-dominated, which I found fine for being junior (techbros don't mind being asked questions by a woman) but less good for being senior. There are ways around this though.
3. Little career progression unless you go into management - but the 💰 makes up for that.

Move into the pharma industry - now that is cushy and well paid! My husband gets 60k as a statistician (you need a masters for that though), he works 36.5h a week and didn’t have to “graft hard” or long hours to get there, just work the standard amount and changed jobs once in 7 years.

My job is cushy and I’m happy with the pay (40k), I work 35h a week - I’m a data scientist at a bank. Moved jobs a lot before that, I don’t cope well with high stress and every time I moved jobs for a promotion I quit and took a paycut to go back to level I was…. so I’m still fairly junior - I think that’s a decent salary to not have to deal with the stress of management! I love having an interesting technical job without having loads of responsibility or decision making on my shoulders.

Neither of us work in London, thank fuck for that. Lots of jobs in various home counties, lots of head offices based there. We both WFH 3 days a week and are in the office for 2. Nice lifestyle and we both have hobbies we do in evenings.

I would say one thing, though, there are very few people who love their jobs in the real world. Most people will tolerate them in order to fund activities that they love. I don’t mind working really really hard for £1500 a day that something that I hate. Because I know there are people working really really hard for £10 in our jobs that they hate as well.

So I think you’ve got a way it all up what’s important, getting pleasure on a day-to-day basis, which is incredibly rare or grab the money

Ha! You just described my ex boss in a local authority. Utterly incompetent, utter braggart, zero awareness of his own incompetence. All his failed projects were someone else’s fault in his eyes. Protected by his manager, I can only think because she liked to moan and blame everyone else too, so I think she took comfort in them agreeing together how all the failings of the Deoartment they led were someone else’s’ fault.

You can make a job cushy and well paid, once you’re at a certain level. I have spent years getting to a role touching £200k that requires almost no work

The secret is to follow what is deemed important, talk your way up and then get a team under you to do the actual work. Then turn up in meetings occasionally full of views, opinions and a bit of technical knowledge that others might not have

i have no qualifications in what I do, I just talked my way there, once in a big organisation. Women are not great at doing this, men do it all the time. I saw them, I copied them. I could talk my way up higher, but then the work and stress kick back in, so am not up for that

😁 I can add for a band 8 manager, that on the rare occasion you are in, you'll be chatting to one person all day long.

You can hold a team meeting every 8 weeks, promising to help out as one of the teams you are managing are chronically undestaffed.
But you never actually help out as you always do a runner!

I had one from about 5 years ago until 1 year ago. Working at home only in office one day a month. Only about 5 hours of meetings a week and not much work to do. True flexible working etc. I was so bored and unmotivated. I stretched myself and got a much better job and I’m so much happier. A lot busier, more money, out of the house a couple of days a week and just much more fulfilling. It’s disheartening doing a job with not enough work.

Most well-paid jobs start with working really hard either at uni or vocationally until you get really good at something.

I appreciate that's easy to say, but it's worth looking at the top job in the area you go into. I worked in a bar, and could see that the bar manager learnt less per hour than us when all their time was added up. Then the senior area manager in her 40s also didn't earn much despite two decades of experience. So not hospitality then...!

This helps pick the right career if well-paid is a thing. I could see now matter how hard I worked I'd always struggle there so did it until I could find something else.

As an aside, can't believe the racism and sexism allowed to stand earlier on this thread. Also contributed nothing constructive to OPs answer.

Change management.

I was also in Healthcare (and still am) but moved into projects. Look for Change Lead positions, Subject Matter Expert roles relating to your speciality, or Change Analyst roles if you are lower level than a nurse.

Tons of hospitals (private and NHS) are pushing their EPR/EHR projects through for the 2024 Govt deadline. Private pays more obviously but the pay for those roles in the NHS isn't terrible and once you work up to project/change management positions there are a huge range of higher salaries!

I work in healthcare too, did nearly 15 years of front line, stressful NHS work and now have what to mind is an extremely cushy job.
Basically I had pretty much a nervous breakdown and went to a telephone based role in the private sector for a 'six month break'. Ended up staying there for 3 years because I liked the hours and i could do it with my eyes closed.
However it was boring so while I was there I volunteered to do lots of service improvement projects. that led to a secondment to the governance team. which in turn led me back to the NHS in a higher paid governance role. I work mostly at home, and earn a higher salary than I feel I have any right to, given what I earned working clinically.
Get involved involved in governance, quality improvement, change management, even audit wherever you can. there loads of opportunities in that area.

And here we have in summery everything that is wrong with the nhs and current pay structures

And here we have someone who doesn't understand the need for a large employer to have a strong back office workforce

I do . I also work in the NHs. As you said yourself though you consider it cushy and “earn a higher salary than I feel I have any right to, given what I earned working clinically”

Wrong person

Oh yes sorry but you get my point .
not criticism of any person. Just of the system that pays these sort of roles better than clinical roles !

There's a lot of sexism and it's very hierarchical.

I guess some people might think my job is. I'm a railway signaller. 14 weeks very hard training. Alot of responsibility but the actual job is pretty easy. I move trains around all day. Work 17 days a month 12 hr shifts and this month I'll take home around 4-5k and anyone can do it. No previous qualifications needed but some testing during application and they are actively recruiting women to the role

@Railwaygirl88

my friend ended up on anti depressants because of that role. Just goes to show how different we all are.