To be pissed off that the only financially viable profession nowadays appeares to be banking?

[malificent7]

As a disinterested teen, my dad arranged for me to do work in a bank...i found it exceptionally dull and I really hated Maths at the time. Turns out I should have pursued it as it one of the only professions that allows people to afford a decent quality of life nowadays.
I love my job in the nhs but may have to leave health care as I need to afford to live.
I will encourage dd to go into finance but it shouldn't be like this should it?

Yanbu-other professions should pay properly.
Yabu- banking is the best paid career choice...more fool you for not pursuing it!

There are more than choices than NHS or banking and obviously there are very, very many other professions that pay well.

In my experience, the best paying jobs are usually as boring as hell (finance, law etc). How else would you motivate anyone to do them?

Fun, creative type jobs are usually badly paid as there's an over supply of people after them.

Plenty of middle of the road jobs though.

Oh @Konfetka I remember a brilliant lad at school getting FIVE A stars in Math, FM, Physics, Chem and something else and he was off to go into finance...

I'd say that actually outside the part of law that is basically banking (ie big city firms involved in corporate banking transactions) pay in law in general has got substantially worse.

Same relative to inflation for accountancy (outside big 4 or city boutique firms), medical and veterinary professions, all of which used to fund the 'executive home, kids at private school, nanny' lifestyle on 1 professional income but now can't do so on 2...

Conversely, if you 'get to the top' in somewhere like Nottinghamshire, you might be a primary headteacher on a little over £50k. That's really not a lot for the responsibility of the role, but we need headteachers all over the country. Absolutely don't want to be accused of turning a general thread into a teacher thread but deputies/headship have already been mentioned a couple of times and in many areas it's really not a particularly well-paying role given you can't rise any higher (not to say you couldn't live reasonably off it in some areas).

Lots of professional jobs pay well. I think I’d encourage your child to get into a profession rather than just any job.

This is another very odd statement. I hope you are not a career counselor by trade 😜

I find my ‘boring as hell’ job quite interesting and challenging (and well paid!) TYVM.

@saltinesandcoffeecups

Each to their own! I'm sure that some must find them enjoyable, but I don't think that many would choose these professions if all were paid equal.

I've met about 10 people who have studied law degrees over the years, and all continually complained about how excruciatingly boring it was. I have to wonder what they expected! 😂

I agree I have been lazy in commenting on bankers and totally agree that my political skills fall short ( currently being assessed for asd.)
Although a caring person at heart, I have come to the decision that I need to care for myself financially and i might need to move up or on.
I do have a 1st in my degree so I am capable.

Fwiw I don't despise managers...i really like mine. My last manager before this role was horrendous and people left because of her.

My son works in banking and is quite well paid but works very long hours. For him it was a choice between training as a barrister or going into banking so he would presumably have had similar pay in either role.
The average banking clerk on the High Street is poorly paid and also seems to be highly at risk of redundancy. I've been shocked at how many of my daughter's friends have done this work through an agency while on university leave.
Like any other work , it's the level you go in at and promotions you achieve which make the difference.

I used to work in financial services, now in public sector. I genuinely could not go back. Yes it's better paid but it really does take its toll. I shudder at some of the stuff I used to do and the bank more generally. I worked there during the financial crash and, for the record, we were relatively responsible. Relatively!

Public sector and lots of annual leave for me all the way.

I don't think this is the case, unless you are significantly high up.

There’s a lot of money in software and things like data analytics (know any Python?)

I think that the traditional "professions" have suffered from salary stagnation, other than city types. The higher rate threshold has remained relatively static in the face of inflation too which changes perceptions.

I think that trades are now more likely to be well paid than traditional "professions" in your average regional city or market town...

The generation of professionals who are coming to retirement now were much better off in their 40s than my generation are now, most had "executive" homes on 1 professional full time salary, kids in private school and/or a nanny/au pair if both worked. My generation (privately educated, similar jobs to parents) tend to have both parents in professional jobs, and have no prospect of private schooling and much smaller houses. In general as yes there are exceptions...

Head Teacher salaries attached. Like most jobs, the route to more money is promotion to a bigger school! If you stay in the same school as head for 10 years you climb up pretty well. Even in a small village school. A larger Group 3 primary does attract a decent salary, in my view.

DD didn’t study law at uni (MFL) but is a barrister. She isn’t remotely bored and earns well. If you want money, you might have to compete against thousands to get the job. Competition for highly paid jobs is fierce. The last time I looked, all grad nurses got jobs. Anyone who wants a very high salary needs more then a degree.

Loads of jobs that pay well that aren’t banking. OP perhaps have a rethink about where you are now and where you want to go. Not every job is going to be well paid, people who are extremely well paid tend to have a set of skills/qualities that are rare enough that employers compete for their labour. If you are doing a job that is easily recruited for then no it’s maybe not going to pay what you would like.

I think you and others need to take throwaway comments with a grain of salt.

I once held a title similar to accounting and warehouse manager (not my real title and unlike the outing hobby of cycling last I checked there was only 1 other person on the net with the same title because it’s weird) when talking to anyone I would give them my title and follow with “yes it’s as boring as it sounds and yes I will spare you the details“

The truth was it was a lot fun and I really liked it. I daresay I was more free to do what I wanted and use way more creativity in my day to day work than someone in a traditional creative role.

I’m picking on your comments (thanks for being a good sport🙂) but aiming my experience to the thread at large and the OP to give the other side of the story.

Weeeeeeellll. My husband works in banking and I work in a food factory. I earn more than him so….

I misread the title as “baking” and since I hate my job and like money thought “Thank Christ! I can be like that woman who did Meghan’s wedding cake and has the great Instagram of stylishly slapped-together cakes and make my fortune”. Imagine my disappointment when all the usual boring and need-lots-of-training jobs got mentioned. It’s always data, tech, AI, law, finance and never “heroine in a whimsical rom-com” isn’t it.

I’m a tax advisor, get paid over £100k with ten years experience in the North. My job is 95% report writing 5% numbers (and then only working out 20% or 47% in most cases).

I think my not very mathsy role pays well.

Me and DH both work in practical creative jobs which pay low to average wages (he's self employed)
DD is going to uni next year and wants to do something art/creative even though she got 8s and 9s across all subjects so could have potentially done any of her subjects at A level. She knows it's not well paid but that's where her interests lie. I think lots of jobs seem underpaid but I wouldn't say banking and finance were the only ones that pay well.

Your low salary compared to banking can’t come as a surprise though?

You chose a job that was interesting to you because you found banking (dull) and since you were bad at maths you wouldn’t be a very good banker. When you chose your public sector job, the payscales were public knowledge. And it doesn’t take a big leap of inference to conclude ‘probably way less than those boring bankers get.’ It feels a bit rich to complain in retrospect about an entirely predictable outcome.

Anyway, people are right that loads of professions pay well. I work privately as an HCP and earn over 100k. Medicine is also still pretty well paid if you preferred a caring profession, tech, pharma, City law, insurance. Or going it alone and starting a business. All hard work, some risky, but well remunerated.

As a side note, DD want to be an actuary because she loves maths so much that banking wasn’t maths-y enough for her!

Absolutely 👍

Yeh it’s not like the boom came before the bust or anything

Op if you’re not very good at maths it probably wouldn’t be that great for you anyway