To think I can get an enjoyable wfh job that pays 100k without working evenings and weekends?

[2kidsnewstart]

I am currently a civil servant earning 80k pro rata'd to my 4 day a week part-time hours. Lots of benefits (pension etc) but due to the kind of role I am in I am expected to return to the office more.

That is difficult for me as last year me and the kids' dad split up (6dd and 2dd) meaning I can't afford additional £65 daily train fares to London on top of nursery fees plus all the other bills. We are 50:50 which I have realised is a very expensive way of splitting up!

Plus I leave before 7am and get home around 8pm so would have to find someone to look after the kids on my days in the office (my ex and I coparent very well but he can't always do childcare around my work all the time and we have no family nearby).

The civil service is great but I am 38 and feel like I could have a whole other career ahead of me and I wonder if there's an absolutely dreamy role that would be challenging but satisfying, well-paid, allow me to wfh and not require evenings and weekends?

AIBNU: No there's definitely that kind of role out there if you open your eyes/ retrain! (and please specify what kind of role!)

AIBU: That unicorn does not exist you should stay where you are!

Very interested to know what CS department you work in to be paid £80k p/t that isn't a director level role with all the responsibility and travel such a role inevitably entails...

Coders are used by the NHS but not in that pay bracket that the OP is talking about!

When you find said job, let me know where you got it from! 😆 I would love to WFH for that salary!

Honestly, no I think you will struggle because the majority of jobs want you in the office now. Private sector often pays less and/or worst terms too. Can you not seek a similar role closer to where you live? How did you commute pre covid or did you move hoping wfh would last?

High nursery is pretty short lived, your fees should go down in a while, could you not work shorter hours over 5 days?

Clinical coders do work in the NHS but the average wage for a clinical coder is £25k so hold your excitement...

Having worked in the CS and the private sector I think you could potentially earn more money in the private sector but would have to work more hours. I found the CS too frustrating to work in and would rather work in the private sector but I think it might be better for you given the ages of your children. I think outside of the public sector you wouldn't get as much 'allowance' for having smaller kids. Hope all goes well.

If you do have coders then you'll have coding auditors, and they do make an awful lot of money. It's one of the advancements I mentioned earlier

You would be starting from absolute scratch in coding/development roles, so you would need to significantly retrain - potentially even to degree level

There are other fields in Tech you can get into - Project Management if you have the relevant qualifications, People Management (this one moreso needs actual experience than qualifications - I hire managers, and have had many good managers come from a non-tech background. They did enjoy and have an aptitidue to understand IT, and really strong people management experience

Hi,

Ironic that we are talking about tech careers and I don't think I even know how to reply to people properly on here.

@Winederlust it's more that I have been in the CS for years and am just below. My 80k is then adjusted to my 4 day a week hours.

@mitogoshi yes we moved during covid and since then 40% in the office was agreed, but it's now gone up to 60%. I think I could have absorbed that before but now our outgoings have nearly doubled due to the split. Things are manageable for now but within the year I'll need to find something more sustainable.

@atotalshambles I agree - one of my children has a health issue too that my bosses are very understanding of.

I got up to 50k home based plus bonus, the folks i know on circa 100k are all expected to be 'a presence' in the office, so hybrid at least. Unless you have very specialist in demand skills i think office hours wfh @£100k is a bit unicorny.

I would stay in your current role, sounds like a great deal. In my industry you would be working evenings and weekends for 100k.

I am thinking 100k is London weighted....and salaries like that are no longer, or shouldn't be, associated with 100%wfh as the extra salary compensates for travel and housing in London.

100k is a lot of money even with London weighting so I am guessing either quite senior mansger or some sort of expert/professional?
Expert roles would be more likely to be WFH but very few jobs are totally wfh
Senior Managers in my organisation tend to be in the office more than their teams are.

Yes and anyone earning over 50k in my organisation would be a manager with a certain expectation to work "the hours required to deliver the work" which would include a certain amount over a standard 40hr week.

Great pay as a medical coder?

What grade are you currently?

Whilst there probably are jobs that fit your description there, they will involve additional training and qualifications. To achieve these, I would imagine you need to be in a face to face working environment just as much (if not more) than your current employer is asking you to as well as study/work evenings and weekends so I am not sure it would work for you in the short term. I would be surprised at being offered that salary with absolutely no commitment to working outside contracted hours too - there are posts where the nature of the job means it is rarely needed but I am sure people are still expected to step up where necessary.

I was about to say for the link, looks more like a data entry position, does not say the grade but doubt it would pay any more than 30k

Not in UK. NHS admin staff do medical coding to ensure hospitals are correctly paid for work but the person doing it would be band 4 or band 5 so a long way from the pay OP is looking for

They exist, but you usually need years of experience behind you to get them. Tech is often touted as the solution to this, and my partner has a role as you describe in the tech world (cloud engineering) but it took 15 years of hard graft working himself up to consultant level, including two years on a government graduate scheme. I do a role in your bracket in a marketing capacity and they’re like hen’s teeth: I have mine because I have a very technical speciality in marketing and cut my teeth at huge global brands. I’m currently looking to get out of said technical speciality because I hate it and there’s no move I can make right now without losing huge income or sacrificing my flexibility.

So you’re either looking at very expensive (and difficult!) re qualification for some of the roles mentioned, or for those like mine and my partners there’s no formal qualification but at least a decade of extremely hard work to build an industry reputation.

I don't mind working out of hours on occasion or even a bit regularly but have had previous roles where very long hours were expected every day and don't want to fall into that again.

If I retrained I would need to do long hours but think I could manage for a year or two knowing it was time limited.

I found the CS too frustrating to work in

Why?

I'd love to know more about this.

Placemarking for the easy ££££ jobs!

The main question here should be what transferable skills do you have? Does your current role exist in the private sector, or something similar enough that you could transition across?

Tech is being suggested as the answer, and as a field it can be fantastic for WLB (and it can also be awful YMMV). Honestly though, without relevant experience and qualifications, you're not walking into a 6 figure job right now in the UK.

The market is not what it was a few years back and layoffs are still ongoing at 'big tech' which has a knock on effect on the rest of the market. Semi-technical roles were particularly hard hit, which makes it even harder for career changers. Some areas are still recruiting hard (eg cybersec) but even there, there will be significant barriers to entry, or you'd be taking a big salary hit to get started....

I would recommend self-employment of some sort. That's the way you get the kind of flexibility you want, but it does take some time to build a business, so probably not a short term solution.

I work about 20 hours per week for 85k but self employed.