To think that there are no well paid family friendly careers?

[Careerhelppp]

I’m currently a SAHM to young children. Whilst my children are still young, I’d like to start preparing to return to the workplace in a few years time.

I previously worked in PR in London and have now moved over 300 miles away! The majority of PR is in London so it’s not really feasible for me to return to this. The area I was in was also the opposite of family friendly so it just wouldn’t have worked anyway.

DH is a high earner and there is no need for me to return to work. However I’ve started feeling like I’m just letting all of my potential and independence fade away and that I need to have a plan about getting a career back. The difficult part is that DH’s career completely dominates everything. He works away a lot and at short notice so I’d have to work around this. This is non-negotiable - DH couldn’t not do this and if he moved to a different role, we’d be taking a huge pay cut (probably over double what I’d ever realistically earn).

I’ve thought about law (love the academic side but I don’t think the hours would be flexible enough), teaching (not well paid enough to make it worthwhile for us), accounting, being a financial advisor, even being a therapist.

Ideally I’d like a job that is fairly flexible (eg. Allows me to finish earlier and pick back up in the evening), includes some WFH and is has a salary of over £50,000 if full time. Perhaps something where you could become self employed?

Any ideas?! Totally prepared to do another degree if needed and the cost of retraining isn’t an issue.

I wouldn’t write off law. I earn £89,500pa in Scotland for 4 days a week stretched over 5, so I finish early enough every day to do the school run. I occasionally have to log back on in the evening but it’s rare. I work 50% in the office and 50% from home.

I think even with a conversion course/masters you'll be highly unlikely to grab a 50k/Yr flexible first job. You're most likely still going to land a job that's ranging between 30-40k with flexibility or one that has a higher salary but with much harsher work conditions.

I don't really get the logic of spending 10k+ on a masters that may or may not transition into a viable career vs potentially working at a very small net profit for a couple years building up your cv to eventually get to a 50k+ post in a few years time.

Regardless of what choice you make, your career progression is likely to be constrained unless you put in the effort in the early years and work up a good cv with lots of relevant work experience.

I think the bit I find a bit jarring is that at 250k from your husband's earnings, you actually have more flexibility to work up a top notch cv than the majority of people can - you have the financial backing to take on lower paid starter roles/internships or even start up your own business. You have the financial flexibility to take on a role that you enjoy and find meaningful, and to drop it if you no longer like that job. I feel like the 50k salary limit is setting up needless constraints that will likely impede your likelihood of actually taking on a job you enjoy.

That’s not your newly qualified salary though, is it?

No, but OP isn’t looking for my salary, she’s looking for £50k+ which is very achievable as an NQ salary, with great earning potential as she progresses.

Very risky strategy. You never know when he might lose his job, run off or leave this mortal coil.

So it might be helpful to add how many years post-qual you are and in what sector.

5 years PQE, commercial litigation

The six years is the bit after the Medicine degree 😂

True but at that income hopefully there would be savings and a good pension

PR is a very transferable skill and can be done from anywhere in the digital age. I think you are missing the opportunities in your own skill set. I do something PR-adjacent and work from all over the world. Indeed my clients are global. Even if you were relatively junior there are gigs doing things like newsletters and content marketing. I pay freelancers around £400 a day to do those things, although they do have some specific sector knowledge (tech in my case).

I don't understand why your discounting local PR opportunities as too dull. A lot of the jobs here sound pretty dull to me too! If you think PR outside of London is dull, would you really find being an IFA or accountant any more interesting?

Also, your DHs salary means you can do whatever job you like, whatever the salary, unless he views it as his money not family money. Childcare should be paid from the family pot, not your salary alone. You are never going to get to £50k if you refuse to spend any money on childcare.

It is daft to bin off your PR experience!
And what do you mean “all PR is in London”?

There are loads of related jobs - for instance Newcastle Building society are offering a job as “Press Officer and Media Manager” for £50-72k for 35 hours a week of which 3 can be remote working, happy to talk flexibility, you can buy extra holiday etc etc.

I don’t understand why you’d think you can be more successful in a career you know nothing about . You want to bag a very healthy salary (300 miles from London, £50k goes a lot further) whilst wanting the job to not be “dull” and expecting it to flex around family life.

I think you should stick to what you know’

eg stick to jobs like Brand Manager or Social Media Strategy Manager or Corporate Communications Manager you’ll likely do much better because you bring recant experience.

or start your own brand management agency, but then don’t expect to be rich at first.

I put myself through 15 years of hard work to get to a place in my very full career where I can do 30 hours a week and still earn £60k in the south east. My job is very tiresome and stressful and requires a lot of know-how. But i knew it would be okay for family life so i stuck at it.

I don’t think there’s the same pressure to work like a lunatic in a lot of provincial towns and cities so you may find a FT job isn’t consuming 65 hours a week

I saw this today and thought of your thread, I thought PR might be a good background for this
https://uk.indeed.com/pagead/clk/dl?from=jobi2a_multijob-en-GB_email&jrtk=5-cmh1-1-1joethdnmpf4s805-5bc3baab69f2febe&mo=r&ad=-6NYlbfkN0DFW5kd_ngs1lpicTAjjgRFiuiHc8s-NhDbaxv_GW5BODNEt-_j4NIV-80y9h3Xr-On9QwKDCrITH9tqQD5DYSa4dNh8zlykD26il6wppyg69DOVAVwNt_etwKLkhOK9ut-auF-H5KHRciKuaGjn-czaEi9LOxRF7_6Q4HKDsKRLPfXYZNUbzMl-LyofgbKm_EweI-kpuGDTAFtbTu8CM4rvk9GsnxIewyHUY-jSV86sSSsZ_hAspwze8N-ZzSSMK_nI_jtdV-rhVMIb2hwOY1LHRkciao2j8SRcOQvljpeILOBwI48a9IuLGc4PVFrUvpMt9mxupzpwO1l5Dfl9AA4M5GW2vyncggO5vvvI3ec_6FkNScutAtohWen4_ToHTAdEoZ2IXo9yxzV5qulq1651zFk1kbHB7rdgFgQin6u4F3myHiuaKhldyjNYv_8KSZNo6jAaz2V4gvfnENNOLbJHHPyX4LNQ668juc9Nh3wt7oHp9PElJoddoinu5AQG_tJOWipUnfsFjAG-5jj0CvZ7tI91Xp4KqsTRq8HmqCEh-G3daKIJeuDThvtWd1sXeKc8J_5q8OXUyU6Ali7Jdqm-RWgtK_9DsIUL0KwNdcQOAnOXmJrOaKfWwtwxWsQIEnrw4YPUuXikoWCDxY51Imm-I2yNU0Z1-jJc0eQAF1L0ARIve_0sMs8rHJmRz3jo3G3n8ZtEO0ODwhbOih2r85QmD53h69TvHa6YlYjtnlHU4BzBebpD0gcB99ggfoWmJM%3D&rm=2&xkcb=SoCX6_M3jOzKFmectZ0IbzkdCdPP&jsa=3110&camk=C3EPSzFlQw-D-upBTtxAaQ%3D%3D

Don't write off PR and don't assume what's local is boring or beneath you (they will sense it and you wont' get the job despite your experience!). Find something you can be passionate about and PR that. There's PR for everything, right?

Same local charities are often looking for pr some may volunteer which will give a in to l the local world .

Agree with developing your PR experience locally in an area that interests you. Or remotely.

Also you just need good childcare - lots of families have 2 parents in full-on careers. if money isn't an issue, can you get a nanny?

It also sounds like you're operating under assumptions (from DH or you or both) that you need to do something high paying for it to be 'worth it'. Your self-esteem, independence and wellbeing all make it 'worth it' alone!

What do YOU want to do? You have the freedom to make that choice, that's a lovely position to be in.

'My DH earns £250,000. If I were to get a £30,000 per year job, I’d be taking home less than £2k but we’d probably have to get a nanny and it just doesn’t stack up. We don’t need the extra money enough to make it worthwhile.'

Remember OP childcare is covered by both of your salaries - I hate this fallacy that the woman's salary alone has to cover childcare or not be 'worth it'!