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.

Educational psychologist is a serious long game though!

Decent teaching experience (so PGCE plus ECT years as an absolute minimum but realistically several years past ECT), conversion degree to get GBC status, doctoral training which would probably take several years to get a place to start. I doubt op could get from where she is now to even her first newly qualified job in a decade.

I don't get the impression that the op is up for that.

Local authority OP.

I've just done this for 5 years, working 4 short days a week (paraplanning, mortgages). I moved on from the company a year ago due to having enough of working in a small family business (favouritism etc.) but I think I will go back into it at some point.as I have the exams to be a self-employed adviser.

If you’re looking for flexibility and a high salary, maybe look into UX Design or Project Management. Both allow for a lot of remote work and freelance opportunities once you’re established. Since you have a PR background, you already have the communication skills, you’d just need a specific certification rather than a whole new degree.

Lots of roles across financial services can be really flexible, although it varies across employers. I’ve had great flexibility in both my current and previous employers, one was pensions/life insurance and the other a challenger bank, working in risk and compliance. Of course it takes time and experience to earn that flexibility and autonomy as you progress. Any roles in the industry advertised at remote and non customer facing, will likely have the opportunity to choose your own hours within reason.

Maybe it depends on the area of law. I do employment law and most of the time I love it. I would do it again no problem 🤣

You don’t need to work because your DH earns really well, but teaching doesn’t pay enough for you? This makes no sense. If you don’t need the money you could do anything, including low paid roles (of which teaching isn’t, in the greater scheme of things). You could even volunteer. Why limit yourself to only high paying roles if your family is so well off?

I work in tech and my job is very flexible day to day and pretty well-paid. I'm sure it depends whom you work for though!

the civil service is family friendly and it is possible to go in at a high level. Have a look on the civil service job site

I haven’t read through all the posts so sorry if duplicating!

I’d say your best bet is to use your experience in PR to make a sideways move into another related area. This is the best way to get the salary you’re looking for and the level of flexibility that comes with mid-level + roles.

Any large corporate will have departments that could utilise this experience- internal comms, press relations, events management etc. Good chance of finding regional head offices and/or London office with hybrid working meaning only 1 day a week in office or less etc. (some of my team in London based office are 1 day a fortnight in office). Role structures tend to be assistant, junior manager, manager, senior manager/lead, head of, Director. I’d say you’re after Manager or Senior Manager level if you have around 10 years PR experience and it’s a sideways move- don’t undersell yourself! Manager salaries probably somewhere in region of £50-70k, senior manager £60-85k (London salaries as that’s my experience!)

best of luck!!

Local government is going through huge changes. I don't think it's a solid area of work currently and there will be lots of displaced comms and PR professionals with years of experience looking for new roles.

Self employed within a firm used to be the norm, but there are a lot more employed adviser roles now. So no, not vital, but will largely depend on the type of firm that you join.

I don't know what career is for you, but I do know that childcare is a joint expense and it may not look worth it on paper for you to work right now, the benefits add up and you will be contributing to a retirement fund etc plus providing a security blanket for yourself and something for you to do once your kids are older.

OP, have you thought about Risk/Compliance/Governance? You can normally get into these and train on the job (start around £30k) and they can be pretty flexible. You sound interested in a professional career and it would probably give you that. Lots of overlap with law.

Civil service. There are various roles. I'm sure there will be something for your skillset. Many roles (not all!) have a lot of flexibility.

Have you tried looking at Head of Communications jobs in charities? The salary and flexibility is there, I have worked in roles where we had ex journalists in that role. Might be an idea

Yes I do. I achieved AAA at a level and have a 2:1 from a good university (not Russell group though).

It sounds like OP isn’t really that passionate about it. It’s a great job but not everyone is suited to it . It requires a very specific set of skills: resilience, humour, energy, subject knowledge, diplomacy, determination etc.

I would echo others suggesting civil service / arms length bodies for flexibility. I've worked in two ALBs for over a decade and they're very flexible. You could use your PR background for roles in external comms and engagement - may be a good fit?

You are gunning for a big salary if you don't want to put the hours in.
You like the idea of doing another degree- how about psychiatry, it's a career, flexible with a very high per hour rate.

I work in an independent creative advertising agency that’s family friendly! Lots of flexibility around hours, we’re treated as adults as long as you get your work done and clients are happy, then there are no issues. Saying that there are some unavoidable deadlines/overnight shoots etc but they are few and far between these days thankfully. I’m sure a lot of your skills in PR are transferrable.

Nope not SCS, that’s why I still have so much flexibility and freedom lol. Grade 6 with specialist allowance. I entered SEO aged 30 and was a G6 within 4 years. I did have a related career for the 8 or so years before I joined though, but retrained specifically for the specialism I have now.

I’d agree with a lot of what’s already been said. Theres lots of family friendly roles once you’ve got the leverage of being good / senior and have your feet under the table. I’d say while you’re training you’ve probably got to pay your dues and don’t underestimate the pressure of studying while working at the same time.

Sounds like another major factor is being leaving London. I know a few people who’ve don’t it and found something in their field more broadly or made it work another wary, A friend who did retail PR/marketing now does internal comms at a building society that is HQ where she is. Another worked in psychology and went into tech doing user experience remotely. I managed to keep my London job and work remotely. Would your employer offer that - or is there freelance work?

I’d say the better route as a starting point would be to think about what’s in your geographic area that you could transfer your skills and qualifications to. There are lots of national / international companies HQ or with a big presence outside of London as well as other organisations like local authorities. You’ll just have to pivot a bit but much easier than starting from scratch. Don’t a lot of PR skills transfer into comms, for example?

Initially, your post invoked some empathy, but later I was really put off by several comments. Do you think everyone easily lands flexible, well-paid jobs without qualifications? You said it’s not worth entering teaching for a 30k salary, but many people make sacrifices and advance; they don’t earn 30k forever. Ask PhD holders in Pharmacy with substantial student debt and years of study, who are just happy to start as scientists earning 35k a year. Of course, they will progress and earn much more eventually. You need to shift your mindset and be willing to make sacrifices now, get qualified and accept low pay initially.

There are many fundraising executive jobs in the charity sector that are remote and might suit your PR skillset. Seriously, always dozens available. Another area that often has remote jobs is senior HR.