Those of you earning six figures, what advice would you give to a 33-year old woman earning around £43k?

[YourFancyBeaker]

I’m genuinely curious about what made the biggest difference in increasing your income/career trajectory. Was it changing industries, moving jobs more often, specialising, negotiation, networking, management/leadership, taking bigger risks, location, confidence or something else entirely?

I know £43k is already a decent salary in many ways and I’m grateful for that. But I’m also very aware there’s a huge difference between earning a solid middle-income salary and building serious long-term wealth/security.

Would love to hear honest insights from people who’ve actually made the jump

I wouldn’t bother. You’ll end up pushing yourself, sacrificing the best years of your life for your career and then realise you aren’t really much better off….your mental health will suffer, you’ll end up paying a huge amt of tax and probably get made redundant!

Aww thank you everyone. Lovely and useful comments. Just came on again and now reading through the comments from the last hour but thank you so much ♥️

Oh wow! Do you mind saying what you do? That is some swings in pay

Ermmm... not sure i agree with that.

I was working MUCH harder on 30-40k with way less flex than I was on 100-200k plus salaries.
I also now work in nicer in environments woth smarter people and generally prefer it....

Not there yet. But I’ve gone from 50k in December to 90k now and honestly, it’s working myself to the bone. Now I’m there, and having to work even harder, I’m not sure it’s worth it.

This is where I am right now. The stress is unreal. It takes over every part of my life.

I don't have any professional qualifications, and have been with the same company for 15-ish years. I have however been promoted a number of times and am now on a six figure salary with good bonus - having started 15 years ago on a salary of £25k.

I've got every promotion I've gone for by being shit hot at my job, taking on extra responsibilities, networking and building contacts with colleagues in other departments, getting myself known and trusted by everyone at exco level.

The biggest impact on salary has been as I've progressed into senior leadership - so management of people, budgets etc. You wouldn't be able to progress really in the company I work for without people management skills. My salary has increased most significantly in the past 3-4 years as I moved from a regional role into a national head of function role.

I agree with you. My most stressful time at work was probably in middle management. Now I'm part of the senior leadership team my role is much more enjoyable

I don’t earn six figures, but my package is about 95k - the tax is high and stress can be higher.
I know people who have made redundant who have struggled to find other jobs due to salary and need to money due to big mortgages etc
be careful about wishing for lots of money- not all it’s cracked up to be

I'm not far off, 86k ish but public sector so the pension takes it over. I was in a really similar role to you at the same age and paid similar. Here's what I did:

-Moved a lot, either internally or externally.
-Said yes to things I had no idea if I could do or not
-Moved charity/consulting/public sector (ie didn't become ideologically wedded to one or the other)
-Networked like mad. Really got involved in networks etc, lots of extracurricular. Knowing people helps (also I have noted this seems to be a dying skill since COVID)
-Be useful. Turn up, deliver on time, don't be a dick to work with, big up colleagues, flag issues early and be proactive about resolving them. If you can bring in money, even better
-Did not go part time after having kids. Related to this, don't have kids with someone who isn't fully invested in your career. I'm the main earner, which helps, but DH is not a problem in this regard and in fact took a career break to relocate for my job for a bit

Basically, kick on. No one is going to give it to you. You can still do work that is meaningful (I pinch myself every day that I get paid for working in my professional area) and get paid well.

Isn't consultancy going to be one of the industries most impacted by AI? I wouldn't move into that OP. I'm wondering if any advice would matter we give you as to be honest, from working in AI focused tech, it looks like things will change very rapidly for all of us within 12 months, possibly sooner.

I started earning 6 figures late 20s. I work in a high paying tech sector, but pay levels aren't heavily regulated in tech so it's often down to your performance and negotiation skills. I negotiated hard from a young age - I got an understanding of what I could earn from recruitment agents. I'm on the commercial side but have some technical skills (self taught). I also speak several languages fluently which seems to have made me more attractive to companies even if I barely use them in practice. I have a BA in languages and I did several additional diplomas in the area I work in. There's a low barrier to entry as long as you're willing to put the work in. Not a secure industry though - I've changed companies every 2 - 3 years.

I don't manage anyone currently and still earn over £100k. I took a slight step down after having my child but there aren't part time options at American tech firms, of at least they're very rare. I've started looking at moving back into more senior roles now and they're offering £130-180k. I thought the more junior job would be less stressful but it's not at all.

I found a very niche area I was hugely passionate about and went it alone. Had to invest a few grand in training and set up. Went banzai overnight (which I was not expecting) have a team now and 120k profit and rising in just 6
mths. I still pinch myself. It was a gut instinct and a gap that I was outraged about and I decided instead of keeping moaning abour said gap to do something about it. Irony is I was being a bit of a do gooder and have ended up bloody Gordon gecko.

But I feel my ‘model’ can be replicated in any field. Find something super niche where there is a gap - and fill it!

Sometimes you have to take a step backwards or sideways to then take a big leap. I’ve done that to acquire new skills.
Put as much into your pension as you can now. If you have children, do not give up your career.

I agree with not giving up work after kids. I took 6 months and 7 months mat leave respectively with mine and went straight back into professional roles. Network network network - most roles in my industry are obtained through word of mouth and go to people already known. Stay 3 years in a role, build your contacts, build your experience and skills, then move on for a bigger salary. Be prepared to sacrifice - social life, time with kids, etc. Be good at your job - sounds obvious, but simple things like being easy to manage, professional, punctual, really work... You won't get promoted if you're a pita. Be forward thinking and proactive ie go to the business with ideas instead of waiting to be told what to do. And finally, one piece of advice I got early on and love : dress for the role you want, not the role you've got

I also agree - most of my work now is consultative and I much prefer it

Similar to Sean in every way.

I thought in the era of flexible working I’d been ripped to shreds about my part time working comment but it’s very true.

Everywhere I have worked has been based on headcount and not FTEs. It’s so difficult to therefore accommodate a reduction ask, as once it’s there I would never have got it back.

I don’t agree with it, but it’s true. Same goes for condensed hours.

Moving jobs every 2-3 years, getting a professional qualification.

I'm not on six figures, but am now earning double what I did give years ago. I took a gamble. Public sector, but took a punt on a job I thought I could do but never expected to get an interview. I would have said I met maybe... two thirds of the requirements.

Basically, I acted like I had the audacity of a middle aged man. Pushed my transferable skills. Decided there was no reason why I couldn't get the job.

Style it out, take the gamble and don't limit yourself or your options, that's my advice @YourFancyBeaker

I broke a lot of the rules in this area - as in, I don’t have any qualifications higher than GCSEs, never officially retrained and had a year’s maternity leave when my son was born.

I was on far less than you at your age. I’m now 42 and my salary really started to climb within the last 5 years. I now work for a large global company managing a small team of people and we are tender managers. So we support the sales team to put proposals together for potential clients.

Id say that thinking outside the box is probably what put me on the map more than anything. Making suggestions to win contracts. That others hadn’t thought of, managing lots of stakeholders to pull those responses together and being analytically minded has certainly helped. I’m not very good at marketing myself but I’ve always had managers that were good at doing that on my behalf and now I do that for my team. We had a particularly good year about 5 years or so ago when I worked my bollocks off on several tenders and we won all of them (the whole team being responsible for this not just me of course!) there was probably about $200m of additional gross revenue won that year!

You will likely need to get out of that field. Most people do this by moving industries and/or retraining. Some industries just pay way more and some are notoriously poorly paid.

Perhaps try moving into finance but it’s competitive. Alternatively you’re gonna have to get into a well paying industry / company and work up. Possibly marketing exec or portfolio manager for a travel company.

You could easily earn 100K as a medical consultant but that’s gonna take you years. Good tradies can easily earn 100K plus but you’re likely too late to move into that.

Small business could potentially make this but it’s risky and can take years to establish brand etc.

Politicians getting close to 100K now and requires absolutely zero qualifications or talent apart from telling lies.

And whatever you do, don’t fall for the marketing bs that is Only Fans where every female is earning a million quid a year. In reality, they’re barely making enough to pay for a coupe of decent meals out.

Obviously, one of the first things to consider is moving away from the charity sector. They have no money and need to be careful of how they use it (lack of it and perception). Your current role sounds transferable.

BUT I would say that you need to think really carefully about what you want. Moving into money making usually means losing other important things like freedom: working silly hours, getting little time off and with little understanding of needs and pressures from outside work (childcare, etc).

Absolutely there are people who earn silly money by not doing very much, and I hate those that seem to think that their wage also somehow symbolises that they are better than those earning less - different jobs and sectors have different budgets and I know many rather brilliant people with wonderful qualifications working for very little doing brilliant things in healthcare or research or academia or for charities in comparison to those in the corporate world.

I used to work in the corporate world. I now work for a charity. I earn less by my work life balance is worlds better. They understand that we have families and lives and get ill.

Do it if it’s what is important, but as with most things, be careful what you wish for!

I started out as a Project Manager for a small tech company, got promoted to a Programme Manager, pivoted that into a non technical manager role within the tech department of a big corporate, managed every team in that department within 5 years to learn the whole floor, got promoted to Director, got royally screwed over(!)so pivoted that into a CIO role in a SME.
Agree with PP that there’s no money in the charity sector, that part time hours do really hurt careers (unfortunately) and that proving you are a safe pair of hands that can get stuff done will lead to opportunities because people will speak favourably about you in your absence.
Also, there is nothing wrong with being money motivated BUT if the job is wrong for you, there will never be enough money to make it right

Another one having a far more enjoyable time of it now than I did on a lower salary. I was having the absolute piss taken out of me back then and I’m not now!

Change the way you work; move into contracting or consultancy