What paths to High Paid careers

[MedSchoolRat]

DD is academic, ambitious, competitive & materialistic. She wants a list of options to well paid careers besides medicine.

I work in a Medical School & I worry she'll get too stressed out on the course. She agrees that she needs to consider other jobs, to make a good choice, excluding sports & performing arts too.

There are A Lot of well-paid lawyers on MN. I work with very well paid Professors. There's a list here but it doesn't even include the University Proffs, so I wondered who else was left out. Anyone else want to describe paths they have seen how people got into high paid jobs (> £75k/annum)? TIA.

'I have seen private rates for the careers I mentioned from £300-500 per hour'- but have you seen anyone actually paying that, for enough hours to actually form a full business income, as opposed to a single 2 hour session which takes a day to prepare for and report on?

Actuary
I have no idea of the entry route, but I know 2, who were earning high salaries well before they were 30.

sorry I am balking at the OP.
If that was my daughter I'd be having a serious chat about materialism and money.
Bloody hell, what a thing to aim for

Absolutely mystified at a lot of these posts. It's undemanding to work at the EU or the UN, it's evil to want to earn a good salary, physios all earn top dollar?? Where is this world of which you speak?

If that was my daughter I'd be having a serious chat about materialism and money.
Bloody hell, what a thing to aim for

What, like financial independence? Too often I see girls in particular steered to "rewarding" jobs that pay crap. And then they end up giving up work after the second child because" it wasn't worth my while working with the cost of childcare". Read any of the threads on here about women with little or no earning capacity being stitched up by high-earning partners after a split or not having access to money etc. I know what I will be telling my daughters (and my son) to aim for - a job that pays enough to live on in the style you want to live. And I don't care if I am materialistic or - shock horror - actually want to earn a good living from my work.

In the end of the day most people have a job - not a vocation, a job. It isn't a family or a life choice or anything. It is somewhere you go 8 or more hours a day to earn the money you need to live. Ideally you do something you feel contributes to the common good. Ideally you do something you enjoy (although loads and loads of people don't and still live good and useful lives), but also ideally it pays you enough to have a good standard of living.

Like annandale, I am mystified at some of the posts here - like a parallel universe.

In my experience, people who earn big money are in finance/banking, law, medicine (although I think this is a long hard road and I wouldn't encourage any one to do it for the money) or run their own companies which require 24/7 working. Engineering is a good alternative where you may or may not make big money but are unlikely to be without a job.

The highest earners I know are all math/economics grads who did a business admin post grad and went into venture capital/banking finance.

Technology companies pay well and have an interesting variety of roles. Most have grad schemes and as well as technical roles, there are Sales, Business Consultants, Design Specialists, Marketing and HR.

Lots of scope for high salaries, and for finding a role they enjoy.

I also don't get why wanting to earn a good salary is a bad thing, financial independence is something everyone should aspire to surely.

I almost became an Actuary - took a tangent that led me into a very well paying career which I loved, so specialist that I could only do it in 3 locations in the world and not family friendly at all.

So, I retrained in my early 40s and now earn half of my former salary. In hindsight an Actuary would have been a better choice as it is portable and sought after.

Have to say though that I was 30 before I started earning big money, so even with a good maths degree and a plan there wasn't an instant reward.

There is a difference between financial independence and earning top whack, though.

I think it's quite important to enjoy the thing you do to earn money. What with it taking up so much of one's time and attention and all.

I also think, perhaps unfashionably, that it's quite important to study something at university that actually interests you.

Train to be an accountant. As you get more senior there's less number crunching and depending what you do, more people and business management etcetc

You don't need to study accountancy at uni to be an accountant.

Completely agree Mother, this is your whole life. Now I am older I realise that you don't actually need to earn an absolute ton.

I now don't have to live in/near London, don't have to pay a fortune to park at the station and get to work, don't need to buy swish clothes all the time etc., etc..

Sad thing for me is that I was good at two things and an outstanding music pupil, it was a choice between maths or music. My dad (lovely man but older generation mindset), thought that music was not 'proper' and that maths would be a good career choice.

I will encourage DD to pursue her dreams.

A degree in a finance relevant subject eg. Economics, business, accountancy, maths,

Followed by chartered accountancy exams, working in financial services in London on that route I would say most are on that or more before they are 30.

Most engineering jobs in the oil and gas industry pay 6 figures

Average engineering contractor rate is £600-800 a day.

Offshore drilling is well paid too especially international work

My husband is a driller in Africa and clears £12,000 a month he has no formal education, you can work your way up the ladder from basic labouring.

Although the industry is in crisis at the moment with low oil prices it will pick up again in next few years.

Anyone else think 40K is well paid?

After all, the average wage is £26,500.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's a really good thing that women are encouraged to consider high-status and highly-paid jobs. I think financial independence is crucial.

But I also think that chasing money for money's sake can be a bit soul-destroying. There are a lot of decently-paid, interesting jobs out there.

And in any case we have no idea what are going to be the real high-earning jobs of the next few decades.

Personally, I'm insisting that my own daughters - who are 12 and 14 - do not select a career path at this stage but get a broad education which will enable them to follow most directions at a later stage. (Mind you since they go to a local comp some of the posters on this thread will think I've already destroyed their life chances in any case, A grades notwithstanding .)

I agree too often girls are not encouraged to look at earning potentials when choosing careers. I certainly wasn't. My mum actively discouraged me to do an engineering degree because it's my family friendly. I ignored her because it's something I loved.

I don't know what's the best paid career is. But academics is a very rare path to succeed. Most In their 30s are still drifting in zero hour contracts.

And tell her she's not stuck with what she choose to study. Or indeed her first graduate job is not what she will have to do forever. I studied electrical engineering, but became a software developer.

I don't earn £75k, not even close. But I earn more than 2 in nursery. (This makes it sustainable to keep working with children). It's also a very office hour. No overtime. And I work 8-4 so I can do pick ups. Friends who work in development in London for banks earn over £75k. But I guess no where near the lawyers, bankers, accountants and management consultants. I made the choice for family to stay out of London. And jobs with too long a commute. But it should not be something your daughter considers now. She would be able to make moves for her work life balance later in life.

I used to work as a PA for a headhunter, firstly, good head hunters (people with lots of contacts who have normally come from that business sector) are on large 6 figure sums. Secondly, we used to do a form of staff appraisal for companies. One aspect of that was looking at what motivates each person. Some people are motivated by intellectual challenge, some by desire to do good, some by status, and some by money. (Often managers will assume the people who work for them are motivated by similar things, but that's why a new job title will please someone more than a pay rise, or no matter how much you pay an intellectual challenge type will still leave if not being stretched - often managers get that type wrong as they see them struggling and reduce workload, making them bored and more likely to quit compared to being stressed by stretched mentally)

Anyway, if the ops dd is a motivated by money type, then she's not wrong to chase money, and encouraging her towards a high status and "fulfilling" job won't do it for her.

Get her to take a science based degree, go for banking (most will major banks do graduate recruitment schemes he can apply directly for, thy want at least a 2:1 and a woman with science degree will stand out), or IT which is very male dominated and she'll do well quickly (DHs bank always interview female applicants for it roles as they are so few and far between).

I agree with MI - do what you love, not what pays the best. My job pays reasonably well (not £75K though) and I hate it. There is nothing worse - it's like living in a golden cage. The best that can be said is that I am miserable in comfort. And yes, I am applying for other jobs, but being realistic, I am 10 years off retirement, the world is ageist, I have no degree, and get weeded out of jobs at an early stage of the process, despite having bags of experience, for this reason. Don't end up in a "time passes, salary comes" mentality.

I would think about career longevity/family friendliness too. I know that things have changed in the last 30 years but a different path could mean a long career with a good salary rather than a few six figure years in my case and then very little or nothing for a while because I didn't want to be an absent mum and I was gone for 13 hours most days. Flexible working was not an option in a pressurised city environment back then.

Tinkly Thing is, thirty years ago when I was a student, accountancy was the golden goose. People piled into it, pretty soon accountants were as cheap as chips

Crap accountants, maybe (although many of them still earn a fortune). Unqualified accountants, certainly. Accounting technicians, yes, the clue is in the name. But for those with the right qualifications, skills, experience and attitudes it can still be a very well paid profession. Very very well paid. And that's if you stay in the profession - if you use the qualification as a springboard to something else (entrepreneurship or board level posts in business (we used to say business or industry but sadly, no longer...)) then you can do even better...

The attrition rate is very very high though. It's not a safe career. And it's most certainly not a good idea for people who have only studied STEM at A level and university. To do really properly well young people need a range of skills only one of which is maths.

mother I hear what you're saying, but I think financial independence will be more difficult to attain for our DC.

If they want their own home and a pension, then they're going to need to make the right decisions. The public sector is going to shrink massively, taking with it the tranche of jobs that (in recent times) provided women particularly with well paid employment and a good pension.

There's nothing wrong with being driven by earnings. A big salary gives you an enormous amount of freedom. If you can combine is with something you're interested in, so much the better.

I was like your daughter. I knew that being a high-earner was very important to me and chose my career accordingly. At the time I was probably thinking more in terms of how many handbags I could buy, but it has afforded me a huge amount of choice in my life. Money may not make you happy, but it does take away the worry.

Yes the hours are longer, but the money can compensate. Money can buy a house close to work so no long commute, no creche run if you have a nanny coming in, family time isn't eaten into by cleaning because it can be outsourced etc...

My strengths were in maths and the sciences and after researching careers I opted to study actuarial science. As it turned out, it's deathly boring, so I moved into banking.

I would echo the poster earlier who noted the importance of hobbies, dress and even table manners. I don't mean that you need to be, or pretend to be, posh; I certainly am not. You do need to dress well, have good manners, have plenty to talk about. You need to look the part. I would also add that presentation skills and how you conduct yourself in meetings are very important. It's very notable that from my graduating class the ones that have been the most successful are not the brightest ones, but the ones who've combined ability with being "presentable"...the ones you'd want to give a presentation to the board and the ones you'd want to bring to a client dinner.

Hi MedSchoolRat

Interesting thread - and lots of differing views!

I was a bit like your DD - perhaps not particularly money-driven at that stage (I assume she's looking at Uni courses at the moment, still at school?) but certainly academic but with no clear subject passion. I don't think there's any problem with that - I have much more of a vocation now 20 years on - but it does make it more difficult to decide on a career path.

I did Maths and Philosophy at Uni and then trained with a Big 4 accountant. I then moved internally into (public sector/government) management consultancy. That was not super super well paid (compared to bankers say) but I was earning £70k plus a bonus by 29 and I had my chartered accountancy qualification paid for (as is standard). I was interviewing for jobs that paid more like £100k, though I decided to stay put as we were TTC (and then had DS). For me, that route has proved very flexible. I don't do paid work now - may do again when DS ad DD are older - but I have learnt some great skills which mean (IMHO ) I can make worthwhile (and bankable!) contributions to a range of organisation types.

I met DH whilst training. We were peers - he left the firm before I had DS and went to a client in Private Equity. That is a very well-paid sector and he has earned much much more than I would have in the types of roles I was doing/interested in doing. He may not always stay in this sector - he could move elsewhere in finance and be paid less, but might still consider this for the right role - at different stages of life money, hours, location etc etc have different weights, don't they.

So my basic point is - there are lots of route and sub-options within careers, and each decision you make impacts on how much you get paid. But something like Maths (or equally any reasonably academic course at a good Uni) followed by a graduate trainee-ship somewhere big where you learn skills is a good basis for a flexible career which can give you very good material rewards if that is what you are looking for. Personally I think if your DD is interested in/good at science or maths they are a slightly better choice as they have a bit more rarity value and demonstrate logical thinking and analytical skills which employers on the whole value.

Hope that is useful info. Good luck to her whatever she chooses.

I think young women should be given all the knowledge possible of how to get ahead and be independent. I appreciate that no one should choose a life based solely on material gain. But most of us will not be able to "follow our passion" exclusively, and still put a roof over our heads. So it makes perfect sense to understand the options.

Also, consider that the "do what you love" shtick actually devalues work and harms non-elite workers.

www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2014/01/do_what_you_love_love_what_you_do_an_omnipresent_mantra_that_s_bad_for_work.html

If she's interested in engineering or science then the oil and gas industry definitely pays very well -starting salary with a masters 7 years ago was over 30k and with good performance that can double in not much over 5 years. They are after geologists, physicists, chemists and all sorts of engineers.
The flip side is that it's very unstable, every time the oil price falls thousands of people are laid off. Sometimes good track record will see you through sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time.