If you earn 100k plus, what is your occupation?

[CJ2010]

I've posted this here as it is a bit U, but i am curious to know what jobs pay mega bucks.

I've just been looking on a jobs website at admin jobs, most are paying on average 20-25k (in London). With the cost of living as it it, that sort of money will not go far at all.

I've been a SAHM for a while now and have begun looking for work. I'm considering retraining, but only in something that pays well!

So members of the 100k club please spill the beans and let me know your secrets!

"Name anyone , any profession that earns over £300k that is morally on the right side..... Hasn't stepped on or mistreated people on the way up or exploited anyone."

Erm, stepping over, mistreating and exploiting people happens in tons of jobs. Hell, my first full time job I was on the princely annual salary of £8k a year, and I remember people mistreating, stepping over people and exploiting people and they were earning NO where near £100k, let alone £300k.

There is a culture (not just on mumsnet) of keeping women in their place. And accusing women who earn decent money of being bad mothers, of being grasping, supercilious etc.

I get this from PIL all the time. Despite the fact that I out-earn DH by 50%, and he works almost fulltime (4 days - in reality, this is often 3 days and a day or so of working from home, so he does drop offs and pickups, a good portion of the emergency childcare etc.), somehow I am the one to privately attack for not spending enough time with DCs.

But if the roles had been reversed and I had my 3 day a week, flexible working job and DH was working 50hrs a week they'd be over the moon, because he'd be a good provider.

Perhaps it's because MIL / FIL and I don't speak a common mother tongue (their English is quite basic and DH often has to step in to clarify something), or perhaps I'm just paranoid, but over the years I've not got the impression that their disapproval has waned on that score.

I am not a bad mother. But I'd be a great father if I was the dad, doing what I do at work, and that irks me, it always has.

Actually, I think it's a LOT harder being in a very junior job.

You've got lack of autonomy
Not much money
Possibly boring work
No money to spend on outsourcing domestic stuff

Whereas if you're in a well paid job you're probably trusted to get on with it (you're probably accountable too but most people don't mind that at all), you may have interesting work to do,. you almost certainly spend a decent amount of time on strategy and planning and very little doing grunt work.

You can also pay someone to clean your house, do the boring bits of looking after children - e.g. ferrying them to school / dentist appointments and outsource almost anything you haven't the time or energy to do.

And you also probably live in a decent house, have savings, it isn't a disaster if say your car breaks down, you just get it fixed. You can afford to go out, to pay a babysitter, to eat in nice restaurants, take holidays. And you probably get a decent amount of holiday too.

So I don't buy all this "but he / I / she works SO hard for it, it is hard" stuff. Not that I'm quoting anyone directly. It's not hard, it's much harder working for £25k or less.

I also agree that information is information, doesn't really matter whether you earn it or someone you know earns it.

I could have written TheBossofMe's posts. I spent my late teens very exposed to my parents financial troubles in the last recession. From the age of 15, I was working long shifts at a restaurant on weekends (not even sure if it was legal!) to make money so that I could contribute to paying the bills at home. I needed to do this because all of my parents income was going on the mortgage. Didn't make a difference and we eventually ended up homeless. It had a huge impact on me and was the reason I chose to work in the financial services sector (high paying) but I don't take risks with my own money.

I see my contribution to society as the taxes I pay and the charitable donations I make. I don't think I am better than anyone because I earn a lot (I know plenty of people in my sector to whom my pay would be peanuts) but equally I don't think anyone is better than me, which is why I have always pushed hard in my career and don't feel limited because I am a woman.

It is funny that so many wrote in to say DP's salary rather than their own. Statistically men earn more than women so on a female-dominated website like mumsnet the unfortunate reality is that posters here will be more likely to be married to a man earning 100k rather than earning it themselves.

Kudos to the alpha females on the thread who do earn 100k however! My DP has just taken up a job (internationally) earning over 100k (for OP: it's in technology, very specified field, he has 10 years experience, patents and a PhD) and it's nearly 3 times what I have ever earned. It's a bit of a blow to my feminist credentials as up to now, we'd always earned about the same, in the region of 40k.

I briefly was the main breadwinner in our household while DH finished his PhD, however, and it is a good feeling to know you can provide independently and have your own financial means.

Oh so true, farandflyaway! Mil occasionally forgets herself and acts as if dh is the only one funding us and that my contribution is pin money. At christmas time she suggested that I ought to let dh sleep in the spare room more as he needed more sleep to be able to function in his important job (we have a baby and toddler). and then smile and nod.

I think that you have to work hard to break through the £100k ceiling, but once you rise higher, you can kick back a bit.

And the reason that so many women on this thread are talking about their H's earnings is that this is MUMSNET and many of us have young(ish) children so are perhaps SAHMs or working part-time.

Ask us again in 5 or 6 years time and the answers may well be different.

AndiMac It's just predictable. The question was directed to the people who earnt the money or have done in the past. Who have actual knowledge of how to attain it. It was not asked so women could blither on about what their husband earns.
And considering this is called MUMSNET, it IS about females automatically.

Ask us again in 5 or 6 years time and the answers may well be different.

I hope so, MmeLindor. I remember just before DD was born, I accidently stumbled across a thread which asked (can't remember the details, but the general idea is provided) "Is airline stewardess a good job for my daughter?" - with the post talking about jobs for men vs. women, and at no point did the OP want to encourage her DD to consider pilot in the hat too. I found this quite gob smacking, and hope my DD considers the full range of things that everyone should consider when they're looking at career options (their aptitudes, their stress tolerance, their qualifications, the need for flexibility in working patterns - whatever - just not whether they have a penis or a vagina )!

I don't care that it is the dh or the poster.

If people want to pursue a high earning career the information is useful.

Ask us again in 5 or 6 years time and the answers may well be different.

MmeLindor, I wish I could believe that women who take time away from full time WOH to be SAHMs or part time will be able to earn 100k in 5 or 6 years time. Sadly from everything I read it seems that if you step away from full time work for that long your prospects of being a high earner in future are minimal. (Unless you set up a successful business - but that is quite rare).

I stepped away to have children and went back and earned well. But it wasn't for very long at all.

It was still very very hard work to get back into working and earning a decent salary. I'm not saying it was hard once I was there mind you.

"Ask us in 5 or 6 years time though" is a bit optimistic - it doesn't get easier once they're at school you know, arguably it's harder. But the more you earn the more you have to spend on making the childcare and domestic stuff easier as I said earlier.

In 5 or 6 years time...

Dp will be making far in excess of 100k profit at Mr. Pru ltd. I'll have 2 under 5s so I will just be doing 3 days a week.

I wonder....

Miniepie
I have seen many of my friends turn to alternative careers as their children got older. Few of them returned to their original jobs, but many are earning more than they used to.

I think that hte break to have children can often give flight to women's creativity.

minipie Sadly true. Once they go on maternity leave or remain at home for a few years it is as if 'poof', they're are gone. Really annoys me.
When it comes to the corporate world it is mind numbingly difficult for women to reach the top so leaving it for having a child is seen as a weakness. Grrrr!!!

I once spoke to a guest who was a banker in London. She spoke 9 languages and was just fabulously inspiring but even she told me that there were men in the same role as her that earned more than she did PLUS she was putting off having children till the very last minute so she could resign fully.

From the strength and feistiness I see on these threads, you would all have loved her!!

minipie i took 5 months mat leave, but went back to a role 3 days a week when I returned. After 6 months I went to a higher paid role but negotiated Friday off. I did this for 3 years then took redundancy and worked as a part time consultant whilst dh finished his career in the army.

Then when we were free to live where we liked i applied for my current job.

So I have gone from earning 50k to 21k to 45k to 12k to 120k pa over the last 10 years.

The important factors in my business are to keep your CV moving experience wise. I would never judge time off harshly as long ax it was used constructively. One of my old colleagues has been out of the business for 10 years due to a move/2 kids and i am alwys harrassing her to come and work with me because she was pretty shit hot at what she did.

Namechanger here, much more than £100k usually. Finance for a major corporate - got here via good academics, lots of hard work, professional qualifications and good luck too. Worked ridiculously long hours pre DC, and still work very hard when needed, plus always on call re blackberry and calls in evening / weekend, but now have the flexibility around hours and holiday that comes with seniority.

I would always stress that I think being a WOHM is easier than more senior you are.

Have always have paid full tax, and see it as a privilege.

MmeLindor could you say (in broad terms) what they now do?

Quite specialised really, so not sure if it will be much use.

One is a translator, she speaks fluent English/German/Spanish - she was able to support the family while her DH was unemployed - but it was a lot of work

Another was a freelance journalist and now edits a specialist magazine.

A third works for a company as sales director and travels all over the world (but her DD was almost grown up before she took that job)

The first two can fit their work around their children but to earn £££ they do have to work their arses off. It is worth it when you are self-employed.

Hi, we're going to move this into Employment, thanks!

Go to Aberdeen and work for an oil company.

Doesn't matter if you are a nurse, admin, engineer, tech, cook - if you work offshore or rotate to some remote oil country you will earn alot of money. Likewise mining companies (but not quite as well paid).

in my social group, the women with the better jobs, can not only afford to buy help but also appear to have more esteem & have more equal relationships.

life is easier the more success you have

MmeLindor "And the reason that so many women on this thread are talking about their H's earnings is that this is MUMSNET and many of us have young(ish) children so are perhaps SAHMs or working part-time."

We all know that is not true. :) Psychologically speaking it is because they feel inadequate in having nothing to contribute to this thread regarding themselves and feel the need to prove to others that despite them being a SAHM, hubby earns some good moola. There. I said it. (shock) Shoot me now! I'm not interested in what men who are not even participating on this thread earn and how they do it - I want to hear some inspiring stories from strong, smart females about how they got to where they are now. Not everybody on here is married with kids.

All it means to me is that I have to wade through the blithering to find posts which are useful and informative.

I expect I shall get some a lot of stick for saying what some of you are thinking. Me and my mouth. I shall go back to my rock henceforth and await my stoning from women with a baby in one hand and a nappy in the other. (wink)

....& society encourages women to make sacrifices for others. & if you step out of line, you are not looking after your children & vulgar.

Angel
But that is crap.

That is saying there are "women jobs" and "men jobs"

The OP asked which jobs pay well.

People are saying "These jobs pay well", whether they do them themselves, or someone else does that job.

Why does it make a difference if I am talking about my job or my DH's, or my friend's job?