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!

well indyandlara someone further down the thread did say that no one at her school went on to have a career like those mentioned in the thread (lawyers, accountants etc), and there are people for whom it would not be the norm for whatever reason in their background to consider such careers. so perhaps Xenia does have a point that all girls/pupils at secondary school should be informed about the full range of careers and salaries for each should be a factor when people are considering what they want to do.

There will be people on here who don't know anyone who earns so much money, and for them it may seem like a different world that they can never hope to be in. But I think that everyone should know about the full range of jobs/careers/salaries and such jobs can be attained by people if they know what they have to do to achieve it.

fwiw I was in a similar situation bought up in a small town, where not many people went on to be lawyers/doctors etc. I came from a poor background and was brought up by a single parent. i don't think any of my friends parents were professionals. It was my mother who came from a very poor background who promoted the careers we went into- we may not have even considered such careers without her. Certainly I don't think school careers advisors were suggesting such things then.

I think most people are interested rather than feeling condescended towards.

As for "Hardly anyone in manufacturing/blue collar management" - I know two people with business, making real things which they own 100% and profits last year (as exports were high as the pound was low) were £500k and £900k. That is fairly rare however.

Xenia reminds me of the utterly shit careers advice I received at school. The army came in once and talked about kennel maids. There was also a lot of focus shorthand and typing - all the supporting roles, essentially. At the twin boys' school, they already all seemed to be officers in the CCF and taking Business Studies exams.

How I got to university I'll never truly know.

I mean Xenia's story reminds me ....

indy of course a lot of people don't know about these things!!!

They either have no idea that they even exist. They wouldn't know how to go about it. Or they think it's not for people like them.

Women, particularly, women from disadvantaged backgrounds suffer more than anyone from this.

Information passe don and around is what makes people strong. It makes people relaise theirt worth. It makes them realise they can do it. It makes them think about their own futures.

I went to a good school but careers advice was pretty much non existent. For university I just chose to study the two areas where I performed the best.

That lack of information is irritating.

I see what they offer at my dc's London schools, talks by a huge range of top people in the field and other stuff, and it is so beneficial.

So true about passing information on. That's something I have learnt from my own childhood/educational experience. I am going to tell the DC's about the range of careers that are out there for them. I'll be honest about the hard work needed to succeed in them, but if they want to go for it, I'll encourage them all the way.

I'll never make them feel they should apologise for wanting the best out of their lives.

DH had great career advice at his school, incidentally he gained his training contract with Clifford Chance, and hated every single second of it. Decided to do something with stereo which he loves, during his twenties.

Now he is back in the law thing, we only know a couple of people in law earning over £100k so it's not always a wonderfully funded career.

However I've been training in law while at home (caring for DS as well as SAHM) I do clerking for free as I need the experience. I will be qualified in a couple of years and although it took me a little longer than the norm it is possible to train/retrain while as a SAHM. But it's been bloody hard work.

Personally my advice to my DCs would be find something you love and see if you can make a career out of it. We spend the majority of life working, may as well be something you enjoy.

I usually earn over £100k. I work in technology sales (business to business).

I had a mega working class upbringing in terms of cash and education but I read loads - my whole family did. We had a sort of mixed lower middle attitude with working class environment, if that makes sense?

I was determined that I was going to have certain things and no-one would be giving them to me so, if I wanted them, I'd have to get off my backside and earn the money myself...

I know I am mostly skint because the vast majority of the work I do for people is pro bono or voluntary.

I just did a big favour for my old university, for no fee, because I'm desperate to keep my cv 'current'.

Sorry I think that people in general not knowing about career options is a valid point but highlighting women as the only ones who need to know does not lie right with me. Young boys and men from deprived areas are far away from these careers too, not just the girls and young women. The peer pressure not to do focus on the academic is huge for young boys and men. Lack of expectations from home impacts on both boys and girls.

I teach in a deprived area and am very passionate about ALL our children knowing that the world is out there, in their grasp. I am the person who started careers' events for our 10 year olds, bringing in people from lots of different jobs to talk to the children about what they do and more importantly, how they get there.

Another namechanger

I just make six figures, lawyer in house at a large multi-national company managing a small team. I used to work in a large law firm but quite as the hours were beyond horrendous and I could see myself heading for a breakdown. In house I earn less than I could in private practice but my quality of life is better. It is by no means 9-5 and can be pretty pressured but provides a little more flexibility for family. DH works in financial services front office and earns quite a bit more than me but his hours are pretty horrendous and he can never be ?off? in his current job. I suspect the DC?s first drawings of Daddy will show him with blackberry in hand.

I guess it is a nature of the job I do but the other people I know that I would be reasonably sure earn £100k+ generally do mid-senior professional service jobs in the city (lawyers, accountants, actuaries etc), work in financial services (bankers, traders, hedge funds) or work in senior management in large companies.

I think careers advice is very important and when I was at school I think there was little focus on it. My parents did OK but there had been a lot of poverty in my wider family within living memory and so I always wanted to ensure that whatever I did paid well so I could take care of myself. So I worked very hard at school to get into a top university, worked hard there and paid a lot of attention to career options (careers advice at my university was excellent and they were used to people going off into high achieving professions). I then worked very hard for a number of years at my law firm to get myself to a good position where I had options. DH has also worked extremely hard and has had to be strategic to get where he is today. I certainly don?t suggest for one minutes that the top earners have the monopoly on hard work but neither did mine and DH?s jobs fall into our laps. Very few positions paying £100k or above can be obtained without much hard graft, talent, sacrifices and many years work.

I am so glad I started this thread! It's really interesting to hear about people's careers. It seems overall that Law and finance are the big payers. I'm so jealous!!
You all work very hard and tbh I don't think I could hack the pressure.

How much do pharmacists earn? Science was always my strong point, I studied the sciences at A Level.

Since having kids, I always thought Pharmacist would be a great job for a working mum as it can be organised flexibly.

But I think training will be a long slog.

Depends how many working years you have left to take advantage of the re-training

No dentists so far but I have worked with some and if you can build up and own a lot of dental practices you can make a lot of money.

I suspect the mumsnet doctors are too busy ministering to the sick to post on this page too.

I have worked with people who are pharmacists and seen some buying adn selling of pharmacies. The money will come when you own quite a few pharmacies - in other words it is ownership of the business which makes the real money (as it does in most sectors).

I was not suggesting boys do not need career advice. I have sons of my own. I just meant as this is a site for women and so many women end up in dross jobs earning nothing because big earning husband comes first in all things and then they regret later the career sacrifice that there is a specific issue for girls. There will not be many young lads on mumsnet needing careers advice I suspect.

Very few earn a lot without a lot of hard work (unless they just marry someone rich or inherit in which case they are not earning anyway). No one here who earns a lot has said they never at least had a longish spell of very hard work. i certainly have and would say in year 28 or is it 29 of working life (I started at 21) that I have always worked hard. Those of us who tend to do well are usually the ones who are quite committed to work and I think also ultimately enjoy it. Pick work you enjoy and then it doesn't feel like work.

Sometimes I feel I get paid a lot of money almost to solve cross word puzzles and feel very lucky for that. I enjoy it as much now as when I was 21, more so as now I eat what I kill and it's all mine.

Please don't retrain as a pharmacist. It's a really, really dull job (little more than a shopkeeper) and, as Xenia says, it only makes you interesting money if you have a whole chain of them. My DP employs a lot of pharmacists and the general feeling is one of regret that they didn't try to study something with more career perspectives.

Good point about dentists. Mine is loaded but he has does have multiple practices, really pushes the orthodontics and dabbles in all sorts of dodgy plastic surgery procedures too.

When I was at school you pretty much did have to have the right background or a really supportive one to enter one of "the professions". I think that's changed a lot, thank God.

i think the attitude is still very pervasive.

Which I think is one of the reasons why young people idolise football players and Katy Price and Xfactor finalists. These are people who have 'made it' despite coming from the wrong side of the tracks. You can't say that about too many actuaries can you?

There was a point where things were getting better, where the world seemed to be opening up for disadvantaged youngsters, but with university fees, the ever present internships etc the situation seems to be slipping backwards.

This is one of the reasons I think it's well worth flagging up just how much you can earn in certain positions; it makes it seem worth all the time and money it will take to get there.

CJ2010, what about a food science/technology degree. Is that something that might interest you? It won't put you in the £100k earnings bracket. But starting salaries for graduates are in the £20k-£30k range and longer term give you more opportunities than admin roles.

OK - interesting points here about background. I went to a jolly nice school and pulled down 7 O'levels in 1978. I was not regarded as university material at that time and did a secretarial course and went to finishing school. My family was not professional but land owning so actually nobody had been to university. My grandparents were farmers and my mother was a ballerina with a number of disastrous marriages behind her. My first job was as a secretary to a Eurobond sales desk and from that I became a Eurobond salesman and carved a very successful career for myself starting in 1980 until about 1994 with about 8 years on 100k.

DH was a working class lad who went to an Oxbridge Uni, took a first, served a pupillage and spent the years between about 23 and 40 carving a reputation. He probably couldn't have survived the early years - he was 27 when we met (I was 29) if I hadn't been able to support him to a significant degree and provide the capital for our family home and to allow me to give up work when ds was born to keep the home fires burning and support him totally when he was putting in gruelling hours and needed basic taking care of when he got home.

I was successful because I was sharp, I fitted in, I didn't stand on ceremony, I had a head for figures and was happy to roll with the rough and tumble of trading floor life. But and this is a big but, although I earnt a lot for a period I could not have sustained it in the longer term. There are very few wrinkles on a trading floor. DH on the other hand, with professional qualifications, a huge amount of drive and passion, and support to match probably started earning 6 figures in about 1998 and hung there until about 2005 at which point the rewards rose and have risen ever since. If he keeps it going until 2018 that will be 20 years and I think that is probably quite rare beyond the professions.

In short a lot can a earn a lot but it is often for a limited time. I had the funds to support DH and helped him on his way. It has at times been gruelling. We have done it as a partnership. An awful lot of City success stories came from the East End and were just as successful as me. I don't think my background gave me the edge earnings wise but I think that and my personal financial security gave DH if not the edge a cushion from which to build a reputation in th early years.

'Wisdom really does come with age. If only I knew the what I know now! '

Couldn't agree more. My family's expectations of me were fairly moderate - encouraged to do secretarial work rather than go to University and I just went to an average school. Careers advice was rubbish/pretty non existent.

I've gone on to do quite well despite this because of a strong work ethic but I think things could have worked out quite differently for me if I'd had more support/encouragement from the beginning.

I had pretty much no careers advice even though at a v good private girls school. Being a lawyer wasn't an option. I left to go to uni with mediocre a levels to go along with the mediocre o levels I had. I came out of uni with a mediocre degree also.

But here's whee the story begins. I always believed in financial independence, in paying my own way and never ever bring dependent on another. Money buys freedom.

I work hard, I always have, I love my work. My point is that if you work hard and are committed you can achieve anything. Your only limitation is in your mind.

I agree OneLieIN - hard work is key to success. Also, one of the things I learnt - and wished I'd learnt earlier - is to think about where to devote my efforts i.e. think about the key high profile issues, and not busy oneself with the low level issues.