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!

most of the successful people in the law seem to be private school/Oxbridge - even now. I'm not sure a lot has changed over the last 20 years actually.

DH got to Oxbridge via the local comp.

'DH got to Oxbridge via the local comp.'

Yes, a number of my peers did too but their parents undoubtedly had higher expectations of them and maybe they were brighter too. They are always bright kids at school but they don't always get the right encouragement (or have the funds) to realise their ambitions.

I think that depends on what you view as 'successful' BeattieBow. Certainly, most of the colleagues I had in a magic circle firm were Oxbridge graduates (though not all - maybe 80%) but you can earn very decent money in a large regional firm (especially at partner level) and in those firms (or at least, the two that I have worked in) there is more diversity.

Law is popular - so unfortunately firms have their pick of hundreds of candidates for very few jobs. Them's the breaks - it's probably more competitive now than it was 20 years ago. Back in those days, you would expect to be made partner after maybe 3-5 years. Now, it's more like 10 years and even then there's no guarantee as the pyramid is higher and pointier than ever with 'dead men's shoes' being the only option for partnership in many teams and ever-increasing layers of seniority being introduced to make the partnership track harder and longer by the day.

Soooooooo happy that I'm not a lawyer any more!

I'm a lawyer, I have an Oxbridge degree but a 'common' background (brought up in a council house, went to the local comp etc). My parents however brought me up to believe you could get anywhere you wanted simply by being clever and working hard (if only that were true...)

I've found in life my degree has actually counted for a lot less than where I was brought up and went to school, and who I knew, or rather didn't know. Lots of my peers had degrees from lesser unis but the right look & connections. Law firms (particularly in London) are astonishingly oldschool even now - I may be a bloody good lawyer with good academics but that will never overcome the fact that I'm a bit of a chav. Hence my career has never progressed and despite years of hard work I'm never going to earn anywhere near £100k per annum.

and of course I'm not bitter at all...

That reminds me hatesponge of the time a few weeks after I first walked the hallowed corridors of a magic that a partner asked me where I was from, then when I told her she smiled sympathetically and said, 'oh well, but you don't sound like you're from Liverpool' !!!! I was but she genuinely meant it as a compliment. It's mind-boggling.

Years later, I was on a call with a lawyer from another firm on a deal (top 20 firm, but not a magic) and he had a very obvious scouse accent. I asked him where he was from and he was quite gruff and shirty when he told me, but softened when I said 'yeah me too'. It's not the done thing to talk like Lily Savage in such circles! I was born in the same hospital as Paul O'Grady as it happens....

What I didn't want to say explicitly hatesponge was that I'm not sure DH would have been quite as successful as he is if he had married a working class lass from back to backs. I think it has helped that I can walk into a room and be completely at ease from the aristocracy down to chavsville and a bit of that has rubbed off on DH. 20 years ago he wouldn't have had the confidence to invite McToff for drinks but I have been able to act as his foil for that stuff and make him realise he is every bit as good as them in every way. Nowadays he is welcome for his expertise and reputation and for the fact that he known as a very moral and decent sort of cove of course.

I think it is possible to earn 100K plus working for an international organisation, and not have a job that is terribly demanding. Admin jobs pay around 50K, I think. But you might have to move country, unless you can pick up something at one of the int orgs based in London.

Dh was inspired to apply to Oxbridge from a pretty shit Comprehensive because of the influence of a teacher, a teacher who had been to an Oxbridge University and convinced dh that he had what it took to apply and he coached him through the process. His parents were very much hands off.

I'm from Essex, though I don't talk like one of the TOWIE cast (in fact I've been told I'm quite well spoken for someone from Romford... bit like the Liverpool comment you received emsyj) I do dress in a non lawyery way, have 2 DC by different dads (neither of whom I was married to), swear and just don't look the part.

I think sometimes it's easier for men to fit in and get on though irrespective of background. My dad left school at 14, educated himself, was a bit of a wide boy/spiv, made and then lost a lot of dodgy money and spent most of the 1960s knocking around in casinos with the likes of John Aspinall, James Goldsmith & other high rollers of the day. He thought I could do anything and be whatever I wanted to be :) I'm disappointed more for his memory than for me that I haven't got further in my career!

Bonsoir I have to state that as a pharmacist I AM NOT A SHOP KEEPER!!! As a hospital pharmacist I work a a member of the clinical team based on the ward, with the patients optimising prescribing, not shop keeping! Rant over . Earn 46K but takes years to get there and more study, pretty much top wack for most hospital pharmacists unless you manage the department and then could be 80K.

Oh no, I am not a lawyer. My point was that I wanted to be a lawyer and wasn't encouraged to do so or even made to believe it was really possible. I had these high hopes and no-one encouraged me to aim high.

My point was that you can aim high and get there with hard work and commitment.

pipsy shopkeeper? Never!

CJ2010 Thank you for starting the thread. It has been the most interesting thread I've read on MN for ages (namechanged for this thread, but then decided not to post my story). It's all been food for thought... I hope you find something that works for you.

I find the comments about lack of encouragement interesting and sad. I now count myself lucky in that my parents always drummed into my siblings and I that with hard work at school and uni, and choosing the right career, that we were capable of achieving anything we wanted and doing well financially. Not sure whether this counts as "reverse sexism" but my dad didn't want any of his girls doing creative/traditional female subjects so we all ended up doing sciences and going into male dominated fields. My siblings and I are the first generation in our family to go to university but we certainly grew up knowing that this is what was expected of us. Losing our childhood home meant that we each craved financial security and ended up being drawn towards more lucrative careers.

It just never occured to me that I wouldn't get to the top of my chosen profession because dad always drummed into each of us that we were just as good as any boy/man but that it wasn't a fair world and so we might have to work harder to show it.

I'm 44 now. When I was recruited post-University and college, the intake was roughly 50:50, and it has remained so for decades. Yet I am the only female (non-equity) partner in my team, and in the wider firm, the women at partner level represent less than 10%. The vast majority of women drop out of my sort of career.

So it's not simply about encouragement to get the grades, and making it to entry-level. It's about perseverence and grinding out the hours in your twenties and thirties, and taking the occasional disappointments stoically. And finding good childcare and being able to afford it ... And having someone by your side who doesn't mind being cancelled umpteen times because the blackberry's abuzz :)

(And also if you marry a richer husband then many women who might earn £100k become Mrs Pin Money who is saddled with cleaning the house and childcare as Mr Wonderful earns the bigger buck - marry lower and you will be Mrs Big Bucks compared to him and he can clean your toilets for you).

On class/accent - I agree that success is not just hard work and working smart, not just hard but also luck and a heap of other things and certainly as someone said above how you dress and accent etc. However you can change your accent and class and dress. It's not that hard. Look at the black barrister who was abused as a child and inspired by Michael Mansfield or many many other people. Plenty choose to change how they speak and dress, adopt hobbies that gives them something in common with the people both with whom they work and whom they advise and that is also part of getting on and succeeding in many careers and is a lot easier in some ways than passing exams and just as important.

Getting your chidlren not to say haitch but aitch etc. Lots we can all do to help children in careers which require standard English, good spelling, appropriate hobbies, ability to get on with all people confidence etc etc

PMSL at "appropriate hobbies"

Arf!

In some (thankfully now few) careers, accents and hobbies matter.

I've been doing some sessions with the paralegals, who are all applying for training contracts. One of them has applied for the last three years in a row. She will not get in again this year, despite being incredibly hard-working and committed. There are three reasons for this. The first is that her A levels just aren't good enough, the second is that she presents herself badly (dyed blonde hair, wrong sort of clothes, bit too mouthy, slightly overweight) and the third is her accent.

Before you all start shouting at me, I have zero responsibility for interviewing for training contracts but I can just see why she isn't getting in.

If her name was Cassandra, she was tall and slim and well-dressed and well spoken, AND had the requisite grades and spent her winters ski-ing, she'd just waltz in. The world's a bit nuts like that.

Quattro - that's really interesting. Have you told her this? If you tell her, she can make her mind up whether or not she wants to play the game, but if she doesn't know it's the external stuff that matters, she might not work it out, if it's not important to her.

I earned peanuts most of my life and have only recently started earning good money, by working for myself. Work out what you do well that others don't. Do it where there's a need for it. Don't underprice your work. When you are experienced, put up your price a little. Keep an eye out for new clients and contacts at all times and don't be shy to approach them nicely (not talking about hard sell at a dinner party, more, if you chat and they mention something relevant, let them have your web address.) Work out what you want to earn, how many hours you want to work, where or how, in your field of work you can earn that amount for those hours, and do it. I love working for myself. It's made me happier than any employment, even work I loved.

Quattro, it's true. Absent my Oxbridge degree I would never have got a training contract, or I would certainly have struggled in a way that my Jaeger and pearls wearing contemporaries did not.

What annoys me more than the fact this stuff still matters in 2011, is the fact it ONLY really matters if you're a woman. Men can get away with regional accents, being 'bolshy' (in a man it's seen as character etc), dressing or acting differently from the norm, and these issues don't hinder their career progression - or if they do, not to the same extent as for a woman.

I know, racingheart. I considered having an open and honest conversation with her about the probability of her getting a training contract. Which is vanishingly low. One of the three factors could be excused, especially if you'd got a first from a good university or a prize at LPC or done something (anything) to make an interviewer think there's more to this candidate than meets the eye. But taking all three together? Natch. It's not going to happen.

The problem is though, that whilst we provide feedback from interviews, it's frequently not honest enough. It's all coded. In a way it's up to the candidates to decode the message. So it's sort of up to her to work out that she's been turned down repeatedly and for her to work out why. In a way, the fact that she's kept going this long, almost vindicates the decision not to give her a training contract. She's not reading the tealeaves.

It's hard for young 'uns nowadays. Much harder than it was in my day.

or even 2012

:) I think you might be right about this stuff mattering more if you are a woman. Oddly, I hadn't thought about that before now.

Yes, but we are saying the qualifications are the key thing too. No matter how posh and with the right hobbies you are you cannot even electronically on the websites submit the application unless you have enough UCAS points. It is one of the fairer careers compared say with journalism where contacts seem to matter most. Also that girl could change her accent and clothes and if she really isn't clever enough then none of us want her do we? We don't want a career besmirched by the thick.The UK average IQ is 100 and many children half don't achieve A - c in 5 GCSEs. We are not saying they should all be let into the professions. Plenty of girls from bad comps get AAA in A levels. A good few from rough backgrounds then get into oxford. Plenty then play the game you need to play (which is basically just getting on with other people of all types you might come across) and do fine.

One of my children is doing an application today so this is all very relevant here too, You don't need a very high IQ to go and look at what people wear and how they talk at the place you want to work whether that's the local bus station or the accountancy practice in the City.

In my day I made 110 applications despite being top fo my university year. I don't accept it is harder today. I think it's always fluctuated depending on whether we're in a recession or not at the relevant time and good jobs will be hard to get. Jobs anyone can do like cleaning will always be easier to get into.