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!

I think you're right xemia it does fluctuate.
There was a period in the eighties when anyone with a 2.1 and no tattoos on their neck could get a training contrct in the city.

Right now they're like gold dust. Fewer contracts (particularly post sooooo many mergers) and far far more applicatnts especially from abroad. DH says at least a quarter of all applicants now are coming from overseas. Some of these candidates are fabulous.

To be in with a shout you need excellent qualifications, but so so much more.

DH earns about 100k, sometimes more in a good year. He works in the music industry.

My best friend works for a big auditing company and earns in excess of 100k.

Loads of DH's friends are big earners, working in music / entertainment / publishing. His two best friends are a builder/surveyor who must take home about £200k a year minimum and the owner of a large chain of estate agents who is a bloody gazillionaire.

Me? I am a lowly paid do-gooder, like most of my friends (teachers, social workers etc).

Btw, Xenia, not all lower-paid professional women end up as 'pin money' wives. I work hard, am self-employed and absolutely LOVE my job. It just so happens, though, that my line of work (helping people, rather than generating cash) isnt highly renumerated.

xenia I agree about qualifications mattering, but only at the point of graduation. The large firm I work for has a grad programme and we regularly turn away people with far better qualifications than I. I work with new graduates who have firsts from some of the best unis plus masters etc.

However once you at on the working ladder, it is possible to not have great qualifications and do very well. Performance at work is far more important than academic once you are in the workplace.

Oneliein that's true up to a point. However, postgrad qualifications count for a lot in my industry, MBAs from good business schools are routinely referred to when discussing candidates for senior management roles, eg, he's run xxxx for 3 years, delivered xyz, and has a Harvard MBA. The MBA on its own isn't worth much, but combine it with stellar performance and good CV and it can be what makes someone stand out from the crowd. Especially in current climes when there are a lot of great candidates for roles. Has to be from a good school though, there are some spectacularly shit MBAs available for purchase to anyone prepared to pay.

"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."

I don't understand why it is considered so reprehensible ("nuts") for polish to matter when recruiting for highly competitive careers. It's not enough to be very clever to succeed in this world - all sorts of personal qualities that are not measured by the school and university examination system have always mattered and always will.

Because if 'polish' means being an Oxbridge graduate who skis, it is just a code for 'old money', perhaps? Or if 'polish' means short, fat, balding oiks are acceptable, but only slender, fragrant 'ladies' get into the old boys club, then it is justa code for 'discrimination against women'? Just a guess.

Cassandra?

I'd like to think women wouldn't discriminate against an unpolished, overweight hardworking sister from Essex. I most certainly would not. If I were Quattro I would be asking the partners why that young woman wasn't being considered for a training contract.

Quattro has said that it's a number of things, if it were just her accent and weight but she was outstanding then Quattro would be advised to ask.

Breeding however shouldn't come into it, because that also means race doesn't it. You don't get very much' old Pakistani money' do you?

There are plenty of highly-polished people in this world who have neither been to Oxbridge nor are from old money. What constitutes polish evolves with time. One of the key features of highly polished young professionals (that give older professionals a serious run for their money) is how well-travelled and multilingual they are.

I earn over six figures as a management consultant in a specialised niche. And I work from home mostly as I am a LP with 2 children. I went to a big comp, worked my way through university then did 15yrs slogging my guts out in my field before I had my kids.

I think the things that made the difference for me is that I have always had bags of confidence, even has a child. I worked like a demon for years and I hate to say it, am pretty good in the area I fell into on graduation. Interestingly, everyone I worked with always assumed that I was a public school girl, although I have never made any secret of my background (but I can ski and sail a yacht, as my parents were really adventurous!).

The one thing that my parents gave me through my up bringing was self belief. All my life it never even crossed my mind to find a high earning man to look after me.

I think we'll find the elastamum characteristics are common to many people fromi all backgrounds who do well. I think I'm pretty good at what I do too.

On the wearing the right clothes issue I don't think that's unfair. Also finding things in common to talk about with people you work with will also be good. I felt it helped me to married with a baby at 23 and working full time as the people i worked with and worked for who were senior had much more in common with me in their 30s and 40s than they might with other 23 years olds with nannies and mortgages and babies. YOu find the common ground. If everyone in your industry plays golf you might want to take it up. If they all go to the pool hall on Fridays you might have to do pool or whatever it is for the sector you choose.

If no one will hire your company to do work for it if your staff cannot speak proper English, look physically disgusting and wear ridiculously wrong clothes for the sector concerned then why would you hire someone like that? you might well put up a dress code like UBS did in Switzerland and you might help them wear the right things but you don't have to hire people who won't be able to do the job. Of course if it's 20 computer pgorammers who never wash and are kept in one room programming for 16 hours a day then it may well not matter how they talk or what they wear. Some do it in their dirty pants and little else. Just depends on the sector.

I am as common as they come (see earlier posts) and have never been asked at interview what my hobbies are. I don't think you need to be from 'old money' to succeed in the legal sphere - at least, I haven't ever had any experience that has suggested to me that I would have been less likely to climb the greasy pole at a magic circle law firm than richer/posher colleagues.

BUT you do have to be presentable, i.e. clean, groomed etc. It is, after all, a client-facing job for the most part. The firm has to be happy for you to arrive at a meeting and be their 'face'. I think that's fair enough really.

I am interested to know how all of you with the high flying jobs handle the stress and responsibility that comes with such a high level job? Esp those of you with DC's at home. It must be relentless.

How do you cope with the stress? Are you all calm and 'take it in your stride' types? I think I would end up a burnt out, insomniac! That's not to say, low paying, low level jobs are not stressful, of course they can be! Usually the stress is caused by poor management!

How do you unwind? Drink, exercise, drugs???

A person that is presented well communicates an organised and tidy mind....maybe unfairly, but it's true all the same.

the gender side of the discrimination is terrible but generally, you have to do what you can to fit in, IMO because if you dont understand you have to fit with colleagues, you wont understand you have to fit with clients & it is all about them.

basically the woman above does lack some important insight.

my family is from one of the most deprived areas around Liverpool (makes the country's top ten, my dad grew up with holes in his shoes, as his dad drank too much... dah de dah). i was the first person in my extended family to get a degree or even A levels. my brother is the only other one to do so & it will be like this for a long time....

i sound like a posh Southerner because my mum thought it was important for us to 'speak properly' (her phrase not mine). i have also raced yachts against olympians (& lost!). i dont hide my family background & definitely can be rough around the edges when i let my hair down...

should it matter? of course not, but the way i see it is this: someone is going to be the person, who had the same start start in life as you, who made it to the top of the tree. that person might as well be you.

I think Xenia has a point. How you present yourself matters.

A while back I was retained by a large organisation to coach talented young managers. Even though I am a strategist, I have several times sat young women and men down and talked to them about their image. Including how they dress and present themselves. Mostly their line managers were terrified of doing this.

One woman I coached was very talented but looked like Bet Lynch, lots of cleavage and very short tight skirts. I remeber telling her that in terms of what it was doing for her career her look was no better than the bloke in the scruffy suit and dirty tie. We did some work together identifying her female role models and what it was about them that made them successful. Then gradually she evolved and toned down her look from brassy to smart. It made a massive difference to how she was perceived.

Another woman had no confidence in public speaking, a real problem with a senior manager. So I hired her a theatrical coach, to help her deal with her stage fright and build her confidence.

It might not seem fair to have to do this, but organisations hire and promote people that fit in.

On the stress side it is relentless. I am juggling my family responsibilites and my job day in day out. But I try to stay off the alcohol, walk my dogs every day, put my work down in the evenings and get at least 7hrs sleep a night. However, compared to most people I know I have a massive tolerance for stress, it takes a lot to wind me up.

Re: the stress issue, I quite like, and work better with, a large workload and some degree of pressure. Possibly because I'm quite lazy and I need to feel that I have more to do than I can comfortably get done to motivate me to make a start.

I didn't ever do that job with children though - a large part of my leaving the law altogether is that I want to be flexible and I always had this bee in my bonnet about being the person to drop off and pick up DD at school and this would be impossible in my previous area of work (although there are some practice areas and some firms where it maybe, just maybe, could be done).

My take on it is that you are either a high-stress person or you're not. If you are naturally a worrier and you take work home and lie awake thinking about it, you'll do that whether you work in a shop, a hospital, a law firm, a school... If you find it quite easy to switch off (as I do) and you do a job that isn't life or death and you recognise that it isn't life or death, you will find it easier. I did have times when it was stressful, but for the most part I didn't feel stressed and I didn't go home and worry about work.

Quite how you balance it with children is another matter and that's for others to comment on.

I would recommend IT, or project management.
Out of all of the high earners I have met, this would seem the one with the most work/life balance, 9-5. Obviously depending on co.
£500 a day is usual for IT, banking consultants, analysts. £1000 a day for specialist systems.

Yes there is the job security aspect, but businesses will always need computers

I started as a temp on £7 an hour, straight out of University( completely unrelated subject)
was just very keen and eager to learn anything, and had a talent for numbers and systems and quick thinker

Ah, you say that lostboysfallin but my DH is in IT and most of his role is project management and he is hugely stressed all the time. He's just a naturally stressed person. I think 90% of it is down to your personality and not the job.

Stress - it's much less now 20+ years in than in my 20s with no power and no in charge and working for others.

I have always managed stress very well really. People give me things because I just cope. I think it's a personality thing. You don't sweat the small stuff. You don't worry. You just get on with things and don't fuss. It is more stressful up all night and then all day minding 3 children under 5 than anything I have ever done over 20 years in my job.

I don't smoke. I don't drink. I only eat good foods. I am reasonably slim. I get as much sleep as I can ever get - usually at the moment 8 hours a night. (I don't have babies now) I own the business. I work as and when I want which is often very long hours but it's not particularly stressful.

I do think that emotional robustness, coping attitude, worth ethic, carrying on in the face of all problems, are characteristics just as important as brains and the other stuff on the thread. You can be very bright but cry at the drop of a hat or make a massive fuss over your pregnancy or off sick as soon as you have a single sniffle. You tend not to do too well if that's your personality type.

ems above wrote about being easy to swtich off. Same here. A lady interviwed me who was going round interviewing successful women. She said one thing she'd found with us all was that - that we could switch off - say yes we did a "good enough job" at work and with the children. Pragmatists not perfectionists.

This thread has been such an interesting read, and I had no idea there were so many lawyers on MN.

My dh started on £13,000 in the mid 90's doing IT in a bank. He had graduated in physics and then did a 3 month IT programming course almost straight from uni. The course was expensive but guaranteed a job at the end. He has worked his way up through various jobs and is now earning well over £100k. With bonus it is nearer £200k, but he does work for a finance company in central London. They expect a lot from their employees, but they renumerate well in return. I seriously doubt he suffers any more stress than a nurse in a&e though.

We met at Uni, and I was on a similar wage to him to start with. But his career accelerated at a very fast rate, while I was getting pay rises of around £500 a year. When we had children it made sense for me to do the traditional housewife bit, and him to earn the money. We're happy, but I understand this will offend Xenia and Angel! Oh well.

My dh has worked hard, is ambitious, is very good at company politics, has a face that fits and has had a lot of good luck. He is extremely good at interviews which helps!

Re stress, xenia is right when she talks about the off switch. I have times when I find it hard t switch off, but in general, I compartmentalise my life really well, and when I leave the office or turn off my laptop for the night, I'm done and don't give it another thought.

I am also super organised, at work, at home, in everything I do. Everything that is just functional has a place and a routine, so DDs sports kit is bagged up for the week on a Sunday night, 5 days on her pegrail waiting to be picked up in the morning. I know exactly how long every household job takes so I can fit them in when I have 5 mins before leaving for work. I take a similar approach to routine stuff at work, allowing me time and space to sweat the big stuff.

Im also a master delegator and have great home help. Both of these help, the latter is very important when you have no family support.