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!

funnys I am pretty much in the same position. We both work flexibly. We have a live in au pair, but that's it. She makes tea and does what the nursery used to do when they were younger. Apart from that, it's just us, both of us, in it together.

I count myself eternally lucky to have the job I do. The pay is fabulous, I don't need to bring any work at all home with me, academic qualifications beyond A-levels aren't needed and the work is as flexible as you could ever want it to be. I don't earn £100k, but that is only because I have chosen to work just 8-10 days a month. Many of those days are actually night shifts, so I spend an average of about 6 days a month away from my kids. Of those 6 days I am away from home, I get to spend 4 of them in plush hotels in some of the best locations in the world, recharging my batteries and having lie ins.

The downside to the job is when it gets complicated - it can be a lonely place to work when you are sitting 6 miles above Africa in a tropical thunderstorm so violent your engine management system stops working, for example. The weather on Wednesday night this week was not so much fun either. There's much more to the job than just pressing the autopilot button, although many of my husband's friends seem to think that's all I do! (Weirdly, the 'bigger' the job they do, the more they want to belittle mine.)

FWIW, I'm ginger too, and from a northern working class background. I don't need to worry about presentation at work, as they give me a uniform and then lock me in a bullet proof box! I figure as long as I wear my hat and jacket in public I'll be OK on that front.

No! I'd be going up a bit higher than 6 miles if I were. I avoid the 'P' word so that certain people who I know who might be nosey might find it harder to find me, iyswim.

Backinthebox, it sounds fantastic. Roughly how many women are in this field now, would you say?

I must say, when I was choosing my A levels/degree/career it never occurred to me to follow such an ambitious career path, especially in such a male dominated field. I have often wondered why this was - reading posts by so many high achieving women on this thread has made me think. I really don't think I did get good career advice, and I went to a very good school. I was a very hippy-dippy student type though, so I suppose you can't change your personality! I must admit I'm pretty happy with my life though.

I'm going to make sure my sons and particularly my daughter are aware of their career options though.

Funnys, if they are equity partners in global law firms, they are not earning £500k between them. They are going to be earning close to £1m each.

SweetLilyTea, about 270 women, just over 150 of them are where I work. When I joined there were fewer than 100 women doing it, but I've flown with plenty of other women in recent years, and on a couple of occasions even had a full female 3 man [sic] crew.

at full female 3 man (sic) crew!

I'm a nervous flyer (until I've had some alcohol) so maybe not the career for me.

Xenia - "I suspect the mumsnet doctors are too busy... to post on this thread" - actually have been following it with interest!

However, in spite of 4 A levels, a science degree, medical degree, post grad specialist diploma, 11 years post grad training and currently in my 4th year as a consultant - working full time (always have) - I am not on 100k a year and unlikely to be for some time. Including a relatively good private practice.

In reality - and in spite of what the DM would have people believe - very few of us are.

Ah yes. Some are but you're right on the whole.
(My daughter's school friend went off to become a pilot - I imagine she's qualified now.)

I would say work for yourself ultimately if you can. That gives you the capacity to build up a business (and control your hours and work because you decide things) and most of those who have made huge sums in the UK tend to be those selling (perhaps serially) businesses, not those advising them although I suppose most people who set up businesses don't do very well and many of their advisers on the whole do do fairly well.

Fascinating thread.

In my field, relatively senior jobs are all over 100k (allow me to stay vague, cannot be bothered to namechange). To get to them you need good level experience within the field gained at a place that is well-known for your specialism and to get that experience you need to have trained (and stayed on) at a magic circle (law) firm or one of the big four. In turn, to have trained there, you need good academics (not necessarily UK ones, but from a top place in the country where you studied), drive and "polish".

"Polish" is short-hand for the characteristics that mean your firm will be happy to put you in front of clients: speak and write the relevant languages correctly, have good manners, be at ease in most relevant contexts or know how to look like you are (this includes dressing right for the roles, becoming competent in the likely conversational subjects, etc), etc.

I really do not buy the argument that the above can only be acquired in UK public/private schools or their foreign equivalents: I know plenty of people who are perfect examples of why that is not true. What really does help (and is in my opinion necessary) is drive and being willing to do the research and then mould yourself accordingly.

So, for example, if you are a young non-UK woman working in an environment where most clients are English public school men in their 50s, it helps if you can speak and write English correctly (most foreigners are taught either RP or an American accent anyway), understand English social conventions and observe them, can make conversation about the most recent exhibitions/theatre shows/books and are not completely thrown by cricket references.

If you then move to an environment where the majority of colleagues are loud barrow-boy types, you need to learn additional vocab and widen what you read. Depending on the image you have built up to then and the one you want to project going forward, you might want to learn a new hobby, read an extra newspaper, etc. It is not rocket-science, it just needs some thought.

And of course, as other have said, you need to be prepared to work very long hours (especially in the beginning) and, later on, be available in a way that people in other fields may not even conceive of. When newly qualified, my contemporaries and I worked 100-hour weeks for months or years on end. Now, the longest period I go without checking my blackberry is when I sleep, and my colleagues know that my emails start around 5.30/6am most days. But I enjoy what I do and have found a work-life balance that suits my family and me. And, just like others have said above, I am able to switch off completely in between work spells: I agree with other posters it is essential to do this sort of thing successfully, long-term and happily.

Backinthebox love your thread, outlook and attitude.

Not sure I want to hear the engine management system specifics though.....

Seems the older I grow and the more I fly, the more nervous I'm getting. Doesn't help that I am doing 4 flights a month minimum at the moment.

I've read this with great interest,didn't want to comment, because as someone said a bit ago, it's like a parallell universe,I don't know any body who earns so much, and I can't imagine your worlds.
But my curiosity has got the better of me. Because I am very poor, I do feel naive about lives of great wealth -- how on earth do do you spend it? What does it feel like? That's the aspect I'm interested in.
Also, do you genuinely feel that your work deserves such a great reward?
I struggle to understand how any person really does such difficult work that they can command so much more money than average --- how are these wages decided upon? Surely there's a point at which all your needs and desires are met, so any more money is just ,well,money?
I know this is naive, I'm really not being critical, I would just like some insight into this different world.

Well believe it or not I run at a semi-permanent overdraft. My expenses are large - although it doesn't feel like a particularly lavish lifestyle. I have a lot of help at home which costs, the home itself costs, school-fees, holidays, hobbies for the DCs, cars, clothes, pensions etc.

As to justifying it, well I think the barriers to entry to my profession are high and competition is fierce to get in. Large corporations need the advice, it takes years to learn the stuff and you have to keep current and keep ahead of the youngsters snapping at your heels. I've had literally now decades of 50-60 hour weeks, and I know I surely must be out of a job by 55 (if I'm very lucky).

all you tend to do is up your fixed costs to a level where it costs money to stay still.

100k in london is nothing. couldn't support a heavy mortgage on a 900k house, pay two sets of school fees and have extra.

i knew someone who took home 10 million one year and he felt poor. because his fixed costs were astronmical, and because he compared himself to the yacht rich.

Yes, most find ways to spend it - good cars, frequent holidays, large home, private school fees, designer clothes all round, holiday home perhaps .....

QUattro - could you be happier and better off by stepping off the conveyor? That sounds horrendous.

We both work a little over half a job each so we can share the joy of our four children and share the running of our busy house. We've never paid for child care (apart from occasional evening babysitters). We manage a nice lifestyle incl school fees, a large house and holidays and have money to save at the end of each month. BUT we are fairly modest in the sense that we like to cook (and grow things) so our social life consists of friends for supper here or at friends' houses, we look after our things and have inexpensive hobbies (oil-painting, gardening, cooking and tennis for me and tennis, photography and cycling for DH). When we were working full time we found we were no better off because we just chucked money at everything as we had no time. Being time poor is horrible.

You might well be right MrsJA. Part of the issue is that I'm an adrenaline junkie, and need the constant stimulation of impossible clients with ridiculous deadlines and transactions that have to be completed by whatever date. Part of the issue is that our lifestyle and the DCs lifestyle is so geared now to having an income at a certain level that it's difficult to see how downsizing might work. I think you are right in principle but the time when that might have happened was before the DCs were in secondary school.

I'm lucky in that a lot of my expenses are covered by my employer (accommodation, school fees), which is one of the advantages of taking an overseas posting. So we put a lot of it away, into pensions, investments and savings. Money for our retirement, money for uni funds, first house deposit funds etc.

But it's nice to be able to afford treats when you want them - little things like manicures, good haircuts, good clothes. There are some things Im still tight about - I abhor food waste, and freeze every little bit of leftovers for potluck freezer nights! I live frugally compared to some expats.

Am I worth it? Considering I generate revenue for my company worth many many many times more than I'm paid, I'd say yes. Whether the services my company provides is worth what they charge isn't for me to say.

I don't think of manicures, hairdressers, scent, new clothes, good dentistry etc as being treats, which is possibly a measure of how disconnected I am. They seem to be things that are essential in my workplace, and are just a faff to sort out. Mrs JA hit the nail on the head about time-poverty. My PA is jolly obliging (will nip to Jo Malone and pick up dry cleaning etc) but not even she can go to the hairdressers for me ...