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!

wordfactory - I spend a lot of time with my DD, and we were both pretty sad at the end of the Christmas holidays. I do really love being there for her and she loves being with me (though she has plenty of activities and other things going on in her life too).

and offshore if we are being pedantic

I didn't have children until my mid 30s when my career was well established and I had reached (in one sense) the top of my profession. I call the shots on when and how I work. As I said up-thread, my kids have 21 meals a day and I usually eat 15 of these meals with them. I miss 6 lunches and suppers (and 3 milk feeds for the baby) when I work in the office. This morning I took the kids out to an activity, we then had lunch at home (which I prepared last night). Dc2 also wanted a breastfeed after that and then played a game with dc1 before retiring into the study to work for the afternoon. I don't leave home till 9am on the days I work and I am back to do bath, stories and milk on those days. On the other day I am not in the office, I will do a different activity with the kids and also have a play date in the morning, again before working in the afternoon at home. This notion that to be a high earner you musnt see your kids is a fiction, both for me and the vast majority of the other high earning women I know.

There is a huge amount of sacrifice involved because you can't have it all and something has to give. The assumption that the "something" is the dcs is very unimaginative and insulting. The "something" is actually "me" time. After the kids go to bed, I tend to do anything between 1 hour or 4 hours of work, and also work early morning before they're up. We spend all our weekend time with the dcs so we don't see much of our childless friends so not much relaxing time. So the reality is that I am shattered but I presume that so is everyone with 2 under 2 especially with poor sleepers. To suggest that I work for "stuff" is both offensive and funny. The latter purely because I don't have any time to spend on myself! Interestingly, this afternoon I will be turning down an opportunity that would probably boost my income by up to 50%. I was momentarily tempted by the challenge and kudos but dh sensibly pointed out that it wasn't worth it unless I wanted to sacrifice more sleep because I certainly wouldn't sacrifice the time with the dc. At no point was the money a factor, I think to assume so is to misunderstand what drives people like me.

I agree that money isn't a motivator beyond a certain point. It can be a demotivator though, can't it? D'you see what I mean? If you are earning what your peers earn, fine. If you are earning less than your peers though? How would you feel then? Undervalued, I suspect.

21 meals a day seems a lot

I know what lawyers in magic circle firms earn, Quattrocento - I was one, remember...? I earned over £100k at 3 PQE thanks to getting almost the top of bonus.

How useful the 'average' is depends on whether it's a mode, median or mean figure - suspect the mode average is closer to £30/40k (for a non-partner). Partnership earnings vary wildly and are not useful - and in any event, they aren't technically 'salary' are they, they're drawings from the partners' own business.

ooops! i

Bonsoir I think that sounds lovely and would like to say the same, but if I'm being scrupulously honest, I am now bored.

I have had DC off for four weeks, and DH was off for almost two. I am desperate to get the house to myself and start on several projects that are really calling me, both domestic and work related. I am craving silence and head space, if that makes sense?

wordfactory - I can relate to the need for headspace and silence . When the DSSs and DP are around I get quite desperate for both (as does DD - she suffers very visibly from an excess of ambient testosterone). DD and I have quite a cosy co-existence, however!

novice is right that few men and women sacrifice children if they earn a lot. In fact it buys you time with them. I am sitting here because now I work for myself in my own house. I have someone hoovering about 3 inches from my door who will then do other cleaning, deal with the washing and put it away. SO instead of having to do that which many housewives (unless they marry rich men) do I don't. So I have more time with the chidlren. 3 of them are here today all day (schools not back) so I have been around, helping with an exam paper. I played the piano to two music practices plus I have earned quite a bit too. This is much more possible when you earn a lot than when you don't.

However the low paid often want to suggest high paid women are unhappy and never see their chidlren and it is simply not so. One of the best indicators of child outcome is family income so arguably the best thing women can do for their chidlren is earn over £100k plus and put them into good schools etc.

I should also say to most people on this thread my older children are early 20s now, one not even that so I have seen the whole outcome from working full time in the city with 3 under 4 to now and indeed helping the older ones decide themselves what they might do. It will always be hard whether you're male or female and whether you're at home or not to have very small chidlren but that is a tiny part of your life even if you have 5 children over 13 years as I did. It is so nice to have work you love (and although yes in part I based my career choice on earnings just like most women on the thread who earn a lot and carry on with it, I do it because I like it as much as for the money).

I don't get jealous of others for some reason so I don't really mind what others earn at all. There will always be someone earning more than you and less.

As for nurses and doctors many many more people can cut the mustard to be nurses than doctors. You need much better A levels etc to be a doctor so obviously the pay reflects that. Yes low paid public sector workers work hard and do good work but that doesn't mean we should all be paid the same. When communist china decided to pay doctors and road sweepers the same it just didn't work.

I've decided to do an Adult Ed course, something finance related. I am a total beginner to this tiopic, so can any of you recommend a particualr course I should start with? TIA

I agree with you Xenia but with two caveats: (1) not all women have the choice to earn a lot - it requires certain characteristics (eg usually an above average brain) and (2) not all women enjoy highly paid work even if they are capable of doing it.

The same applies to men though,. on minipie's points. The average UK IQ if 100 and more children than not don't get 5 good GCSEs. And indeed many in the country would rather do nothing at all actually rather than housework or paid work.

Oh I agree Xenia, the same applies to men.

On (2), there are some aspects of the way society is structured/prejudices which may mean that fathers are more likely to enjoy WOH than mothers are. For example: men are more likely to be brought up thinking that they need career success to feel successful; they are less likely to be made to feel guilty about working instead of being at home; they are more likely to have a SAH wife who takes care of domestic duties leaving them free to enjoy work unencumbered.

But these are all hangovers from a more sexist era. If we can get rid of these there is nothing inherent (IMO) that means men should enjoy WOH more than women.

CJ2010 I don't have any recommendations for you I'm afraid, but I just wanted to wish you luck in whatever you decide. Hopefully someone will be along to give you some more advice soon.

Hi CJ, what's your education background, is there an area of finance you're interested in or would you want to work in? How much time could you commit to studying? I think that would help better advise you. Given in your post you were looking at jobs that pay a lot or have the potential to pay a lot, I think its easy to think, well I will do finance because that pays well, wheras in depends on the qualifications and experience. Think I am not explaining well but hopefully that makes sense! I know someone who was earning 22k 8 years ago. She went on a jobsearch website and saw lots of adverts for SAP programmers. She had no idea what that was, researched it and decided to do a SAP course at night school.

Ah I didn't finish my first post! Damn phone! The person I know is 8 years on now on £80k plus bonus. I expect that in another 3 years she will be on £100k plus bonus. She says that this area is so hot right now and that her firm are looking for people with the SAP certification. She didn't know anything about SAP until she decided to try and find a job that would pay more than the £22k admin job she was doing. Glad to have someone else corroborate this story as its not my field! Anyway, my "advice" to CJ is that if IT could be your thing, then look at SAP programming.

Do you already have a degree? There's a one year course which will give you exemptions from the first 9 actuarial exams (I think, they have changed a bit since I qualified!). Some people I know have then gone on to qualify in a year and a half, although needed another 18 months experience to fully qualify Salary for a newly qualified actuary is in the region of £55k.

Oh and timetoask, I'm very happy with the balance I have in my life. I was made redundant before I went on mat leave with DC2 and had enough of a payout to pay the mortgage for 5 years. The plan was to stay at home for a few years. I was climbing the walls after a year off and really enjoy being back at work. For me working was about more than the money, it was about my mental health.

I wish being a SAHM suited me, but it doesn't. I work part time so I have the mental stimulation of a demanding job and then enjoy my days off with my children all the more. The days I do work, I work 9-5 with the occasional bad week, and an occasional couple of nights away abroad which I really look forward to! I eat dinner with my kids 5 days out of 7. I'm happy with my balance and you're happy with yours.

Different strokes for different folks as they say!

OK Xenia - so, I was a pretty middle of the road upper class girl at 16. Got some decent O'Levels, home county farming background and was expected to marry well rather than work. Did a secretarial course and went to finishing school. Got a secretarial job in an investment bank and worked my way up to Eurobond Salesman. Earnt 100k from about 1986-1994. Had ds at end of 94 and had 8 years at home as a sahm. Supported hugely intellectual ut working class dh to succeed capitally and emotionally. went back to work once youngest settled at school and now earn just under 50k as a professional in the public sector.

Those choices have given dh the support to earn 500k+, me to have priceless years with the dc and forge another career. So, in your book, after 21 years of successful marriage, a first and second career, and two very supported children, I am a failure then am I becaue I decided I had achieved what I personally needed to at 35 and chose to support dh to support far more and then reinvent myself professionally.

I am the wife of a rich man, with a successful career and have two well balanced children who will be able to take advantage of maximum opportunities. But in your book I am a failure because in spite of being capable of very high earnings I looked at the picture in the round and decided to take into account te needs of the entire family rather than just my own?

Well done marriedinwhite. Well said. And well done, you do sound like you have hit the life jackpot! :) I posted a little on the thread but then decided it wasn't worth my while trying to 'argue' my POVs as I have to say, if there is one thing this thread has proven, there are so MANY factors that can contribute to how much one earns, how a family dynamic 'works', what one regards as successful that I believe there is no one solution that is perfect for all.

After all, before we became mothers, do we all truly understood what that constituted and what we were getting into? I certainly didn't! I certainly am still feeling my way round motherhood, career and family. Surely, we do what we think is best for here and now and hope for the best?

It sounds like a jackpot doesn't it, but it was achieved due to hard personal work within a successful partnership, huge compromise and not a little heartbreak. Our second son died a few hours after being born at 27 weeks. I was alone in that labour because dh was in court. I had to "get on with it afterwards" and support dh to grit away in the early days of his career. We could both easily have "cracked" at that time but for each other we kept going and reached beyond the pain threshold. It sounds glib in the post above but it isn't easy and it wasn't easy and many a post on mumsnet about dh doing half and the mum being at home doing a full time job pales into insignificance. Luck does play a part, but so do hard work and perseverance and the notion that we make our own luck.

marriedinwhite Just wanted to say sorry to hear about the loss of your second son. :( I went through a difficult and high-risk pregnancy with DS1 and now I look at him and I daren't think of how I could have lost him. Above everything else, it has made me so, so grateful I have two healthy, beautiful boys, who truly are the joy of our lives. I don't know what will happen in 15, 20 or 30 years' time but I do know that whatever happens, I can live my life knowing I have done my best for myself and my family.