Which ££££ career for my daughter?!

[HBGKC]

Hi all,

Off the back of all the recent high-salary threads on MN, I thought I'd ask for some suggestions for a job/career for my DD.

She's about to graduate from a Russell Group Uni with (probably) a 2:1 in Biomedical Sciences.

Her top priority is earning potential, particularly in the short-term (ie next 10 years) as she'd also like marriage and kids one day.

She's likely on the 'lighter' end of the autistic spectrum; she's very black-and-white, not what I'd call a people-person! She's professional, but not particularly emotionally aware, IYSWIM.

She did 3 sciences for A-level (not Maths).

She doesn't really mind what she does, so long as it pays well. She is extremely disciplined, self-motivated, organised, reliable, hard-working... in many ways the ideal employee. If she doesn't know how to do something, she'll work it out; in fact, she's independent to a fault!

She wouldn't mind travelling for work if necessary.

Any ideas (or further questions), throw them my way! TIA

Good point. Speaking as someone at the opposite end of the emotional sensitivity scale, I think I'd agree!

If we are talking the biggest and fastest earning potential and considering that she's not a people person - something like a quant role in banking or private equity. Law would work too but she's need to get additional qualifications and without being 'people' she'd only progress so far

I forgot to mention that she's dyslexic... not so much that it holds her back in everyday life, but she wouldn't suit a job that required a lot of fairly high-end writing.

R.e. earning potential OP it's also worth thinking what her ideal life looks like, and with wanting 'marriage and kids'... what does that need? A family friendly job? With remote working? Situated in an area with affordable house prices.
Any job that is niche might tie her to a smaller number of employers. And if it's something heavily based in the capital city (for example finance regulation - not what she wants, but an example) then she'll be locked into the bigger expenses that go with that.

Of course we can't predict the future but at the moment two professionals earning 30K can comfortable afford a 3 bed semi in an 'ok' (not posh) suburb in Manchester. The starting salary for Big4 audit (easiest to get into) is 25K, rising to 30K+ by the time you qualify. You can buy said family home even with someone else earning, say, 25K, pay off a bit and be comfy by the time baby comes along.

In London the starting is 27K and the 'fully qualified' is 40K. Only 10K more than Manchester. Of course, being London once qualified there are a lot of more lucrative opportunities but because of the house price disparity unless you have family help you need to be constantly on the grind to afford a 3 bed terrace with a decent commute to London. You 'top out' at 80K-100K in Manchester. But that buys you a lot more than 150K+ in London especially because of the increase in income tax above the 100K mark. Of course it depends on what you define as 'quality of life'.

My undergraduate was in Finance, I couldn't have coped with that so I left for Manchester. With my skills I can always go back. It would have been harder the other way around. I did think of taking up my audit graduate offers but ultimately my ADHD side always needs something new :) so that wouldn't have worked either

This. I’m on £120k ten years after graduating, living and working in the North.

Plenty of opportunity for technically minded people rather than those with people oriented skill set.

With no A-Level maths (and I'm guessing Biomedical Science isn't maths heavy) quant roles would not suit.

Pharmaceutical or investment banking is where the big money is. Anything in stats, policy or marketing.

I absolutely agree, but I think we underestimate just how daunted our children's generation (I'm 42) feel about the cost of living in their future; house prices, rental costs, child-care, transport, food...

My almost 21-year-old and my 18-year-old both hold fairly apocalyptic views on their future prospects. Owning any kind of home in London (where we and 95% of our large extended family live) seems to be completely unattainable.

Hence my eldest being very hard-nosed about maximising her earning capacity as much as she can, to have a chance of the kind of life she'd like (admittedly, I think it's madness she's hoping to afford private secondary school for her kids but...🤷🏻)

Ah, I cross-posted with you, @ChristineCricket.

Sorry, @ConstanceContraire!

Thank you for the link, @beeskipa, and for all the continuing suggestions, everyone!

Pharma is where I’d look if she picked her degree based on her interests.

Truthfully, if you find what you enjoy, you tend to become good at it and it follows you normally get paid well. I’m an accountant who sits a middle office role at a bank. I’m very good at what I do because I enjoy it. I’m paid well because I’m good.

I don’t have A’Level maths but I have an economics degree which was maths heavy. It was tough but I covered maths and further maths A’Level in my first year of university. Post graduation I’ve continued to build on my maths and tech skills.

She has probably missed the boat this year for a lot of the graduate requirement schemes.

Once she has identified an area could she do a masters for a year which is relevant? Graduate scheme recruitment starts early in the academic year so she would need to be ready to apply.

Not science
However I wouldn't change it for anything. Love the job, it's just not well paid.

Has she considered a railway career? If you’re in London she would have the TFL graduate scheme available to her, or she could apply for a role and work her way up the grades. Something like signalling could be a good fit, or something in the area of rolling stock (I am upskilling to become a rolling stock instructor and it’s all diagrams and practical demonstrations of fault handling and train equipment). It’s a field where compliance to rules is the main thing, communication important but quite rigid and to a protocol.

At the moment I think TFL are recruiting apprentices so she would probably want to hang on until they advertise the graduate roles, but if you take a look on the website at the apprenticeships this could give you an idea of the wide variety of roles to move into once you join the railway. For example, there is an apprenticeship on there to join the team who design new signalling systems. Definitely worth a look, plus it’s very ND friendly and they are desperate for more women to apply.

No worries!

Yes, I do understand the drive.

I think also when you're young, and ready to take on the world. You don't quite understand just how soul-destroying something that doesn't suit you is. I was able to do quite a bit of internships etc at uni, that made me realise another path suited better.

I always tell my juniors - don't aim to find a job that you 'enjoy'. For 2 reasons:
a) A large part of 'enjoyment' is your work environment. That can change. In the same company I went through 3 different bosses. The first 2 were terrible and made me so stressed, the 3rd was lovely, a real mentor and made me the engineer I am today ;)

b) Jobs can change... in the world we are now the pace is rapid. And to get ahead you cannot just do your job. You need to be thinking of the next move, how you position yourself. Change is global.

My advice is work you : what you HATE, what you can TOLERATE, what you ENJOY. As long as the job has a reasonable balance of all 3 then you are set.

Me personally I am a flight risk. I do not like to be tied to one employer. So I needed something omnipresent. Depending on my mood I either want to hyperfocus on my code and talk to nobody, or I want to talk to even a wall. But about technical stuff.

The downsides of my job are that 'building your own career path', I don't like networking and small talk but I find ways to work for me. I remember a very senior engineering manager at Facebook, she said 'you do not have to talk to everyone in the room. You only need key people'. So I focus on building strong relationships with a smaller number of people, get my reputation out by advising other teams, doing good work and sharing my knowledge instead of showboating and trying to win all the 'diversity' awards going. I can work out as well, politically in a role, what I should be doing and how much. It isn't easy for me, but I manage and lead a team.

Also you do need to keep your finger on the pulse, things change a lot but again I was lucky to have a good boss that helped me with foundations so I know how to tweak my mental map.

*not work you sorry. Understand yourself

Is it @SeasonFinale ?

I looked into law conversion and the general consensus is that unless you get picked up by a city firm, there are big risks in terms of unemployment/poor financial prospects

The biggest careers & best paid will be in tech & ai.
She could do a masters in info studies.
Big data is where the big bucks will be.

Is she good at IT? Building computer models, coding and stress testing them is a pretty solitary job that pays well.

This was my first thought too

Hey, in BioTech we are proper addicted to PhD's as differentiators to head to the big salaries quicker. I am in Operations (COO) and have a PhD and earn £150k but took a little longer than 10 years because of the PhD.
Best of luck!

Lots of people are warning against choosing a job based on earning potential but I know plenty of people who hate their low paid job. I think it is easier to be happy in a role if it is providing the lifestyle you want.

@DancesWithFelines yes, I have mentioned TFL to her... I shall do so again.

Did she do any internships or work placements while at uni?
These can give you an idea of what a particular job/employer is like but Leo give lots of skills and experiences to refer to when applying for grad schemes.