What jobs do people have that pay £200k+?

[Diamondpearl123]

I am thinking about making a career change to earn more (aiming for £200k +) but would like to understand what types of roles I should aim for and whether they are realistic for me. Grateful to understand people’s experiences and hopefully start a good discussion. Some questions below. Thank you

• What is your job?
• What is your salary?
• How many years into your career are you?
• What are the key qualifications/experience for the role?
• What hours do you work?

I did, thanl=ks!

@Papyrophile I am so pleased that successful women are crowing. Men do, why shouldn't we?

No they don't.

Most men under 40 earn fuck all and have no hope for future career prospects, or ever becoming anything more than a basic rate tax payer.

The job market has gone to shit now too. Each job has over 100 applicants as people are now using AI to spit out applications for any and every job.

That's why support for Reform is skyrocketing among young men. Labour and Conservatives have been unable to provide hopes and dreams for people to aspire to. The sad thing is that it actually takes very little to make men happy; all men really want is a committed relationship, a family, a job, and a home.

100% the flexibility comes much later on having worked stupid hours and had no life much earlier in your career!

Yes absolutely we should be asking! And don’t let people knock you op! I have a few smarts but i come from a v working class background. I had no idea what people could earn working for a corporate in quite normal white collar jobs.

Noone in my family before me had been to uni or even gone to school past age 15 and I grew up in a deprived town - where 25k is pretty good going. Until recently I thought 70k was an insanely high salary - although it is v good. I just didn’t have the cultural capital to know what might be possible and that there are quite a lot of people who earn that much and they are not all genius/CEO types.

Actually if you are in London or are in the right field or business 200k isn’t as out of reach as you may think. You will have to work hard and it will probably be v stressful but you don’t necessarily have to lawyer, private doctor or finance person to achieve. Take a look at Glassdoor.
Disclaimer I earn a v good wage but not 200k but I can now see a potential path to it.

I don't think you have met my DS!

Money is the route of all evil...... its sad that you feel this way tbh!

I agree. My friends who are high earners have a much worse quality of life than the middle earners. Low earners have it tough, on the other hand. £200k would not be a target that I would want to pursue. Above a certain level, money does not bring about a full and contented life.

Not a vet.
35 years experience and salary maxed out at 60k no with contractual sick pay and minimum employer pension contributions.
If I were to train again I’d be an engineer.

Not my job! i went to uni raised to children and have a professional job as a surveyor and i still have to survive with universal credit!
seems all upside down.
wish you luck in your job search x

I've always been extremely driven - not aimed for a specific salary but got to the number you mention including bonus about 2 years ago. I'm 48. Degree in Psychology and an MBA. Worked as a management consultant crazy hours, then programme manager various industries and settled in HR high up in strategy and operations. I've worked my backside off to get here. I now have freedom and sometimes crazy hours and stress, sometimes an easy week. I don't love it. Corporate greed is ugly and I feel like I make money for others. I was the happiest I ever was when I earnt 25k - honestly .find something fulfilling. Many of us are trapped as you adjust your life accordingly and untangling it to go back to more general salaries becomes harder although I appreciate at this level more options exist

well there are some people who miss a lot of children’s life, but there is a lot of flexibility in many roles nowadays where I can do most of school pick ups and evenings with kids and maybe do some extra work later in the evening. Other than going fully part time it’s the same as everyone else working full time. And
If I’m working full time I’d rather be paid well than 70% less for the same hours…

Also im an immigrant who lived through lack of social safety net and was pretty poor (not hungry but still precarious situation) so I value financial stability especially when social safety nets are going to shit everywhere

and a lot of work is actually interesting and intellectually stimulating

I work in tech, mostly in Investment Banking, doing anything from business analysis to programme management. I've occasionally earned 200k and have consistently earned over £100k for the past 20 years. I don't do it for the money. I do it because I enjoy it. Some roles (often the most fun) have involved insane hours, others have been 9-5. Some have involved running large teams, in others I've just been an individual contributor.

What industries / sectors have you worked in so far? With your skillset, sliding towards project / programme management could be worth looking at, especially if you enjoy managing change and have experience in sectors where there is a lot of expenditure on consultancy or where technology is having a disruptive impact.

Very few- CEO's of blue chip companies, successful city traders, top corporate lawyers, top actuaries. Very successful investment bankers and hedge fund managers. That's it really it's only a few hundred positions like this even in the City of London.

lol..it's largely nature (genetics) , nurture (environment, upbringing, schooling) and a great deal of luck. So just highlighting a fact. I wonder why this enrages you so much..hmmm

..hopefully you're being sarcastic, or possibly don't have a TV??

Not sure i agree.

Back of fag packet id say there are 5,000 to 15,000 people earning over 200k JUST at big tech (magnificent 7) in london.

Significantly more than a few hundred and thats only a small slice of that pie you just drew.

There is big tech now, these salaries are no longer confined to the City jobs

Lots of roles in the pharma industry once you get to management

True but the vast majority of big tech jobs are in the US or here and in Ireland but taken by US citizens.

Director in health tech. Earned close to £200k last year all in (salary, car allowance, bonus, equity). Work hard but not insanely so. 20 years experience. DH is a lawyer, earns less than half what I do.

My friend is an Estate Agent in an expensive area of London and she earns between 150k - 300k per year depending on how successful that year has been. If the houses are selling for multiple millions, she only needs to make a sale per month to earn the top end of that from commission. But it is all about location, networking, people skills and sales skills. It isn’t an easy market to break into, BUT I don’t think you have to be super academically qualified. She isn’t. She works for herself, following about 15 years with a company earning much less as an employee (but still a decent wage). Good luck.

Op I meet the criteria you've laid out. Started earning £200k+ a few years back (mid forties). It's gone up since but I don't think my career (in a niche industry I've been in since graduating) would be worth going into detail on. I do however think a pp was right in that your skillset should be able to lead you to a COO / COO type role which is where you could earn in the bracket, for the right company. A decent path to that would be to utilise / further your project management skills, lean in towards Transformation, Change and Project Management Office (PMO) roles. These have really come to the fore these last few years and I see more and more of them advertised every day. While tech and AI are the big threats to many roles, the implementation of tech across organisations typically requires some centrally controlled project management, so there's a symbiosis between the two which sound remain for at least a few years while companies play catch up and desperately try to roll out AI and machine learning automations.

I earn just over 200k as a compliance director for a listed company in a tightly regulated sector.

I’ve been in this line of work for around 20 years now during which time salaries have increased significantly due to the demands of global regulation.

I now WFH full time and am able to do school runs etc. I never have to miss a school play or sports day or anything like that.

I work fewer hours now than at any point in my career but I see that as payback for earlier commitment that allowed me to rise through the ranks.

I plan to retire before my DS starts secondary school.

We are talking specifically about London and huge number of big tech jobs here and no, they are not all taken by Americans (or Oxbridge). I work in big tech.
VP roles maybe but we are talking about 200K a year which is at least 2 levels down

You could be me. My hair is beginning to go - mind sharing what you went on to do?!