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 know loads I think. So some through work of course - the rest of the exec team are all on that and some of the layer below. One school friend is on more than that - she's in marketing. A couple of my cousins are I think looking at their jobs. There are a couple of other mums at the school (state but in a quite affluent area) who I think would be there or thereabouts - one is head of HR for a large retail group so she must be. There are a couple of lawyers who might be. I don't know what most of the dads do but I expect there will be some working dads doing well for themselves!

I just don't find it totally outlandish really. It's not common but it's not some sort of impossible dream. Just being competent and wanting to progress is a great start. People I meet in real life are often very surprised by what I do though so I don't seem to give off a successful vibe.

Spot on
I have first hand experience of the impact of good teachers, thank you

I think the first thing you need to ask yourself is why do you want to earn £200k? What would you do with the money? I used to earn similar but my life was so stressful it destroyed my health and many relationships as I had no control over the hours I worked and was never "off".

In my experience, high earners end up spending so much of their disposable income to make up for the stressful life e.g. luxury holidays, spa treatments, or need to spend it to cope with daily life eg a live-in nanny, taxis, expensive pre-prepared food, personal trainer.

I swapped this life for working PT and a 75% pay cut and have never been happier. I buy clothes from Vinted instead of designers, enjoy making healthy food from scratch, have the leisure time to go for walks, play piano, go the gym, be around to support my kids, read books, make bread etc. My life is definitely richer now even though my bank balance isn't!

I'm not thread police so feel free to ignore me but could we try to avoid second hand tales from husbands about terribly impossible and rarified it is to earn well? It's not really very useful to the OP.

This is an interesting thread. Not many people have mentioned things like class, geography, and connections. Here’s my tips to earn big bucks:

1. Be born in the SE of England to upper middle class parents who can afford to give you a top private education
2. Make sure you go to university at one of the top universities, e.g. Oxford, Cambridge or at the very least a Russell Group uni
3. Choose a degree like medicine, law, computer science or at the very least a business type degree.
4. Make sure your degree has a year of work experience at a top firm included
5. Have a plummy accent (not difficult if you’ve had a private education) and make friends/connections with wealthy people.
6. Have a face that fits
7. If your parents were high-earning professionals, you’ll also have a head start.

What I’m trying to say is that it is extremely difficult for someone born in to a working class family in certain parts of the country, with a crappy state school education and a degree from an ex-poly in media studies, to walk into a job that will end up (after many years) paying such a substantial salary. No matter how hard you work or how many degrees you have. Maybe some people from working class backgrounds who have struck lucky in building their own business and worked extremely hard may reach this eventually. Someone please prove me wrong and tell us that you did not have any of the above advantages, but you have reached a substantial salary. Even so, sociology would tell me that you are a small minority. Good luck OP.

great post so true

For law, there are now firms that pay nearly £200k for NQs, but it’s hard to overstate how difficult these jobs are to get and I’m afraid that having done something first would likely count against you (it shouldn’t, of course).

In your shoes I’d be thinking about starting a business.

I know a few. But most are medical consultants. One works in computing in relatively niche fields

In-house lawyer. About £300k (depending on share price). I work around a 60 hours week, sometimes longer. I career changed to get here and slogged my guts out. The stress on my relationship in the early days (when we didn't know for sure whether there was even a training contract at the end of it) was immense.

The question is how much risk you want to take, how much you can afford to invest in retraining (including salary cuts as you work your way up from the bottom again) and how hard you're prepared to work.

The majority of people who do law degrees/conversions never qualify as a lawyer (early days for the SQE but I suspect that will mean the majority never get a 'real' lawyer job), and then only a tiny percentage of those actually make the really high salaries. Just working hard won't get you there - there's a large amount of luck, and also people who get there tend to be very academically strong.

What qualifications do you have, and what is your actual work experience? What are you willing to sacrifice?

I know a few successful novelists (like, major literary prize nominated novelists) and none of them are on anywhere near £200k pa! Or at least, I don't think they are considering they haven't given up their lecturing jobs yet.

Likewise @Thequiveringpossum's husband is unusual to be on £200k a year from lecturing and writing income if he's lecturing within a university. The top level professorial band at my institution is £150k, and I suppose some people in some fields might make another £50k from consulting but it would be unusual.

I know a few people who I know/strongly suspect are earning over £200k pa. They are either in law, finance, or high up in tech companies (though not all of them on the technical side - some are in coms, strategy etc.). To follow on from @Existentialistic's comment, we live in the South East, and the people I'm thinking of have Oxbridge and Russel Group educations for the most part, so that's all very true.

I'm in universities and I think some of the senior leadership are probably pushing £200k, and many vice chancellors earn above that. But there's not many of those jobs about!

C suite in a fintech here on £230k base salary, there is also a hefty amount of equity due to being a very early joiner.
12 years of experience in fintech and traditional banks, where I have done a range of roles. Very much a good generalist rather than subject matter expert.

My partner is on £200k and is an in house lawyer(finance).

I agree it's loads harder for some people. This is a very fair post.

I don't have any of them actually - maybe 7. My mum was a nurse and my dad had a sort of middle management job. I was born in Scotland (not a posh bit).

I did my law qualification part time while working as a secretary. My first degree is from an ex poly.

I'm notably unattractive and quite "odd" I have some tics and things.

I'm also old - it's probably harder now in many ways.

I’m not at 200k but I could have been and more, and after having my kids I now work 4 days a week and earn $160,000. I get to drop my girls at school without care and pick up which is a luxury. My ex picks up on Monday and Tuesday again without care. We both prioritise our children rather than money. Yes its a privileged position- I get that

Oh and the risk was joining early(pre series A). I could have easily gone very differently.

What do you mean by "below the level of AI?" I use AI to do 8+ hours of research for me in 10 minutes. Are you saying OP needs to be faster than that?

Great to hear this, I’m doing the same right now and worrying I’ve made a mistake. I’m guessing you have no regrets then?

Most of these roles sacrifice free time and stress.

Rather have lower pay and more fsmily time.

Wow that was a leap 😆

I know a few people/friends who earn that kind of money and more. All bar one, they came from a privileged background. Privately educated, good Uni and a great network.

Director in Tech. Was earning around £250k plus bonuses, until the pressure got too much and as part of the socialising that was expected in the role, got into drugs. Now ended up (after a long stint being sectioned) on benefits in a bedsit. It’s such a sad story.

People Director. Took a risk and went to a start up, with a small salary to start, but bonuses equivalent to the salary each year , which rose massively over a 10 year period. Does a fantastic job and deserves every penny she earns. Started out life in finance and moved over to HR half way through her career.

Solicitor, who now runs his own insolvency company. Has more money than I could shake a stick at. Posh, but very down to earth.

The one who doesn’t come from a privileged background is a Premiership referee. 30 years of hard graft to make it to the top of his game.

You need to retrain in finance but it will be years until you get to that level of income. Partners in Big 4 accountancy firms can earn £350k with bonuses- usual age around 35 having started at 21.

There are graduate schemes that can be open to mature applicants.

Investment banking is the obvious one but you have to sign away your life at the start and have a real skill for it.

I'm on 135k plus bonus (so circa 155k). Lawyer at salaried partner level at a city firm, 23 years qualified but in a department which deals with UK insurance so rates are very low compared to other departments witch deal with global risks. It's too late now for me to change disciplines as I'm hoping to retire in 8-9 years.

But some of our junior lawyers have moved across and are earning 200k. If you can get into the equity partnership it's more than that as you get a share of the profits though you start on a similar figure and build up your share each year provided your book of business is performing well. (If it isn't you are out on your ear, no redundancy pay etc. Once I was over 50 and had developed health problems I decided I was better off remaining an employee. )

Its HARD work though even in my less prestigious department. Lots of very long days, stress and high responsibility. Yesterday I worked 8am to 8.30pm and that isn't terribly unusual. Luckily I love the job. Its definitely not as straightforward as saying "oh I'm just become a lawyer because I want lots of money".

Have you looked at cybersecurity? We had a neighbour who did that for global banks and from his lifestyle i would guess he earned way in excess of 200k. Though he spoke several languages fluently including Russian. Do you have any skills like that? His hours weren't too bad unless something went wrong and then he might need to work 48 hours straight to fix a problem.

They mean at the level where AI would be better than them. So (in law) AI can already do most of the things a trainee can do, and possible better (obviously faster). The trainee isn't yet at the level where they can train/build/manage the AI.

It's a real issue for young people now because obviously there's a need to train the next generation or who is there to train/build/manage the AI. Firms have never really taken on trainees to make short term money, but now they're becoming even less profitable because clients know an AI tool can do the research in 20 minutes.

Then why even bother posting on the thread?

The other things to question is how old are you. What kind of life do you want long term? What will you sacrifice short term? The other thing that women don’t talk about as much as we should are investments and pensions. Consider your financial freedom and what is needed and how to again it. Currently I am earning less and having more time so I can be with aging parents and kids before they have flown the nest completely. I will still retire 15 years earlier than my friend who earns £2000k plus as I have planned for it in a way she hasn’t and want a retirement that can involve leisure and passion projects.

I earn normally > 300K in a sales role. State educated. PhD from a top Uni and a career in STEM for 20 years before switching to sales in STEM. More than tripled my income overnight! Always ‘on’ from the minute I wake to the minute I go to sleep including holidays but there is down time in there too. Fair amount of travelling but husband steps up with the kids. No regrets!