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?

What is your job?

I'm an expert (top 150 globally) on an issue that is of interest to every Govt in the world.

What is your salary?

C. £100k Could be more (see below)

How many years into your career are you?

40

What are the key qualifications/experience for the role?

Being at the forefront of the development of this field for 40 years. Encyclopedic knowledge much of which I helped create including writing the qualifications for this field.

What hours do you work

About 4 hours a day

In my company people who are on £200k+ (apart from VPs, CEO etc) are heads of advertising sales. You don’t need any special qualifications to begin with, just be good at selling advertising to big brands. These people have 20+ years sales experience though and bring in millions in ad revenue

Both my parents came from poor backgrounds. It can be done with determination and hard work. I always say where there is a will there is a way. Of course luck needs to be on your side as well.

My mum is from a developing country and grew up with struggles and war. She never went to University. She managed to find a job that eventually enabled her to escape. In the new country she worked hard. Although, she did not initially make the big bucks, she did earn well and in the end her retirement is the equivalent to someone earning 200k+.

My father was born out of wedlock, which during his time was difficult. Eventually his mother wed and his father was a construction worker. Anyway, he worked hard and got a good job and eventually started his own company. He earned the equivalent of what would be 200k back 30 years ago.

@SamPoodle123 what inspiring parents they must’ve been!

Yes, I’m very proud of them.

While your story is certainly inspiring, and I firmly believe that hard work is essential to progress in life, I disagree that it can be done JUST with determination and hard work. I know plenty of people that have studied (at Russell Group unis) and work hard, but still earn around median UK salary, and will likely never deviate much from that.

I've known some. Mostly self employed/owner directors in construction, media, reinsurance for an international company. A computer anti hacking guy for an international Bank. An American architect. An American realtor. My consultant.

That is why I added the part about luck being on your side.

I don't know if I agree. I came from a solid working class family in the North. Dad was an employed electrician, mum worked parttime in a shop. I went to an average university (not Oxbridge or Russell Group) but got a good degree (first class in Law). I got a graduate job as a trainee chartered accountant and worked hard to get my qualifications and have worked hard since.

I didn't have any of the things on your list that come from being born in the right place or into the right family. It was hard slog all the way. I never quit a job because I got bored or didn't enjoy it. I did study law at uni, but I don't consider that an "advantage". That was a choice I made and I worked hard to get the A-levels to get in, harder when I got there and even harder since I left. I don't think anybody has given me anything.

As a person I'm incredibly shy and I don't make friends easily, but I think I come across as very competent and fairly likeable, so I interview well and once I am in a job I perform well and people trust me to deliver good work. I think that has been the main driver of my career and now I earn over 300k and I could easily earn over 500k if I wanted to, but I don't want the additional pressure.

Vice Chancellor of a University is on 200k and more. You have to do the academic route.

I am in a financial / professional services type business.

Most people I know on this kind of money are in law, finance and consulting.

Yes the expectation is that you are available 24/7, travel, weekday entertaining etc.

I do still have young kids and see them every evening, WFH some days etc.

I am in my mid 30s so it took 10-12 years to get to this point.

I think the very, very vast majority of these kinds of roles are London-based OP, so that’s a good start!

Otherwise I’d say accountancy is a good route to a well paid job, and can be used in a wide range of roles. Go via a training scheme at the big 4 or next tier of accounting firms to get good experience and exposure to opportunities.

The two people I know on this salary are:

CEO of a global tech company ( over 25 years of experience in this field, primary degree in electronic engineering)

Consultant orthopaedic surgeon. Over 25 years experience with established private practice (alongside NHS career). I know the surgeon reasonably well and this took a huge number of years of training, examinations and instability for their family (moving for rotations etc).

Can someone define what 'hard work' means

I work for one of the world’s largest employers as a director for the European (incl UK) arm of one of our functions. It’s an American company so my pay is heavily weighted towards stock (shares) rather than base pay therefore there can be huge volatility in my earnings. I have 20+ years of experience in my field, work 60+ hours per week (incl late evenings due to calls with west coast USA), and travel monthly which eats into my weekends. Job security is nil, and pressure/expectations are high. I find my work challenging and rewarding. I am fortunate to earn what I do, but the stakes are high and so are my stress levels.

For me it was working long hours to help out others (longer hours than I work now!), volunteering for additional work, working above my pay grade at times, asking questions about what the roles above me entailed, learning in my own time, getting my face ‘out there’

But money IS the motivator, for so many people, myself included. There's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be well paid and planning career moves accordingly. Can confirm that both DH and I have made decisions on the basis of money being our motivation and are very happy.

Managing Director in any discipline in a large bank will pay you that

My income is flippy floppy as a self employed consultant 36yrs exp in my field, worked at the most senior level in my fuel for several companies. Bachelor of Science and Master of Laws degrees, two chartership.

The reason it's floppy floppy is day rates vary enormously even for the same job and interim contracts are hard to find so you take what you can. But steady income of £120k, this year £220k, last year £120k, 2 years ago £300k. Generally employees in my field top out at £100k. Sadly now considered too old to land a proper job....

I don't think it's really about just retraining, it takes years of experience, the right approach, a bit of luck with what roles come around and some innate ability/natural skills that only a few people have. You'd probably be looking at;
Senior partner in a top law firm (so yes, you can retrain if you've already got a degree, you can do a conversion, then get a training contract and claw your way up, but it's years and years plus being actually good at it, well respected, working hard and the right role coming up)
Investment banking (again, you need to be really good at it and do well, our friend was in backoffice investment banking and retired at 35 but he had a PhD in mathematical algorithm type things, you can't really train that, you have to basically be a maths genius - he was picked up after completing his phd at an extrenely well regarded uni and bribed by various banks to work for them)
Cto/senior tech roles - you could retrain/get a degree in computer science or similar and go from there, but you have to be good at it, you then have to work through the ranks till CTO comes up which is going to require leadership skills, strategic vision and technological ability
Senior consultant in a medical field in a private hospital (a parent was a private consultant psychiatrist and made about this, you'd need an MD, then to specialise, then to work through the ranks from being a jnr doctor, then get a consultant role and then be brave and commercially astute enough to set up in private practice and attract enoigh private clients at a high enough rate - so you have to actually be good, get a good reputation and be liked by clients - these are innate skills and attributes plus hard work for years)
Business consultant with a niche skill set (dh is on 350k but runs his own business, he runs lots of contracts with different clients, has an extremely niche sector knowledge and network and as a result charges a high hourly rate or retainer. He does this because he is amazingly good at networking, stakeholder management, communicating complex ideas - you can't train it, sure you can do some kind of degree in strategic business management, but it's commercial understanding, strategic ideas and networking skill that gets you the big dollars)

Ultimately, if you're not top in your field at the moment, and haven't shown commercial, leadership and strategic skills, just "re training" won't really help you earn 250 plus. It's a nice idea that you just do a quick course/a new degree/move industries and bam there you are on 300k, but the reality is that the people who earn that money got there through their unique personal skills, hard work and an ability to get to the top of their fields. Some industries and types of roles are naturally higher earning (information security, investment banking, certain areas of law, IT architecture etc) but for 250k plus you have to be able to lead in those areas, or excel in them, or attract clients in those areas or be brave enough to set up alone and take risks attracting your own clients. Someone who is a mid ranking project type manager can't just do a law conversion course and assume they'll make Senior partner in a few years. Lots of lawyers earn 50-100k (which is not to be sniffed at) and will do that their whole career because they just aren't right for top jobs/areas/client management. Lots of bankers earn good salaries and make good bonuses but just never cut through to becoming exceptionally high earners because they don't have the skills and aptitude to be the best.

Just like everyone in a leadership/management role suxh as yourself cannot be a CEO one day, it's luck, skills, innate ability, hard work and commercial vision that get you there. Not a qualification unfortunately (otherwise, everyone would be signed up to that degree wouldn't they!!!!!)

To be fair, I think generally you're right. However DH does buck this trend a bit (he is a white man and has honed his accent as he's grown up so does tick a few easy boxes) but he grew up on a council estate, went to truly the worst comprehensive ("course i had to take a knife on bus pass money day" and "yeah so they'd bring baseball bats, standard"). One parent died when he was fairly young and he didn't go abroad till he saved up himself at 21. He went to an objectively sh*t university (think well below top 20, not RG) and got a degree in a not totally random subject but not a law/medicine/ppe one. His other parent earnt max 30k their whole lives. He assumed he'd join the army but failed basic fitness so had to re think.

He got lucky, got an internship happened to be naturally skilled, built relationships, worked hard and just seems to have a way with people. He has incredible commercial awareness and he has learnt his fairly niche industry inside out, to the point government ask his opinion and he speaks all over the world at conferences about it. He is very brave in business, set up on his own and this year he'll earn 350k (it won't always be that way, but it's the way the clients and contracts he won this year have turned out). You can't just "train" to be him though, he just is great at what he does and got lucky along the way.

I genuinely think for the real big bucks, you either have some level of innate ability, skills and relationship building that just means people want you in their roles, or believe in you. Or, you know someone who knows your dad, or your old headteacher at Eton, as you say.... it's not an impossible pipedream for normals though!

The thing is, it's sad that you/most people consider what you have listed here as luxuries that money can buy. They're actually should be what everyone has/experiences as basics.

No, @middlenglander but you don’t need to be so sneeringly condescending about them. People in those jobs contribute an awful lot to society and don’t deserve your ill-informed judginess.

This is one of those threads where everyone says what their husband earns 🤣

That’s amazing @tachetastic Well done. Are you male or female? I should have put a point number 8 in my list = be born male (still easier to climb up the career greasy pole as you don’t have to give birth/take maternity leave, do most of the child care which in itself can be an impediment to a higher salary in many careers). Also you did a law degree so at a much bigger advantage than someone who chose say history, geography or sociology. I’m not taking away from your achievements though - good for you.

only fans

Not me, im older, tubby and average looking. But I know those who have and fair play!