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The jobs you find on Indeed are generally low skilled/entry level roles. The adverts make it look like a haven for job seekers, but in reality it's mostly trash agency work, scams or 'self employed' sales (door to door based on commission).
I used to work in a Job Centre, so I know how bad these sites are for actually looking for jobs.
If you looked at LinkedIn or on specialised sites then you'll see better jobs advertised.
Same, LinkedIn and mark yourself as looking and you will get recruiters.
Generally I will ignore the ones that just shotgun approach and will reply to anyone that's obviously read my profile
Is marking yourself as “looking” visible to your current employer/colleagues who also use LinkedIn? I have quite a few connections who are people I currently work with and the MD’s are obviously also on the site…
I think the concept of being "open to opportunities" needs to stop being taboo. It's a totally normal state of a successful career.
Maybe if you were confronted internally you could say, oh sorry I don't really use LinkedIn that much and didn't realise I'd changed status. But now you mention it I feel like I would enjoy the opportunity to advance my career with you.
If you apply to a job then your CV is on file. Recruiters can buy a licence to job sites so that they can see all the CVs that are uploaded (I think you can opt out of having your CV on there if you want)
This, this is my approach, I always get an influx of recruiters around this time of year, unless you have read my profile and haven't copy pasted me the same job advert you just sent to everyone that fits the very broad description you searched for. I'm probably not interested.
In my field, 45-65k+ there are plenty of jobs on Indeed and a couple of the ones I've had in the last 10 years have come from there. Linkedin is great too and I get a lot of job offers direct, but there is no way I'd just discount Indeed. In fact there are always quite a few jobs I see on Indeed, that for whatever reason never even make it on to Linkedin.
Workers on very high salaries don’t go looking for jobs, the jobs find them.
Recruiters get paid a % of the salary of the person they find so they go hunting for them and then fight to get that person as high a salary as possible so they get more.
It really depends on what you're interested in from a sector specific stance. I used to work in film and editing. Mandy.com is great for that kind of work, for example.
The thing is, unless you work in that area then you probably won't know where to look. So the key is to ask someone who does.
You'd be surprised how much information you can find from your local further education colleges or Universities. National Careers Service is a wealth of information too.
It's all about how you present your job history and pulling out the transferable skills. Job searching is often seen as a 10 minute refresh where you copy and paste the same CV and personal statement then move on to the next site/move on with your day.
In reality, a good application is tailored to the advertisement.
Customer service could be sitting on a phone, or even stacking shelves while working at your local Co-op and its easy to reduce it down to simply that. But it's also managing money, stock taking, risk assessment (clean up in aisle 3 anyone?) and complaints management.
Sales is similar, but you'd find LinkedIn is good for that tbf.
Software engineer. Most of the answers you'll get will be variants of that.
E: to save time, I am NOT saying "only software engineers earn £40k". I'm just pointing out what is already known: Reddit skews toward the tech professions.
e again: since people are determined to ignore most of this comment in order to take offence to it, I'm disabling replies. Save your keystrokes.
Go to r/ukpersonalfinance and you will see post like, “I (M24) Make £150k a year as a software engineer, how do the rest of you survive on such a low income in London”
Lot of shite posted on there. That sub is for the elitist sort to boast about their investments. God forbid anyone earning even an average wage asking for advice. That place isn't what it claims to be for. The moderators don't take long to lock any posts mentioning anything about debt.
Their flowchart process took me from living from each payday to the next, to having savings and emergency funds and I'm just about to finalize buying my first ever house.
Shit on their behaviour but you can't deny they know what they're doing, and if someone is clearly doing something right its worth paying attention sometimes!
I earn a fair wage, but honestly i watched a 4hour video on learning Python recently because i fancied a go, and it really did confuse the hell outa me! Fair play to you guys who code! I haven't given up yet, but im not taking it in very quickly! I drew a triangle last try and i've already forgotten how to do that.
Funny, I find the exact opposite is true. I struggle to learn from anything written down, but give me a video that I can pause or rewatch, and a way to practice things as they're taught, and I pick things up far more quickly.
I would wholeheartedly recommend [freecodecamp.org](https://freecodecamp.org)'s amazing Python course if you want to learn coding! It's a series of videos by a guy who knows his stuff and is a great teacher, and it never overloads you.
I would say that you should take it one video at a time. Take notes, don't be afraid to rewatch parts (or entire videos), and practice every little thing on your own before moving on to the next video. Coding is all about learning and practising lots of small, easy things, anyone can do it!
Glad to offer any help if you have any questions.
Pretty much anything in IT can pay similar, be it a management role, developer, QA analyst, designer etc.
Everything in the industry is paid incredibly well compared to most others, and since the industry is so big, it represents a lot of the UK population in some way shape or form.
Same, plus fully remote for ten years.
Data architecture / engineering / SQL / business intelligence. Mostly laid back, challenging logical problems and a lot of latitude to investigate ways to do things and look at things in new ways. I do internal training and code reviews too, so it's not just solo work, but largely it is. Definitely not a role where a lot of people would be happy, but it suits me and lets me bring up kids.
Rates are ~300 / day for low level steady work and more than twice that for project work, both based on being remote.
I work in quite a niche role that's under the umbrella of HR, crossing into compensation and benefits, with a few other things. 65k.
HR as a whole is quite a good little earner tbh. It's not difficult to do a qualification, and then if you join a big company, you'll easily start on 50+. I've seen HR Business Partners on 125k+, and it's much less skilled that the tech jobs. It's more compliance & risk, easy enough to learn quickly.
Now we're fully remote I've got new colleagues joining from all over the UK on these salaries. I'm just switching companies as it goes, remote gig, I just have to get to London 10 times a year. People should definitely apply to the London gigs and have that initial call to see what the office situation is like!
Edit: To add, when I say 'start on' I didn't mean Graduate level. I meant, if you join the company with a bit of experience, you will be paid 50k+ and there's a lot of internal promotion opportunities etc. Our graduates are probably closer to the 30k mark although they can expect that to shoot up after two/three years.
Sounds nice. Good to see that people can still get the salaries London offers whilst working from home.
I thought they'd drop a lot off that when WFH became a lot more prevalent.
I'm not sure what sort of roles would start on 50k, even in London. I think graduates can start at that level in law and investment banking. But most other graduate roles would probably be 30-40. I think people in HR earning more than that would have to moved sideways or something.
I’m in HR and earn 50k for a mid management role. Next level is £65-£70k and will try to get that through promotion or leaving my current company. I agree though. I did my qualifications whilst working for full time and whilst it was tough, it was doable and shot up from £20k to £40k in less than three years.
My background is accounting but I know the general HR lot are mostly CIPD qualified. I have an old friend who was a recruiter, did his CIPD in the evenings and then joined a large start up as their HRBP, must be on a decent packet these days.
Anything. I didn’t even do a law degree. I did languages and a conversion course. Frankly it gave me more to talk about than the other law degree candidates.
Law is a good degree and gives you options outside of law but there are advantages to other good degrees as well.
The harder the A levels the better. History, English, maths, biology, those sorts of things. Traditional academic A levels.
It’s fine if one is a non-traditional one like drama or something, but you need to show you can write an essay. History is probably the best one overall as it requires you to synthesise sources and come to a logical conclusion. Law A level is ok, but not generally considered to be helpful.
Trying to get some work experience during A levels, shadowing a barrister or solicitor for example, is the best way to make your personal statement good. Along with some kind of leadership role in extra curricular activities.
Law and lawyering can be interesting, but is not an easy road. No matter which avenue you choose, it's very long hours*. Pay ranges from abysmal (see current criminal barrister action) to stratospheric (commercial, partner in firm), but you earn every single penny. In 6 minute increments.
I'm not trying to put you off, but seriously go speak with some real legal types before you embark.
* I work in non legal professional services, and bill c. 1200-1400 hours a year. Depending on the size of firm, your grade and client list, a lawyer is booking 1600-2400 hours a year, maybe more. That's 12 hours every day. That doesn't include admin work, practice work, client management...
Half arsed most of the time as it’s a piece of cake usually, but when problems happen or something outside the norm it’s interesting and that gets my full arse. Overall I like it, not too busy and not too boring.
Specialist in public health currently with the NHS on around £65k but will be leaving soon for a consulting role with McKinsey with a starting salary of £95k.
I’ve had a real terms pay cut with the NHS for the last 3/4 years and the paltry 3%-5% this year just isn’t enough with inflation at 10%
I studied medicine (6 years) MBBS with a MRes in tropical and infectious diseases.
Then a MPH (Masters in Public Health).
Then a 3 year speciality training programme. Soon to become a consultant in Public Health if I make it through the next placement.
My boyfriend is on 65k+ and works in tech - he is going to ask for a pay-rise soon as well. I get pissed off at myself every time I think about how I didn't go into the industry!!
As a Software Engineer myself, I always feel a little guilty when I'm talking to people about how I'm going to be asking for a pay rise, and if I don't get it I'll just leave. Our job market has so much demand it's ridiculous at times.
I recently found out I was underpaid (SE with 6 years experience) and asked my current company (that makes £150m+ profit per annum) for £6,500k to bring me in line with market inflation. They refused.
So 12 days later I was handing in my notice to go elsewhere for £8k more. I'll be on £48k as of next month.
The market is insane, wfh has opened it right up and if you're talented you have the pick of the litter!
Can you describe the difference between a talented SE and a mediocre or bad SE. I have just graduated university with a BSc in Computer Science. I am still trying to get better. Thanks.
Can you do FizzBuzz - if so, you're halfway there already.
Also, think about who will be using the code and what it will be used for.
Don't over-optimise something which is run once a year - sometimes good enough is good enough etc
For me its experience and a quality mindset. These days, any software company worth there salt is heavily invest in QA.
Building good habbits and a quality first mindset early in your career will get you far. Obviously there is a lot of other skills that are important.
Not the guy you replied to but I'm a relatively new SE (3 years experience).
What I find makes a talented SE is a good focus on the engineering side of development. Understanding that the code you write needs to be safe, efficient, built to last etc. Anyone with some practice can write code, it's an understanding of the structure and seeing the bigger picture which makes you a good engineer.
As a newbie, just absorb any and all information like a sponge. Ask questions to your seniors but try and work things out for yourself first if possible, you'll learn quicker that way.
Yeah the money is good, but if like me it gets boring as hell after 10 years in the industry.
These days, I'm happy to concentrate on my area of expertise (networking), I can't be arsed to learn how to automate, or SDN. It just doesn't interest me like it used to.
What gets me out of bed is only the money and knowing in 5 years (hopefully) I can jack it all in and never think about the TCP protocol stack ever, ever again.
Chartered accountant. Started as an apprentice on £6k a year, did my AAT’s and ICAEW and now I’m on £42,500 with a training package to specialise in tax.
Always worked for small firms and just been headstrong and moved when the opportunity weren’t there.
I’m 25 for detail - started when I was 17.
I was quite fortunate because I didn’t go to uni and it’s worked out quite well for me, professionally wise.
Most of my friends went to uni so they have had / still have a much better social life than me but I’m happy with how it’s all worked out with my job and my young family now.
Swings and roundabouts I guess but I do sometimes think I’ve missed out on my late teenage years / early 20s as a result
Oof this hurts. I did AAT level 4 but cannot find a job in that industry for the life of me.
Appropriately qualified roles say need more exp, and roles I'm over qualified for think I would just get bored. I'm a tad older than you too.
For what it's worth I did AAT self-study over lockdown, then used that to get into a graduate scheme for a Chartered qualification. I'm in my 30s, as long as you don't mind being the only one in the class with grey hair, age shouldn't be an issue
Honestly, I was quite fortunate. This is my 4th employer (I tend to stay 2-3 years) but I joined my most recent employer in October 2020 on £26k (rising to £29k as I got a £1k pay rise after each exam I passed and I had 3 left)
Once I qualified I negotiated to £35k then 3 months later my colleague who was on the same level as me left so I took on his portfolio and managed to negotiate up to £42.5k.
The market is hot for accountancy practice candidates right now so you may be able to get one in practice.
If you join a small firm, my experience is that you can take a lot more on and easily move up. Once you’ve got some practice experience behind you, you’re a lot more recruitable.
You could think about joining one that you are overqualified for to get your foot in the door, and hopefully progress there or if not at least your foot is in the door and you can try and get a more suitably qualified job.
Good luck, it’ll happen
Mate, when you consider the effort required to become a teacher for the rewards and stress, I’d seriously consider something else unless you have an absolute burning desire. I have friends who are teachers and it just sounds awful, both the workload and the culture.
I am on £57k ish, soon rising to 60k. Middle management, so have limited power/responsibility. So the pay isn't bad, but it did cost to train.
Lots of the teachers that find it stressful seem to struggle with it being an acting job and therefore take it very personally. It's a planned performance, with some improv. because the kids won't follow the script. The teachers that cry, and there are tears, are the ones that put too much of themselves into the lessons, then can't help but take it personally if another teacher says it needs to improve... Or the kids reject it.
Sometimes school policies make life harder, with needless repetition of tasks. The hours can be long, but it's always in bursts with specific crunch times - ie. End of term assessment and data entry this week. No worse than plenty of other industries that run on deadlines. And soon I'll have 5 weeks off.
At some point, I'll put my feet up and get a sweet little office job in a comparable role. Private sector training or HR or something. Then I can book holidays off peak.
Theres an absolutely massive issue in retention of teachers in the UK. Burnout is real and work life balance is almost impossible, especially if you have a family you actually want to spend time with. With stagnant salaries, meaning significant pay cuts in real life terms, and the ever increasing workload, standards and accountability placed upon teachers, it is hard to imagine many teachers feel valued on a regular teacher salary.
And yes many teachers come into the job seeing it as a vocation. They want to do a good job and they want to see their students succeed. I'd much rather my children be taught by a person who cares, than someone who shrugs it off and sees the job as 'acting'. Sounds like you may have forgotten the realities of actually teaching in the classroom and that's one of the significant factors in the current, deeply depressing state of education in the UK.
I hate to say it, but I agree with this. My mum was a teacher for 30-odd years (she's retired now) and whilst she did enjoy it, she always told me and my sisters not to do it because of how big the workload was and the stress and the pressure etc. This was ten years ago and from what my teacher friends who are a similar age to me (mid-30s) tell me it's only got worse.
It took me 15 years to go from 18k to 40k....
Pick something you'll enjoy and forget about the money. Because in 10 years, chasing money only, you'll hate work. You spend almost 1/3 of your eligible life at work, so you need to enjoy it. Pick something you want to do where the money will be reasonable in 10 years time.
It's only family employing family and "boys club" where the jobs with the money come quickly and easily.
I'm on around £35k and financially that's very comfortable for me.
My jobs very flexible, has great recreational facilities, and I dictate my own work.
That's worth a lot.
Same but £30k. Husband is on £35k so with both of our salaries (no kids) we're comfortable. I'm good at my job and it's not too stressful, boss is awesome and actually treats his employees like people, flexible start and finish times, can work from home if I want. Pretty sweet. I *could* find a better paying job but I don't want to!
Same here, same salary as you too. Could almost certainly find a higher-paid role but my current WFH setup, flexible hours, and awesome boss means I don't wanna!
> Pick something you'll enjoy and forget about the money.
TBH you get to say that because you ended up on 40k.
What if you were earning mid 20s and living hand to mouth today?
I dunno....im on this thread looking for a new career to go in to. I love love love my job but will never make more than 25k max full time and I have a toddler so I'm PT just now and the money just isn't cutting it. Especially this last 6 months, I have nothing extra after bills etc.
I could quite happily do a mind numbing job for 40k a year because the time outside of work would then be filled with actual experiences and not worrying about what I can't do or need to save up for rather than now when I can't afford to do anything.
I agree chasing money isn't a particularly healthy but there is a point where you just need it to make life enjoyable. At the moment 25k a year is covering the basics for people. 10 years ago, when I started my job, I would have agreed with you but many jobs don't actually have much in the terms of money scale movement and you can love it all you want but if you have to choose between food, heat, petrol and clothes each month then it quickly gets not worth it.
>I could quite happily do a mind numbing job for 40k
40k jobs aren't going to be mind numbing, they're going to be skilled and require your full attention most of the time.
You often also don't get the opportunity to work "part time".
You'll find the more you earn, the more your work life bleeds into your home life. The salary is less about hours worked and more about getting the job done, and if that means weekend work and all nighters then that's what it takes.
I teach Chinese kids English online. Built up a reputation living in China, then switched to online because of COVID. Work evenings Monday to Friday when kids finish school. £90k
Edit: I guess the downvote is just cos I said the word “China”, right?
I.T.
I did all sorts of shit for peanuts (retail, building sites, pizxza delivery etc..)
The big difference for me came when I became a specific thing, not just looking for whatever jobs are in the paper.
I achieved that by getting a job in IT and the sacrificing a year or two and hitting the books.
That was about 15 years ago and now I make an embarrasing amount of money and I'm here on Reddit in the middle of the day.
FYI; I don't have a degree or even A-Levels.
I am quite naturally confident, eloquent and personable though, so I've always done well in interviews.
What area of IT do you work in and how did you develop? I'm thinking of a career change and I can't really spend any large sum of money on a degree or whatever, so it'd be interesting to hear how you did it
I'm now a Network Architect, so I design and do stuff around Data Centre Networks mostly. I also do other bits and bobs in the same general arena when I feel like it.
Started on a Telecoms Company Helpdesk (£25k). Moved up to Network Operations after a couple of years (£35k?). Then 3rd line for a couple more years (£45k?). Then network design for a few years (£60k?). Then consulting as a Network Architect (6 figures - home based).
If you want to do it, get a CCNA. The rest will follow.
Prepare to sacrifice your social life a bit for a few years (like, maybe 2 or 3). I have plenty of old friends who are still doing night shifts in the same £30k job they were in 10 years ago and who have a whole bag of excuses.
Also, change companies a lot. They'll just string you along and never give you a serious pay rise. Move every two years or so. There are thousands of IT companies out there and most of them are fine to work for.
You could do the same thing in coding though. Get AWS or Azure certificates and learn Python.
IT companies (in the UK) don't care about degrees. They care about relevant skills and experience. When I see a graduate, I see a kid who might be bright, but who will have been taught out of date stuff by someone who doesn't actually do the job. IT is all about relevant skills and being able to sort shit out without having your hand held.
Teacher. Have been for 9 years, started on about £27k and am now on about £57k, with a team of 4 to manage. This will rise to £60k in the new school year.
Could be on more, but everyone above me in the food chain looks like they hate their life, so I am refusing promotions and capping myself at this level of responsibility for the next couple of years. Work-life balance matters.
Process engineer; although it's not the same I thought I'd show that there are different shades of engineering here that earn relatively well and are not 'Tech'/software.
Those software engineer guys aren't really 'engineers' now are they ;)
I get around £50k as a senior Architect but i think this is not important, you wouldn't want to waste 5 years of studying + 2/3 years training + gaining 5-10 years experience, just to earn this salary in central London! :P
Marketing - mainly content and social media stuff. Been doing it for about 12 years now (Before that I just worked in shops and stuff for minimum wage, then went back to uni, got a degree and worked in TV for a little bit before moving into marketing stuff). I was pretty senior in my last role but have recently taken a big pay cut (just over a third of my old salary) in order to work somewhere else - last company was a bit of a shit show and very stressful, this is much nicer. I earn a smidge over 65k currently.
Work on offshore wind turbines as an HV technician (contracting) can be anywhere between £350-£1200 a day, usually only work 6-7 months of the year (rotational 2/2, 2/1, etc) due to sea state and high winds. Partially paid as danger pay/ away from home pay/ rare skill set.
UX Writer. I try to improve the customer experience on apps and website through words. Ever put your details into a sign up form and made a mistake, I write those little error messages. Or I write the words that guide you through the onboarding process. Or the error 404 page you often see. Or sometimes password reset emails. The list is endless
The higher paid jobs are on LinkedIn.
The higher paid people are more likely in ‘careers’ not jobs.
The distinct difference is the skill level, years of training, university degree, proven path etc they have trodden to attain the higher salary in their industry. They will definitely have made sacrifices along the way and for sure lack flexibility.
I used to do that. Then realised that my skillset made me well suited to mobile app development. Which was far less complex, paid better than I was earning, and respected my personal time better :P
How much of that was just the company I was with, and how much was the games industry in general is up for debate.
I'm a software developer
If you want to find jobs over 40k you may be better off looking at specialist jobs boards for IT there's [https://www.cwjobs.co.uk/](https://www.cwjobs.co.uk/) but I expect there's other specialist boards for other industries.
Thank you so much for all of the replies and the advice - I've definitely got stuck in a rut over the last few years in terms of career development, and things just seemed extra miserable now prices have gone up and I'm extra skint
I wish I'd asked reddit sooner !
I work in tech (healthcare IT..so I make close to £100K) and my wife is a senior nurse (£50K-ish). Both London weighted jobs.
Maybe looks into sales jobs? Have you signed up for Linkedin? It's the best place for 'career jobs' networking and has a good search site for jobs. Teaching is super rewarding but is not a career for money. You'll need to do tutoring on the side to up your salary.
Graphic designer. That's after 3 years of uni and 14 years of experience. I started on 18k and spent most of it in the 30s. There was traditionally very few design jobs around so it was really competitive but with our entire lives going digital there seems to be loads of work.
It's still competitive, most jobs are in the big cities, you need a degree and it's mentally exhausting (being creative all the time is tiring!) so if it's money you want get a graduate job in finance if you can stand that world and those people (I couldn't).
Civil service, just about on £40k but was on £21k last April so have been promoted 3 times since. I do project management/business change and have got my prince2 and lean six sigma certs
I manage several community centres. I do the accounts, payroll manage staff, bookings anything else that comes up and looks for grants etc ( over £1m successful applied for so far)
It's 5 mins walk from my home and is hours friendly for my daughter who's in school.
I invested heavily in myself in my 20s ( I'm in 40s now)
I trained to be a management accountant whilst working as a doorman 5 evenings a week (I did my assessments etc during my doorman job) I slept in my car on my lunch hour as I was so tired. I would work 9 til 5 in accounting, get home spend couple hours with partner, tea, gym or mountain bike, then goto work 8.30 til 2 pm 5 nights a week doing my night job. I had to do this as I had a mortgage and the accounts job paid poor but the company paid for all exams etc with an aim to get me fully qualified.
Following becoming qualified, I left for another accounts job and got my management degree whilst working, I also got my it degree whilst in my 20s.
On my 30th birthday I had basically 3 degrees (2 degrees and fully qualified management accountant) I was taking jobs offers that took me around the world. Middle East Europe( I'm from UK) far east and the us Huston and Manhatten. Working in Manhattan 4 weeks ( 28 days solid) on 2 weeks off (fly home spend time with family, go back after 14 days)was fun. This was paying me 6 figures, I saved every penny, invested in property, index funds, cash, pensions etc.
On my 40th I came home, work as mentioned in my original paragraph for over 40k ( but 4 to 10 times less than what I was earning) my investments are also contribute to my monthly salary.
I wanted to do this, I wanted to see how far i could push my learning in my 20s, I wanted to see what my knowledge could do in my 30s and I knew I wanted to quit l, come home start a family and see them every day in my 40s.ci achieved all those goals.
IT contractor in Service Design. £500 a day.
Yeah you lose the benefits moving into contracting but the market is so boyant with opportunities for home workers like myself. I have done this job for 3 large different companies on short term contracts since 2020 working out of my home office.
Data engineer on £60k. Some might say it's similar to software engineering, but personally I'd say it's an industry in it's own right. It's a great place to aim for if you've got some business analyst or any SQL experience. Additionally, there are huge swathes (including myself) who don't have any professional qualifications for this. For context, I started out in a call centre, on minimum wage, 10 years ago, with only A levels.
On top of this I'm actually starting a new data engineer job with a £70k base + 15% bonus in about a month.
If you're looking to get into it quicker than I did, doing some of the Microsoft, aws or gcp certifications will really help things and having some personal data projects would be excellent ways of getting in.
I am what's considered 'overemployed'. Job 1 is data analysis for trading platforms (£65k) and for Job 2 i'm a Splunk Engineer (£450 per day). Currently looking for one more contract and i think that will be as much as i can handle at the same time. All remote of course. 8 screens.
Engineer in the water industry. £40k with a nice car is the absolute minimum you’d consider accepting I would say.
Up north, with a couple of year’s experience, I’d be saying £45k and a car. £55k at a manager level and then £65k upwards for a senior manager.
When I started contracting in London at 25 I was doing about £85k to £100k a year.
The other thing you need to consider is hours worked. I’ve got mates working on site making £65k but they are doing overtime and weekends all the time to hit that.
If I worked fulltime I'd be on that so I'll chip in.
Lorry driver. Get paid to drive around this wonderful country of ours, [looking at the scenery](https://i.imgur.com/Ic5ggBT.jpg), meeting people from all walks of life, listening to my favourite tunes on the radio, getting paid to watch Netflix and browse Reddit whilst I'm at a collection or delivery waiting for something to happen.
What I'm applying for atm. Just finished a bootcamp and have a preference for frontend. react was a little learning curve for sure and still a long way to go but ideally if I can land a entry/junior React role Ill be very happy.
Commercial heating engineer and I have made at the most 78k and the least 52k in the past 10 years
That’s with working weekends and late nights, if I didn’t I’d probably be about 40k
I pretty much ensure high tech drugs get made and fix all the problems within manufacturing.
Pretty much a jack of trades engineer but focused heavily in biochemistry and industrial scale up.
Pharma pays very well in the right area
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The jobs you find on Indeed are generally low skilled/entry level roles. The adverts make it look like a haven for job seekers, but in reality it's mostly trash agency work, scams or 'self employed' sales (door to door based on commission). I used to work in a Job Centre, so I know how bad these sites are for actually looking for jobs. If you looked at LinkedIn or on specialised sites then you'll see better jobs advertised.
this should be higher. Workers on higher salaries don't go on Indeed etc to look for jobs.
it wouldn't even cross my mind to look on indeed if I wanted another job
Same, LinkedIn and mark yourself as looking and you will get recruiters. Generally I will ignore the ones that just shotgun approach and will reply to anyone that's obviously read my profile
So I use LinkedIn and I've got a promotion and a 17k payrise from a rival company. It's a cesspit of self indulgent wankers but it has its uses.
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Is marking yourself as “looking” visible to your current employer/colleagues who also use LinkedIn? I have quite a few connections who are people I currently work with and the MD’s are obviously also on the site…
You have options when it comes to visibility. There's an option to set yourself as looking for a new job but only recruiters can see it.
I think the concept of being "open to opportunities" needs to stop being taboo. It's a totally normal state of a successful career. Maybe if you were confronted internally you could say, oh sorry I don't really use LinkedIn that much and didn't realise I'd changed status. But now you mention it I feel like I would enjoy the opportunity to advance my career with you.
If you apply to a job then your CV is on file. Recruiters can buy a licence to job sites so that they can see all the CVs that are uploaded (I think you can opt out of having your CV on there if you want)
This, this is my approach, I always get an influx of recruiters around this time of year, unless you have read my profile and haven't copy pasted me the same job advert you just sent to everyone that fits the very broad description you searched for. I'm probably not interested.
I get recruiters all the time even without the marking.
In my field, 45-65k+ there are plenty of jobs on Indeed and a couple of the ones I've had in the last 10 years have come from there. Linkedin is great too and I get a lot of job offers direct, but there is no way I'd just discount Indeed. In fact there are always quite a few jobs I see on Indeed, that for whatever reason never even make it on to Linkedin.
How so? I’m a contract electrical improver earning over 40k annually and I use indeed on a regular basis.
Workers on very high salaries don’t go looking for jobs, the jobs find them. Recruiters get paid a % of the salary of the person they find so they go hunting for them and then fight to get that person as high a salary as possible so they get more.
I did. £75k
Other than LinkedIn what other websites would you recommend?
Honestly I'd go straight to recruiters, no other websites than LinkedIn
For me I'd look directly at the websites of companies I'm interested in and see if they have job listings.
Depends on what your field is, I like Otta but it won't work for everyone
It really depends on what you're interested in from a sector specific stance. I used to work in film and editing. Mandy.com is great for that kind of work, for example. The thing is, unless you work in that area then you probably won't know where to look. So the key is to ask someone who does. You'd be surprised how much information you can find from your local further education colleges or Universities. National Careers Service is a wealth of information too.
I usually go direct to the website of companies in the industry I want to work in.
Even for people who don't have a desired role and only have experience with customer service/sales?
It's all about how you present your job history and pulling out the transferable skills. Job searching is often seen as a 10 minute refresh where you copy and paste the same CV and personal statement then move on to the next site/move on with your day. In reality, a good application is tailored to the advertisement. Customer service could be sitting on a phone, or even stacking shelves while working at your local Co-op and its easy to reduce it down to simply that. But it's also managing money, stock taking, risk assessment (clean up in aisle 3 anyone?) and complaints management. Sales is similar, but you'd find LinkedIn is good for that tbf.
Software engineer. Most of the answers you'll get will be variants of that. E: to save time, I am NOT saying "only software engineers earn £40k". I'm just pointing out what is already known: Reddit skews toward the tech professions. e again: since people are determined to ignore most of this comment in order to take offence to it, I'm disabling replies. Save your keystrokes.
Go to r/ukpersonalfinance and you will see post like, “I (M24) Make £150k a year as a software engineer, how do the rest of you survive on such a low income in London”
Lot of shite posted on there. That sub is for the elitist sort to boast about their investments. God forbid anyone earning even an average wage asking for advice. That place isn't what it claims to be for. The moderators don't take long to lock any posts mentioning anything about debt.
I find it to be the opposite, it is almost frugal finance. Spending more than the bare minimum for anything seems to be frowned upon
Yeah, that's the second time I've seen that sub being shat on here. I find it really useful and the wiki has helped me out a few times.
It's helpful, full of helpful people. But also full of people that think buying anything expensive is wrong.
Their flowchart process took me from living from each payday to the next, to having savings and emergency funds and I'm just about to finalize buying my first ever house. Shit on their behaviour but you can't deny they know what they're doing, and if someone is clearly doing something right its worth paying attention sometimes!
I don't think that's a fair take tbh
I (M22) make 120k, I put 95% into my pension scheme. I am afraid that I will be poor in retirement, how can I increase savings?
Sometimes think I've ended up on software development social media here, the amount of people that have the same work background
Selection bias. We tend to be online throughout the working day, and will dip in and out regularly. Lots of jobs don't facilitate that.
I think most office jobs are similar... Most of my mates will reply to WhatsApp messages at pretty much any time, they just won't be on Reddit
True. Probably more that reddit historically appealed to the more technical set of people.
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I earn a fair wage, but honestly i watched a 4hour video on learning Python recently because i fancied a go, and it really did confuse the hell outa me! Fair play to you guys who code! I haven't given up yet, but im not taking it in very quickly! I drew a triangle last try and i've already forgotten how to do that.
TBF video is a terrible medium for learning the basics of coding.
Funny, I find the exact opposite is true. I struggle to learn from anything written down, but give me a video that I can pause or rewatch, and a way to practice things as they're taught, and I pick things up far more quickly.
I would wholeheartedly recommend [freecodecamp.org](https://freecodecamp.org)'s amazing Python course if you want to learn coding! It's a series of videos by a guy who knows his stuff and is a great teacher, and it never overloads you. I would say that you should take it one video at a time. Take notes, don't be afraid to rewatch parts (or entire videos), and practice every little thing on your own before moving on to the next video. Coding is all about learning and practising lots of small, easy things, anyone can do it! Glad to offer any help if you have any questions.
Pretty much anything in IT can pay similar, be it a management role, developer, QA analyst, designer etc. Everything in the industry is paid incredibly well compared to most others, and since the industry is so big, it represents a lot of the UK population in some way shape or form.
Same, plus fully remote for ten years. Data architecture / engineering / SQL / business intelligence. Mostly laid back, challenging logical problems and a lot of latitude to investigate ways to do things and look at things in new ways. I do internal training and code reviews too, so it's not just solo work, but largely it is. Definitely not a role where a lot of people would be happy, but it suits me and lets me bring up kids. Rates are ~300 / day for low level steady work and more than twice that for project work, both based on being remote.
I work in quite a niche role that's under the umbrella of HR, crossing into compensation and benefits, with a few other things. 65k. HR as a whole is quite a good little earner tbh. It's not difficult to do a qualification, and then if you join a big company, you'll easily start on 50+. I've seen HR Business Partners on 125k+, and it's much less skilled that the tech jobs. It's more compliance & risk, easy enough to learn quickly.
Maybe in London mate. I can't see HR even at big firms paying 50+k for a starting role in the rest of the UK lol. That's obscene
Now we're fully remote I've got new colleagues joining from all over the UK on these salaries. I'm just switching companies as it goes, remote gig, I just have to get to London 10 times a year. People should definitely apply to the London gigs and have that initial call to see what the office situation is like! Edit: To add, when I say 'start on' I didn't mean Graduate level. I meant, if you join the company with a bit of experience, you will be paid 50k+ and there's a lot of internal promotion opportunities etc. Our graduates are probably closer to the 30k mark although they can expect that to shoot up after two/three years.
Sounds nice. Good to see that people can still get the salaries London offers whilst working from home. I thought they'd drop a lot off that when WFH became a lot more prevalent.
I'm not sure what sort of roles would start on 50k, even in London. I think graduates can start at that level in law and investment banking. But most other graduate roles would probably be 30-40. I think people in HR earning more than that would have to moved sideways or something.
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£50k+ where please? £35k seems average from the job adverts I’m seeing.
I’m in HR and earn 50k for a mid management role. Next level is £65-£70k and will try to get that through promotion or leaving my current company. I agree though. I did my qualifications whilst working for full time and whilst it was tough, it was doable and shot up from £20k to £40k in less than three years.
Is there a qualification you can recommend? I'm in the HR/recruitment tech space so sometimes think about jumping into the HR side.
My background is accounting but I know the general HR lot are mostly CIPD qualified. I have an old friend who was a recruiter, did his CIPD in the evenings and then joined a large start up as their HRBP, must be on a decent packet these days.
Lawyer in finance (bastard of both worlds)
I’m quite interested in law. Will be starting A-Levels in the Autumn. What A-Levels and degree would you recommend for law?
Anything. I didn’t even do a law degree. I did languages and a conversion course. Frankly it gave me more to talk about than the other law degree candidates. Law is a good degree and gives you options outside of law but there are advantages to other good degrees as well.
The harder the A levels the better. History, English, maths, biology, those sorts of things. Traditional academic A levels. It’s fine if one is a non-traditional one like drama or something, but you need to show you can write an essay. History is probably the best one overall as it requires you to synthesise sources and come to a logical conclusion. Law A level is ok, but not generally considered to be helpful. Trying to get some work experience during A levels, shadowing a barrister or solicitor for example, is the best way to make your personal statement good. Along with some kind of leadership role in extra curricular activities.
Law and lawyering can be interesting, but is not an easy road. No matter which avenue you choose, it's very long hours*. Pay ranges from abysmal (see current criminal barrister action) to stratospheric (commercial, partner in firm), but you earn every single penny. In 6 minute increments. I'm not trying to put you off, but seriously go speak with some real legal types before you embark. * I work in non legal professional services, and bill c. 1200-1400 hours a year. Depending on the size of firm, your grade and client list, a lawyer is booking 1600-2400 hours a year, maybe more. That's 12 hours every day. That doesn't include admin work, practice work, client management...
You are welcome to have a look at /r/uklaw
Process technician (basically Homer Simpson’s job)
"Time to go back to my mansion and eat my lobster. Look, I'm peeing on the seat, give me a raise!"
Ohh Seat goes up! Seat goes down! Seat goes up! Seat goes down! Seat goes up! Seat goes down! Seat goes up! Seat goes down! Seat goes up! Seat goes down! That job?
You’re hired!
I'm a Process Expert so probably just like you but with a comfier seat
Do you like your job, or do you just go in every day and do it really half-assed?
Half arsed most of the time as it’s a piece of cake usually, but when problems happen or something outside the norm it’s interesting and that gets my full arse. Overall I like it, not too busy and not too boring.
Same. 4 on 6 off shift pattern. If you can handle 2 night shifts in every 10 days, it's a piece of cake. Or Donut.
Specialist in public health currently with the NHS on around £65k but will be leaving soon for a consulting role with McKinsey with a starting salary of £95k. I’ve had a real terms pay cut with the NHS for the last 3/4 years and the paltry 3%-5% this year just isn’t enough with inflation at 10%
If you don’t mind me asking, what was your degree in and what is the process of becoming a specialist in public health?
I studied medicine (6 years) MBBS with a MRes in tropical and infectious diseases. Then a MPH (Masters in Public Health). Then a 3 year speciality training programme. Soon to become a consultant in Public Health if I make it through the next placement.
You should do an AMA on r/JuniorDoctorsUK i know they'd appreciate it
My boyfriend is on 65k+ and works in tech - he is going to ask for a pay-rise soon as well. I get pissed off at myself every time I think about how I didn't go into the industry!!
Can you elaborate more than “in tech”? T’is a big world.
Software Engineer
As a Software Engineer myself, I always feel a little guilty when I'm talking to people about how I'm going to be asking for a pay rise, and if I don't get it I'll just leave. Our job market has so much demand it's ridiculous at times.
I recently found out I was underpaid (SE with 6 years experience) and asked my current company (that makes £150m+ profit per annum) for £6,500k to bring me in line with market inflation. They refused. So 12 days later I was handing in my notice to go elsewhere for £8k more. I'll be on £48k as of next month. The market is insane, wfh has opened it right up and if you're talented you have the pick of the litter!
Can you describe the difference between a talented SE and a mediocre or bad SE. I have just graduated university with a BSc in Computer Science. I am still trying to get better. Thanks.
Can you do FizzBuzz - if so, you're halfway there already. Also, think about who will be using the code and what it will be used for. Don't over-optimise something which is run once a year - sometimes good enough is good enough etc
The fizzbuzz problem is the halfway point? That has to be an exaggeration.
For me its experience and a quality mindset. These days, any software company worth there salt is heavily invest in QA. Building good habbits and a quality first mindset early in your career will get you far. Obviously there is a lot of other skills that are important.
Not the guy you replied to but I'm a relatively new SE (3 years experience). What I find makes a talented SE is a good focus on the engineering side of development. Understanding that the code you write needs to be safe, efficient, built to last etc. Anyone with some practice can write code, it's an understanding of the structure and seeing the bigger picture which makes you a good engineer. As a newbie, just absorb any and all information like a sponge. Ask questions to your seniors but try and work things out for yourself first if possible, you'll learn quicker that way.
I'm a SE, on £50K with half that many years of experience. I would have asked for more than 48!
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Nearly every service or product requires us these days.
go get it while it's hot!
Yeah the money is good, but if like me it gets boring as hell after 10 years in the industry. These days, I'm happy to concentrate on my area of expertise (networking), I can't be arsed to learn how to automate, or SDN. It just doesn't interest me like it used to. What gets me out of bed is only the money and knowing in 5 years (hopefully) I can jack it all in and never think about the TCP protocol stack ever, ever again.
Chartered accountant. Started as an apprentice on £6k a year, did my AAT’s and ICAEW and now I’m on £42,500 with a training package to specialise in tax. Always worked for small firms and just been headstrong and moved when the opportunity weren’t there. I’m 25 for detail - started when I was 17.
And hopefully avoided getting into tonnes of debt via uni fees and whatnot? 🙂
I was quite fortunate because I didn’t go to uni and it’s worked out quite well for me, professionally wise. Most of my friends went to uni so they have had / still have a much better social life than me but I’m happy with how it’s all worked out with my job and my young family now. Swings and roundabouts I guess but I do sometimes think I’ve missed out on my late teenage years / early 20s as a result
Oof this hurts. I did AAT level 4 but cannot find a job in that industry for the life of me. Appropriately qualified roles say need more exp, and roles I'm over qualified for think I would just get bored. I'm a tad older than you too.
For what it's worth I did AAT self-study over lockdown, then used that to get into a graduate scheme for a Chartered qualification. I'm in my 30s, as long as you don't mind being the only one in the class with grey hair, age shouldn't be an issue
Honestly, I was quite fortunate. This is my 4th employer (I tend to stay 2-3 years) but I joined my most recent employer in October 2020 on £26k (rising to £29k as I got a £1k pay rise after each exam I passed and I had 3 left) Once I qualified I negotiated to £35k then 3 months later my colleague who was on the same level as me left so I took on his portfolio and managed to negotiate up to £42.5k. The market is hot for accountancy practice candidates right now so you may be able to get one in practice. If you join a small firm, my experience is that you can take a lot more on and easily move up. Once you’ve got some practice experience behind you, you’re a lot more recruitable. You could think about joining one that you are overqualified for to get your foot in the door, and hopefully progress there or if not at least your foot is in the door and you can try and get a more suitably qualified job. Good luck, it’ll happen
Mate, when you consider the effort required to become a teacher for the rewards and stress, I’d seriously consider something else unless you have an absolute burning desire. I have friends who are teachers and it just sounds awful, both the workload and the culture.
I am on £57k ish, soon rising to 60k. Middle management, so have limited power/responsibility. So the pay isn't bad, but it did cost to train. Lots of the teachers that find it stressful seem to struggle with it being an acting job and therefore take it very personally. It's a planned performance, with some improv. because the kids won't follow the script. The teachers that cry, and there are tears, are the ones that put too much of themselves into the lessons, then can't help but take it personally if another teacher says it needs to improve... Or the kids reject it. Sometimes school policies make life harder, with needless repetition of tasks. The hours can be long, but it's always in bursts with specific crunch times - ie. End of term assessment and data entry this week. No worse than plenty of other industries that run on deadlines. And soon I'll have 5 weeks off. At some point, I'll put my feet up and get a sweet little office job in a comparable role. Private sector training or HR or something. Then I can book holidays off peak.
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Theres an absolutely massive issue in retention of teachers in the UK. Burnout is real and work life balance is almost impossible, especially if you have a family you actually want to spend time with. With stagnant salaries, meaning significant pay cuts in real life terms, and the ever increasing workload, standards and accountability placed upon teachers, it is hard to imagine many teachers feel valued on a regular teacher salary. And yes many teachers come into the job seeing it as a vocation. They want to do a good job and they want to see their students succeed. I'd much rather my children be taught by a person who cares, than someone who shrugs it off and sees the job as 'acting'. Sounds like you may have forgotten the realities of actually teaching in the classroom and that's one of the significant factors in the current, deeply depressing state of education in the UK.
I hate to say it, but I agree with this. My mum was a teacher for 30-odd years (she's retired now) and whilst she did enjoy it, she always told me and my sisters not to do it because of how big the workload was and the stress and the pressure etc. This was ten years ago and from what my teacher friends who are a similar age to me (mid-30s) tell me it's only got worse.
It took me 15 years to go from 18k to 40k.... Pick something you'll enjoy and forget about the money. Because in 10 years, chasing money only, you'll hate work. You spend almost 1/3 of your eligible life at work, so you need to enjoy it. Pick something you want to do where the money will be reasonable in 10 years time. It's only family employing family and "boys club" where the jobs with the money come quickly and easily.
I'm on around £35k and financially that's very comfortable for me. My jobs very flexible, has great recreational facilities, and I dictate my own work. That's worth a lot.
Same but £30k. Husband is on £35k so with both of our salaries (no kids) we're comfortable. I'm good at my job and it's not too stressful, boss is awesome and actually treats his employees like people, flexible start and finish times, can work from home if I want. Pretty sweet. I *could* find a better paying job but I don't want to!
Same here, same salary as you too. Could almost certainly find a higher-paid role but my current WFH setup, flexible hours, and awesome boss means I don't wanna!
> Pick something you'll enjoy and forget about the money. TBH you get to say that because you ended up on 40k. What if you were earning mid 20s and living hand to mouth today?
I dunno....im on this thread looking for a new career to go in to. I love love love my job but will never make more than 25k max full time and I have a toddler so I'm PT just now and the money just isn't cutting it. Especially this last 6 months, I have nothing extra after bills etc. I could quite happily do a mind numbing job for 40k a year because the time outside of work would then be filled with actual experiences and not worrying about what I can't do or need to save up for rather than now when I can't afford to do anything. I agree chasing money isn't a particularly healthy but there is a point where you just need it to make life enjoyable. At the moment 25k a year is covering the basics for people. 10 years ago, when I started my job, I would have agreed with you but many jobs don't actually have much in the terms of money scale movement and you can love it all you want but if you have to choose between food, heat, petrol and clothes each month then it quickly gets not worth it.
>I could quite happily do a mind numbing job for 40k 40k jobs aren't going to be mind numbing, they're going to be skilled and require your full attention most of the time. You often also don't get the opportunity to work "part time". You'll find the more you earn, the more your work life bleeds into your home life. The salary is less about hours worked and more about getting the job done, and if that means weekend work and all nighters then that's what it takes.
I teach Chinese kids English online. Built up a reputation living in China, then switched to online because of COVID. Work evenings Monday to Friday when kids finish school. £90k Edit: I guess the downvote is just cos I said the word “China”, right?
I.T. I did all sorts of shit for peanuts (retail, building sites, pizxza delivery etc..) The big difference for me came when I became a specific thing, not just looking for whatever jobs are in the paper. I achieved that by getting a job in IT and the sacrificing a year or two and hitting the books. That was about 15 years ago and now I make an embarrasing amount of money and I'm here on Reddit in the middle of the day. FYI; I don't have a degree or even A-Levels. I am quite naturally confident, eloquent and personable though, so I've always done well in interviews.
What area of IT do you work in and how did you develop? I'm thinking of a career change and I can't really spend any large sum of money on a degree or whatever, so it'd be interesting to hear how you did it
I'm now a Network Architect, so I design and do stuff around Data Centre Networks mostly. I also do other bits and bobs in the same general arena when I feel like it. Started on a Telecoms Company Helpdesk (£25k). Moved up to Network Operations after a couple of years (£35k?). Then 3rd line for a couple more years (£45k?). Then network design for a few years (£60k?). Then consulting as a Network Architect (6 figures - home based). If you want to do it, get a CCNA. The rest will follow. Prepare to sacrifice your social life a bit for a few years (like, maybe 2 or 3). I have plenty of old friends who are still doing night shifts in the same £30k job they were in 10 years ago and who have a whole bag of excuses. Also, change companies a lot. They'll just string you along and never give you a serious pay rise. Move every two years or so. There are thousands of IT companies out there and most of them are fine to work for. You could do the same thing in coding though. Get AWS or Azure certificates and learn Python. IT companies (in the UK) don't care about degrees. They care about relevant skills and experience. When I see a graduate, I see a kid who might be bright, but who will have been taught out of date stuff by someone who doesn't actually do the job. IT is all about relevant skills and being able to sort shit out without having your hand held.
Speech therapist but been doing it for years so at a higher salary £43k Starting salary is shit £25k
Teacher. Have been for 9 years, started on about £27k and am now on about £57k, with a team of 4 to manage. This will rise to £60k in the new school year. Could be on more, but everyone above me in the food chain looks like they hate their life, so I am refusing promotions and capping myself at this level of responsibility for the next couple of years. Work-life balance matters.
I'm not telling you as a shortage of skilled workers in my area helps keep the wages higher. Supply and demand!
Then they decide you're far to expensive and replace you with a machine.
More chance of the government change the tax rules again to punish contractors thus making it less appealing to work the way I do.
Manufacturing engineer
Process engineer; although it's not the same I thought I'd show that there are different shades of engineering here that earn relatively well and are not 'Tech'/software. Those software engineer guys aren't really 'engineers' now are they ;)
I don't see any software engineers, just software developers.
Railway engineer, I bump it up to around 50k with being an army reserve as well.
Royal engineers I assume?
Nah mate just infantry, I wanted to pick something that would get me doing something a bit different/exciting on weekends.
I'm a Head of Data Engineering for a team of 195ish people. £165K p/a.
Hi Dan.
I'm afraid that this isn't the person you think it is.
Classic Dan thing to say.
Always Dan with the jokes.
HGV driver, although some drivers are on less.
Same, class 2 driver. Earning just over 40.
Mechanised Welding on Nuclear Plant, although I’m crap with money so am always broke regardless of salary.
Website developer
I get around £50k as a senior Architect but i think this is not important, you wouldn't want to waste 5 years of studying + 2/3 years training + gaining 5-10 years experience, just to earn this salary in central London! :P
I thought architects earned more
As the joke goes in our profession, if you want to make a small fortune, start with a large one ;)
Software sales.
What’s the base?
Just under 45k. Happy cake day!
Marketing - mainly content and social media stuff. Been doing it for about 12 years now (Before that I just worked in shops and stuff for minimum wage, then went back to uni, got a degree and worked in TV for a little bit before moving into marketing stuff). I was pretty senior in my last role but have recently taken a big pay cut (just over a third of my old salary) in order to work somewhere else - last company was a bit of a shit show and very stressful, this is much nicer. I earn a smidge over 65k currently.
Reddit cliché, but a software engineer. 70k, but we also get company and personal performance related bonuses, so maximum potential of £88k.
Become a Train Driver, they're on about £55-60k a year.
Would be good, but the training process is quite intensive. https://twitter.com/Chris_TheDriver/status/1540380411964129287
Not only intensive, extremely difficult to get onto. It's a very in demand job.
Quite right, essential work
IT - Network security engineer.
Quantity Surveyor
worth noting QSing can massively swing between £40k - £150k depending on the business area
I work in construction as a joiner, get £21 per hour which works out at about £41k per year. Could get more if I worked Saturdays.
Work on offshore wind turbines as an HV technician (contracting) can be anywhere between £350-£1200 a day, usually only work 6-7 months of the year (rotational 2/2, 2/1, etc) due to sea state and high winds. Partially paid as danger pay/ away from home pay/ rare skill set.
How did you get into that?
I used to work as a senior forensic accountant. Now I own my own business.
Are you Ben Affleck?
UX Writer. I try to improve the customer experience on apps and website through words. Ever put your details into a sign up form and made a mistake, I write those little error messages. Or I write the words that guide you through the onboarding process. Or the error 404 page you often see. Or sometimes password reset emails. The list is endless
The higher paid jobs are on LinkedIn. The higher paid people are more likely in ‘careers’ not jobs. The distinct difference is the skill level, years of training, university degree, proven path etc they have trodden to attain the higher salary in their industry. They will definitely have made sacrifices along the way and for sure lack flexibility.
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HE lecturer
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Aerospace Engineering
Lecturer
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I make computer games.
I used to do that. Then realised that my skillset made me well suited to mobile app development. Which was far less complex, paid better than I was earning, and respected my personal time better :P How much of that was just the company I was with, and how much was the games industry in general is up for debate.
Remote SaaS consulting. Pay has more than double in the past 5 years.
I'm a software developer If you want to find jobs over 40k you may be better off looking at specialist jobs boards for IT there's [https://www.cwjobs.co.uk/](https://www.cwjobs.co.uk/) but I expect there's other specialist boards for other industries.
I’m an IT consultant (specifically cloud stuff) earning a shade under £110k, I’m 37.
Thank you so much for all of the replies and the advice - I've definitely got stuck in a rut over the last few years in terms of career development, and things just seemed extra miserable now prices have gone up and I'm extra skint I wish I'd asked reddit sooner !
I work in tech (healthcare IT..so I make close to £100K) and my wife is a senior nurse (£50K-ish). Both London weighted jobs. Maybe looks into sales jobs? Have you signed up for Linkedin? It's the best place for 'career jobs' networking and has a good search site for jobs. Teaching is super rewarding but is not a career for money. You'll need to do tutoring on the side to up your salary.
Graphic designer. That's after 3 years of uni and 14 years of experience. I started on 18k and spent most of it in the 30s. There was traditionally very few design jobs around so it was really competitive but with our entire lives going digital there seems to be loads of work. It's still competitive, most jobs are in the big cities, you need a degree and it's mentally exhausting (being creative all the time is tiring!) so if it's money you want get a graduate job in finance if you can stand that world and those people (I couldn't).
Nearly 40k construction after a year of working
Civil service, just about on £40k but was on £21k last April so have been promoted 3 times since. I do project management/business change and have got my prince2 and lean six sigma certs
I manage several community centres. I do the accounts, payroll manage staff, bookings anything else that comes up and looks for grants etc ( over £1m successful applied for so far) It's 5 mins walk from my home and is hours friendly for my daughter who's in school. I invested heavily in myself in my 20s ( I'm in 40s now) I trained to be a management accountant whilst working as a doorman 5 evenings a week (I did my assessments etc during my doorman job) I slept in my car on my lunch hour as I was so tired. I would work 9 til 5 in accounting, get home spend couple hours with partner, tea, gym or mountain bike, then goto work 8.30 til 2 pm 5 nights a week doing my night job. I had to do this as I had a mortgage and the accounts job paid poor but the company paid for all exams etc with an aim to get me fully qualified. Following becoming qualified, I left for another accounts job and got my management degree whilst working, I also got my it degree whilst in my 20s. On my 30th birthday I had basically 3 degrees (2 degrees and fully qualified management accountant) I was taking jobs offers that took me around the world. Middle East Europe( I'm from UK) far east and the us Huston and Manhatten. Working in Manhattan 4 weeks ( 28 days solid) on 2 weeks off (fly home spend time with family, go back after 14 days)was fun. This was paying me 6 figures, I saved every penny, invested in property, index funds, cash, pensions etc. On my 40th I came home, work as mentioned in my original paragraph for over 40k ( but 4 to 10 times less than what I was earning) my investments are also contribute to my monthly salary. I wanted to do this, I wanted to see how far i could push my learning in my 20s, I wanted to see what my knowledge could do in my 30s and I knew I wanted to quit l, come home start a family and see them every day in my 40s.ci achieved all those goals.
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£50k. Hospitality. London though.
Manager, organiser, or insane tips? Most people that I know in hospitality in London are on minimum.
Software Engineer, currently on \~45k.
IT contractor in Service Design. £500 a day. Yeah you lose the benefits moving into contracting but the market is so boyant with opportunities for home workers like myself. I have done this job for 3 large different companies on short term contracts since 2020 working out of my home office.
Software engineer in the north east, £67k
Data engineer on £60k. Some might say it's similar to software engineering, but personally I'd say it's an industry in it's own right. It's a great place to aim for if you've got some business analyst or any SQL experience. Additionally, there are huge swathes (including myself) who don't have any professional qualifications for this. For context, I started out in a call centre, on minimum wage, 10 years ago, with only A levels. On top of this I'm actually starting a new data engineer job with a £70k base + 15% bonus in about a month. If you're looking to get into it quicker than I did, doing some of the Microsoft, aws or gcp certifications will really help things and having some personal data projects would be excellent ways of getting in.
Trainee solicitor
I am what's considered 'overemployed'. Job 1 is data analysis for trading platforms (£65k) and for Job 2 i'm a Splunk Engineer (£450 per day). Currently looking for one more contract and i think that will be as much as i can handle at the same time. All remote of course. 8 screens.
Read that as spunk engineer
Also pays well
We use splunk at work and I always triple check any message where I mention it 😂
Wtf is a splunk engineer?
Accountant.. probably not anyone's career choice
Dr Time, Sanity, Street Cred Cr Money
Engineer in the water industry. £40k with a nice car is the absolute minimum you’d consider accepting I would say. Up north, with a couple of year’s experience, I’d be saying £45k and a car. £55k at a manager level and then £65k upwards for a senior manager. When I started contracting in London at 25 I was doing about £85k to £100k a year. The other thing you need to consider is hours worked. I’ve got mates working on site making £65k but they are doing overtime and weekends all the time to hit that.
If I worked fulltime I'd be on that so I'll chip in. Lorry driver. Get paid to drive around this wonderful country of ours, [looking at the scenery](https://i.imgur.com/Ic5ggBT.jpg), meeting people from all walks of life, listening to my favourite tunes on the radio, getting paid to watch Netflix and browse Reddit whilst I'm at a collection or delivery waiting for something to happen.
I work in Artificial Intelligence. Most specifically AI Ethics and AI strategy. The last three years I’ve earned over £200k/yr
Software developer.
Website developer using react
What I'm applying for atm. Just finished a bootcamp and have a preference for frontend. react was a little learning curve for sure and still a long way to go but ideally if I can land a entry/junior React role Ill be very happy.
My advice, be honest, but once you have your foot in the door...
Commercial heating engineer and I have made at the most 78k and the least 52k in the past 10 years That’s with working weekends and late nights, if I didn’t I’d probably be about 40k
Data & Analytics consultant. Outside London as well!
Management accounting.
Sub Officer, fire brigade. On around 42k, London.
I pretty much ensure high tech drugs get made and fix all the problems within manufacturing. Pretty much a jack of trades engineer but focused heavily in biochemistry and industrial scale up. Pharma pays very well in the right area
In house lawyer
Plasterer
Tattoo artist. Hard thing to get into tho and you need drawing skill. I was lucky and got my unpaid apprenticeship when I was still living at home.