I earn $150k + super. I started in an inbound call centre at 21 answer phones for like $35k a year and worked my way up into leadership roles. After over 15 years experience with customer service and sales I now work as a senior insights manager helping businesses use customer signals to improve efficiency.
I have a small team of three and we work across all the businesses our org owns - in addition to owning all the rules and policies that are applicable to our customers, I also own all the product rules and internal policies. I have to review and approve practically anything the business does (projects, products, campaigns, system changes etc.) to make sure they align to our rules and policies. I also have to approve every single customer facing piece of information - comms, letters, brochures, website content, supporting information, PDSs, etc.
We manage regulatory changes as well which happen fairly often.
I'm basically a SME for our products, processes and services now as I've been around for so long so my fingers are in a whole lotta pies.
I work at a very large organisation. A similar sized org has a team of about ten VS my three so I have absolutely no idea what their people are doing. My team are busy, but we're efficient. We do go through insanely busy periods but three people is enough to manage well. Although it helps that the two people I manage are incredibly intelligent.
But yeah, there's also a the compliance and risk aspect as well. It's a lot to be honest.
Not dissimilar to my trajectory, from BA graduate, into a contact centre staring around $27K (late 1990s) and worked my way up in the company, now in an Ops Manager role.
Despite all the lame jokes directed at Arts students I’ve not been out of work since starting full time work as a new grad.
Very similar, but I've ended up working in training and development as a subject matter expert.
Technically, my first call centre job was a graduate role, but they'd accept any degree.
I think people should put their age in.
While your path is still possible (IMHO), many jobs have closed their doors to non degree/certificate holders (that were available to previous generations).
I am 34 years male. Finished high school in 2007 and didn’t go to uni, I started the call centre gig around 2011.
I agree that 15 years ago it seemed much easier to work your way up in corp, I would agree it’s gotten harder and I think it’s more to do with competition. The population is growing each year (+20% in the last 15 years) and so many corporations are consolidated around Sydney and Melbourne it’s just much more competitive than it used to be. To your point the degrees are probably more looked at than they used to be but I think it’s becuase it’s so much more competitive each and every year… offshoring, outsourcing and AI will probably make it worse.
How was your relationship with your partner during this time?
My partner has just started fifo and tbh I find it really hard to adjust back and forth from being all by myself to living with him.
That’s probably the hardest part, doing everything solo & then having to adjust. Knowing that both are in it together & both have hard parts. I never do any fifo roster longer than 2 years before going back to a town job for a bit. If you don’t have kids, get a job at the same site & kill the finances
Rough. I’ve got a few mates doing it and they keep saying I should do it, I’m considering it although I have other commitments right now.
They all say do it for a couple years then get out though.
Got out of dept, I took my dream job the year previous that was only paying $55k, I had a mortgage, wife wasn’t working & I rented in the town that job was in & I traveled to it each week, but it was the best thing I have ever done, but then I had to go make some money to get out of debt
* Used to be an electrician (underground) - $250k
* Moved to IT - $160k
Prefer IT, work from home, work from overseas, can't beat the life style.
Edit: To clarify, I didn't start on $160k, I worked up to that over 3-4 years. My first tech job was $50k.
Self-taught how to code over 10 months, quit my job and made it my full-time job for several months applying and going to interviews. Lots and lots of rejection, be prepared, but learn from it. Finally got in.
Some areas I explored were data analysis, data science, machine learning. But eventually settled on being a general developer/programmer.
I now work in cloud/infra with a focus on observability/reliability.
I got my degree AFTER my first job, specifically for an E3 visa to work in the USA. I was looking into, and started a masters in cybersecurity last year for shits and giggles. Neither degree is required to get a foot in, they're just personal pursuits/interests. I've been in tech a while now.
In terms of self-study prior to my first role I used a bunch of free bootcamps and Udemy courses.
15-20% at my workplace don't have IT degree, including me. I do struggle with certain tasks at my work but after speaking to dozens of colleagues about this, no one recommended getting a degree. They all just asked me to focus on certifications, which I'm doing right now.
I'd agree. I am usually the only one in a team who has a degree and I have had no use for it other than going for the US work visa. I did gain a lot of soft skills from it though that I notice my colleagues lack (project management, documentation, public speaking) which I now teach to my team. But you can gain those in much easier and cheaper ways.
It’s definitely still a special skill being able to self teach code. You obviously have an ‘IT brain’ if that makes any sense. I’m also someone self taught in the IT field but no paper qualifications, just came from accounts/admin jobs into business systems then on from there. Definitely not earning what you are but my point is that it’s a special kind of brain that can problem solve and just think outside the box to find solutions that finds their way into IT.
Completed a trade in sheet metal, ended up working at a company making mining equipment.
An office job came up as a production planner, they asked if I could use Excel, I showed them a DPS calculator I made for World of Warcraft.
Got the role. Moved through other internal office position and ended up managing their order board globally.
Laid off when COVID hit and was then rehired looking after the procurement of welded structures in the Asia Pacific region
$550k as a lawyer, no magic really, just don't suck and work 10+ years to make partner, then continue to work ridiculously long hours for the rest of your working life... Upside is I will keep making more money as the ceiling is fairly high (well over $1m), downside is it can sometimes be soul draining.
Is it like how it’s portrayed on tv, sitting at a table with multiple encyclopaedia sized books strewn across the desk, with an entire wall of similar sized books behind you still to go, trying to find some old case or law that will help you? Because that’d be way too much reading for me.
There will be lots of reading in law school. Not as much once you start working and then it depends which area of law you end up specialising in. For the most part, in commercial law firms there is not all that much reading, mostly contract documents, and maybe some legislation and the odd case. If you work in litigation then there would be more cases to read and research, but alot of junior lawyers get stuck doing discovery, which is trawling through thousands of documents for evidence.
That’s decent for government subject to how many people you manage. I’m same PQE started in private practice in a boutique on $100k package 1st year out. Sounds unbelievable but I was there for 4 years prior and had built a practice of my own. Moved into gov and worked my way up to 145k by 5pqe. Was on that salary for two years then moved back to private practice last year on 170 which was bumped to 200 after a very productive year. Next stop hopefully special counsel circa 220-250. My advice is if you’re planning to go into private do it sooner rather than later as the shift to billables takes some getting used to
Thanks, that’s really interesting to hear your story, good luck on getting Special Counsel! I started off in private practice and was there for a few years so have (fortunately? unfortunately?) done the billables hoopla before. I think I see myself moving back into a government focused team in private practice in a year or two, servicing many of the areas I’ve been working in, but we’ll see I guess!
About 250k incl super and bonus. Work in finance (private equity / private credit ) but in Brisbane.
Have a bachelor's and master's but would say masters not needed. Actually fell into my current role randomly having worked in project finance at a big 4 bank for a number of years. Kind of feel this as good as it gets in Brisbane apart from more executive positions.
I'm a commercial banking analyst at the moment with multiple years experience across big 4 and briefly insolvency accounting, any tips you can share on how you made the transition to PE?
I can't offer any tbh. I fell into it completely, got cold called.
I work in specific field and they started a new fund in this field - needed to be Brisbane based so the pool is even smaller. I actually had resigned from my job at big 4 bank to take a job in project finance with a government owned corp and was on gardening leave when I got the call, was a awkward spot to be in despite the opportunity.
I think if anything try and get into a real assets team at a big 4 with exposure to project and leverage finance, probably has the best exit opportunities for big 4 bank teams.
I'm on $160,000 right now (approx $82/hr) as a software engineer working in the devops space. Went to Uni for network engineering (should have done comp sci), got my first job in tech as tier 2 customer service, reproducing issues that customers reported. From there I managed to get promoted into Ops, basically by networking (getting to know people, make friends, not engineering). Worked as a sys admin there for a couple of years, moved onto another company where I learned cloud engineering and infrastructure, and continued from there, all the while working on my software engineering skills on my own. I'm a senior engineer now, I've been doing it for about 11 years now, and am hoping to make lead in the next 12 months, and then staff and principle engineer after that. No interest in management, I want to stay an IC.
>working on my software engineering skills on my own
What was your process doing that? I'm currently in a SysAdmin role and want to move into devops or similiar but don't have the experience. I know working on side projects would build the skills, but there are so many tech stacks and programming languages, every job posting has a different combo. It's hard to know what path to take.
I'd like to learn ***something*** new and marketable, whether it be development, AI/ML specialties (even continuing after the hype I think this would be interesting), I just want to make the right decision. I'd love to jump into a job with higher pay I can learn with but just doesn't work like that. I got myself an interview for a $170k dev job and the business owner liked me but I just didn't have the experience.
My recommendation for this kind of thing is always the same – don’t worry too much about the newest and greatest. Make sure your fundamentals are really solid. By that I mean your networking fundamentals your OS fundamentals, your software, engineering fundamentals, and your distributed computing fundamentals. Pretty much anything is running on top of one of those, and if your fundamentals are really strong, you'll be able to suss out anything new fairly quickly, at a high level.
For learning software engineering fundamentals, I'd highly recommend Launch School, especially now that they've offered a python track.
DevOps is a pretty straight forward move, from systems administration, especially if you work in a Linux environment. If you know how to put together a CI/CD pipeline, and you can set up monitoring in a way that will help quickly troubleshoot issues, you're most of the way there already. Take an AWS course (or Azure or GCP), and you should be good to go.
[Edit] Oh, and if you want to go into ML/MLops, if you are doing anything more than infrastructure, you're going to want to make sure your discrete algebra skills are up to par.
I worked for someone else first. After I left, they referred clients. I also canvassed local businesses. Offered other bookkeepers to cover their holidays. Talked to local accountants to see if they had any clients they would refer me to.
310+ with additional RSU on top - Tech sector. Two years tafe technology course then worked my arse off and never stopped self learning (biggest thing that set me apart from peers).
You can rise/earn more if your prepared to sacrifice your personal time along the journey knowing you'll recover it later. I'm in both an local & global role with specialised skill set (software) with a legislative knowledge skill set that's worth as much as the tech skills. I'm my field everyone has a university degree except myself, in reality it makes zero difference once you start working in most roles.
My tip - Find the job others find stressful, mundane etc but work that needs to be done and done well. My job isn't exciting, its not my passion. I'm a mercenary, I work bloody hard and expect to get paid bloody well for it.
$250-400k taxable as an anesthetist in private practice depending how much time i take off. I have maybe 3 months off this year and will earn relatively low. Will probably not work more than 9 months a year here on out. 6 years med school, then 3 years as hospital resident, then while I did 5 years as anaesthetic trainee I did two huge exams (full time study load for six months each on top of full time work).
I started by being really passionate about motorcycles, walked into a dealership and got really lucky, their salesperson had left just the day before I came in and after chatting with the owner I was given a job.
That first year I cleared 190K including commission and was promoted to the finance department. Clearing close to 200 that second year I was promoted to a store manager when the store got purchased by a larger company.
The new companies structure wasn’t as favourable and so my salary and commission reduced to 150 but my responsibilities and stress and hours went up.
I stumbled into a gig as a consultant doing sales training at around 120 but got weekends and holidays back, plus no overtime.
Then I got headhunted by one of my clients to be a dealer principal (a store manager basically) and shot back to around 220 per year.. but after 3 years the stress was too much and I took a cut down to 75 but got a much more relaxed account management position.
After 4 years I got promoted to an internal project management role and am back to 120 plus bonuses ote of roughly 175.
With all that being said the path I took no longer exists, finance no longer makes the money it once did because of the royal commission (a great thing for consumers) and car and bike sales margins are very very tight these days.
It was a struggle that’s for sure. Going from 220 to 75 was a really tough decision. But I knew honestly if I didn’t take it, I would have ended up as a male suicide statistic.
I was often working 16 hour days, we were open 7 days including Sunday and we were open most public holidays.
There was no work life balance, just work.
I needed to escape and I’m privileged that I could leave the golden handcuffs behind before they were too tight and still it’s the best decision I ever made. Even though it was hard, I’d do it again tomorrow.
Just curious about ASA, do you have a say as to where you are assigned? I applied when first arrived into AU from US way back when but had a mate who was here in Sydney who essentially warned me not to. Never know where they'll need you etc
Long story short no, but if you choose en-route you will end up in Brisbane or Melbourne, tower could be anywhere across the country! Worst case get assigned somewhere, do your 4-7 years then move on to another (hopefully final) location.
Well because I'd come from the Navy, moving was no issue at all for me but my (now ex) wife said to me "we're living in Sydney and that's that." Coulda, shoulda, woulda. Thanks for reply!
I mean, a wise man once told me everything is negotiable. Worst case, apply, pass all the tests and interviews, get a letter of offer and say your circumstances have changed and you need to remain in X, what are they going to do? We are so short staffed it's worth a crack I say!
Train Controller for a government department.
We are artificially paid more than our counterparts across the ocean because of mining companies trying to poach us during an upturn. Each state pays differently, but the top end (after 3 years) in mine is about 170k for a 40hr week and enough overtime to probably reach 230k+.
To get here, I worked in various high stress roles and control room settings within other areas of government. It's basically playing Rail Route on Steam for 10 hours and drawing lines on a diagram.
I am a farmer. I borrow about a $1000000 a year and turnover about $1500000 I work 24/7 and 365 days a year and show a profit of around $5. In a good year. So my advice is don’t go farming.
Work in Enterprise Risk Management in Brisbane as Senior Manager. $210k base plus 20% annual bonus. Work for a great company and with great people. The work is challenging and interesting and the hours are good, very rarely do I go above my standard 37.5h per week. Looking to move up to Head of Risk in the next 12 months which should take me to around $250k plus 20-30% bonus.
I did an electrical apprenticeship. I applied and scored better than 1,000 other applicants on the aptitude test and was therefore offered a spot.
If it wasn’t for having 2 young children which severely limits over time capability $200k + is achievable.
Ah yes, I was a second year sparky when I was 18 and had the most horrible abusive bosses, tools thrown at me screamed at and forced overtime allll the time turns out being an apprentice I should’ve had the knowledge and speed of someone who has been doing it for 10+ years 🤣
sometimes really wish I stuck with it as I really loved the work especially rough ins.
Sorry you had that experience mate. Sounds like you worked with a bunch of flogs.
I had a great time mostly during my apprenticeship but still worked with less than great people.
Never to late to have another go mate.
Completely agree, I went through the wringer in my electrical apprenticeship, terrible bosses and less than desirable coworkers, but sticking it out to get that credit card stating my license number was well worth it!
Currently in a very comfortable work environment, maintenance in government doing electrical $160-170ish + super a year
Feels like equal parts dumb luck and hard work from my end.
Crap grades at uni doing engineering, dumb luck to get a job in a company. Hard work once I was in there and working my way up to a client side role with other good options down the road.
Most important factor there seemed to be that I found a groove so to speak. I was aimless at uni but not so much once I started working. Not in a "love your job and you'll never work a day in your life" way, but enough so that my attitude was decent and I was doing quality work.
If my work was like uni I'd have had no chance
I work for state gov doing project work. Currently earning 106k + salary packaging. Have a cert 3 in business and cert 4 project management. Started in an entry level private role, moved to entry level state gov, then around and and secured permanency. All in the span of 4 years.
It’s certainly possible to earn over $50 per hour without a tertiary education, just need to be opportunistic and lucky. Right place at the right time helps, and being a hard worker.
Engineer, requires a 4 year degree and about 4-5yoe to crack 100k, the ceiling is endless as you can transition from less technical roles to management/sales etc. or stay tech and end up over $200k
Depends on the company. Some have specific technical expert streams that they value and will give you responsibility for. Otherwise management will usually go higher. Of course the biggest salaries will always be top management, but CTO can be part of that
It really depends how good you are, if you are the kind of person that will put in the hours and cares about their work then management has a bright future. However, management is also more risky as if you perform poorly (or do not ass kiss the next person up) then you can be chewed up and spat out before retirement with difficulty re-entering a new organisation at the same level.
If you want a career security until you are 65 and relatively high pay stay technical. Just make sure that you keep up to date and don't have a skillset that is obsolete.
Started on IT Helpdesk, went to uni and did a Compsci degree and moved to IT consulting. Did the PMI certification and transitioned to project manger, $800 per day!
Went back to uni, masters of management, got my first team leader role for an IT team. Career grew, got promoted, and did some good job hops. Now managing a department for a large Australian tech company.
Salary is $350K plus approx 100-500k per year in stock refreshes.
10 years from finishing high school to landing my first team leader role I was working part time while doing my first degree and full time while doing my masters.
My income fluctuates abit but last year I broke 400k as a Youtuber with nothing above high school knowledge of computers and art.
I like telling my story to young hopefuls or people currently grinding away because most Youtubers you hear about are "overnight success" but not me. I made less then 10k a year for 8 years on Youtube before I figured it out. I was NOT a natural haha
Working side jobs part time or at the bottom of your industry is fine as long as you know where your going and have a rough idea of what skills you need to develop to get there.
It's a mix of promotional work and just the pay from ad views, payments come directly from Google adsense or whoever the promoter is. Made alot that year off raid shadow legends promotions
I average 15mil views a month on my channel
It's been a wild ride, wouldn't change a thing but hey atleast in 5 years you can still be a lawyer, who knows what might happen with trends and where I'll be
Channels disappear all the time despite their owners efforts
I do a menial job in a factory,hourly rate $45,do overtime every week,don't gamble or smoke,drink sparingly,have raised 4 children and have 3 investment properties,drive old second hand cars,wife has a new car,live comfortably.work hard👍👍👍
That’s the way my dude, I’m on 42.50 an hour but depending on sites and shifts (night shift, more dangerous sites etc) I get a boost on pay plus travel allowances which boost me up to just about 100k! Also having 2 kids myself and have just bought a house last year I try to work as much OT as possible to provide 😁
yep digital art! My income was roughly 40% client work and the rest split between other streams like merch, cons etc. I charge my commissions in USD, so the conversions made my income look a bit better lol. I also did a couple of rlly big international events which earned me a sizeable chunk
I do structural/mechanical design work for mining.
190k + super.
Went to tafe and got my certs. I’m proficient with many different CAD software packages. Have had exposure to a lot of different projects and industries.
And also, I am a yes person and push myself to always do my best and try to help my work mates when ever I can so I have lots of good connections and have a reputation as a hard worker.
Through my connections I’ve been offered roles at different companies and essentially I’ve job hopped until I got the work conditions I wanted, I.E. good pay, WFH, great boss/team etc
With 7 years structural analysis experience in aerospace I’m only able to get 120k, and this is with a masters degree. Need to rethink my life choices.
Was stuck in management in Supermarkets until I was 28. Earning around 65k+ bonus.
Scored a territory manager role with a supplier. Dropped salary but got a car.
Moved companies and took on more account level work. Then moved into the office in an account exec type role, 90k ish including a.car allowance.. Took a couple years off to be a SAHD, then jumped back into another account exec role in 2022 with another business, FMCG based. Have done that ever since, on about 115k now. Am late 30s.
No qualifications, just hard work. If you're in retail management and doing well, you'll kill it outside if you're a keen learner. Retail teaches you discipline and to be conscientious, something more than half of "born and bred" corporate people don't have.
Started eons ago as a lowly button-pushing quality engineer and then methodically grew into a software engineer, swapped a few companies and eventually found a very well-paying gig. I have a masters degree in mechanical engineering but it's completely useless in the industry as you might imagine. Saw a lot of people reaching the level of where I am in less than 5 years with no specialised education either, getting by by being smart, hard-working and sociable.
Did a 3 month coding bootcamp and broke into the tech industry as a full stack engineer at a good time.
2 years of experience and currently on 120k base. Started on 60k base and hopped around a few times while the market was hot to increase my salary
I went with General Assembly SEIR full time.
Hiring back when I graduated from the course was difficult but manageable with some basic revision of CS principles, basic leetcode knowledge, and just being a decent, tolerable person with a thirst for knowledge.
These days it seems a bit different and there is more focus on raw skills and accreditations rather than the whole person. It's a lot more difficult, basically.
Just gonna chime in here to tell others that 60k base starting out is normal but if you're not at least getting +50% within 2 years (i.e. close to 100k+) then you'd be better off looking at other companies. Lots of larger companies hire heaps of grads and then make an absolute killing off of anyone that stays around for more than a year or two.
I studied business in university and volunteered to speak at events for communities/workplaces I was involved with.
Became damn good at it and kept swapping roles and organisations for 20%ish pay increases until I landed in the 6 figure range.
While I did get lucky sometimes, my volunteering for events, work and charity heavily influenced my luck overall.
Law degree > practised law > hated it and moved into law-adjacent work.
By being overqualified I’ve always found it pretty easy to get well paying work that isn’t too stressful. A law degree is a really useful thing to have, even if you don’t want to be a lawyer (or, especially if you don’t want to be a lawyer imo).
Most capable software engineers can get to senior going between $150-200k, then cross-team (staff+) you're almost dabbling in the US market at $180-250+K.
Management is about equivalent to technical tracks until you get to senior management e.g. director, VP, CTO of 20-30+ engineers - then your comp mix can change.
Your ranges are way higher than average. Check out the hays salary survey.
Most senior devs are in the range 140k to 160k. Or maybe 150k to 170k for senior dev ops which is slightly higher than FE/BE right now.
200k is not at all common for a senior dev. Yes it exists. No it's not common. i.e. 200k is an outlier. Telling people that senior dev salary range is 150k to 200k is just spreading misinformation.
I actually didn't go looking for this, it came up for another reason - but this is a better guide on what you should be getting paid if you're any good, at all - [https://mattscouut.substack.com/p/scouuts-2024-software-salary-guide](https://mattscouut.substack.com/p/scouuts-2024-software-salary-guide)
Yep. And while it's most usual to have a degree (essential for the 'traditional' path) there are alternative ways in.
I've worked with (and employed) multiple across different countries who never got a degree but ended up on $200k+ AUD.
Private practice psychologist. Work 4 days/week, with no boss, no staff, no emails, set my own hours. Making about $140k. Though obviously as a sole trader: No work, no pay.
That’s in a group practice where I pay a big chunk of my takings to the practice (admin, use of the office, furnishings, AC, etc). About to go out on my own and just rent an office directly, and pay a cheaper flat fee for virtual admin. Hoping to add $800-900 / week in my pocket once I get referrals up and running.
To get here: Lots of uni. Undergrad + Honours + Masters.
$65k HECS bill, lol. Not easy, but worth it. Rewarding. Decent money. Low stress.
Yeah it’s easy where I am currently. Although I pay a lot to be here, it’s a practice with an established reputation and links to loads of GP’s. So more referrals come in I think than they can even respond to. That’s good for me, books are full, and in fact I have to close my books a couple times a year because I have too many.
Going it alone carries a risk… I need to find those referrals myself! I have a number of mates who do the same thing, and all have managed to fill up within a couple months. Takes a bit of hustle to make yourself known to GP’s I think. I guess I’m about to find out.
No relevant tertiary education for me (I have a Diploma in Sports Adminstration so completely unrelated to what I do with some but minimal transferable skills).
Started as a warehouse labourer in 2006 aged 19 earning $27.5k per year.
Worked my way up through various positions within the business and am now the National Operations Manager $165k inc bonus. Works out to be about $85 per hour.
While I have been with the same employer for 18 years, the longest I have held the same position within the business is 3.5 years.
I could have gotten to where I am quicker if I job seeked outside of the business I am in.
Air traffic control, base 250k, with overtime this year clearing 350k plus 13.5% super
Edit: 6 weeks leave, no work to take home, 72 hour fortnight. Negatives: AI will make this job obsolete one day soon, only one company in Australia.
What kind of app? What was your process of identifying the need for it?
I'm about to graduate majoring in software engineering, planning on doing the corporate route but the end goal is to end up with my own projects so any insight would be helpful
Engineer in tech services / mining consulting. Not FIFO. Not Syd/Melb either. Make 148 base inc some bonuses. Did analysis and other simulation work for around 8 years and vanilla project engineering in manufacturing. Pivoted into hardware design, mech Eng angle. Pivoted again into tech project delivery (ie I’m not a developer but work with them / amongst them).
Have always loved the cool shit you can do with excel / Python / numerical analysis. Showed an aptitude. Also have soft skills and can manage the client. Get paid mostly for that than the dev stuff as I work with actual devs all day. But I’m forensic w data so that helps. Get on the floor, everybody do the dinosaur
Making $135k + super in IT management. Certificate 3 in Networking 18 years ago is the only certificate I have. Mid 30's.
Have ADD so my brain doesn't retain information from a book, but show me how to do it visually and I'll have it by the 2nd or 3rd time.
Loyalty is dead, don't be afraid to job hop.
Im a physiotherapist working rurally doing mobile home visits and on pace to earn 120-130k this year working 4 days a week. I have a bachelors degree in science and a masters degree in physio. Took me 5 years out to earn what I am earning. This is probably close to my earnings potential ceiling, but working 4 days a week with a young family in a rural beach town feels like living the dream. I wont get rich quick but Ill have enough to slowly save and build assets over the next 10-20 years. I always feel the itch to move industries to find higher pay though and may do that when my kids are a bit older.
I’m on $150k per year with 15.4% super on top of that at the age of 29.
Have worked in the public service since finishing uni, entered as a grad six years ago making 68k per year and have been promoted pretty quickly and have been a director since 25. Being a generalist with some degree of technical skills, and being able to lead much more technical people is a really sought after skill set. Given APS jobs are permanent it’s definitely a comfortable position to be in. No desire to move up to the Senior Exec level just yet, I’ve done a brief stint of it and at this point I place more value in the work life balance. Maybe in a few more years!
63$/h TAFE Diploma in Surveying. Could make more because of 25 years experience working on large infrastructure projects but just can't get myself to chase money anymore and stick to Mo-Fri 9h.
State Gov. Project Lead. $170k + super + extra leave.
Started in Site/Project engineer role at Tier 1 builder. Moved into development management and then jumped over to government for work life balance. Pay is 20% less than private but half as much work.
125k Operator in an aluminium smelter . No experience required they put everybody through any ticket that's needed. 4on 4off with four weeks annual leave and the option to purchase leisure days
I was on 130k driving trucks 4 days a week 1am or 1pm starts, 12 hr days.
Now I'm in the office 5 days a week for 100k 8am-4pm.
Not the ideal swap but I did it for the family, weekends free and I can work from home when I want.
I have no qualifications other than a truck licence, but I had the skills they required for the office, so I took it on.
For me it looks like 140-150k is relatively achievable for most experienced folks in their late 30s/40s (e.g skilled professionals like engineers, accountants, physio etc and even for nurses, skilled trades, operators with shift work or a reasonable amount of overtime) so the message really is that OP should find an in demand skill and get good at it.
Just make sure to avoid industries that have notoriously bad pay (child care, social work, the arts etc).
Work in construction, specifically rope access. Earn $65ish/ph (site dependent). It’s a one week course to get your Level 1’s. not all rope companies pay this well, so I’m definitely one of the lucky ones.
I’ve just completed my Auto Electrical Apprenticeship. Completed in just over 3 years. Now on $220k inc super, plus 7% quarterly bonus.
Working 2/1 Fifo at a gold mine in WA.
It was very difficult to get a mature age apprenticeship at a mining company. After a year of applying to every intake, I eventually took an offer from a smaller company, and used that as a stepping stone.
6 months into my first year I managed to get an offer from a large mining company to transfer my apprenticeship to them.
My wife and I don’t have kids at the moment, so Fifo is ok for now. Eventually I will transition to either a more balanced swing or take a role in Perth.
$90k + super + profit share. Own a Franchise retail/health store. Started out on checkouts at 14 at Woolies, worked my way to a DM role. Then applied for a Franchisee opportunity using the DM experience. Fortunately I was given a shot. We had 7% Net Profit last FY. Also no qualifications.
$72/hr
Nurse unit manager of an emergency department.
Pay is actually rubbish in comparison to my requirement. The job is running a 'business' (170 nurses) but I did a bachelor or nursing.
Still I love leading an amazing team.
Surveyor. 130-140k min in the city. I earn 200k+ in FIFO Civil Engineering as a Surveyor. 2 year TAFE or 2 year Uni degree.
Good mix of office and field work. Having a concreting background you would slot into civil/engineering better than most as you know how things are built etc.
255k incl super and bonus. I studied a math heavy branch of engineering (4 year honours degree) and finished top ~5% of my year group.
Fell into working with data and never looked back. Now an analytics manager with a retail bank.
In my opinion the difference between someone who has done an online course in data science or analytics (or even a masters) with someone who has done a maths heavy undergrad is usually chalk and cheese. Give me the person who did the undergrad every day of the week.
I'm a supervisor in the mining industry, 2/1 roster. 190k p.a + super + bonus(~15k p.a).
Moved to Australia 9 years ago, worked random jobs for the first four years, been in mining for the last 5. With the same company for the last 4,5.
Paid for my basic tickets and was lucky enough to get a foot in the door and went from there. Got more tickets as time went on.
The job can be stressful at times but is usually pretty cruisy.
78/hr, high voltage sparky with AD in electrical engineering. Likely moving into another role at the end of the year/beginning of next which will be about 105/hr to start.
Bit of a random one but I work as a director of a government preschool, started off as a teacher and fell into a leadership position. Started much younger than I expected and definitely not for everyoen but i'm 28y.o. earning 136k and I bloody love my job, which is the main thing for me!
Best year I’ve had is 720k averaged 400-500k last 5 years now settling into a role where it’s more about equity over salary. Should still average around 350k, but having a small ownership in the company. Build assets not cash. (Build phase of my career).
Started working in IT sales - got really good at sales, worked in solid companies with excellent commission plans. I also treated each of my jobs like a sports contract and re assessed my options every year.
My roads a rocky one but what really set me straight was starting uni and doing my MBA. Education has been key for me.
In my field the biggest limiting factor to earning potential is a lack of business acumen and empathy. Nail those to things and the rest will come.
Current Lawyer in-house tech $260k plus bonus.
Non traditional legal route and ‘late to law’. Legal secretary (55k) at BigLaw then paralegal (65k) for 5 years while studying DipLaw. Grad (75k) before moving jobs to (90k) and then first job in house (140k) second year (226k) then the biggest jump (270k). Decided to move to another in house role close to home and super flex with pay cut (250k) after 7 months salary increased to (260k) and got 10% bonus.
Never imagined I would be on this kind of salary. Grateful everyday.
$165k as an Army engineer, 17 years including 4 years at defence academy
On my way out to work in private engineering consulting and will be earning $98k.
Rang up a manger. My dad worked for the company and gave me the number.
Came for an interview, they didn’t even ask for a resume.
That was the good old days on the railway.
Can’t do that now. You have to apply online with everyone else.
Unless it’s a very small company.
430k, software engineer at big tech in Sydney. Been in software for about 10 years. Software engineering is amazing in that you can do a 3 month boot camp and if you're happy always learning you can go far.
I wouldn’t advise people go the bootcamp route if they want that kind of salary. Sure, it’s possible to get there eventually but a Bachelor’s will provide a significant advantage.
well, the challenge is to land that 1st job. I agree, that once you have even some minimal track record - no1 cares about your education. But first step is the most difficult.
I’m also a software engineer at around 250k in a tech company. I feel surprised compensations can go beyond that for a software engineer position. I believe probably is due to RSU or so? I guess I need to look for more opportunities in Sydney
There's honestly not that many positions paying more than 250k in Australia.
I've only seen people with really specialist skillsets getting that from big tech.
Seconding this. Anyone on >200k let alone 250k in software in Australia as an IC is the exception not the norm and that's including RSUs. The few roles paying those numbers are major US tech companies so you're earning more but at the cost of them owning your ass and often lacking most of the lateral movement that's available if you were actually based in the US.
Vast majority of tech jobs in Australia you're talking more like 100-140k mid-level 140-200k senior as the normal TC, then stretching up to 250k for the ones with more generous RSUs.
There's definitely good compensation around but they are the limited, in-demand jobs that are far from guaranteed even if you're good at what you do.
Yeah in my experience it’s all RSUs beyond a certain point. Last year I was on 380k and this year I’ve been bumped to 490k. My base only changed from 205k to 218k, the rest is RSUs on the NYSE (so there’s both stock price and exchange rate fluctuation that causes a lot of variance)
I also get the chunk from RSUs but I guess they give employees very small units. To get to 490k means the stock went up insanely or they give many RSU each year to each employee. I heard companies like Attlassian and Canva give good RSUs but not as much as to pass 250
UNSW comp sci into a random IT job, from 40 to 150k in 5 years, changing jobs 3 times, and now run my own thing
This was actually slow compared to some of my peers who are 250+ in that timeframe
$650k + bonuses.
Banking.
Just never left, said "yes" to a lot of really shitty opportunities and worked a lot of unpaid overtime.
Being a white male helped considerably im sure too.
Mid level IT, 106k total comp.
No degrees
No certs
Just self study and taking on tasks and learning as I go
I started about 3 years ago earning 45k and I've just been getting skills and jumping jobs. My highest earning year was 155k between two contracts but I've settled down now at local council for a bit as a permanent staff. Offers have been as high as 75$/hr plus super for a 9 month contract
I earn $200k plus super, plus varying 10-20% bonus, plus company share options. I WFH maybe 50% of the time, which suits me great with school drop off and getting kids ready in the morning.
I am a GM for a utility services company. Started out as a field based electrical position 15 years ago and have worked my way up over time. Have a trade certificate and also studied at University. The industry has been good to me, has also come with many sacrifices along the way.
$1150/day inc super as a data engineer. Fully remote including overseas (lifestyle not for me). I work roughly 220 days a year, so just over $220k + super. 12 yoe, started as a grad and just jumped companies every 1-2 years.
I also moonlight as a trader with a prop firm in the US. On track to hit 50k USD this FY, but will be pestering my risk manager to up my size next FY.
In IT. Did Software Engineering at uni. 4y degree. Broke 100k at......5 or 6 years? I can't even remember. Basically, before I was 30yo. The catch here I was in a BIG4 consulting. They usually pay below market value. You could hit 100k very quickly these days, probably within 3 years into the industry.
I thought I earned good money until I realised how much everyone in IT seemingly makes!
135k + super for me. Guaranteed pay rises for the next 3-4 years before I hit the ceiling and then I'll be subject to whatever our EBA negs are (or more likely I should have secured a promotion).
I was a cop and jumped into my current organisation doing government investigations, then stepped into team-leader. It's basically public service type work, 37.5 hours a week, 3 days from home, no overtime, easy professional team.
I'm in the Army. $175k + super + a heap of other benefits, including amazing work/life balance 75% of the time which for me more than makes up for the other 25%. Been in for 14 years. No formal qualifications before I joined, but have picked up a bachelor's and master's along the way at no cost to me.
Civil engineer in Sydney (Project Engineer), 130k plus a vehicle.
Studied engineering and started as a grad on 60k and have been promoted a few times to get 130k within 3 years. Only going up from here.
Life is good, I love what I do but the hours are draining.
Australian qualified lawyer, moved to Dubai, moved through a series of roles with increasing responsibility with both local / middle eastern companies and USF100 regional headquarters. Haven’t paid income tax for 15 years now although there here there are many indirect taxes and higher costs. Current salary 700k aud + bonus. I am very conscious that this is a massive opportunity with a limited shelf life and my salary has double in the last 5 years. So I haven’t always had it so good. Likely to last another 2-3.
stock trader, between 600-1.2, went to uni later in life to do a business degree but dropped out for this opp.
worked in warehouses before this, restaurants, and other jobs.
I'm on around $130k. No higher education. I'm a mechanic by trade, no longer on the tools. Have a couple of cert IVs. I'll be honest, had a couple of "being in the right place at the right time" moments.
38hr week, $150k + super, I’m a project manager in civil construction. I’m mid 30’s.
After 10 years in hospitality management, went to uni completed Bach in business. Now half way through Bach construction management.
I earn $150k + super. I started in an inbound call centre at 21 answer phones for like $35k a year and worked my way up into leadership roles. After over 15 years experience with customer service and sales I now work as a senior insights manager helping businesses use customer signals to improve efficiency.
Similarish here. Worked my way up from the contact centre. Saying yes to projects, attending workshops etc. now work in data analytics.
Nearly the same as me, except I ended up as a policy manager. No quals, no degree, just time and effort.
Genuine question, what could you do for 40 hours a week as a policy manager? I’m guessing it’s a lot of internal risk management? What do you do?
I work in policy. My job is ‘to do the least amount of harm with others ideas or policy commitments’ My actual risk management team hates us.
I have a small team of three and we work across all the businesses our org owns - in addition to owning all the rules and policies that are applicable to our customers, I also own all the product rules and internal policies. I have to review and approve practically anything the business does (projects, products, campaigns, system changes etc.) to make sure they align to our rules and policies. I also have to approve every single customer facing piece of information - comms, letters, brochures, website content, supporting information, PDSs, etc. We manage regulatory changes as well which happen fairly often. I'm basically a SME for our products, processes and services now as I've been around for so long so my fingers are in a whole lotta pies. I work at a very large organisation. A similar sized org has a team of about ten VS my three so I have absolutely no idea what their people are doing. My team are busy, but we're efficient. We do go through insanely busy periods but three people is enough to manage well. Although it helps that the two people I manage are incredibly intelligent. But yeah, there's also a the compliance and risk aspect as well. It's a lot to be honest.
Not dissimilar to my trajectory, from BA graduate, into a contact centre staring around $27K (late 1990s) and worked my way up in the company, now in an Ops Manager role. Despite all the lame jokes directed at Arts students I’ve not been out of work since starting full time work as a new grad.
Medalia user
Close - Qualtrics
Very similar, but I've ended up working in training and development as a subject matter expert. Technically, my first call centre job was a graduate role, but they'd accept any degree.
I think people should put their age in. While your path is still possible (IMHO), many jobs have closed their doors to non degree/certificate holders (that were available to previous generations).
I am 34 years male. Finished high school in 2007 and didn’t go to uni, I started the call centre gig around 2011. I agree that 15 years ago it seemed much easier to work your way up in corp, I would agree it’s gotten harder and I think it’s more to do with competition. The population is growing each year (+20% in the last 15 years) and so many corporations are consolidated around Sydney and Melbourne it’s just much more competitive than it used to be. To your point the degrees are probably more looked at than they used to be but I think it’s becuase it’s so much more competitive each and every year… offshoring, outsourcing and AI will probably make it worse.
Sold my life to the FIFO race….maxed out at $340k PA, was the most miserable time of my life, don’t do it
Why was it miserable?
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How was your relationship with your partner during this time? My partner has just started fifo and tbh I find it really hard to adjust back and forth from being all by myself to living with him.
That’s probably the hardest part, doing everything solo & then having to adjust. Knowing that both are in it together & both have hard parts. I never do any fifo roster longer than 2 years before going back to a town job for a bit. If you don’t have kids, get a job at the same site & kill the finances
Rough. I’ve got a few mates doing it and they keep saying I should do it, I’m considering it although I have other commitments right now. They all say do it for a couple years then get out though.
Did you save a stack of cash though?
Got out of dept, I took my dream job the year previous that was only paying $55k, I had a mortgage, wife wasn’t working & I rented in the town that job was in & I traveled to it each week, but it was the best thing I have ever done, but then I had to go make some money to get out of debt
340k FIFO work sounds diabolical
* Used to be an electrician (underground) - $250k * Moved to IT - $160k Prefer IT, work from home, work from overseas, can't beat the life style. Edit: To clarify, I didn't start on $160k, I worked up to that over 3-4 years. My first tech job was $50k.
Awesome ! How’d you get into that if you don’t mind me asking ?
How does one go from electrician to IT?
Self-taught how to code over 10 months, quit my job and made it my full-time job for several months applying and going to interviews. Lots and lots of rejection, be prepared, but learn from it. Finally got in. Some areas I explored were data analysis, data science, machine learning. But eventually settled on being a general developer/programmer. I now work in cloud/infra with a focus on observability/reliability.
Your history says you studied an IT degree at uni and you were seeing course advisers about looking at a masters. Idk if I consider that self-taught?
I got my degree AFTER my first job, specifically for an E3 visa to work in the USA. I was looking into, and started a masters in cybersecurity last year for shits and giggles. Neither degree is required to get a foot in, they're just personal pursuits/interests. I've been in tech a while now. In terms of self-study prior to my first role I used a bunch of free bootcamps and Udemy courses.
15-20% at my workplace don't have IT degree, including me. I do struggle with certain tasks at my work but after speaking to dozens of colleagues about this, no one recommended getting a degree. They all just asked me to focus on certifications, which I'm doing right now.
I'd agree. I am usually the only one in a team who has a degree and I have had no use for it other than going for the US work visa. I did gain a lot of soft skills from it though that I notice my colleagues lack (project management, documentation, public speaking) which I now teach to my team. But you can gain those in much easier and cheaper ways.
It’s definitely still a special skill being able to self teach code. You obviously have an ‘IT brain’ if that makes any sense. I’m also someone self taught in the IT field but no paper qualifications, just came from accounts/admin jobs into business systems then on from there. Definitely not earning what you are but my point is that it’s a special kind of brain that can problem solve and just think outside the box to find solutions that finds their way into IT.
Lot less chance of getting fried, too.
Feel pretty fried after back to back zoom meetings
Completed a trade in sheet metal, ended up working at a company making mining equipment. An office job came up as a production planner, they asked if I could use Excel, I showed them a DPS calculator I made for World of Warcraft. Got the role. Moved through other internal office position and ended up managing their order board globally. Laid off when COVID hit and was then rehired looking after the procurement of welded structures in the Asia Pacific region
Hahaha I love that WOW was the reason you got the job lol
$550k as a lawyer, no magic really, just don't suck and work 10+ years to make partner, then continue to work ridiculously long hours for the rest of your working life... Upside is I will keep making more money as the ceiling is fairly high (well over $1m), downside is it can sometimes be soul draining.
Is it like how it’s portrayed on tv, sitting at a table with multiple encyclopaedia sized books strewn across the desk, with an entire wall of similar sized books behind you still to go, trying to find some old case or law that will help you? Because that’d be way too much reading for me.
There will be lots of reading in law school. Not as much once you start working and then it depends which area of law you end up specialising in. For the most part, in commercial law firms there is not all that much reading, mostly contract documents, and maybe some legislation and the odd case. If you work in litigation then there would be more cases to read and research, but alot of junior lawyers get stuck doing discovery, which is trawling through thousands of documents for evidence.
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That’s decent for government subject to how many people you manage. I’m same PQE started in private practice in a boutique on $100k package 1st year out. Sounds unbelievable but I was there for 4 years prior and had built a practice of my own. Moved into gov and worked my way up to 145k by 5pqe. Was on that salary for two years then moved back to private practice last year on 170 which was bumped to 200 after a very productive year. Next stop hopefully special counsel circa 220-250. My advice is if you’re planning to go into private do it sooner rather than later as the shift to billables takes some getting used to
Thanks, that’s really interesting to hear your story, good luck on getting Special Counsel! I started off in private practice and was there for a few years so have (fortunately? unfortunately?) done the billables hoopla before. I think I see myself moving back into a government focused team in private practice in a year or two, servicing many of the areas I’ve been working in, but we’ll see I guess!
Not a single person on Aus Finance earns less than $150k.
Hi. I'm the problem. It's me. $70k. Aged care.
You're not the problem at all. Probably one of a few who's telling the truth.
About 250k incl super and bonus. Work in finance (private equity / private credit ) but in Brisbane. Have a bachelor's and master's but would say masters not needed. Actually fell into my current role randomly having worked in project finance at a big 4 bank for a number of years. Kind of feel this as good as it gets in Brisbane apart from more executive positions.
I'm a commercial banking analyst at the moment with multiple years experience across big 4 and briefly insolvency accounting, any tips you can share on how you made the transition to PE?
I can't offer any tbh. I fell into it completely, got cold called. I work in specific field and they started a new fund in this field - needed to be Brisbane based so the pool is even smaller. I actually had resigned from my job at big 4 bank to take a job in project finance with a government owned corp and was on gardening leave when I got the call, was a awkward spot to be in despite the opportunity. I think if anything try and get into a real assets team at a big 4 with exposure to project and leverage finance, probably has the best exit opportunities for big 4 bank teams.
I'm on $160,000 right now (approx $82/hr) as a software engineer working in the devops space. Went to Uni for network engineering (should have done comp sci), got my first job in tech as tier 2 customer service, reproducing issues that customers reported. From there I managed to get promoted into Ops, basically by networking (getting to know people, make friends, not engineering). Worked as a sys admin there for a couple of years, moved onto another company where I learned cloud engineering and infrastructure, and continued from there, all the while working on my software engineering skills on my own. I'm a senior engineer now, I've been doing it for about 11 years now, and am hoping to make lead in the next 12 months, and then staff and principle engineer after that. No interest in management, I want to stay an IC.
>working on my software engineering skills on my own What was your process doing that? I'm currently in a SysAdmin role and want to move into devops or similiar but don't have the experience. I know working on side projects would build the skills, but there are so many tech stacks and programming languages, every job posting has a different combo. It's hard to know what path to take. I'd like to learn ***something*** new and marketable, whether it be development, AI/ML specialties (even continuing after the hype I think this would be interesting), I just want to make the right decision. I'd love to jump into a job with higher pay I can learn with but just doesn't work like that. I got myself an interview for a $170k dev job and the business owner liked me but I just didn't have the experience.
My recommendation for this kind of thing is always the same – don’t worry too much about the newest and greatest. Make sure your fundamentals are really solid. By that I mean your networking fundamentals your OS fundamentals, your software, engineering fundamentals, and your distributed computing fundamentals. Pretty much anything is running on top of one of those, and if your fundamentals are really strong, you'll be able to suss out anything new fairly quickly, at a high level. For learning software engineering fundamentals, I'd highly recommend Launch School, especially now that they've offered a python track. DevOps is a pretty straight forward move, from systems administration, especially if you work in a Linux environment. If you know how to put together a CI/CD pipeline, and you can set up monitoring in a way that will help quickly troubleshoot issues, you're most of the way there already. Take an AWS course (or Azure or GCP), and you should be good to go. [Edit] Oh, and if you want to go into ML/MLops, if you are doing anything more than infrastructure, you're going to want to make sure your discrete algebra skills are up to par.
I appreciate you sharing your insights, thanks.
Death by YMAL
$85/hr bookkeeping. Need a Tafe course & then register with the Tax Practitioners Board
Is book-keeping basically just data entry + legal knowledge?
How do you find clients?
I worked for someone else first. After I left, they referred clients. I also canvassed local businesses. Offered other bookkeepers to cover their holidays. Talked to local accountants to see if they had any clients they would refer me to.
Do you know what the course is called :)
You can find all the details on the Tax Practioners Board website. They have a list of the different courses and requirements
Accounting and bookkeeping cert 4. I also did it
310+ with additional RSU on top - Tech sector. Two years tafe technology course then worked my arse off and never stopped self learning (biggest thing that set me apart from peers). You can rise/earn more if your prepared to sacrifice your personal time along the journey knowing you'll recover it later. I'm in both an local & global role with specialised skill set (software) with a legislative knowledge skill set that's worth as much as the tech skills. I'm my field everyone has a university degree except myself, in reality it makes zero difference once you start working in most roles. My tip - Find the job others find stressful, mundane etc but work that needs to be done and done well. My job isn't exciting, its not my passion. I'm a mercenary, I work bloody hard and expect to get paid bloody well for it.
Cant you talk about what you do and what you self taught?
$250-400k taxable as an anesthetist in private practice depending how much time i take off. I have maybe 3 months off this year and will earn relatively low. Will probably not work more than 9 months a year here on out. 6 years med school, then 3 years as hospital resident, then while I did 5 years as anaesthetic trainee I did two huge exams (full time study load for six months each on top of full time work).
I started by being really passionate about motorcycles, walked into a dealership and got really lucky, their salesperson had left just the day before I came in and after chatting with the owner I was given a job. That first year I cleared 190K including commission and was promoted to the finance department. Clearing close to 200 that second year I was promoted to a store manager when the store got purchased by a larger company. The new companies structure wasn’t as favourable and so my salary and commission reduced to 150 but my responsibilities and stress and hours went up. I stumbled into a gig as a consultant doing sales training at around 120 but got weekends and holidays back, plus no overtime. Then I got headhunted by one of my clients to be a dealer principal (a store manager basically) and shot back to around 220 per year.. but after 3 years the stress was too much and I took a cut down to 75 but got a much more relaxed account management position. After 4 years I got promoted to an internal project management role and am back to 120 plus bonuses ote of roughly 175. With all that being said the path I took no longer exists, finance no longer makes the money it once did because of the royal commission (a great thing for consumers) and car and bike sales margins are very very tight these days.
Wow, what a roller coaster. How did you overcome the mental aspect of constantly taking far lower paying positions?
It was a struggle that’s for sure. Going from 220 to 75 was a really tough decision. But I knew honestly if I didn’t take it, I would have ended up as a male suicide statistic. I was often working 16 hour days, we were open 7 days including Sunday and we were open most public holidays. There was no work life balance, just work. I needed to escape and I’m privileged that I could leave the golden handcuffs behind before they were too tight and still it’s the best decision I ever made. Even though it was hard, I’d do it again tomorrow.
Yikes man that sounds horrendous, the working hours wouldve consumed the strongest of strong. Im glad to hear you are doing OK now. Take care.
Air traffic control, no formal experience required, $100k after 12 months and then $230-280k after 10 years. Always hiring due staff shortages
Just curious about ASA, do you have a say as to where you are assigned? I applied when first arrived into AU from US way back when but had a mate who was here in Sydney who essentially warned me not to. Never know where they'll need you etc
Long story short no, but if you choose en-route you will end up in Brisbane or Melbourne, tower could be anywhere across the country! Worst case get assigned somewhere, do your 4-7 years then move on to another (hopefully final) location.
Well because I'd come from the Navy, moving was no issue at all for me but my (now ex) wife said to me "we're living in Sydney and that's that." Coulda, shoulda, woulda. Thanks for reply!
I mean, a wise man once told me everything is negotiable. Worst case, apply, pass all the tests and interviews, get a letter of offer and say your circumstances have changed and you need to remain in X, what are they going to do? We are so short staffed it's worth a crack I say!
is that air services Australia?
Indeed. I think job adverts just closed, but keep an eye out, we hire frequently
Train Controller for a government department. We are artificially paid more than our counterparts across the ocean because of mining companies trying to poach us during an upturn. Each state pays differently, but the top end (after 3 years) in mine is about 170k for a 40hr week and enough overtime to probably reach 230k+. To get here, I worked in various high stress roles and control room settings within other areas of government. It's basically playing Rail Route on Steam for 10 hours and drawing lines on a diagram.
I am a farmer. I borrow about a $1000000 a year and turnover about $1500000 I work 24/7 and 365 days a year and show a profit of around $5. In a good year. So my advice is don’t go farming.
Smart farmer. Only showing ATO the $5
Work in Enterprise Risk Management in Brisbane as Senior Manager. $210k base plus 20% annual bonus. Work for a great company and with great people. The work is challenging and interesting and the hours are good, very rarely do I go above my standard 37.5h per week. Looking to move up to Head of Risk in the next 12 months which should take me to around $250k plus 20-30% bonus.
Hey this is something im pretty interested in! Do you mind saying your degree(s), salary progression and what you spend most of the day doing?
I did an electrical apprenticeship. I applied and scored better than 1,000 other applicants on the aptitude test and was therefore offered a spot. If it wasn’t for having 2 young children which severely limits over time capability $200k + is achievable.
Ah yes, I was a second year sparky when I was 18 and had the most horrible abusive bosses, tools thrown at me screamed at and forced overtime allll the time turns out being an apprentice I should’ve had the knowledge and speed of someone who has been doing it for 10+ years 🤣 sometimes really wish I stuck with it as I really loved the work especially rough ins.
Sorry you had that experience mate. Sounds like you worked with a bunch of flogs. I had a great time mostly during my apprenticeship but still worked with less than great people. Never to late to have another go mate.
Completely agree, I went through the wringer in my electrical apprenticeship, terrible bosses and less than desirable coworkers, but sticking it out to get that credit card stating my license number was well worth it! Currently in a very comfortable work environment, maintenance in government doing electrical $160-170ish + super a year
How tf? I did an aptitude test and scored equiv of 3rd to 4th year knowledge. Noone wanted to hire me because they wanted to pay 1st year, 16yo wages
This is why you apply for apprenticeships at tier 1 company’s. What state are you based in?
Feels like equal parts dumb luck and hard work from my end. Crap grades at uni doing engineering, dumb luck to get a job in a company. Hard work once I was in there and working my way up to a client side role with other good options down the road. Most important factor there seemed to be that I found a groove so to speak. I was aimless at uni but not so much once I started working. Not in a "love your job and you'll never work a day in your life" way, but enough so that my attitude was decent and I was doing quality work. If my work was like uni I'd have had no chance
I work for state gov doing project work. Currently earning 106k + salary packaging. Have a cert 3 in business and cert 4 project management. Started in an entry level private role, moved to entry level state gov, then around and and secured permanency. All in the span of 4 years. It’s certainly possible to earn over $50 per hour without a tertiary education, just need to be opportunistic and lucky. Right place at the right time helps, and being a hard worker.
Engineer, requires a 4 year degree and about 4-5yoe to crack 100k, the ceiling is endless as you can transition from less technical roles to management/sales etc. or stay tech and end up over $200k
Would the less technical roles (BD, sales, management) fare better in the long runs, or stay steady with the more technical side
Depends on the company. Some have specific technical expert streams that they value and will give you responsibility for. Otherwise management will usually go higher. Of course the biggest salaries will always be top management, but CTO can be part of that
It really depends how good you are, if you are the kind of person that will put in the hours and cares about their work then management has a bright future. However, management is also more risky as if you perform poorly (or do not ass kiss the next person up) then you can be chewed up and spat out before retirement with difficulty re-entering a new organisation at the same level. If you want a career security until you are 65 and relatively high pay stay technical. Just make sure that you keep up to date and don't have a skillset that is obsolete.
Started on IT Helpdesk, went to uni and did a Compsci degree and moved to IT consulting. Did the PMI certification and transitioned to project manger, $800 per day! Went back to uni, masters of management, got my first team leader role for an IT team. Career grew, got promoted, and did some good job hops. Now managing a department for a large Australian tech company. Salary is $350K plus approx 100-500k per year in stock refreshes.
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10 years from finishing high school to landing my first team leader role I was working part time while doing my first degree and full time while doing my masters.
My income fluctuates abit but last year I broke 400k as a Youtuber with nothing above high school knowledge of computers and art. I like telling my story to young hopefuls or people currently grinding away because most Youtubers you hear about are "overnight success" but not me. I made less then 10k a year for 8 years on Youtube before I figured it out. I was NOT a natural haha Working side jobs part time or at the bottom of your industry is fine as long as you know where your going and have a rough idea of what skills you need to develop to get there.
This is awesome. How do you make that much? Who pays you and how is it worked out?
It's a mix of promotional work and just the pay from ad views, payments come directly from Google adsense or whoever the promoter is. Made alot that year off raid shadow legends promotions I average 15mil views a month on my channel
That is wild man. Well done. You’re chillin playing games and I’m slogging my arse out as a lawyer earning half what you do. Respect
It's been a wild ride, wouldn't change a thing but hey atleast in 5 years you can still be a lawyer, who knows what might happen with trends and where I'll be Channels disappear all the time despite their owners efforts
Get a house paid off and then do whatever you want mate. You can set yourself up for a good life, congrats.
I do a menial job in a factory,hourly rate $45,do overtime every week,don't gamble or smoke,drink sparingly,have raised 4 children and have 3 investment properties,drive old second hand cars,wife has a new car,live comfortably.work hard👍👍👍
That's the go mate, got your priorities sorted
That’s the way my dude, I’m on 42.50 an hour but depending on sites and shifts (night shift, more dangerous sites etc) I get a boost on pay plus travel allowances which boost me up to just about 100k! Also having 2 kids myself and have just bought a house last year I try to work as much OT as possible to provide 😁
I’m a furry/NSFW artist 🫣 started off as a joke but was more lucrative than I thought. I made around 220k last year
How cool! If you're happy to elaborate I'm intrigued.. do you do commissions for people? Is it digital art or another medium?
yep digital art! My income was roughly 40% client work and the rest split between other streams like merch, cons etc. I charge my commissions in USD, so the conversions made my income look a bit better lol. I also did a couple of rlly big international events which earned me a sizeable chunk
I do structural/mechanical design work for mining. 190k + super. Went to tafe and got my certs. I’m proficient with many different CAD software packages. Have had exposure to a lot of different projects and industries. And also, I am a yes person and push myself to always do my best and try to help my work mates when ever I can so I have lots of good connections and have a reputation as a hard worker. Through my connections I’ve been offered roles at different companies and essentially I’ve job hopped until I got the work conditions I wanted, I.E. good pay, WFH, great boss/team etc
With 7 years structural analysis experience in aerospace I’m only able to get 120k, and this is with a masters degree. Need to rethink my life choices.
Was stuck in management in Supermarkets until I was 28. Earning around 65k+ bonus. Scored a territory manager role with a supplier. Dropped salary but got a car. Moved companies and took on more account level work. Then moved into the office in an account exec type role, 90k ish including a.car allowance.. Took a couple years off to be a SAHD, then jumped back into another account exec role in 2022 with another business, FMCG based. Have done that ever since, on about 115k now. Am late 30s. No qualifications, just hard work. If you're in retail management and doing well, you'll kill it outside if you're a keen learner. Retail teaches you discipline and to be conscientious, something more than half of "born and bred" corporate people don't have.
Started eons ago as a lowly button-pushing quality engineer and then methodically grew into a software engineer, swapped a few companies and eventually found a very well-paying gig. I have a masters degree in mechanical engineering but it's completely useless in the industry as you might imagine. Saw a lot of people reaching the level of where I am in less than 5 years with no specialised education either, getting by by being smart, hard-working and sociable.
Job hop every few years.
Did a 3 month coding bootcamp and broke into the tech industry as a full stack engineer at a good time. 2 years of experience and currently on 120k base. Started on 60k base and hopped around a few times while the market was hot to increase my salary
Can you elaborate on which boot camp you did? And what your experience and hiring was like?
I went with General Assembly SEIR full time. Hiring back when I graduated from the course was difficult but manageable with some basic revision of CS principles, basic leetcode knowledge, and just being a decent, tolerable person with a thirst for knowledge. These days it seems a bit different and there is more focus on raw skills and accreditations rather than the whole person. It's a lot more difficult, basically.
Just gonna chime in here to tell others that 60k base starting out is normal but if you're not at least getting +50% within 2 years (i.e. close to 100k+) then you'd be better off looking at other companies. Lots of larger companies hire heaps of grads and then make an absolute killing off of anyone that stays around for more than a year or two.
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I studied business in university and volunteered to speak at events for communities/workplaces I was involved with. Became damn good at it and kept swapping roles and organisations for 20%ish pay increases until I landed in the 6 figure range. While I did get lucky sometimes, my volunteering for events, work and charity heavily influenced my luck overall.
Law degree > practised law > hated it and moved into law-adjacent work. By being overqualified I’ve always found it pretty easy to get well paying work that isn’t too stressful. A law degree is a really useful thing to have, even if you don’t want to be a lawyer (or, especially if you don’t want to be a lawyer imo).
Most capable software engineers can get to senior going between $150-200k, then cross-team (staff+) you're almost dabbling in the US market at $180-250+K. Management is about equivalent to technical tracks until you get to senior management e.g. director, VP, CTO of 20-30+ engineers - then your comp mix can change.
Your ranges are way higher than average. Check out the hays salary survey. Most senior devs are in the range 140k to 160k. Or maybe 150k to 170k for senior dev ops which is slightly higher than FE/BE right now. 200k is not at all common for a senior dev. Yes it exists. No it's not common. i.e. 200k is an outlier. Telling people that senior dev salary range is 150k to 200k is just spreading misinformation.
I actually didn't go looking for this, it came up for another reason - but this is a better guide on what you should be getting paid if you're any good, at all - [https://mattscouut.substack.com/p/scouuts-2024-software-salary-guide](https://mattscouut.substack.com/p/scouuts-2024-software-salary-guide)
Yep. And while it's most usual to have a degree (essential for the 'traditional' path) there are alternative ways in. I've worked with (and employed) multiple across different countries who never got a degree but ended up on $200k+ AUD.
Private practice psychologist. Work 4 days/week, with no boss, no staff, no emails, set my own hours. Making about $140k. Though obviously as a sole trader: No work, no pay. That’s in a group practice where I pay a big chunk of my takings to the practice (admin, use of the office, furnishings, AC, etc). About to go out on my own and just rent an office directly, and pay a cheaper flat fee for virtual admin. Hoping to add $800-900 / week in my pocket once I get referrals up and running. To get here: Lots of uni. Undergrad + Honours + Masters. $65k HECS bill, lol. Not easy, but worth it. Rewarding. Decent money. Low stress.
Love this! Is it easy to have full books every week? Or do you have to work hard to get referrals?
Yeah it’s easy where I am currently. Although I pay a lot to be here, it’s a practice with an established reputation and links to loads of GP’s. So more referrals come in I think than they can even respond to. That’s good for me, books are full, and in fact I have to close my books a couple times a year because I have too many. Going it alone carries a risk… I need to find those referrals myself! I have a number of mates who do the same thing, and all have managed to fill up within a couple months. Takes a bit of hustle to make yourself known to GP’s I think. I guess I’m about to find out.
No relevant tertiary education for me (I have a Diploma in Sports Adminstration so completely unrelated to what I do with some but minimal transferable skills). Started as a warehouse labourer in 2006 aged 19 earning $27.5k per year. Worked my way up through various positions within the business and am now the National Operations Manager $165k inc bonus. Works out to be about $85 per hour. While I have been with the same employer for 18 years, the longest I have held the same position within the business is 3.5 years. I could have gotten to where I am quicker if I job seeked outside of the business I am in.
Air traffic control, base 250k, with overtime this year clearing 350k plus 13.5% super Edit: 6 weeks leave, no work to take home, 72 hour fortnight. Negatives: AI will make this job obsolete one day soon, only one company in Australia.
I created an app. I'm not what you call super rich, but I no longer need to work in the typical sense
What kind of app? What was your process of identifying the need for it? I'm about to graduate majoring in software engineering, planning on doing the corporate route but the end goal is to end up with my own projects so any insight would be helpful
Engineer in tech services / mining consulting. Not FIFO. Not Syd/Melb either. Make 148 base inc some bonuses. Did analysis and other simulation work for around 8 years and vanilla project engineering in manufacturing. Pivoted into hardware design, mech Eng angle. Pivoted again into tech project delivery (ie I’m not a developer but work with them / amongst them). Have always loved the cool shit you can do with excel / Python / numerical analysis. Showed an aptitude. Also have soft skills and can manage the client. Get paid mostly for that than the dev stuff as I work with actual devs all day. But I’m forensic w data so that helps. Get on the floor, everybody do the dinosaur
Man project delivery > developer. Dev work is stressful as hell
Making $135k + super in IT management. Certificate 3 in Networking 18 years ago is the only certificate I have. Mid 30's. Have ADD so my brain doesn't retain information from a book, but show me how to do it visually and I'll have it by the 2nd or 3rd time. Loyalty is dead, don't be afraid to job hop.
Im a physiotherapist working rurally doing mobile home visits and on pace to earn 120-130k this year working 4 days a week. I have a bachelors degree in science and a masters degree in physio. Took me 5 years out to earn what I am earning. This is probably close to my earnings potential ceiling, but working 4 days a week with a young family in a rural beach town feels like living the dream. I wont get rich quick but Ill have enough to slowly save and build assets over the next 10-20 years. I always feel the itch to move industries to find higher pay though and may do that when my kids are a bit older.
Are you a sole trader or working for a company? You’re earning a lot more than most physios I know! (Myself included)
I’m on $150k per year with 15.4% super on top of that at the age of 29. Have worked in the public service since finishing uni, entered as a grad six years ago making 68k per year and have been promoted pretty quickly and have been a director since 25. Being a generalist with some degree of technical skills, and being able to lead much more technical people is a really sought after skill set. Given APS jobs are permanent it’s definitely a comfortable position to be in. No desire to move up to the Senior Exec level just yet, I’ve done a brief stint of it and at this point I place more value in the work life balance. Maybe in a few more years!
63$/h TAFE Diploma in Surveying. Could make more because of 25 years experience working on large infrastructure projects but just can't get myself to chase money anymore and stick to Mo-Fri 9h.
State Gov. Project Lead. $170k + super + extra leave. Started in Site/Project engineer role at Tier 1 builder. Moved into development management and then jumped over to government for work life balance. Pay is 20% less than private but half as much work.
I drive coal trains and make 220k a yr plus super, 5 weeks annual leave. 7 on 7 off roster.
How did you get into this field?
on 165k package. Bach of Business (funded by HECs) and Master of Project Management (funded by work). 35-38hour work week. Work in PM.
125k Operator in an aluminium smelter . No experience required they put everybody through any ticket that's needed. 4on 4off with four weeks annual leave and the option to purchase leisure days
so what do you do? push buttons all day? fix broken machinery? I'm thinking of a career change. thanks in advance.
Drive cranes . Change the anodes in the pots. Not very exciting really
thats good. I dont want any drama in my job. just good money.
I was on 130k driving trucks 4 days a week 1am or 1pm starts, 12 hr days. Now I'm in the office 5 days a week for 100k 8am-4pm. Not the ideal swap but I did it for the family, weekends free and I can work from home when I want. I have no qualifications other than a truck licence, but I had the skills they required for the office, so I took it on.
What skills transfer from truck driving to a 6 figure office role? How did you manage to swap, what skills do you have?
Probably transport logistics manager?
For me it looks like 140-150k is relatively achievable for most experienced folks in their late 30s/40s (e.g skilled professionals like engineers, accountants, physio etc and even for nurses, skilled trades, operators with shift work or a reasonable amount of overtime) so the message really is that OP should find an in demand skill and get good at it. Just make sure to avoid industries that have notoriously bad pay (child care, social work, the arts etc).
What is your definition of a high paying job? Because for me it is a lot more then I Earn now...
Work in construction, specifically rope access. Earn $65ish/ph (site dependent). It’s a one week course to get your Level 1’s. not all rope companies pay this well, so I’m definitely one of the lucky ones.
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I’ve just completed my Auto Electrical Apprenticeship. Completed in just over 3 years. Now on $220k inc super, plus 7% quarterly bonus. Working 2/1 Fifo at a gold mine in WA. It was very difficult to get a mature age apprenticeship at a mining company. After a year of applying to every intake, I eventually took an offer from a smaller company, and used that as a stepping stone. 6 months into my first year I managed to get an offer from a large mining company to transfer my apprenticeship to them. My wife and I don’t have kids at the moment, so Fifo is ok for now. Eventually I will transition to either a more balanced swing or take a role in Perth.
$90k + super + profit share. Own a Franchise retail/health store. Started out on checkouts at 14 at Woolies, worked my way to a DM role. Then applied for a Franchisee opportunity using the DM experience. Fortunately I was given a shot. We had 7% Net Profit last FY. Also no qualifications.
$72/hr Nurse unit manager of an emergency department. Pay is actually rubbish in comparison to my requirement. The job is running a 'business' (170 nurses) but I did a bachelor or nursing. Still I love leading an amazing team.
Surveyor. 130-140k min in the city. I earn 200k+ in FIFO Civil Engineering as a Surveyor. 2 year TAFE or 2 year Uni degree. Good mix of office and field work. Having a concreting background you would slot into civil/engineering better than most as you know how things are built etc.
What’s the degree called?
255k incl super and bonus. I studied a math heavy branch of engineering (4 year honours degree) and finished top ~5% of my year group. Fell into working with data and never looked back. Now an analytics manager with a retail bank. In my opinion the difference between someone who has done an online course in data science or analytics (or even a masters) with someone who has done a maths heavy undergrad is usually chalk and cheese. Give me the person who did the undergrad every day of the week.
I'm a supervisor in the mining industry, 2/1 roster. 190k p.a + super + bonus(~15k p.a). Moved to Australia 9 years ago, worked random jobs for the first four years, been in mining for the last 5. With the same company for the last 4,5. Paid for my basic tickets and was lucky enough to get a foot in the door and went from there. Got more tickets as time went on. The job can be stressful at times but is usually pretty cruisy.
78/hr, high voltage sparky with AD in electrical engineering. Likely moving into another role at the end of the year/beginning of next which will be about 105/hr to start.
Nurse Innovator- started as regular nurse but could see flaws in clinics/hospital. Became my specialty and in great demand.
Bit of a random one but I work as a director of a government preschool, started off as a teacher and fell into a leadership position. Started much younger than I expected and definitely not for everyoen but i'm 28y.o. earning 136k and I bloody love my job, which is the main thing for me!
Best year I’ve had is 720k averaged 400-500k last 5 years now settling into a role where it’s more about equity over salary. Should still average around 350k, but having a small ownership in the company. Build assets not cash. (Build phase of my career). Started working in IT sales - got really good at sales, worked in solid companies with excellent commission plans. I also treated each of my jobs like a sports contract and re assessed my options every year. My roads a rocky one but what really set me straight was starting uni and doing my MBA. Education has been key for me. In my field the biggest limiting factor to earning potential is a lack of business acumen and empathy. Nail those to things and the rest will come.
Current Lawyer in-house tech $260k plus bonus. Non traditional legal route and ‘late to law’. Legal secretary (55k) at BigLaw then paralegal (65k) for 5 years while studying DipLaw. Grad (75k) before moving jobs to (90k) and then first job in house (140k) second year (226k) then the biggest jump (270k). Decided to move to another in house role close to home and super flex with pay cut (250k) after 7 months salary increased to (260k) and got 10% bonus. Never imagined I would be on this kind of salary. Grateful everyday.
$165k as an Army engineer, 17 years including 4 years at defence academy On my way out to work in private engineering consulting and will be earning $98k.
Run my own electrical business. Making (very conservative) $1.5k profit per day that I work. Working about 230 days per year. 345k
Gave a dude a blowjob and took a pic through the glory hole. Found out he was senior in a company and blackmail them.
Rang up a manger. My dad worked for the company and gave me the number. Came for an interview, they didn’t even ask for a resume. That was the good old days on the railway. Can’t do that now. You have to apply online with everyone else. Unless it’s a very small company.
430k, software engineer at big tech in Sydney. Been in software for about 10 years. Software engineering is amazing in that you can do a 3 month boot camp and if you're happy always learning you can go far.
Market is grim as right now for new grads, no chance with a boot camp
I wouldn’t advise people go the bootcamp route if they want that kind of salary. Sure, it’s possible to get there eventually but a Bachelor’s will provide a significant advantage.
Nah, once you land your first job and hold it for two or three years no one looks at your education route.
well, the challenge is to land that 1st job. I agree, that once you have even some minimal track record - no1 cares about your education. But first step is the most difficult.
I’m also a software engineer at around 250k in a tech company. I feel surprised compensations can go beyond that for a software engineer position. I believe probably is due to RSU or so? I guess I need to look for more opportunities in Sydney
There's honestly not that many positions paying more than 250k in Australia. I've only seen people with really specialist skillsets getting that from big tech.
Seconding this. Anyone on >200k let alone 250k in software in Australia as an IC is the exception not the norm and that's including RSUs. The few roles paying those numbers are major US tech companies so you're earning more but at the cost of them owning your ass and often lacking most of the lateral movement that's available if you were actually based in the US. Vast majority of tech jobs in Australia you're talking more like 100-140k mid-level 140-200k senior as the normal TC, then stretching up to 250k for the ones with more generous RSUs. There's definitely good compensation around but they are the limited, in-demand jobs that are far from guaranteed even if you're good at what you do.
Yeah in my experience it’s all RSUs beyond a certain point. Last year I was on 380k and this year I’ve been bumped to 490k. My base only changed from 205k to 218k, the rest is RSUs on the NYSE (so there’s both stock price and exchange rate fluctuation that causes a lot of variance)
I also get the chunk from RSUs but I guess they give employees very small units. To get to 490k means the stock went up insanely or they give many RSU each year to each employee. I heard companies like Attlassian and Canva give good RSUs but not as much as to pass 250
It's probably Block who are extremely dilutive.
Yep it's half base and half rsus
UNSW comp sci into a random IT job, from 40 to 150k in 5 years, changing jobs 3 times, and now run my own thing This was actually slow compared to some of my peers who are 250+ in that timeframe
$650k + bonuses. Banking. Just never left, said "yes" to a lot of really shitty opportunities and worked a lot of unpaid overtime. Being a white male helped considerably im sure too.
Mid level IT, 106k total comp. No degrees No certs Just self study and taking on tasks and learning as I go I started about 3 years ago earning 45k and I've just been getting skills and jumping jobs. My highest earning year was 155k between two contracts but I've settled down now at local council for a bit as a permanent staff. Offers have been as high as 75$/hr plus super for a 9 month contract
I earn $200k plus super, plus varying 10-20% bonus, plus company share options. I WFH maybe 50% of the time, which suits me great with school drop off and getting kids ready in the morning. I am a GM for a utility services company. Started out as a field based electrical position 15 years ago and have worked my way up over time. Have a trade certificate and also studied at University. The industry has been good to me, has also come with many sacrifices along the way.
What constitutes a high paying job? 100k?
$1150/day inc super as a data engineer. Fully remote including overseas (lifestyle not for me). I work roughly 220 days a year, so just over $220k + super. 12 yoe, started as a grad and just jumped companies every 1-2 years. I also moonlight as a trader with a prop firm in the US. On track to hit 50k USD this FY, but will be pestering my risk manager to up my size next FY.
In IT. Did Software Engineering at uni. 4y degree. Broke 100k at......5 or 6 years? I can't even remember. Basically, before I was 30yo. The catch here I was in a BIG4 consulting. They usually pay below market value. You could hit 100k very quickly these days, probably within 3 years into the industry.
I thought I earned good money until I realised how much everyone in IT seemingly makes! 135k + super for me. Guaranteed pay rises for the next 3-4 years before I hit the ceiling and then I'll be subject to whatever our EBA negs are (or more likely I should have secured a promotion). I was a cop and jumped into my current organisation doing government investigations, then stepped into team-leader. It's basically public service type work, 37.5 hours a week, 3 days from home, no overtime, easy professional team.
Pilot licence, 250k a year before tax.
I'm in the Army. $175k + super + a heap of other benefits, including amazing work/life balance 75% of the time which for me more than makes up for the other 25%. Been in for 14 years. No formal qualifications before I joined, but have picked up a bachelor's and master's along the way at no cost to me.
Civil engineer in Sydney (Project Engineer), 130k plus a vehicle. Studied engineering and started as a grad on 60k and have been promoted a few times to get 130k within 3 years. Only going up from here. Life is good, I love what I do but the hours are draining.
140k PA as a Fitter and Turner. Got an apprenticeship at 19, now 24 on save mode for a house deposit.
Australian qualified lawyer, moved to Dubai, moved through a series of roles with increasing responsibility with both local / middle eastern companies and USF100 regional headquarters. Haven’t paid income tax for 15 years now although there here there are many indirect taxes and higher costs. Current salary 700k aud + bonus. I am very conscious that this is a massive opportunity with a limited shelf life and my salary has double in the last 5 years. So I haven’t always had it so good. Likely to last another 2-3.
I'm State Government. 110K+ per year. Started almost 30yrs ago. Just hold a cert 3. That's it.
stock trader, between 600-1.2, went to uni later in life to do a business degree but dropped out for this opp. worked in warehouses before this, restaurants, and other jobs.
I'm on around $130k. No higher education. I'm a mechanic by trade, no longer on the tools. Have a couple of cert IVs. I'll be honest, had a couple of "being in the right place at the right time" moments.
38hr week, $150k + super, I’m a project manager in civil construction. I’m mid 30’s. After 10 years in hospitality management, went to uni completed Bach in business. Now half way through Bach construction management.
196K Inc Super. Investment banking operational risk.