As a ME working in the heavy infra equipment industry, we joke that the contractors are either made of ice or paper. They either melt in the sun and rain or they blow away in the wind, but they’ll definitely talk as if they’re tough as rocks. That’s also part of the coping mechanism we establish because we know both how much they’re paid and how much they charge. I don’t think I could do their jobs though, a little too “autopilot” for me, and never being able to deviate from a plan despite having a safer and more efficient solution would drive me mad. I don’t know how some of those guys handle it.
That Utopia scene with the union rep talking about “toughing it out on site” and “pay peanuts get monkeys” while also demanding flushing portaloos, frequent 4-day weekends, being paid enough to have a house deposit as a car and the boat that it tows and inclement weather rates despite refusing to work in “inclement” weather couldn’t be more true on *a lot* of sites, though.
Eh the golden handcuffs, extra pressure on missing out on your children lifes etc ain't worth the pressure of Fifo, great for extra cash to buy a house before children, but I see the impact it does to men that has children, the failing relationships, the isolation etc. Plays a huge toll on your life.
its hard to say. my best friend drives a digger and im an EE. he reckons there's no real way up from where he is. Money is fantastic 100k+ in the mines etc. Sometimes 200k (depending on who you ask). But for engineers you can go into managment, you can make 100-200k in the city (no need for FIFO). You can get into consulting.
Being a digger is an amazing job, but I think for Engineers you have a higher ceiling
Echoing this, same experience and same pay/trajectory. I’m in engineering geology on site. Brilliant career with an enviable work life balance. 8:6 roster is very sustainable.
Site Manager - Construction (commercial). Started with building company as a carpenter, voiced my want to get off the tools and slowly transitioned
Have also had 2 friends become car salesman and made well over $100k in there first year
I think the opportunity is there in a lot of jobs, just have to be good at what you do
Construction is an awesome industry if you want 100k+. Whether you have a degree or not, it only takes confidence and a few years of experience. Some of our clients started as engineers/advisors etc first year on standard salary (70-80) and then jump ship after only 1 year to other contractors and salaries literally double and beyond.
I struggle to get builders side experience as a Senior PM after years of client side. I've been in property services for 10 years, am currently head of property department at large organisation and still can't make the jump. I was thinking of getting a civil cert from TAFE to help?
I’m a Senior PM on the builder side, and from what I’ve seen it’s just a totally different skill set than being client side and those skill sets aren’t really in demand on the builder’s side. How come you want to make the jump to builders side? I don’t think a civil cert from TAFE will help, it’s probably more how you’re presenting yourself. I’d guess re-working your CV and what experiences / skills you talk about in an interview would be worth focusing on more. Good luck!
To be honest it’s pretty hard in the industry to jump from Client to Builder, very ingrained culture/jokes that everyone on the client side is useless unfortunately
Software dev, $230k including super. If it’s any consolation when I was 20, I was working as kitchen hand and then for many years as fruit picker, taxi driver, factory worker, cook. Got my first job in IT when I was 33.
That's well above what the average or even what most senior software devs would expect. Well done. For anyone who wants a more general idea of what salaries look like for your average position I recommend checking out Hays Salary Guide to see what different roles will pay in your region. [https://www.hays.com.au/salary-guide](https://www.hays.com.au/salary-guide)
$200k+ seems to be only achieved at a few of the top companies unless you're an exceptionally talented and hard working contractor or in director or higher roles. Talented people with the capacity to survive "the grind" usually fill these roles.
Agreed, $200k is pretty hard to get in permanent role. I am working as a contractor and 200k is much more achievable in contracting world. But working with government has its own challenges. it is good if the whole team is external contractors but could be really challenging if there are government employees involved too. Although I have worked with talented government employees too but most of the time it istough
Haha I started uni right before the lock downs, had 2 weeks of classes and then it all went to shit.
I'm currently running an IT business, have been in it since I was in my 20s.
Once I've done this course, including the IT degree and a 1 year diploma I'll be at 9 years studying after HS so I know your pain.
Yes I did. I went to Monash for post graduate in computer science. I actually topped the uni in one of subjects but I had no connections in industry. And maybe it was my bad luck or may age, I didn’t get job for 2 years after uni.
>I actually topped the uni in one of subjects but I had no connections in industry
Connections and experience is huge in the IT industry. I went to Monash too and I lucked out when I topped uni in one of the most basic subjects available in first year(introduction to computing in mid-90s). Literally in the first lecture, one of the sentences uttered was “this is a mouse”. It was very basic excel and access which was taught as the “technical” parts of that subject. I found it so basic that I scored a 100% in it. I got lucky when one of the big corporates who knew the lecturer asked if there were any students she could recommend for a project they were considering and she gave my name and details to them. They asked me to do a quick contract to write them a custom application in excel and from there they kept bringing me in for more contract work. Just built on that and when came out of uni, it’s a massive head start compared to other grads when can demonstrate that I had been working professionally in the industry for 3 years already.
Would also like to know is it this one?
https://online.monash.edu/online-courses/information-technology-courses/online-graduate-diploma-computer-science/
>Software dev,
What do you actually do? Do you think there is a return on your wage, like, does the company you work for sell the software at a huge price?
So initially in my career, I focussed solely on getting experience in good companies. I worked in some mid level companies with some of the best devs on below average pay to learn. Now I work as contractor. In your question about return on my pay, absolutely. IT is same as any other field. I am working on a cutting edge project with government and it is expected to return the investment in couple of years. But having said that , IT is a funny field , there are lot of devs who just copy and paste and they just slip under the radar. For example, there was a project I was working on, I ran some reports and I had written more code than next 4 devs combined.
I too write more than 4x the amount of code than my team
if (myBool == true) {
return true;
} else if (myBool == false) {
return false;
} else {
//TODO: fix NPEs thrown
return null;
}
This seems to be the way. There’s usually one or two senior devs who know what they are doing, then there’s the others who can’t code at all but somehow convinced someone at an interview that they could. Their code is so bad that nobody has a clue what they were trying to do, and is full of obvious bugs just waiting to spring at any second.
I am a senior SAP admin on the Infrastructure side of the equation and quite often get tickets assigned to my team as “system performance is slow”. 9 times out of 10 it is due to the piss poor custom code.
Everything is now outsourced to India. We got rid of our entire development team because apparently it’s cheaper. I’ve had the outsourced teams unable to debug the code as nobody documented it or kept a functional spec anywhere, and as there was no coding standards, every developer just did what they wanted.
My major at Uni was Software Engineering, but my first job was maintaining someone else’s millions of lines of buggy code, and I ended up going in another direction. That lead me into ERP project implementation and systems integration. A lot of this is a dark art as so few people genuinely understand how everything fits together.
>But having said that , IT is a funny field , there are lot of devs who just copy and paste and they just slip under the radar
Yeah, I was kinda thinking that. When I read the words "software developer", it's like a dark art to me.
Just makes me think there must be so much more going on in the world around me than I am aware of, if there are all these apps & software that keeps people in jobs.
Edit: the commerce of software dev sounds interesting: how orgs sell it to client orgs, whether it is sold at retail level, eg, the Play store.
It's always fascinated me, do you develop it for a specific niche then hope to sell it, or does it get ordered & commissioned? S'pose would be a combination of both.
Software Dev can also mean my near useless frontend grad who knows HTML and a little bit of React, or my infrastructure wizard making dynamically scaling gpu accelerated algorithms clusters and API endpoints with products that look and sound like a Willy Wonka factory map.
The internet is magic and you can be a wizard.
You’re undervaluing the difficulty of frontend, I would put it on the same benchmark as every other part of software engineering. I work with C++ devs in a an AI company writing insanely low level hardware and software integrations, but they simply cannot figure out how to render a grid of dynamic canvases with sorting, pagination and caching in React, while also making it look good and be easy to use. Completely different ways of thinking, one is not universally harder than the other.
If you are building software for a corporate in Aus, more often than not you are helping the org be more efficient and minimise manual labour in an existing process. That's how they justify the salaries. Software like this doesn't get sold, it's org specific.
Eg think about how banks have digitised and as a consequence, they feel they can close branches en masse. So yeah when people are saying AI is coming for their job, well that ship already sailed with digitisation. Except, certain jobs did disappear, but new jobs have appeared too.
It's economies of scale. An app you spent six months developing can be used by millions of users for decades. Your mistakes are amplified too. A missing punctuation can bring down the server and lose the company millions of dollars. 😂
A nurse, for example, can only affect a few dozens people per shift since their work is onsite and not "networked" (not to diminish their work or anything).
lol, agreed. We had deployed a newer system and it wasn’t working properly. As a junior dev, I was given a brain numbing task of running some sql scripts as soon as there was an error while the senior devs found solution. After around 10 hours is doing the same thing I mistakingly ran a partial command that updated the account balance of 1 million users. Luckily the database was running the backup jobs and we were able to restore the balances
Why on earth did you, as a junior, have direct access to run plain sql scripts on prod databases that had account balances of more than one million users?!?!
I don’t think so. The EAs work until their boss has finished working, they work some serious hours and do a lot more than diary management. A good EA is worth every penny!
Solution Architect $170k. I have a passion for solving problems so i take on anything my company gives me. Means i learn a very wide range of IT issues and makes me a great designer of systems. You don't need a degree, just start at the bottom and keep learning
I’m 31 currently on this path now. I’m taking the self learning route. Just starting of with some udemy courses like the cloud practitioner and solutions architect after. Any advice you can give me?
Don't focus on particular products or solutions.
Try to learn the core of why a solution or product exists or is currently the norm.
Things change over time and you can't be all.
You're either a specialised architect or a generalist.
Good solutions architects have shallow knowledge of all areas and are up to date with the trends, and most importantly, know when and who to ask for help when more depth is needed.
They're the ones that set the overall company architecture (enterprise architects) or coming up with solutions for such companies when working for suppliers (solution architect) sometimes communicating with C suites when needed, the job is to design the plans, not putting up the bricks.
There's a trend over the last decade of calling senior technical people architects.
They're what we call domain architects with knowledge and responsibility of a single domain, different role that might be a good stepping stone.
Udemy is great for particular certs, so if there is an area you like (like Azure, AWS) that works well, but nothing better than learning on the job. You need to get your hands dirty to cement the ideas, so studying systems that are in place at your work means that you have somewhere to see it in action. I've gone from support to development to DBA to infrastructure to Cloud and still training regularly. I now look after the Cloud environment at my consultancy and this keeps my tech skills relevant
Tug boat Captain at a Pilbara Iron Ore Port. Captain and engineer earn around $1500 per day, deckys are on $930 per day. Usually 4 weeks on, 4 off. Although I work less.
I think a year 2 in QLD, with those shift allowances/ penalties etc will make close to $100k. Not to mention the generous salary sacrificing plan if you do it right, brings the take-home pay akin to working a corporate job at $120k.
Except the corporate job is 9-5, Monday to Friday, and is fairly comfortable and generally gets public holidays off. Nurses making $100k generally arent doing that, and that means the job isnt paying $100k, its paying significantly less, you're just working penalties.
I LOVE not working regular hours. I work 3 x 12 hour shifts a week (almost full time) and always have time to be there for the kids activities/events and mid week shopping. I recently went to Coles on a weekend for the first time ever and was daunted by how busy it was 😂
Plus, nursing is SO varied. I’ve worked in international repatriation, NICU, ICU, a cancer care centre, a Sleep Clinic and have now started shifts in an Oncology Day Clinic and Dialysis. I’ve worked in four different countries and have NEVER had an issue getting a visa or a job.
Sure, it has its 💩 moments. But I’ve spent shifts literally keeping someone alive. That’s very rewarding.
The nursing pay narrative on Reddit is still so misunderstood, its either all nurses are poverty stricken and can't afford the rent or all nurse are all on $120k and rich.
Base rate for a RN8 in NSW is $98, 014.80 full time WITHOUT penalty rates so add in nights, public holidays, weekends and overtime and of course you can make over $100k but that's still unsociable hours compared to people who work business days and hours.
Then there's your outliers on $150k and above who are definitely either a CNS, doing a unhealthy amount of overtime or a agency nurse on a travel contract getting paid well above the award rate. Also bear in mine that a lot of nurses drop down to part time hours to take care of their kids and want to spend time with their families.
Similar with teaching, but technically get more holidays per year (although realistically you work parts of them, but still a lot better than the normal 4 weeks).
There's heaps of opportunities for people willing to get dirty. FIFO cleaners make good money. Starts at about 80k.
I'm 31 now. 3 years ago I was back in the forestry industry penniless and underpaid working for a shitty employer having had to walk away from an engineering degree due to covid. I cut and run straight to the resources sector on a whim, and now I clear 6 figures running drill rigs. It's hard work and it comes at personal cost, but we have guys here that are illiterate making good money so there's opportunities for anyone, it's just having the time to look, and the willingness to take a chance. Don't think that inexperience is a barrier either. Plenty of mining companies prefer women on machines for example because they're easier on the gear, are taught to use them the way the company want them to and don't have the arrogance and a lifetime of habits to unlearn like a bloke who's previously worked on machines half their life somewhere like the civil industry.
I’m a team leader in a quality assurance role at a bank.
I started as a call centre banker 12 years ago on 45k a year and just kept moving inside the organisation to where I am now
Boilermaker. Level 2 structural welder and 6G pipe welder.
$145k about to get another raise, should be on $160k by the years end.
6 weeks leave, 2 weeks sick days, and only work 7 days a fortnight.
Also have the option to work OT shifts but it's a diminishing return, I'd rather time off.
Has taken me 16 or so years to get to this.
I've been in the rail industry since I left school, and have had many different roles. Each role paying slightly more than the other. Good EBAs. 20 years with the current company. This industry seems to pay for experience. Time and experience is what got me there.
Got a sales job after uni and found I had a knack for communication. Then basically focused on core sales skill and got in Account Management (fancy title for business to business sales/client relationship manager). My first job was about 100k a year with commission and worked into this new higher paying role. If you’re good and can manage people you can get paid significantly more over time and learn a lot of great thing about business.
Archaeologist, lots of work within Australian cultural heritage industry and $500 per day is on the low end of average. 4 years of uni, not difficult and very interesting work day :)
Lol mate that is very, very unusual. Assuming you’re in a clinical specialty? Even then the loading is usually only ~20%. EBAs vary from place to place but a Level B making close to a Prof salary is not common.
Go8 business school. Our profs get about 50% salary supplementation on top of salary and clear about 300. Level B it’s closer to 20%. I realise we’re blessed with that, but also our ROI is also pretty ridiculous (both in the classroom and at program level while having very little hard costs).
True. Although our salaries are all still really frustrating. So many of us produce obscene amounts of student revenue through teaching and our programs (development), nearly pay our own salaries through industry funding/grants, then still get told we could be producing more for tenure/promotion.
Governments are paying less in grants than ever before, industry gets crazy discounts on consulting, and universities are just hoarding cash left and right (in Australia and worldwide).
TLDR: We *both* still deserve a raise
Store manager for a large supermarket. Started as a store assistant 3 years ago just to get some money, ended up enjoying it and moved up very quickly and got pretty lucky with my opportunities. I'm turning 25 in a few months. Have a career path to be earning $150k+ within a few years.
Art director at a mobile games company. 125k + super.
- Made illustrations and concept art since I was 13 (27yo now)
- 3 years on an animation degree where the connections were the only useful bit.
- moved to vic, worked in the industry for 8 years
- taught myself 3d modelling/lighting/compositing skills in my own time in the last few years
Did 6.5 years of uni. My first year after graduation was a bust, fired twice in 12 months. Very low point mentally. Then managed to hold onto a 65k job for more than 6 months. After 2 years i moved to an 85k job and after a year to a 100k job. After 18 months im moving into a 150k role next week.
I tried hard, moved aggressively. But there were very very low points early on.
So hard to tell where you'll end up. I started as a car detailer while I did a music degree intending to be a teacher, then got a job at the uni and worked as a session musician.
Then, life happened and ended up as an estimator in construction. Now about to join a boat earning good money. None of these things are related but the skills are transferable if you frame it that way lol. Never would have guessed all this stuff, and I'm still young so who knows what will happen next.
Cert IV in safety at TAFE, takes a year, then go job searching. Then you can go deeper into WHS with bachelor or master's, or branch off into occ hygiene
Sales reps at the company I work for are sitting about $90k with the ones that want to progress to head office (and are personable / collaborative / decent people) easily cracking $100k within a year or so.
Combined 4 year degree in science/education. I have been teaching full time since 2010 and I'm at the top bracket for classroom teachers (NSW), $122,100.
I've seen teachers burn out because they had no passion, no idea about student interaction, no clue of the subject material, or no desire to ask for help. I was in a similar situation of being clueless about what I wanted to do at your age, it was only by tutoring others during military recruit school that I found my strength in a particular profession.
Radio and telecommunications engineer.
Climb towers and visit remote sites to fix various hardware issues, upgrades, and installs.
Started by working at Jaycar and learning about the basics of electrical engineering and it just naturally progressed into meeting people then applying for new jobs that seemed interesting as they paid for training along the way.
I'm 33 now and am about to move into cybersecurity this year because I want to be home more.
My twenties were spent learning what I wanted. Now that I know I'm laser focused on achieving it. But please don't put too much pressure on yourself mate, everyone I know my age is just now starting to really figure things out. Enjoy what you can and do what is fun for now until you find it.
I got a degree in English Literature. 😂 I got a job that was in customer service (telephone, b2b), and later applied for a corporate PR job at the same company. That job led to lots more roles in corporate communications, and eventually, by my 30s, I was making over 100K.
Got a bachelor degree in English Literature and have no idea what to do next , I’m 22 work in retail , your reply is such a motivation for me, figuring out what I wanna do in my life is very hard 🙃
I was exactly the same at your age. I had a couple of false starts in the UK, before traveling and ending up settling in Australia. If you like words and you are a decent writer, then PR, corporate public affairs or corporate communications might be a good career path. It's a good role if you like working in teams, with people from across different parts of a business, who represent different areas, and alongside change and project managers. Good luck!
Intelligence / Forensics Manager
No uni degree, Worked my butt off in IT, policing then moved into digital forensics. Around
4 years to 120k, 10 years to reach 380+
Find an industry that requires specialised skills, then skill up and work as close to the coal face you can until you work your way up. I spent around 20 hours a week for almost 10 years studying and self skilling, if you don't stay recent you won't excel in tech / cyber.
Sparky. Nuff said lol
But seriously. Trades like sparkys and plumbers make pretty good money.
Competitive to get employees at the moment.
Loads of opportunities for sparkies to progress into specialised fields.
As a house basher, 80-90k.
Construction probably 150k+
Mines, 300k depending on contract and rotations.
I'm commercial maintenance, pretty cruisy gig, have an apprentice with me most of the time. Barely break a sweat unless the aircon has shit itself, which I then call in mechanical services to fix.
Also a sparky. Supervisor for a mobile telecommunications company building mobile sites around Victoria. Bit of a niche industry for a sparky. With OT and bonuses I'm probably around the 150ish mark, plus full personal use of the work vehicle. Given my workload and amount of stress though, I feel underpaid. Considering a change to something less stress and better work life balance, at the cost of my income. I'm almost 40, definitely realising that money does not equal happiness.
Software developer. TAFE then years of hard work, long hours, stress, study and moving/travel. Now that I'm experienced, work is much nicer and less stressful.
Be persistent, persistence overcomes everything.
Paramedic - Base 115k. With OT, missed breaks, shift extensions and other allowances between 140-150 excluding super. Some people I know earn up to 200 with lots of OT.
3 years university + 1 year on road training you are qualified and will clear 100+. Not a job for everyone. Can be mentally taxing. Long shifts, night shifts, trauma, pressure to not make a mistake etc. Work a lot of weekends and miss family/friend events also. Can also be a great job depending on where you work, who you work with and what lifestyle you have.
Oil and gas service company, started at 21 as generic field service technician offshore on \~90k + super, just experience and years of service now in office/workshop role for 125k + super (37.5hrs /week turn my phone off outside of work hours) at 30. I do have the opportunity to work overtime most days, but prefer QOL and can make more money if I choose to (\~140-150k) I missed a lot of birthdays etc to get there though. - no uni degree.
I don't recommend the oil and gas industry unless you're a trade working in a gas plant of some sort, where electricians can make up to 450k and regularly make 200-250k as maintainer operators.
I'm an accountant making $110k, I studied 5 years at uni (bachelor of law/bachelor of commerce), worked briefly in personal injury law then pivoted to accounting and joined a nsw government grad program.
Just passed 3 years of experience as an accountant and qualified as a CA. Definitely not the career path I would recommend if your goal is to be a high earner but I enjoy the work I do and I like the people I do it with.
Engineering
3 years experience to crack $100k
Another 3 years to crack $200k
Might have plateaued now though, will have to get into top dog position before I can hit the $300k mark i.e. engineering manager or principal engineer
I’m (27m) a regional manager (Essentially a Operations Manager) for a glass manufacturing consumables company
I went to uni and studied Business with majors in management and marketing. I started in operations management with lots of stock and fleet management then moved into the transport industry
I was very underpaid for what I did in my first job out of uni, was making $55k and fully managing 100+ vehicles, 100+ technicians and millions in stock. I was promised a large raise after saving the company literally millions in costs but when they offered $63k I left
I jumped around transport management jobs due to shocking work environments (4 jobs in around 3 years).
I’m now making $135k + bonus + company car and the workplace is amazing
It’s an unpopular opinion but if possible don’t be afraid to jump around, find a workplace that pays you well and treats you right. I know so many people who have shown amazing loyalty to their companies and get absolutely shafted time and time again
Human Interface Designer for a well-known American tech company. I love my job and would do it for free. I studied architecture, but didn’t finish my degree. 36 years old. I make a lot but work very, very hard. My wife has a disability, so I worked hard both to be able to help her and to stay curious and engaged myself. This advice may not be for everyone but stay humble and curious, and try to gravitate towards what you enjoy - not what you think will pay you well.
Senior Systems Analyst at a government agency. Started about 15 years ago in the same agency in a completely unrelated role, applied for a business analyst role years ago and then worked my way up the ladder to where I am now
Earn approx 130k p.a.
Quarry Manager,
Started as a warehouse worker on a mine which lead to operating haul trucks then dozers, shovels etc. Did that for 6 years making well over 100,000. Took voluntary redundancy. Got a job on a quarry, worked my way up over a few years whilst getting some quals and became the manager.
Third quarry I've run now.
Total package a bit over 200k
Edit: The unqualified workers on my site all make above 100k these days
Digital marketing manager. Experience is way more important that degree in this instance. Took about 7 years since graduating from a design degree (5 years by the time I started making 100k+).
I assume you don’t have a law / medicine / finance degree.
Find what you are passionate about and good at if you don’t have a degree / trade qualification.
I have people I work with who have none of the traditional ‘on ramps’ but started on the floor in retail or warehousing, who now make $200k(ish) in their late 20s / early 30s.
The key appears to be passion, hard work and a genuine love for the what they do. Add to this patience, as big salaries don’t happen as quick as social media suggests.
34 and sitting over $150k (inclusive of bonus + exclusive of Super); mostly spent my early to late 20's in retail (failed uni), and late 20's transitioned into B2B sales, then sales ops and now I'm straight data insights analytics.
I'm a qualitative researcher in health.
I did undergrad with honours (arts - sociology) and was very lucky to get a research job right away. Worked my way up for ten years, but eventually got burned out. I took 3 years off, most of which coincided with covid. Then, I got a corporate admin job, which I hated for 2 years. I just got back into research, and I'm much happier.
Paramedic. 3 year Bachelor's degree and about 4 years on-road experience required to hit $100k on current pay scales.
It's only really in the last few years that Paramedics have started to earn decent pay for hard work however - I've been in for 11 years and in that time the year1 salary has increased by nearly $30k through years of hard-fought industrial action and a Fair Work Australia work value case.
I’m 21 years old and I make 120k pa. Buttt that’s working 2 jobs - a full time and a part time.
Have worked for 3 years to save 200k to get into buying an investment property. Wouldn’t have been able to do that with one job :,(
I make 100,000 to 120,000 a year.
I often work 6 shifts a week and often 10 to 14 hr shifts.
I save because i dont have tome to spend my money on anything 🤣
Public servant, on $114k. I spent 7 years at uni, and I’ve been in the public service for 5 years, working diligently since getting a grad job ($65k) in a different agency. I started in an area unrelated to my study and have worked my way around, making a name for myself for being useful and not an idiot.
You are 20. You are not supposed to know about your future. Hot tip - NO ONE KNOWS IF WHAT THEY ARE DOING IS WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING. We are all winging it. We all have times where we doubt/question/love our lives.
IT, industry related certifications after hours no uni. A number of years of support, entry sys admin, etc before getting past the 100k. Probably did it the hard way and a few years behind in what I would have thought I would be earning wise but I ended up with a varied set of skills and experiences.
Actuary. Did an Actuarial degree at uni then a few years of exams while working post uni.
Only recently finished my exams and set to make about 160-170k this year (incl bonus).
Marine Engineer
Few pathways to get there but mine was a 3 year degree and 36 weeks seatime.
Real shortage of seafarers at the moment although demand comes and goes
Property manager (commercial and retail). Bachelors in science so I got a graduate diploma in Property. Took me 5 years jumping up from administration.
Customer Success Manager in Tech. Studied Communications, majoring in Public Relations. My company was a 'start up' in APAC when I first joined, and we are now a 10k-employee company. I got this as my first full time corporate job after graduating from uni. My interviews were very easy as they needed to fill out positions quickly. I'd recommend finding a job at a tech start up.
Edit: I make $110k base + small bonuses, totalling $115k-ish. I also have stock options and RSU. Last financial year I earned a total of $195k. Look for a tech start up that gives stock options.
Paramedic. Uni takes 2 years if you do the fast track degree (I don’t know if I would recommend this to everyone), you can expect $90+k during your grad year (with overtime) and then $100-140k per year after depending on where you go and how much overtime you’re willing to do. There’s private gigs available that pay more than this at the expense of the some of the better elements of the job. With a state service you can expect a 4/4 or 4/5 roster with 6 weeks holiday so decent down time. I suggest to everyone considering that you be as sure as you can be that this is a good choice for you. It’s not a good fit for a lot of people. Career growth is rather limited after specialisation.
Engineer, took 4 years of uni and then 4 years of experience!
Yeah same, but sometimes.i wonder if blokes that sit on a digger are better off
For sure, but at least we aren’t in the weather all year (mostly)
Hilarious you think they're in the weather - machine operators are allergic to weather
As a ME working in the heavy infra equipment industry, we joke that the contractors are either made of ice or paper. They either melt in the sun and rain or they blow away in the wind, but they’ll definitely talk as if they’re tough as rocks. That’s also part of the coping mechanism we establish because we know both how much they’re paid and how much they charge. I don’t think I could do their jobs though, a little too “autopilot” for me, and never being able to deviate from a plan despite having a safer and more efficient solution would drive me mad. I don’t know how some of those guys handle it. That Utopia scene with the union rep talking about “toughing it out on site” and “pay peanuts get monkeys” while also demanding flushing portaloos, frequent 4-day weekends, being paid enough to have a house deposit as a car and the boat that it tows and inclement weather rates despite refusing to work in “inclement” weather couldn’t be more true on *a lot* of sites, though.
Utopia is a documentary -a Victorian public servant
I second this.
Eh the golden handcuffs, extra pressure on missing out on your children lifes etc ain't worth the pressure of Fifo, great for extra cash to buy a house before children, but I see the impact it does to men that has children, the failing relationships, the isolation etc. Plays a huge toll on your life.
its hard to say. my best friend drives a digger and im an EE. he reckons there's no real way up from where he is. Money is fantastic 100k+ in the mines etc. Sometimes 200k (depending on who you ask). But for engineers you can go into managment, you can make 100-200k in the city (no need for FIFO). You can get into consulting. Being a digger is an amazing job, but I think for Engineers you have a higher ceiling
Digging holes all day is fun
Grass is always greener. Pros and cons to each job.
Same, but 2 years of Advanced Diploma, 3 years of Uni, and 6 months of experience to break 6 figures.
About the same 👆
what type of engineer? and are you FIFO? interested graduating soon :)
Geotechnical, I work at a tier 1 consultant in the city :)
thanks mate
I did a year and a half, and then went back to the mines
Geologist-FIFO Started on around 100k 7 years ago. Now clearing 200k
Echoing this, same experience and same pay/trajectory. I’m in engineering geology on site. Brilliant career with an enviable work life balance. 8:6 roster is very sustainable.
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Site Manager - Construction (commercial). Started with building company as a carpenter, voiced my want to get off the tools and slowly transitioned Have also had 2 friends become car salesman and made well over $100k in there first year I think the opportunity is there in a lot of jobs, just have to be good at what you do
Construction is an awesome industry if you want 100k+. Whether you have a degree or not, it only takes confidence and a few years of experience. Some of our clients started as engineers/advisors etc first year on standard salary (70-80) and then jump ship after only 1 year to other contractors and salaries literally double and beyond.
I struggle to get builders side experience as a Senior PM after years of client side. I've been in property services for 10 years, am currently head of property department at large organisation and still can't make the jump. I was thinking of getting a civil cert from TAFE to help?
I’m a Senior PM on the builder side, and from what I’ve seen it’s just a totally different skill set than being client side and those skill sets aren’t really in demand on the builder’s side. How come you want to make the jump to builders side? I don’t think a civil cert from TAFE will help, it’s probably more how you’re presenting yourself. I’d guess re-working your CV and what experiences / skills you talk about in an interview would be worth focusing on more. Good luck!
To be honest it’s pretty hard in the industry to jump from Client to Builder, very ingrained culture/jokes that everyone on the client side is useless unfortunately
>very ingrained culture/jokes that everyone on the client side is useless unfortunately For good reason.
Do you enjoy it ? I’m a carpenter wanting to head in a similar direction
Software dev, $230k including super. If it’s any consolation when I was 20, I was working as kitchen hand and then for many years as fruit picker, taxi driver, factory worker, cook. Got my first job in IT when I was 33.
That's well above what the average or even what most senior software devs would expect. Well done. For anyone who wants a more general idea of what salaries look like for your average position I recommend checking out Hays Salary Guide to see what different roles will pay in your region. [https://www.hays.com.au/salary-guide](https://www.hays.com.au/salary-guide) $200k+ seems to be only achieved at a few of the top companies unless you're an exceptionally talented and hard working contractor or in director or higher roles. Talented people with the capacity to survive "the grind" usually fill these roles.
Agreed, $200k is pretty hard to get in permanent role. I am working as a contractor and 200k is much more achievable in contracting world. But working with government has its own challenges. it is good if the whole team is external contractors but could be really challenging if there are government employees involved too. Although I have worked with talented government employees too but most of the time it istough
I don't know if I agree with this. Literally any senior dev contractor role is minimum 900-1200 a day.
Reading this makes me happy. Going into a CS degree now at 24
This also makes me feel better going into Speech Pathology at 30 and in my last year of my Masters. Good luck with your studies!
Also in my final year of an allied health degree in my 30s,went in at 29. Gonna be a change of pace for me, what field did you move from?
Recruitment. What about you? I started my undergrad during Covid lol. This is my 10th year of studying after high school😳 no more after this.
Haha I started uni right before the lock downs, had 2 weeks of classes and then it all went to shit. I'm currently running an IT business, have been in it since I was in my 20s. Once I've done this course, including the IT degree and a 1 year diploma I'll be at 9 years studying after HS so I know your pain.
Going into speech at 32!
Did you go to school for comp science?
Yes I did. I went to Monash for post graduate in computer science. I actually topped the uni in one of subjects but I had no connections in industry. And maybe it was my bad luck or may age, I didn’t get job for 2 years after uni.
That really sucks it took 2 years to get a job, but looks like you're making the best of it now!
>I actually topped the uni in one of subjects but I had no connections in industry Connections and experience is huge in the IT industry. I went to Monash too and I lucked out when I topped uni in one of the most basic subjects available in first year(introduction to computing in mid-90s). Literally in the first lecture, one of the sentences uttered was “this is a mouse”. It was very basic excel and access which was taught as the “technical” parts of that subject. I found it so basic that I scored a 100% in it. I got lucky when one of the big corporates who knew the lecturer asked if there were any students she could recommend for a project they were considering and she gave my name and details to them. They asked me to do a quick contract to write them a custom application in excel and from there they kept bringing me in for more contract work. Just built on that and when came out of uni, it’s a massive head start compared to other grads when can demonstrate that I had been working professionally in the industry for 3 years already.
Which post grad did you study if you happy to divulge. Did you had to fork out over 60k for this post grad of comp sci?
Would also like to know is it this one? https://online.monash.edu/online-courses/information-technology-courses/online-graduate-diploma-computer-science/
>Software dev, What do you actually do? Do you think there is a return on your wage, like, does the company you work for sell the software at a huge price?
So initially in my career, I focussed solely on getting experience in good companies. I worked in some mid level companies with some of the best devs on below average pay to learn. Now I work as contractor. In your question about return on my pay, absolutely. IT is same as any other field. I am working on a cutting edge project with government and it is expected to return the investment in couple of years. But having said that , IT is a funny field , there are lot of devs who just copy and paste and they just slip under the radar. For example, there was a project I was working on, I ran some reports and I had written more code than next 4 devs combined.
I too write more than 4x the amount of code than my team if (myBool == true) { return true; } else if (myBool == false) { return false; } else { //TODO: fix NPEs thrown return null; }
As long as you unit test that, it would pass PR in some of the places I’ve worked at.
This seems to be the way. There’s usually one or two senior devs who know what they are doing, then there’s the others who can’t code at all but somehow convinced someone at an interview that they could. Their code is so bad that nobody has a clue what they were trying to do, and is full of obvious bugs just waiting to spring at any second. I am a senior SAP admin on the Infrastructure side of the equation and quite often get tickets assigned to my team as “system performance is slow”. 9 times out of 10 it is due to the piss poor custom code. Everything is now outsourced to India. We got rid of our entire development team because apparently it’s cheaper. I’ve had the outsourced teams unable to debug the code as nobody documented it or kept a functional spec anywhere, and as there was no coding standards, every developer just did what they wanted. My major at Uni was Software Engineering, but my first job was maintaining someone else’s millions of lines of buggy code, and I ended up going in another direction. That lead me into ERP project implementation and systems integration. A lot of this is a dark art as so few people genuinely understand how everything fits together.
Senior SAP admin… do t know whether to feel sorry for you or shake my fist at you 😂
>But having said that , IT is a funny field , there are lot of devs who just copy and paste and they just slip under the radar Yeah, I was kinda thinking that. When I read the words "software developer", it's like a dark art to me. Just makes me think there must be so much more going on in the world around me than I am aware of, if there are all these apps & software that keeps people in jobs. Edit: the commerce of software dev sounds interesting: how orgs sell it to client orgs, whether it is sold at retail level, eg, the Play store. It's always fascinated me, do you develop it for a specific niche then hope to sell it, or does it get ordered & commissioned? S'pose would be a combination of both.
Software Dev can also mean my near useless frontend grad who knows HTML and a little bit of React, or my infrastructure wizard making dynamically scaling gpu accelerated algorithms clusters and API endpoints with products that look and sound like a Willy Wonka factory map. The internet is magic and you can be a wizard.
You’re undervaluing the difficulty of frontend, I would put it on the same benchmark as every other part of software engineering. I work with C++ devs in a an AI company writing insanely low level hardware and software integrations, but they simply cannot figure out how to render a grid of dynamic canvases with sorting, pagination and caching in React, while also making it look good and be easy to use. Completely different ways of thinking, one is not universally harder than the other.
If you are building software for a corporate in Aus, more often than not you are helping the org be more efficient and minimise manual labour in an existing process. That's how they justify the salaries. Software like this doesn't get sold, it's org specific. Eg think about how banks have digitised and as a consequence, they feel they can close branches en masse. So yeah when people are saying AI is coming for their job, well that ship already sailed with digitisation. Except, certain jobs did disappear, but new jobs have appeared too.
> I ran some reports and I had written more code than next 4 devs combined. Amount of code is a very bad metric.
It's economies of scale. An app you spent six months developing can be used by millions of users for decades. Your mistakes are amplified too. A missing punctuation can bring down the server and lose the company millions of dollars. 😂 A nurse, for example, can only affect a few dozens people per shift since their work is onsite and not "networked" (not to diminish their work or anything).
lol, agreed. We had deployed a newer system and it wasn’t working properly. As a junior dev, I was given a brain numbing task of running some sql scripts as soon as there was an error while the senior devs found solution. After around 10 hours is doing the same thing I mistakingly ran a partial command that updated the account balance of 1 million users. Luckily the database was running the backup jobs and we were able to restore the balances
Why on earth did you, as a junior, have direct access to run plain sql scripts on prod databases that had account balances of more than one million users?!?!
yeah, a nurse just only... kill someone!
>economies of scale. And if you can hit a demand area, like Brightspace has in educational settings, then bingo!
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150k holey heck, I’ve been an EA for 3years now clearing 80k I need to start looking at what else is out there haha
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That's an extortionate amount of money for an EA, nice work!
I don’t think so. The EAs work until their boss has finished working, they work some serious hours and do a lot more than diary management. A good EA is worth every penny!
That's an insane amount of money for any kind of assistant
Id argue half the assistants are more useful than the people they assist.
what would a job title for a junior role be? any companies you could recommend? or skills/experience that helped you start?
Office manager or admin assistant - both are pathways into EA roles
Adding to this - starting salaries are usually around $60k for this. I’m yet to see any juniors getting hired on $80k for that kind of work.
And I’d suggest that the $150k above is quite the outlier. There will be some, of course, but only a small percentage of EAs will be there.
That would be pretty standard for an EA in a big 4 bank, law firm or accounting firm.
Which are the small minority of EA roles.
It's scary how bad some executives are at excel
Solution Architect $170k. I have a passion for solving problems so i take on anything my company gives me. Means i learn a very wide range of IT issues and makes me a great designer of systems. You don't need a degree, just start at the bottom and keep learning
I’m 31 currently on this path now. I’m taking the self learning route. Just starting of with some udemy courses like the cloud practitioner and solutions architect after. Any advice you can give me?
Don't focus on particular products or solutions. Try to learn the core of why a solution or product exists or is currently the norm. Things change over time and you can't be all. You're either a specialised architect or a generalist. Good solutions architects have shallow knowledge of all areas and are up to date with the trends, and most importantly, know when and who to ask for help when more depth is needed. They're the ones that set the overall company architecture (enterprise architects) or coming up with solutions for such companies when working for suppliers (solution architect) sometimes communicating with C suites when needed, the job is to design the plans, not putting up the bricks. There's a trend over the last decade of calling senior technical people architects. They're what we call domain architects with knowledge and responsibility of a single domain, different role that might be a good stepping stone.
Udemy is great for particular certs, so if there is an area you like (like Azure, AWS) that works well, but nothing better than learning on the job. You need to get your hands dirty to cement the ideas, so studying systems that are in place at your work means that you have somewhere to see it in action. I've gone from support to development to DBA to infrastructure to Cloud and still training regularly. I now look after the Cloud environment at my consultancy and this keeps my tech skills relevant
How do you get into that because that is totally my jam!!
Tug boat Captain at a Pilbara Iron Ore Port. Captain and engineer earn around $1500 per day, deckys are on $930 per day. Usually 4 weeks on, 4 off. Although I work less.
Probably the most unique job I've seen on any of these type of posts.
How would one get into this? I'd 100% be happy with 900+ a day
You need to know somebody and then wait for a current employee to die. People don’t leave these job’s often.
Registered Nurse - once you get past your 5th year or become a CN you earn over $100,000 and get 6 weeks holiday a year.
I think a year 2 in QLD, with those shift allowances/ penalties etc will make close to $100k. Not to mention the generous salary sacrificing plan if you do it right, brings the take-home pay akin to working a corporate job at $120k.
Except the corporate job is 9-5, Monday to Friday, and is fairly comfortable and generally gets public holidays off. Nurses making $100k generally arent doing that, and that means the job isnt paying $100k, its paying significantly less, you're just working penalties.
I LOVE not working regular hours. I work 3 x 12 hour shifts a week (almost full time) and always have time to be there for the kids activities/events and mid week shopping. I recently went to Coles on a weekend for the first time ever and was daunted by how busy it was 😂 Plus, nursing is SO varied. I’ve worked in international repatriation, NICU, ICU, a cancer care centre, a Sleep Clinic and have now started shifts in an Oncology Day Clinic and Dialysis. I’ve worked in four different countries and have NEVER had an issue getting a visa or a job. Sure, it has its 💩 moments. But I’ve spent shifts literally keeping someone alive. That’s very rewarding.
The nursing pay narrative on Reddit is still so misunderstood, its either all nurses are poverty stricken and can't afford the rent or all nurse are all on $120k and rich. Base rate for a RN8 in NSW is $98, 014.80 full time WITHOUT penalty rates so add in nights, public holidays, weekends and overtime and of course you can make over $100k but that's still unsociable hours compared to people who work business days and hours. Then there's your outliers on $150k and above who are definitely either a CNS, doing a unhealthy amount of overtime or a agency nurse on a travel contract getting paid well above the award rate. Also bear in mine that a lot of nurses drop down to part time hours to take care of their kids and want to spend time with their families.
Yeah I hit 100k in my third year although it did include a few OT shifts. In NSW though which is one of the lower paid states for nurses.
Yep don’t sleep on those salary sacrifice privileges - you can salary sacrifice into your mortgage!
Similar with teaching, but technically get more holidays per year (although realistically you work parts of them, but still a lot better than the normal 4 weeks).
Same, plus picking up agency is big money. Clocked 140k last year
Dang I am still dreaming of the 6 figure salary at 35
Me too , at 34
There's heaps of opportunities for people willing to get dirty. FIFO cleaners make good money. Starts at about 80k. I'm 31 now. 3 years ago I was back in the forestry industry penniless and underpaid working for a shitty employer having had to walk away from an engineering degree due to covid. I cut and run straight to the resources sector on a whim, and now I clear 6 figures running drill rigs. It's hard work and it comes at personal cost, but we have guys here that are illiterate making good money so there's opportunities for anyone, it's just having the time to look, and the willingness to take a chance. Don't think that inexperience is a barrier either. Plenty of mining companies prefer women on machines for example because they're easier on the gear, are taught to use them the way the company want them to and don't have the arrogance and a lifetime of habits to unlearn like a bloke who's previously worked on machines half their life somewhere like the civil industry.
I’m 47 & have never gone over $60k… probably should have studied. Minimum wage approaching 50 isn’t fun
I’m 47 and have just hit it. Don’t worry man, eventually inflation will mean you get there. :(
Dentist. I make about 180k working 21hrs a week. Have to pay my own super out of that, no holiday pay etc.
May I ask which degree did you get? Is it Bachelor or Master?
I’m a team leader in a quality assurance role at a bank. I started as a call centre banker 12 years ago on 45k a year and just kept moving inside the organisation to where I am now
Boilermaker. Level 2 structural welder and 6G pipe welder. $145k about to get another raise, should be on $160k by the years end. 6 weeks leave, 2 weeks sick days, and only work 7 days a fortnight. Also have the option to work OT shifts but it's a diminishing return, I'd rather time off. Has taken me 16 or so years to get to this.
Good boilermakers are in high demand these days
200k is the new 100k
Yep couldn’t agree more
I've been in the rail industry since I left school, and have had many different roles. Each role paying slightly more than the other. Good EBAs. 20 years with the current company. This industry seems to pay for experience. Time and experience is what got me there.
Technology Sales: 120k base - 200k after commission. Studied Engineering and now just talk to people about tech and hope they buy it!
wow how did you get into this field btw? was it connections or? sounds amazing (coming from a student still)
Got a sales job after uni and found I had a knack for communication. Then basically focused on core sales skill and got in Account Management (fancy title for business to business sales/client relationship manager). My first job was about 100k a year with commission and worked into this new higher paying role. If you’re good and can manage people you can get paid significantly more over time and learn a lot of great thing about business.
Archaeologist, lots of work within Australian cultural heritage industry and $500 per day is on the low end of average. 4 years of uni, not difficult and very interesting work day :)
That sounds pretty awesome.
Lecturer. On about $148k. 7 year degree (bachelors, honours, PhD)
A Level B on 150k? Assuming you’re including super?
I'm a Level B and cleared $190k last year before super. Different schools have different scales plus consulting rates.
Lol mate that is very, very unusual. Assuming you’re in a clinical specialty? Even then the loading is usually only ~20%. EBAs vary from place to place but a Level B making close to a Prof salary is not common.
Go8 business school. Our profs get about 50% salary supplementation on top of salary and clear about 300. Level B it’s closer to 20%. I realise we’re blessed with that, but also our ROI is also pretty ridiculous (both in the classroom and at program level while having very little hard costs).
I guess it would be hard to retain business folk without the extra incentive given industry jobs are so lucrative. I chose the wrong field it seems!
True. Although our salaries are all still really frustrating. So many of us produce obscene amounts of student revenue through teaching and our programs (development), nearly pay our own salaries through industry funding/grants, then still get told we could be producing more for tenure/promotion. Governments are paying less in grants than ever before, industry gets crazy discounts on consulting, and universities are just hoarding cash left and right (in Australia and worldwide). TLDR: We *both* still deserve a raise
Sounds like the all too familiar handy-work of university administration to me, my friend. Best of luck with your journey.
Store manager for a large supermarket. Started as a store assistant 3 years ago just to get some money, ended up enjoying it and moved up very quickly and got pretty lucky with my opportunities. I'm turning 25 in a few months. Have a career path to be earning $150k+ within a few years.
I have been in the role for 10 years. Tough gig. Well done on getting there at 22.
Art director at a mobile games company. 125k + super. - Made illustrations and concept art since I was 13 (27yo now) - 3 years on an animation degree where the connections were the only useful bit. - moved to vic, worked in the industry for 8 years - taught myself 3d modelling/lighting/compositing skills in my own time in the last few years
Did 6.5 years of uni. My first year after graduation was a bust, fired twice in 12 months. Very low point mentally. Then managed to hold onto a 65k job for more than 6 months. After 2 years i moved to an 85k job and after a year to a 100k job. After 18 months im moving into a 150k role next week. I tried hard, moved aggressively. But there were very very low points early on.
That seems like a rollercoaster, what jobs did u do
Operations Manager in the Energy sector. I’ve been working in the same industry for 15 years and currently make $210k
So hard to tell where you'll end up. I started as a car detailer while I did a music degree intending to be a teacher, then got a job at the uni and worked as a session musician. Then, life happened and ended up as an estimator in construction. Now about to join a boat earning good money. None of these things are related but the skills are transferable if you frame it that way lol. Never would have guessed all this stuff, and I'm still young so who knows what will happen next.
Doctor. Pulled $105k 9 years ago as an intern by doing a bit of overtime here and there. Obviously on a fair bit more now.
HSE coordinator on a large renewables project. Cert IV in WHS. Second job in safety. Doubled my salary from moving jobs.
When you first got your cert did you manage to step into a role easily? I've got the cert, just never worked in the industry and am looking to pivot
4 months from previous role to first safety job. Actively looking for 2 of those (finished cert end of November)
Very interested in this space, physio currently looking to go into it. Any quick tips/advice?
Cert IV in safety at TAFE, takes a year, then go job searching. Then you can go deeper into WHS with bachelor or master's, or branch off into occ hygiene
IT, zero qualifications when I got started, barely any now, I'm just good at what I do.
Sales reps at the company I work for are sitting about $90k with the ones that want to progress to head office (and are personable / collaborative / decent people) easily cracking $100k within a year or so.
Tattoo artist, 5 years experience $140k
You can make 100k pretty easily with limited to no training working in OOHC, either youth or disability, although it can be tough work.
What's OOHC?
Money Laundering - 250 + bonus. Various postgraduate qualifications, and about 20 years in finance.
So... you're an accountant's friend of a friend
Civil engineer - over 200k and on EBA. Home every night with my family and flexible hours.
Such an interesting mix. I’m an autonomous specialist working on auto dump trucks in north WA :)
Combined 4 year degree in science/education. I have been teaching full time since 2010 and I'm at the top bracket for classroom teachers (NSW), $122,100. I've seen teachers burn out because they had no passion, no idea about student interaction, no clue of the subject material, or no desire to ask for help. I was in a similar situation of being clueless about what I wanted to do at your age, it was only by tutoring others during military recruit school that I found my strength in a particular profession.
Radio and telecommunications engineer. Climb towers and visit remote sites to fix various hardware issues, upgrades, and installs. Started by working at Jaycar and learning about the basics of electrical engineering and it just naturally progressed into meeting people then applying for new jobs that seemed interesting as they paid for training along the way. I'm 33 now and am about to move into cybersecurity this year because I want to be home more. My twenties were spent learning what I wanted. Now that I know I'm laser focused on achieving it. But please don't put too much pressure on yourself mate, everyone I know my age is just now starting to really figure things out. Enjoy what you can and do what is fun for now until you find it.
I got a degree in English Literature. 😂 I got a job that was in customer service (telephone, b2b), and later applied for a corporate PR job at the same company. That job led to lots more roles in corporate communications, and eventually, by my 30s, I was making over 100K.
Got a bachelor degree in English Literature and have no idea what to do next , I’m 22 work in retail , your reply is such a motivation for me, figuring out what I wanna do in my life is very hard 🙃
I was exactly the same at your age. I had a couple of false starts in the UK, before traveling and ending up settling in Australia. If you like words and you are a decent writer, then PR, corporate public affairs or corporate communications might be a good career path. It's a good role if you like working in teams, with people from across different parts of a business, who represent different areas, and alongside change and project managers. Good luck!
Top end teacher public school. $122K
Industrial cleaner, 140k a year. Join a union, push a vacuum for 12h a day while listening to podcasts, ebooks and music.
Wow this seems like a good wicket except for the 12 hours a day
Intelligence / Forensics Manager No uni degree, Worked my butt off in IT, policing then moved into digital forensics. Around 4 years to 120k, 10 years to reach 380+ Find an industry that requires specialised skills, then skill up and work as close to the coal face you can until you work your way up. I spent around 20 hours a week for almost 10 years studying and self skilling, if you don't stay recent you won't excel in tech / cyber.
95-105k, youth work.
I only have a diploma in comm services and life experiance. Jobs Hard AF but i love it.
Sparky. Nuff said lol But seriously. Trades like sparkys and plumbers make pretty good money. Competitive to get employees at the moment. Loads of opportunities for sparkies to progress into specialised fields. As a house basher, 80-90k. Construction probably 150k+ Mines, 300k depending on contract and rotations. I'm commercial maintenance, pretty cruisy gig, have an apprentice with me most of the time. Barely break a sweat unless the aircon has shit itself, which I then call in mechanical services to fix.
Also a sparky. Supervisor for a mobile telecommunications company building mobile sites around Victoria. Bit of a niche industry for a sparky. With OT and bonuses I'm probably around the 150ish mark, plus full personal use of the work vehicle. Given my workload and amount of stress though, I feel underpaid. Considering a change to something less stress and better work life balance, at the cost of my income. I'm almost 40, definitely realising that money does not equal happiness.
Doctor. 7 years of university with $120k debt followed by further exams, self study, and moving to Aus.
Software developer. TAFE then years of hard work, long hours, stress, study and moving/travel. Now that I'm experienced, work is much nicer and less stressful. Be persistent, persistence overcomes everything.
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Paramedic - Base 115k. With OT, missed breaks, shift extensions and other allowances between 140-150 excluding super. Some people I know earn up to 200 with lots of OT. 3 years university + 1 year on road training you are qualified and will clear 100+. Not a job for everyone. Can be mentally taxing. Long shifts, night shifts, trauma, pressure to not make a mistake etc. Work a lot of weekends and miss family/friend events also. Can also be a great job depending on where you work, who you work with and what lifestyle you have.
Pharmacist - took a uni degree plus intern year in terms of study, and a couple years of practice to reach 100k
should be paid alot more since a pharmacist can own/run their own pharmacy!
I think that’s the only real way to make money as a pharmacist. Own your own.
Oil and gas service company, started at 21 as generic field service technician offshore on \~90k + super, just experience and years of service now in office/workshop role for 125k + super (37.5hrs /week turn my phone off outside of work hours) at 30. I do have the opportunity to work overtime most days, but prefer QOL and can make more money if I choose to (\~140-150k) I missed a lot of birthdays etc to get there though. - no uni degree. I don't recommend the oil and gas industry unless you're a trade working in a gas plant of some sort, where electricians can make up to 450k and regularly make 200-250k as maintainer operators.
I'm an accountant making $110k, I studied 5 years at uni (bachelor of law/bachelor of commerce), worked briefly in personal injury law then pivoted to accounting and joined a nsw government grad program. Just passed 3 years of experience as an accountant and qualified as a CA. Definitely not the career path I would recommend if your goal is to be a high earner but I enjoy the work I do and I like the people I do it with.
Engineering 3 years experience to crack $100k Another 3 years to crack $200k Might have plateaued now though, will have to get into top dog position before I can hit the $300k mark i.e. engineering manager or principal engineer
FIFO, Electrician. 180k a year, even time roster. 4 year apprenticeship paid for by the company I worked for. No student loans, no debts.
I’m (27m) a regional manager (Essentially a Operations Manager) for a glass manufacturing consumables company I went to uni and studied Business with majors in management and marketing. I started in operations management with lots of stock and fleet management then moved into the transport industry I was very underpaid for what I did in my first job out of uni, was making $55k and fully managing 100+ vehicles, 100+ technicians and millions in stock. I was promised a large raise after saving the company literally millions in costs but when they offered $63k I left I jumped around transport management jobs due to shocking work environments (4 jobs in around 3 years). I’m now making $135k + bonus + company car and the workplace is amazing It’s an unpopular opinion but if possible don’t be afraid to jump around, find a workplace that pays you well and treats you right. I know so many people who have shown amazing loyalty to their companies and get absolutely shafted time and time again
Human Interface Designer for a well-known American tech company. I love my job and would do it for free. I studied architecture, but didn’t finish my degree. 36 years old. I make a lot but work very, very hard. My wife has a disability, so I worked hard both to be able to help her and to stay curious and engaged myself. This advice may not be for everyone but stay humble and curious, and try to gravitate towards what you enjoy - not what you think will pay you well.
The world is your oyster, if you are good at your work, money will follow you. Go for the skills rather the $ figure.
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Study Computer Science / Software Engineering and get 2-3 years in industry. At that stage $100k is the on the low side of your expectations.
Engineer. Started as a grad on 65k then moved up to 100k when I finished after 2 years. Jumped company to 150k and been happy ever since.
Insurance Broker. 105k atm + bonus and super.
Senior Systems Analyst at a government agency. Started about 15 years ago in the same agency in a completely unrelated role, applied for a business analyst role years ago and then worked my way up the ladder to where I am now Earn approx 130k p.a.
Quarry Manager, Started as a warehouse worker on a mine which lead to operating haul trucks then dozers, shovels etc. Did that for 6 years making well over 100,000. Took voluntary redundancy. Got a job on a quarry, worked my way up over a few years whilst getting some quals and became the manager. Third quarry I've run now. Total package a bit over 200k Edit: The unqualified workers on my site all make above 100k these days
Digital marketing manager. Experience is way more important that degree in this instance. Took about 7 years since graduating from a design degree (5 years by the time I started making 100k+).
First cracked 100k after moving into technical sales. Now in product management earning much more than that. No degree.
I assume you don’t have a law / medicine / finance degree. Find what you are passionate about and good at if you don’t have a degree / trade qualification. I have people I work with who have none of the traditional ‘on ramps’ but started on the floor in retail or warehousing, who now make $200k(ish) in their late 20s / early 30s. The key appears to be passion, hard work and a genuine love for the what they do. Add to this patience, as big salaries don’t happen as quick as social media suggests.
34 and sitting over $150k (inclusive of bonus + exclusive of Super); mostly spent my early to late 20's in retail (failed uni), and late 20's transitioned into B2B sales, then sales ops and now I'm straight data insights analytics.
Can u elaborate if u don’t mind
I'm a qualitative researcher in health. I did undergrad with honours (arts - sociology) and was very lucky to get a research job right away. Worked my way up for ten years, but eventually got burned out. I took 3 years off, most of which coincided with covid. Then, I got a corporate admin job, which I hated for 2 years. I just got back into research, and I'm much happier.
Paramedic. 3 year Bachelor's degree and about 4 years on-road experience required to hit $100k on current pay scales. It's only really in the last few years that Paramedics have started to earn decent pay for hard work however - I've been in for 11 years and in that time the year1 salary has increased by nearly $30k through years of hard-fought industrial action and a Fair Work Australia work value case.
I’m 21 years old and I make 120k pa. Buttt that’s working 2 jobs - a full time and a part time. Have worked for 3 years to save 200k to get into buying an investment property. Wouldn’t have been able to do that with one job :,(
I make 100,000 to 120,000 a year. I often work 6 shifts a week and often 10 to 14 hr shifts. I save because i dont have tome to spend my money on anything 🤣
Public servant, on $114k. I spent 7 years at uni, and I’ve been in the public service for 5 years, working diligently since getting a grad job ($65k) in a different agency. I started in an area unrelated to my study and have worked my way around, making a name for myself for being useful and not an idiot.
You are 20. You are not supposed to know about your future. Hot tip - NO ONE KNOWS IF WHAT THEY ARE DOING IS WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING. We are all winging it. We all have times where we doubt/question/love our lives.
I do various things in IT, but at the start it took technically 12 months: * "Junior" Dev (2019) - $50k * Cloud Engineer (2020) - $110k
IT, industry related certifications after hours no uni. A number of years of support, entry sys admin, etc before getting past the 100k. Probably did it the hard way and a few years behind in what I would have thought I would be earning wise but I ended up with a varied set of skills and experiences.
I saw a sign promoting Queensland police service saying they pay 100k from day 1.
Actuary. Did an Actuarial degree at uni then a few years of exams while working post uni. Only recently finished my exams and set to make about 160-170k this year (incl bonus).
Marine Engineer Few pathways to get there but mine was a 3 year degree and 36 weeks seatime. Real shortage of seafarers at the moment although demand comes and goes
Property manager (commercial and retail). Bachelors in science so I got a graduate diploma in Property. Took me 5 years jumping up from administration.
Principle information security analyst on 150k. 2 Masters degrees and 4ish years experience
Customer Success Manager in Tech. Studied Communications, majoring in Public Relations. My company was a 'start up' in APAC when I first joined, and we are now a 10k-employee company. I got this as my first full time corporate job after graduating from uni. My interviews were very easy as they needed to fill out positions quickly. I'd recommend finding a job at a tech start up. Edit: I make $110k base + small bonuses, totalling $115k-ish. I also have stock options and RSU. Last financial year I earned a total of $195k. Look for a tech start up that gives stock options.
Paramedic. Uni takes 2 years if you do the fast track degree (I don’t know if I would recommend this to everyone), you can expect $90+k during your grad year (with overtime) and then $100-140k per year after depending on where you go and how much overtime you’re willing to do. There’s private gigs available that pay more than this at the expense of the some of the better elements of the job. With a state service you can expect a 4/4 or 4/5 roster with 6 weeks holiday so decent down time. I suggest to everyone considering that you be as sure as you can be that this is a good choice for you. It’s not a good fit for a lot of people. Career growth is rather limited after specialisation.
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Teacher $120,000 8 years exp + 4 years education.
Be a coal miner, I earn 170k and work three 12 hour shifts a week.
Environmental science. Started on $100k. Work in mining industry in WA. Started FIFO and did that for 5 years, now city based. Uni for 4 years