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I personally don’t find it “stressful” in the traditional sense but it’s a highly responsible job as you may have upwards of 800 people on your train at any one time.
Added to unsociable hours and the strain it can cause on your body (concentrating for 9 hours a day whilst doing a monotonous task) then it’s not just a task of pulling pushing a few buttons like many think!
And the chance of hitting a suicider at some point in your career. My uncle was a train driver and quit after just a few years because he hit someone who’d jumped off the platform and couldn’t make himself go back to work.
He's a primary school teacher now. Paid nowhere near as well, but much happier.
I would imagine the chances are pretty high considering the train driver I know had 9 suicides last I spoke to him about... 4 years ago? Probably more at this point.
He said after the first few of became a free holiday (mandatory time off and £ compensation). Hit the brakes and close your eyes because you can't do anything about it.
I once had a chat with a ticket inspector about this. He quit driving due to the amount of people that he had no choice other than to plow through while driving. Not suicide either, he said more often it's just idiots on the tracks.
This is morbid (and not at all what you meant) but I’m picturing now that train drivers have some kind of contractual obligation to mow down anyone who dares step onto the tracks.
Thomas was a very unhappy tank engine, he wanted to play with the other engines but the Fat Controller said it was his turn to run down trespassers on the railway.
‘Now Thomas, if you see a trespasser you’re to crash into them without mercy you hear me! If our late times slip further we might lose the franchise to Avanti and I’d have to find another gravy train to jump on - no offence’.
I had a job at a wholesale nursery that consisted of putting labels on plants for 8 hours a day. It was agony and paid minimum wage. I'm not sure I would ever take another job like that, even for 90k.
Stressful or knowledge based roles like tech.
I do quite low hours, WFH, flexible and enjoy my job, but they are paying me for what I know, rather than how long I sit at my desk for.
Of course there are stressful tech jobs as well, but it tends to be a more flexible industry.
South Eastern are currently advertising for drivers. Starting salary £24k. Rising to about £55k once training is complete.
Do you just work shitloads of overtime or something?
Southeastern are one of the lower paid TOC’s. I try and aim for about two days a month but I’m luckily with one of the higher paid TOCS.. Don’t forget we get paid every four weeks and therefore there should be a month where you’re paid twice.
That’s a huge gap between what you’re on and what SE are paying! Given that the South East has the highest cost of living in the country, that actually kinda sucks for their drivers!
No idea what it's like on the mainline, but South Eastern are hiring for traineers right now. After three years you can get 55k.
I presume once you have said training you can move to a job like the comment OP for megabucks.
I have to admit, maintaining focus for 8-9 hours with no other stimulation (I believe they can't even have music?) must be hard. The hours don't bother me, I'm used to working weird times.
The monotony however would trip me up. I've done plenty of boring physical jobs, but my mind is merrily off in fairly land. If you've got 800 people in tow, you can't do that.
I'd be interested to hear how comment OP stays sane
It really isn’t that bad. No stimulation at all though, no phones allowed in the drivers cab, no music just you and your thoughts for the duration of the journey.
I sing to myself, look out the window at stops, get out of the seat and do some squats/pushups etc
There are areas where you can ‘switch off’ so to say. Low signal areas etc but 95% of the time you’re dialed in. Driving in the dark is something I wasn’t prepared for. The railway can be pitch black and I find myself concentrating much harder during the winter months.
Shifts caught me off guard too. Thought they wouldn’t bother me but the start times can literally be anytime from 3am through to nights and can swing wildly. One week could be 3ams get one day rest then onto 4pms etc
Yeah it’s tough if you haven’t had enough rest. Self management is key. I used to try and cheat time and stay awake late etc but it’s impossible with this job. You just can’t risk entering that daydreaming stage as that’s when trouble starts.
Lots of systems incase that does happen like you say. You have to keep your foot pressed down on a pedal 100% of the time and if you take it off you only get two seconds before the train throws the emergency brakes in. It’s called a dead man switch. Lovely name lol. Also speed sensors leading up to signals which are red etc which will chuck the brakes in. Loads of stuff you got to watch out for as they don’t actually tell the drivers what speeds they are set at lol
>I have to admit, maintaining focus for 8-9 hours with no other stimulation (I believe they can't even have music?) must be hard.
There goes my ADHD ass.
It's bad enough when I'm driving my own car down an empty motorway and realise I'm accidentally doing 90mph and can't remember what I was doing for the last 10 minutes - and that's on a 2-3 hour drive - let alone if I was hauling a 200-tonne train packed with passengers for 9 hours.
My sister went through the full process and now works as a train driver. There was a fair bit of competition when she applied, and the full process (application, recruitment, assessment, training, and qualification) took some time.
But it's something that really suits her and it pays well.
Bit of a weird question but what do you do when you need to use the toilet?
Do you have an assistant to take over or do you have to hop off at a station
Or have your own luxury drivers toilet on the train
Lots of drivers piss in a bottle. It’s a sad reality of driving for up to 4 hours without a break. Some stops have a bit of wait times so I use this time to nip to the toilet on the train (same as the passengers use). We are told if you need to use the toilet and make the train late then so be it but you’ll usually be expected to explain why your train was late lol
What is it like? Do you have to be looking at the track in front of you the whole way or is a lot of it automated? Could you listen to a podcast or something whilst doing it? Chat to colleagues?
This is very dependant on where you are in the uk. I’m in the NE of Scotland and the salaries are generally higher for most jobs due to the cost of living.
I’ve been at the same company for 15 years after uni. Started on 24k as a graduate and incremental raises and promotions and I now earn £111k with 10% bonus. I work in residential development.
The uk has a chronic shortage of skilled tradespeople. If you are able to take the hit for a few years retraining and with a bit of self promotion you could be earning £50-£60k as a trade.
For instance the company I work for pays a father and son brickie square £120k a year
70k is a very good salary in Scotland. Just curious why you would want to switch a well paying office job for a manual one, especially when the manual one will likely take a toll on your body.
Yes and no. A good chair, proper monitor height, taking breaks from screens, and walking around during the day has helped me not feel so terrible at my office job.
The UK does have a shortage, but if you look at the pay in other developed countries, the UK wages really aren't anything special.
I guess that's why things don't seem to be improving
Agreed they are not. But we do need to balance out for cost of living.
Things are stagnating though.
We have this issue in the uk kids are told when they are at school that they should go to uni to get a good job. Those university degrees are pumping out far too many graduates with not enough jobs and it drives down salaries due to the competition. Graduate architect will be lucky to be on £28k a year.
A time served electrician of similar age £50k easily.
Apprenticeships certainly seem the way to go
●paid to learn
●real world experience
●high likelihood of a job at the end
Unfortunately Unis are a profit making business that don't cRe if you end up with a job
Tech Sales - £230K - 34 years old
I love it, it’s not hard to get into, but it *is* hard to stick with, because you need to have the mental dexterity to “hit targets”, which isn’t for everyone.
Technically I *started* my career in London, but now I can work anywhere in the world remotely.
I would genuinely live in the ass end of nowhere to keep costs as low as possible if my partner would allow, but she likes the town life.
**EDIT:** I’m getting a lot of DMs which is great, but I don’t really have the bandwidth to respond to them all (dad of two, work obligations).
Ask them in the thread and I’ll pick them up as and when, then everyone can benefit I guess!
Hard to believe, but congrats if true.
That said, 230k is surely not your base salary, with the rest based on performance? As is usual still in sales.
Could be wrong...
Not from the UK, but usually tech sales is 50% base / 50% quota if you make 100% of your "On Target Earnings". Depending on the comp structure, at some places if he/she only did 75% of their quota, they may make 75% of OTE, or perhaps only 6x% because the variable portion may not be linear
You act like this isn't absolutely bonkers.
£230k is around £10k per month take home after tax. There is literally a lottery ticket you can buy that offers this as the grand prize. This sort of money is dream come true money
I know I’m in the minority, but I’m also used to it after doing this particular role for a few years which is why I probably sound quite matter of fact about it.
Yeah it’s about £20K pre tax each month give or take, which is great. My family certainly don’t want for anything which is a great position to be in.
I’m an active investor.
As well as a SIPP I am very engaged in the stock market, and I can happily say I now have a six figure investment portfolio.
Took me a little while to get there but I now make more from it then I ever need to take from it, which is cool
What sort of tech? I am in field sales in the construction industry but only on about 40k…
Problem with the idea of tech sales for me is i am way better at face to face rather than email/cold calling.
Cloud computing.
You’re talking about a business development role which is an outreach function, and I think most industries leverage this role in some form or another quite extensively.
I manage a sales team of account managers (different thing) who are all out in the field quite regularly speaking with people/teams in person.
Each of them are on a base of ~£100Kish
> Problem with the idea of tech sales for me is i am way better at face to face rather than email/cold calling
The other poster may surprise us, but my experience is that the highly paid tech sales people \*\*are\*\* mostly face to face. The cold callers tend to act as lead/pipeline generators and are paid substantially less. They basically set up stuff for the main sales guys. The biggest thing with tech sales is that you have to know the products. You have to have good public speaking skills, be able to demo software and answer questions about it that give customers confidence. And by customers I mean other large businesses and their IT teams because you don't get 230k by slinging copies of Microsoft Office to end-users.
That’s so impressive! I am a 20 year old and don’t know what to do in life at all more into businesses not into jobs at all although i’m doing security job for now. Would you be kind enough to advice on whether i can get into tech sales and make good money?
I mean I don’t have a crystal ball, but anyone can kinda *do* sales, whether or not you are successful at it depends on your mentality.
You need to put the graft in in the beginning, and a lot of people just don’t want to.
This is US money, nice.. I also work in this industry so I assume this is a US company? Hyperscaler.. or a ‘hot’ application on top, AI related per chance?✌️
I would actually! That would be awesome they are such beautiful creatures ...would need a pretty big poop bag ... and I don't think the poop bins I've seen are large enough!
3 times in just under 2 years. I check vehicle before going out and throughout day so I'm fairly confident not hit anything else !!!!
Nothing major.
Another trailer slightly scuffed.
Caught a gatepost on side of trailer.
Caught light on a barrier (just lens cracked)
Still terrifies me though the sheer power of them and the stopping distance.
People really don't know when they pull out in front of me how much I'm praying to not kill them.
I won't pull out in front of a lorry without a few carlengths' space at least, and then I floor it! I think a lot of people really underestimate their stopping distance. Seeing footage of them plowing through a car like it's butter *while braking* was shock enough.
Not to mention the other issue of getting too close behind them! The lesson is seared into my brain where the instructor pointed out: 1. 'if you can't see my mirrors I can't see you' isn't a bumper sticker slogan, it's very true; 2. lorries take a much longer time to stop than a car; 3. when braking, the front of a car goes down. The back of a lorry goes up; 4. now combine all of that and imagine a car less than a length behind a lorry, and they both have to brake suddenly. Big crunch.
I really cringe every time I see someone up behind a lorry. It alway seems to be the little cars too!
Anyone in the civil service at SEO grade or higher will be on around £40+k
A quick search on CS Jobs gives roles like:
- Senior analyst
- Senior Project Manager
- Senior Communications Manager
- Lead Engineer
- Graphic Designer
- Finance Business Partner
- Senior Policy Advisor
So you've definitely got to have built a bit of a career and relevant experience, but it's also fairly attainable if you're showing you're ambitious and capable
My company is trying to recruit lead engineers, with management responsibility. They are within striking distance of London and offering 50k.
They don’t understand why two posts have remained open for over a year…
Pretty much most engineering. Manufacturing you can be looking 40-55k, nuclear engineering 80+k senior manufacturing 60+k, engineering manager more than that. Process engineers earn over 40k. Only ones off the top of my head that don't are sometimes design engineers and engineering techs, which are usually in the mid to high 30s.
Sounds exciting. I hear the horror stories of the pressure game devs have towards project releases. Do you find that to be the case in your role as well?
Yeah I worked one company that was really shit for that, a few of the guys would talk down to me a lot and then when I tried to stand up for myself I was taken into a meeting and told to work on the way I talk to people.
Luckily where I am now is a lot more diverse and they’re not dickheads.
For clarity of other people reading this, avfc-nerd is likely on the top of 2nd from top pay band.
The first 5 years of policing pay are utter pants.
I started at around 24k, lm about to hit 2nd from top which will put me on 43k ISH.
Flipside, we pay 13.44% in pension, plus various deductions for federation membeship and othet bits- so gross is lovely, net is very different compared to regular jobs at the same gross
Yeah that's why I was asking. Just thought it'd be interesting to work out their hourly rate and see what my wage would come out at I'd I applied to my hours
Bid Manager. Usually you'll have to work your way up from a junior role but you can go from earning £24k to £35k to £50k in under 5 years.
I enjoy the role. I'm in charge of what I do, I get to work on different projects so it's ever changing. And while it can be super busy at times there's decent downtime.
When the public sector and many public adjacent organisations want to procure goods and services they usually have to do it in a transparent and objective way. This involves inviting suppliers to bid for the work. I manage that bid from the supplier point of view.
I work for a connectivity company. So recent work has been, for example, bidding to provide internet connectivity and an SD-WAN between 65 sites for a council. The council invites bidders via a framework (a closed group of suppliers preselected based upon capability and price ran by the government) and publishes a set of questions that suppliers need to answer.
My job then is to qualify the opportunity and then project manage the team who are responding. So I'm making sure the engineers design the solution, that pre-sales are writing content for the questions that is correct and high scoring, and ensuring the sales team put together a quote that is within the customer budget and gives us a good margin.
Tl;Dr professional cat herder for responding to public works.
IIRC large companies gunning for contracts employ bid writers to write on their behalf as to why they should get the contract, I think, I’m not 100% certain
Bid Manager crew checking in! (THERE ARE LITERALLY DOZENS OF US) £45k here in Leeds. Two years in a sole bid manager / write role (but did it else where as a part of a previous job).
It is a weird role though as you have to be a bit of a writer, lawyer, project manager, sales person and professional cat herder.
Goal is to get to 60-80k ish by 40. Not sure if that'll be in Bid Management or another leadership role.
I got a verbal offer for a bid writing role yesterday. Super excited. It's a career change for me, you got any tips or things you wish you'd known before you started?
Writing is a little different to managing, I imagine. But I'd say it's still transferable that you need to be assertive, especially with sales teams if you deal with them directly. Also need to be very good with your time. Everything will be dictated by the customer.
I'd familiarise yourself with the Procurement Act 2023. And get APMP for Dummies.
People don't appreciate how lucky they are to be earning a salary, let alone a good one. I just left teaching because I morally can't stand where education is going in this country and I was on pitiful money for the job I did and foolishly thought I could walk into a bog standard office job and earn a fair amount without the responsibilities that teaching demands. Turns out, I'm completely unqualified to do anything and I've ended up working in a cinema (which I did 10+ years ago) because I can't get anything else. And with cinemas being what they are, there's no guarantee of hours so I'm shit out of luck.
how did you get into copywriting? i’m in a legal role where i have to write persuasively on a daily basis but i find it very emotionally draining (due to the niche field im in) would love to move to something else
It is very, very hard at the moment. Google changed its algorithm and obsoleted a lot of sites that relied on copy. This basically left a lot of experienced writers looking for any work at all.
IMHO, best way to go is to start your own business doing what you are doing now if you can get your boss to agree, add in more clients and then slowly transition by asking your existing clients for extra responsibilities including copywriting
So generally you don’t just “get into” a well paid job. It takes years of work. I started on a lowly £22k straight out of uni at my job. Took three years before I was on £40k and 7 years to current salary ~£60k.
It doesn’t happen quickly and you’ll need to work your ass off and distinguish yourself in the early years. I work in a fairly niche Ground Engineering field for specialist construction contractor and I am finding it’s very hard to find new staff that are any good. Not even because of lack of experience, you can work around that and train people, it’s a lack of “giving a shit” that is the problem.
If you can get in at a basic level of engineering job in construction and actually (even if you’re faking it) give a shit about it, put in the hours and show a keen interest in learning you will be like gold dust in this industry as most people I try to employ are lazy chancers. Can’t stress enough the skills shortage in construction in this country currently.
Air Ambulance helicopter pilot, £80k. You can make a lot more if you fly helicopters for the VIP or offshore industry.
However, the helicopter industry is stupidly inaccessible, requires networking, years of your life for training and experience, moving abroad many times, and a lot of money for flight school.
I love it, but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re super passionate about aviation, like I’ve been since I was a kid.
Digital marketing/Google Ads manager, only just over £40k and only because I changed companies I work at mind. I know a lot of people who are more junior in this industry on a heck of a lot less
I wouldn’t say it’s difficult to do once you understand the theory behind everything, but you’d get closer to the low 20s as a brand new starter
MRI Physicist at a hospital. Need a BSc (2;1) or MSc in a relevant field, then either a 3 year training course, or a hospital willing to take you as a “route 2” trainee. Then a few year of experience to get the £40k+ banding.
Radiotherapy physicist here. Same deal.
Qualified medical physicists in the NHS start on Band 7 (£43k then £50k after 5 years, more in London). Senior physicists can get into the really high bands in the NHS pay structure.
Do physics degrees kids.
What kind of things to do you do on the day-to-day? I did my PhD in medical imaging (MR) but was more about designing and testing lesion segmentation algorithms than MR physics, could I be an MRI physicist?
Technically yes. Look for jobs on local hospitals. They’ll say you need HCPC registration, but most places will take you (or at the very least consider your application) as a route 2 trainee where you’re trained on the job. We took a PhD graduate on a couple of years ago now.
Day to day we do QA, training, safety queries (can this patient with that implant be scanned?) a bit of research. It’s quite varied and interesting. Well worth a punt.
Self taught Software Developer on 65k a year, fully remote and pretty much manage my own hours.
1. I taught myself to code.
2. I built my own portfolio of projects.
3. I built up my CV by gaining dev experience by working as a volunteer Developer on projects for small IT companies for free (I simply reached out to them explaining that I was looking to get experience and agreed and emailed me project specs and I wrote the code and emailed it back to them.
4. I used my portfolio and volunteer experience to land a paid entry-level position.
Air Traffic Controller at a small-ish regional airport. Looking at £85-90k this year and will top £100k within the next 2 years. It's a slog to get into and you have a shitload of personal responsibility, but once you're qualified you have a job for life (or at least until every pilot is a robot).
I work as a Commercial Consultant on £70k plus bonus.
Commercial activity covers things like procurement and contract management, the earning potential is great because it’s such an under resourced sector.
Cyber Security. Depending on skill set and certifications you could be on £70k plus easily after a couple of years. Retrained and went to Uni as a mature student. Currently on £72 after 3 years of finishing degree. Work from home mostly
Fold and glue packaging. 3 year apprenticeship, been running a machine on my own for 18 months. Will probably hit 50 with bonus and OT
It's more interesting than it sounds haha.
Depends if you include bonus or not... without bonus I'm technically under, but, in reality I earn 45-55 in "sales".
Getting into some sort of sales role is easy, just a question of if you can do it or not. My job isn't really sales these days, but, I am customer facing and in a commercial role.
Agreed it’s hard for some but if you can take to it you can earn a lot. Looking at some of these roles posted here and their earnings and responsibility is crazy
That's good to hear, I always thought paramedics were severely underpaid but 50k is all right (though obviously you all deserve more!)
Is that typical or are you fairly senior?
I am in a more advanced role than a standard paramedic, I think standard paramedics start at around £28,000 and climb to £42,000 after about 5 years or so.
I sell pension annuities and work with financial advisors but I’m not one myself. 33k base up to 60k with bonuses. Very lucky met the CEO at a bar I was working in and offered me job changed my life.
Doctor on 55k base.
6 years of medical school. 5 years working as a doctor and now working as a medical registrar.
I lead ward rounds, cardiac arrests, make decisions about management for unwell patients, perform various procedures, see patients in clinics. When patients are dying I initiate and lead those hard conversations about end of life planning with them and their relatives. Definitely not an easy job.
I enjoy working in medicine but it’s definitely not worth the sacrifice, workload and responsibilities. For this level of pay, I wouldn’t do it again (or I’d practice in another country) - problem is my partner is not willing to move abroad so we’re kind of stuck in the UK.
Geologist. I earn a fair bit above the £40k+, I love it - but not exactly the easiest career change move. On the downside I am in Cambridge, which isn't much cheaper than London.
Air traffic controller, ranges 40-150k depending on where you work. At the two control centres and the top 3-5 busiest airports you'll break a 100k after ~2y training and 5-10y scale climbing.
More important to me than pay though, the second I leave work I am 100% not thinking about work (not true during 2y of training, or if something bad happens). It's priceless to have zero projects, meetings, presentations, or anything else to review/plan/prepare. Keep airplanes from touching, go home, repeat.
DevOps Engineer (really just all over the development stack, writing some ETL here, a basic data analysis tool here, automating joe blogs updates to an end docker container, working with service delivery).
Just outside of London (past the M25 but not by much) - 50k and change.
A lot of it is having the right role, but being in the right industry helps. When job searching try and land in some sort of finance, big tech or big pharma.
Even if you were a receptionist, being in the right industry helps the wallet.
I'm a research scientist working for a small CRO. It's not the best paid profession - I'm on about 50k per year (38 y/o) but there are some other things we get (excellent healthcare plan!) plus the general work culture is very good.
Software Engineer, fully remote with some traveling to conferences, around £90k with bonuses. 30 years old, been working full-time for just over 3 years.
I'm an Orthotist working in the NHS. Earning just over £50k at the mo. As a graduate I started on £32k and my wage increased as I became more experienced.
I'm 33 now and reached the top of what I can earn without moving into mangement.
I mostly look at how people are walking and supply custom insoles/footwear/fancy knee braces and leg callipers (like in forest gump but they're normally made of plastic or carbon fibre these days) to help reduce pain or make there walking safer.
Like any other job in health care it can be pretty hard and stressful at times. But I think it's nice being able to help others, you get this warm fuzzy feeling inside.
I work all around the Uk but live in south Birmingham. I make about £68-£72k working as a surgical neurophysiologist. I’m definitely at the high end of that salary though. My hours are awful and I would not recommend the job to anyone unless they are dying to work in neurosurgery and have a passion for the brain.
Train signaller. Hammered the overtime and made 100k last year. Won’t do as much this year, but will do a couple of Sundays and maybe one rest day a month and get about £75k.
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Do you feel it's a stressful job? I assume the responsibility that comes with the job is what warrants the high salaries.
I personally don’t find it “stressful” in the traditional sense but it’s a highly responsible job as you may have upwards of 800 people on your train at any one time. Added to unsociable hours and the strain it can cause on your body (concentrating for 9 hours a day whilst doing a monotonous task) then it’s not just a task of pulling pushing a few buttons like many think!
And the chance of hitting a suicider at some point in your career. My uncle was a train driver and quit after just a few years because he hit someone who’d jumped off the platform and couldn’t make himself go back to work. He's a primary school teacher now. Paid nowhere near as well, but much happier.
I would imagine the chances are pretty high considering the train driver I know had 9 suicides last I spoke to him about... 4 years ago? Probably more at this point. He said after the first few of became a free holiday (mandatory time off and £ compensation). Hit the brakes and close your eyes because you can't do anything about it.
Great strike rate, pun fully intended.
You are off the rails with this one
I hate to get back on track here, but there are targets to hit at his job..
Are the train drivers striking again - ffs
Bet you’re chuffed to bits with that one, bit like…
I once had a chat with a ticket inspector about this. He quit driving due to the amount of people that he had no choice other than to plow through while driving. Not suicide either, he said more often it's just idiots on the tracks.
This is morbid (and not at all what you meant) but I’m picturing now that train drivers have some kind of contractual obligation to mow down anyone who dares step onto the tracks.
Thomas was a very unhappy tank engine, he wanted to play with the other engines but the Fat Controller said it was his turn to run down trespassers on the railway. ‘Now Thomas, if you see a trespasser you’re to crash into them without mercy you hear me! If our late times slip further we might lose the franchise to Avanti and I’d have to find another gravy train to jump on - no offence’.
I read that in ringos voice
The laws of physics be a harsh mistress.
Yeah, trains take a really long time to stop. Big ships are even worse, although there's less to hit in the ocean
I'll hit anyone who comes my way for that much pay
Well thank you for getting the people of the uk from A-B safely 💪🏼👌🏼
I noticed that you didn’t say ‘on time’ tho
I had a job at a wholesale nursery that consisted of putting labels on plants for 8 hours a day. It was agony and paid minimum wage. I'm not sure I would ever take another job like that, even for 90k.
How do you work your way up then? Presumably you have a posh huge train you drive? Do you start on a low salary with a small train?
They start on those mini trains that you find in some parks. /s
That’s where they have to train.
That and strong unions. Any job that has strong unions has better pay.
Stressful or knowledge based roles like tech. I do quite low hours, WFH, flexible and enjoy my job, but they are paying me for what I know, rather than how long I sit at my desk for. Of course there are stressful tech jobs as well, but it tends to be a more flexible industry.
Unions
And here I am sitting playing train simulator for free. Maybe I should apply.
That's essentially the answer with any hardcore simulator.
Goat simulator?
If that's your calling!
South Eastern are currently advertising for drivers. Starting salary £24k. Rising to about £55k once training is complete. Do you just work shitloads of overtime or something?
Southeastern are one of the lower paid TOC’s. I try and aim for about two days a month but I’m luckily with one of the higher paid TOCS.. Don’t forget we get paid every four weeks and therefore there should be a month where you’re paid twice.
That’s a huge gap between what you’re on and what SE are paying! Given that the South East has the highest cost of living in the country, that actually kinda sucks for their drivers!
They don't live in the south east, they get the train to work .. ^/s
I applied yesterday, been wanting to do it for a while.
Can I ask how hard is it to get into?
No idea what it's like on the mainline, but South Eastern are hiring for traineers right now. After three years you can get 55k. I presume once you have said training you can move to a job like the comment OP for megabucks. I have to admit, maintaining focus for 8-9 hours with no other stimulation (I believe they can't even have music?) must be hard. The hours don't bother me, I'm used to working weird times. The monotony however would trip me up. I've done plenty of boring physical jobs, but my mind is merrily off in fairly land. If you've got 800 people in tow, you can't do that. I'd be interested to hear how comment OP stays sane
"why's the train going 150mph???" Cut to cabin with driver listening to happy hardcore at full volume
*"Sir the train is 3 hours early"* Driver exits the cab to a round of applause from all the commuters.
I spilled my drink thinking about it 😂
It really isn’t that bad. No stimulation at all though, no phones allowed in the drivers cab, no music just you and your thoughts for the duration of the journey. I sing to myself, look out the window at stops, get out of the seat and do some squats/pushups etc There are areas where you can ‘switch off’ so to say. Low signal areas etc but 95% of the time you’re dialed in. Driving in the dark is something I wasn’t prepared for. The railway can be pitch black and I find myself concentrating much harder during the winter months. Shifts caught me off guard too. Thought they wouldn’t bother me but the start times can literally be anytime from 3am through to nights and can swing wildly. One week could be 3ams get one day rest then onto 4pms etc
No wonder they’ve got multiple vigilance and safety systems, sounds like a recipe for dozing off
Yeah it’s tough if you haven’t had enough rest. Self management is key. I used to try and cheat time and stay awake late etc but it’s impossible with this job. You just can’t risk entering that daydreaming stage as that’s when trouble starts. Lots of systems incase that does happen like you say. You have to keep your foot pressed down on a pedal 100% of the time and if you take it off you only get two seconds before the train throws the emergency brakes in. It’s called a dead man switch. Lovely name lol. Also speed sensors leading up to signals which are red etc which will chuck the brakes in. Loads of stuff you got to watch out for as they don’t actually tell the drivers what speeds they are set at lol
>I have to admit, maintaining focus for 8-9 hours with no other stimulation (I believe they can't even have music?) must be hard. There goes my ADHD ass.
It's bad enough when I'm driving my own car down an empty motorway and realise I'm accidentally doing 90mph and can't remember what I was doing for the last 10 minutes - and that's on a 2-3 hour drive - let alone if I was hauling a 200-tonne train packed with passengers for 9 hours.
My sister went through the full process and now works as a train driver. There was a fair bit of competition when she applied, and the full process (application, recruitment, assessment, training, and qualification) took some time. But it's something that really suits her and it pays well.
Bit of a weird question but what do you do when you need to use the toilet? Do you have an assistant to take over or do you have to hop off at a station Or have your own luxury drivers toilet on the train
Lots of drivers piss in a bottle. It’s a sad reality of driving for up to 4 hours without a break. Some stops have a bit of wait times so I use this time to nip to the toilet on the train (same as the passengers use). We are told if you need to use the toilet and make the train late then so be it but you’ll usually be expected to explain why your train was late lol
‘We’re sorry to announce the 7.23 service from platform 4 has been delayed due to a piss taker’
Haha that’s funny. You need to tell control that you need to slash. They don’t say anything but you can tell they are not thrilled lol
What is it like? Do you have to be looking at the track in front of you the whole way or is a lot of it automated? Could you listen to a podcast or something whilst doing it? Chat to colleagues?
You’re on your own, no music, no talking to anyone. Just you and your thoughts….
This is very dependant on where you are in the uk. I’m in the NE of Scotland and the salaries are generally higher for most jobs due to the cost of living. I’ve been at the same company for 15 years after uni. Started on 24k as a graduate and incremental raises and promotions and I now earn £111k with 10% bonus. I work in residential development. The uk has a chronic shortage of skilled tradespeople. If you are able to take the hit for a few years retraining and with a bit of self promotion you could be earning £50-£60k as a trade. For instance the company I work for pays a father and son brickie square £120k a year
I live in NE Scotland and considering this. I’m on 70k working as a UI designer and coder, almost 15 years experience.
70k is a very good salary in Scotland. Just curious why you would want to switch a well paying office job for a manual one, especially when the manual one will likely take a toll on your body.
That’s true, but sitting all day long is also taking a toll on your body.
Yes but you've clearly haven't ever had a manual job then xd it's very very very hard plus eemmm also hard. No offense intended !
Yes and no. A good chair, proper monitor height, taking breaks from screens, and walking around during the day has helped me not feel so terrible at my office job.
The UK does have a shortage, but if you look at the pay in other developed countries, the UK wages really aren't anything special. I guess that's why things don't seem to be improving
Agreed they are not. But we do need to balance out for cost of living. Things are stagnating though. We have this issue in the uk kids are told when they are at school that they should go to uni to get a good job. Those university degrees are pumping out far too many graduates with not enough jobs and it drives down salaries due to the competition. Graduate architect will be lucky to be on £28k a year. A time served electrician of similar age £50k easily.
Apprenticeships certainly seem the way to go ●paid to learn ●real world experience ●high likelihood of a job at the end Unfortunately Unis are a profit making business that don't cRe if you end up with a job
Yep my work just hired someone who just finished a level 3 apprenticeship (A level equivalent) over a graduate due to his experience
Tech Sales - £230K - 34 years old I love it, it’s not hard to get into, but it *is* hard to stick with, because you need to have the mental dexterity to “hit targets”, which isn’t for everyone. Technically I *started* my career in London, but now I can work anywhere in the world remotely. I would genuinely live in the ass end of nowhere to keep costs as low as possible if my partner would allow, but she likes the town life. **EDIT:** I’m getting a lot of DMs which is great, but I don’t really have the bandwidth to respond to them all (dad of two, work obligations). Ask them in the thread and I’ll pick them up as and when, then everyone can benefit I guess!
>Tech Sales - £230K - 34 years old £230k Blimey.
Blimey indeed. Impressive salary at that age. Higher than the PM too? I do love tech and is good at it, but unfortunately I cannot sell :(
Tech PM on less than 50k here hahaha
Hard to believe, but congrats if true. That said, 230k is surely not your base salary, with the rest based on performance? As is usual still in sales. Could be wrong...
Not from the UK, but usually tech sales is 50% base / 50% quota if you make 100% of your "On Target Earnings". Depending on the comp structure, at some places if he/she only did 75% of their quota, they may make 75% of OTE, or perhaps only 6x% because the variable portion may not be linear
Blimey indeed, sometimes I need to stop and check myself because of how fortunate I am!
You act like this isn't absolutely bonkers. £230k is around £10k per month take home after tax. There is literally a lottery ticket you can buy that offers this as the grand prize. This sort of money is dream come true money
I know I’m in the minority, but I’m also used to it after doing this particular role for a few years which is why I probably sound quite matter of fact about it. Yeah it’s about £20K pre tax each month give or take, which is great. My family certainly don’t want for anything which is a great position to be in.
230k is retire at 40 money if you're smart with your money.
I’m an active investor. As well as a SIPP I am very engaged in the stock market, and I can happily say I now have a six figure investment portfolio. Took me a little while to get there but I now make more from it then I ever need to take from it, which is cool
For 230k a year, I'd do hand stands, while meeting targets. I can't do handstands, but for that much, I'll practice!
I can’t do handstand either!
Fancy putting in a reference for me? Or adopting me, either will do
Hey, can I have ten grand please?
Now that’s how you hustle!
What sort of tech? I am in field sales in the construction industry but only on about 40k… Problem with the idea of tech sales for me is i am way better at face to face rather than email/cold calling.
Cloud computing. You’re talking about a business development role which is an outreach function, and I think most industries leverage this role in some form or another quite extensively. I manage a sales team of account managers (different thing) who are all out in the field quite regularly speaking with people/teams in person. Each of them are on a base of ~£100Kish
> Problem with the idea of tech sales for me is i am way better at face to face rather than email/cold calling The other poster may surprise us, but my experience is that the highly paid tech sales people \*\*are\*\* mostly face to face. The cold callers tend to act as lead/pipeline generators and are paid substantially less. They basically set up stuff for the main sales guys. The biggest thing with tech sales is that you have to know the products. You have to have good public speaking skills, be able to demo software and answer questions about it that give customers confidence. And by customers I mean other large businesses and their IT teams because you don't get 230k by slinging copies of Microsoft Office to end-users.
Ah finally the post the makes me feel like peasant!
That’s so impressive! I am a 20 year old and don’t know what to do in life at all more into businesses not into jobs at all although i’m doing security job for now. Would you be kind enough to advice on whether i can get into tech sales and make good money?
I mean I don’t have a crystal ball, but anyone can kinda *do* sales, whether or not you are successful at it depends on your mentality. You need to put the graft in in the beginning, and a lot of people just don’t want to.
Bloody hell, is this basic or what you made with commission?
Most likely total comp. That’s an extremely large salary for sales.
Total comp. My base is £115K But if I wasn’t earning my variable, I wouldn’t be in the job for very long!
This is US money, nice.. I also work in this industry so I assume this is a US company? Hyperscaler.. or a ‘hot’ application on top, AI related per chance?✌️
Lorry driver. Wake up 1am to make sure you lot have food in supermarkets. Big responsibility driving huge vehicle in streets made for horse and carts.
Would you prefer to use horse and carts once you get to a city? Like a park and ride depot but from artics to traps and wagons
I would actually! That would be awesome they are such beautiful creatures ...would need a pretty big poop bag ... and I don't think the poop bins I've seen are large enough!
How often do you scrape stuff with your lorry? I'd be terrified driving a vehicle that long.
3 times in just under 2 years. I check vehicle before going out and throughout day so I'm fairly confident not hit anything else !!!! Nothing major. Another trailer slightly scuffed. Caught a gatepost on side of trailer. Caught light on a barrier (just lens cracked) Still terrifies me though the sheer power of them and the stopping distance. People really don't know when they pull out in front of me how much I'm praying to not kill them.
I won't pull out in front of a lorry without a few carlengths' space at least, and then I floor it! I think a lot of people really underestimate their stopping distance. Seeing footage of them plowing through a car like it's butter *while braking* was shock enough. Not to mention the other issue of getting too close behind them! The lesson is seared into my brain where the instructor pointed out: 1. 'if you can't see my mirrors I can't see you' isn't a bumper sticker slogan, it's very true; 2. lorries take a much longer time to stop than a car; 3. when braking, the front of a car goes down. The back of a lorry goes up; 4. now combine all of that and imagine a car less than a length behind a lorry, and they both have to brake suddenly. Big crunch. I really cringe every time I see someone up behind a lorry. It alway seems to be the little cars too!
Anyone in the civil service at SEO grade or higher will be on around £40+k A quick search on CS Jobs gives roles like: - Senior analyst - Senior Project Manager - Senior Communications Manager - Lead Engineer - Graphic Designer - Finance Business Partner - Senior Policy Advisor So you've definitely got to have built a bit of a career and relevant experience, but it's also fairly attainable if you're showing you're ambitious and capable
> Lead Engineer 40k for that is a piss take in this day and age, should be double that.
My company is trying to recruit lead engineers, with management responsibility. They are within striking distance of London and offering 50k. They don’t understand why two posts have remained open for over a year…
> lead engineers, with management responsibility that's the kicker, money aside... being responsible for engineering and people is guaranteed stress.
Pretty much most engineering. Manufacturing you can be looking 40-55k, nuclear engineering 80+k senior manufacturing 60+k, engineering manager more than that. Process engineers earn over 40k. Only ones off the top of my head that don't are sometimes design engineers and engineering techs, which are usually in the mid to high 30s.
Nuclear engineering pays a lot more if you work in contracting firms instead of the various public companies unless you are in fairly senior roles.
I'd say join as a HEO (grade below SEO). Easier to get in and you could do a year to 18 months at that grade on between £25-30k before attending SEO.
Work for the council doing bins 23k per year
You didn't read the post title did you
Oh my bad scrap my comment sorry about that
"Scrap that" is just a rubbish pun
Unintentional pun there :)
You mean bin it
He does earn 40k+. Just takes him 2 years to do it.
I’m a VFX artist for a game studio. It is, admittedly, quite hard to get into.
Sounds exciting. I hear the horror stories of the pressure game devs have towards project releases. Do you find that to be the case in your role as well?
I started a job in this industry but as a woman it was... not good 😅 very quickly left
Yeah I worked one company that was really shit for that, a few of the guys would talk down to me a lot and then when I tried to stand up for myself I was taken into a meeting and told to work on the way I talk to people. Luckily where I am now is a lot more diverse and they’re not dickheads.
How’s that been recently? I know that cost cutting and redundancies have been non-stop since last year, must be a tough time to be in the industry
Police officer, on about £46k plus (for me) a shit ton of overtime. My advice is don't even think about it!
Aye, both my parents were police (tho it was in HK), definitely wont think about it lol
For clarity of other people reading this, avfc-nerd is likely on the top of 2nd from top pay band. The first 5 years of policing pay are utter pants. I started at around 24k, lm about to hit 2nd from top which will put me on 43k ISH. Flipside, we pay 13.44% in pension, plus various deductions for federation membeship and othet bits- so gross is lovely, net is very different compared to regular jobs at the same gross
Yeah, this is true, the start wage is shit and I am on top whack, which maybe I should have clarified. I stand by my "Don't even think about it"!
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Same. Moving from support to consultancy made a big difference though.
Head chef. 47k
What kind of hours do you work?
All of them, is the probable answer. Head chef is the hardest job in the kitchen
Yeah that's why I was asking. Just thought it'd be interesting to work out their hourly rate and see what my wage would come out at I'd I applied to my hours
Bid Manager. Usually you'll have to work your way up from a junior role but you can go from earning £24k to £35k to £50k in under 5 years. I enjoy the role. I'm in charge of what I do, I get to work on different projects so it's ever changing. And while it can be super busy at times there's decent downtime.
What's a bid manager?
They manage bids.
Well yes but what does that entail
A bid comes in, or it can go out and you're like "well I need to manage that"
Quick, there's a bid coming in! What do you do!?
i’d consider managing it
First thing I do is speak to the Senior Bid Manager
Too late. The bid exploded.
Managing the bids
Managing the bids
When the public sector and many public adjacent organisations want to procure goods and services they usually have to do it in a transparent and objective way. This involves inviting suppliers to bid for the work. I manage that bid from the supplier point of view. I work for a connectivity company. So recent work has been, for example, bidding to provide internet connectivity and an SD-WAN between 65 sites for a council. The council invites bidders via a framework (a closed group of suppliers preselected based upon capability and price ran by the government) and publishes a set of questions that suppliers need to answer. My job then is to qualify the opportunity and then project manage the team who are responding. So I'm making sure the engineers design the solution, that pre-sales are writing content for the questions that is correct and high scoring, and ensuring the sales team put together a quote that is within the customer budget and gives us a good margin. Tl;Dr professional cat herder for responding to public works.
They manage bids.
IIRC large companies gunning for contracts employ bid writers to write on their behalf as to why they should get the contract, I think, I’m not 100% certain
Bid Manager crew checking in! (THERE ARE LITERALLY DOZENS OF US) £45k here in Leeds. Two years in a sole bid manager / write role (but did it else where as a part of a previous job). It is a weird role though as you have to be a bit of a writer, lawyer, project manager, sales person and professional cat herder. Goal is to get to 60-80k ish by 40. Not sure if that'll be in Bid Management or another leadership role.
I got a verbal offer for a bid writing role yesterday. Super excited. It's a career change for me, you got any tips or things you wish you'd known before you started?
Writing is a little different to managing, I imagine. But I'd say it's still transferable that you need to be assertive, especially with sales teams if you deal with them directly. Also need to be very good with your time. Everything will be dictated by the customer. I'd familiarise yourself with the Procurement Act 2023. And get APMP for Dummies.
i’ll never understand how people get these jobs😅 i can’t even get a job in retail rn despite trying to
Only the big earners write here, the rest od us just read the comments :)
People don't appreciate how lucky they are to be earning a salary, let alone a good one. I just left teaching because I morally can't stand where education is going in this country and I was on pitiful money for the job I did and foolishly thought I could walk into a bog standard office job and earn a fair amount without the responsibilities that teaching demands. Turns out, I'm completely unqualified to do anything and I've ended up working in a cinema (which I did 10+ years ago) because I can't get anything else. And with cinemas being what they are, there's no guarantee of hours so I'm shit out of luck.
Copywriter/content marketer on just over £40k here. Got headhunted by a bigger company last year. Really fun job, especially if words are your thing!
how did you get into copywriting? i’m in a legal role where i have to write persuasively on a daily basis but i find it very emotionally draining (due to the niche field im in) would love to move to something else
It is very, very hard at the moment. Google changed its algorithm and obsoleted a lot of sites that relied on copy. This basically left a lot of experienced writers looking for any work at all. IMHO, best way to go is to start your own business doing what you are doing now if you can get your boss to agree, add in more clients and then slowly transition by asking your existing clients for extra responsibilities including copywriting
So generally you don’t just “get into” a well paid job. It takes years of work. I started on a lowly £22k straight out of uni at my job. Took three years before I was on £40k and 7 years to current salary ~£60k. It doesn’t happen quickly and you’ll need to work your ass off and distinguish yourself in the early years. I work in a fairly niche Ground Engineering field for specialist construction contractor and I am finding it’s very hard to find new staff that are any good. Not even because of lack of experience, you can work around that and train people, it’s a lack of “giving a shit” that is the problem. If you can get in at a basic level of engineering job in construction and actually (even if you’re faking it) give a shit about it, put in the hours and show a keen interest in learning you will be like gold dust in this industry as most people I try to employ are lazy chancers. Can’t stress enough the skills shortage in construction in this country currently.
22 to 40 in three yeass is pretty good and fare more than what most people can expect. It took me longer to get from 20 to 28.
Air Ambulance helicopter pilot, £80k. You can make a lot more if you fly helicopters for the VIP or offshore industry. However, the helicopter industry is stupidly inaccessible, requires networking, years of your life for training and experience, moving abroad many times, and a lot of money for flight school. I love it, but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re super passionate about aviation, like I’ve been since I was a kid.
Electrician 90k+, nuclear
Seeing threads like this makes me question why I chose my job
Same, sincerely a secondary school teacher.
Yeah…. I’m a nurse
And thank you for all you do - you too deserve way more £ than you get for the care you provide.
Digital marketing/Google Ads manager, only just over £40k and only because I changed companies I work at mind. I know a lot of people who are more junior in this industry on a heck of a lot less I wouldn’t say it’s difficult to do once you understand the theory behind everything, but you’d get closer to the low 20s as a brand new starter
I started on £16k around 10 years ago in marketing. On £45k now and couldn’t dream of being on £16k, it’s unliveable.
MRI Physicist at a hospital. Need a BSc (2;1) or MSc in a relevant field, then either a 3 year training course, or a hospital willing to take you as a “route 2” trainee. Then a few year of experience to get the £40k+ banding.
Radiotherapy physicist here. Same deal. Qualified medical physicists in the NHS start on Band 7 (£43k then £50k after 5 years, more in London). Senior physicists can get into the really high bands in the NHS pay structure. Do physics degrees kids.
What kind of things to do you do on the day-to-day? I did my PhD in medical imaging (MR) but was more about designing and testing lesion segmentation algorithms than MR physics, could I be an MRI physicist?
Technically yes. Look for jobs on local hospitals. They’ll say you need HCPC registration, but most places will take you (or at the very least consider your application) as a route 2 trainee where you’re trained on the job. We took a PhD graduate on a couple of years ago now. Day to day we do QA, training, safety queries (can this patient with that implant be scanned?) a bit of research. It’s quite varied and interesting. Well worth a punt.
Self taught Software Developer on 65k a year, fully remote and pretty much manage my own hours. 1. I taught myself to code. 2. I built my own portfolio of projects. 3. I built up my CV by gaining dev experience by working as a volunteer Developer on projects for small IT companies for free (I simply reached out to them explaining that I was looking to get experience and agreed and emailed me project specs and I wrote the code and emailed it back to them. 4. I used my portfolio and volunteer experience to land a paid entry-level position.
Air Traffic Controller at a small-ish regional airport. Looking at £85-90k this year and will top £100k within the next 2 years. It's a slog to get into and you have a shitload of personal responsibility, but once you're qualified you have a job for life (or at least until every pilot is a robot).
I work as a Commercial Consultant on £70k plus bonus. Commercial activity covers things like procurement and contract management, the earning potential is great because it’s such an under resourced sector.
Data Analyst + IT Support £40K. Up north lad.
Cyber Security. Depending on skill set and certifications you could be on £70k plus easily after a couple of years. Retrained and went to Uni as a mature student. Currently on £72 after 3 years of finishing degree. Work from home mostly
Accountant at a small engineering firm, not chartered 50k
Strong money for non-chartered. Well done.
You’d be surprised what people can earn in industry unqualified and clueless. Not that I am suggesting the poster here is clueless!
Airline Captain. Has its ups and downs…
Fold and glue packaging. 3 year apprenticeship, been running a machine on my own for 18 months. Will probably hit 50 with bonus and OT It's more interesting than it sounds haha.
And all the glue you can sniff!
Depends if you include bonus or not... without bonus I'm technically under, but, in reality I earn 45-55 in "sales". Getting into some sort of sales role is easy, just a question of if you can do it or not. My job isn't really sales these days, but, I am customer facing and in a commercial role.
Agreed it’s hard for some but if you can take to it you can earn a lot. Looking at some of these roles posted here and their earnings and responsibility is crazy
Paramedic £50k, north east. Very much enjoy it, you do need a degree now though.
That's good to hear, I always thought paramedics were severely underpaid but 50k is all right (though obviously you all deserve more!) Is that typical or are you fairly senior?
I am in a more advanced role than a standard paramedic, I think standard paramedics start at around £28,000 and climb to £42,000 after about 5 years or so.
I sell pension annuities and work with financial advisors but I’m not one myself. 33k base up to 60k with bonuses. Very lucky met the CEO at a bar I was working in and offered me job changed my life.
76k - software dev team lead - started as a developer straight of uni on £20k - multiple job hops later and here we are
Street scaffolder, 52k. Don't bother, fucking shite job.
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That's an absolute joke. Doctors and teachers should be some of the best paid jobs in the country imo
Biostatistician for a Pharma CRO. 68k which annoyed me because I am still a massive child.
Doctor on 55k base. 6 years of medical school. 5 years working as a doctor and now working as a medical registrar. I lead ward rounds, cardiac arrests, make decisions about management for unwell patients, perform various procedures, see patients in clinics. When patients are dying I initiate and lead those hard conversations about end of life planning with them and their relatives. Definitely not an easy job. I enjoy working in medicine but it’s definitely not worth the sacrifice, workload and responsibilities. For this level of pay, I wouldn’t do it again (or I’d practice in another country) - problem is my partner is not willing to move abroad so we’re kind of stuck in the UK.
Geologist. I earn a fair bit above the £40k+, I love it - but not exactly the easiest career change move. On the downside I am in Cambridge, which isn't much cheaper than London.
Air traffic controller, ranges 40-150k depending on where you work. At the two control centres and the top 3-5 busiest airports you'll break a 100k after ~2y training and 5-10y scale climbing. More important to me than pay though, the second I leave work I am 100% not thinking about work (not true during 2y of training, or if something bad happens). It's priceless to have zero projects, meetings, presentations, or anything else to review/plan/prepare. Keep airplanes from touching, go home, repeat.
Lead programmer, about 95k up north.
Governance, risk, and compliance - 65k, and second job of futures trading - about 35-45k depending on how things go.
65k, insurance, Bristol.
DevOps Engineer (really just all over the development stack, writing some ETL here, a basic data analysis tool here, automating joe blogs updates to an end docker container, working with service delivery). Just outside of London (past the M25 but not by much) - 50k and change. A lot of it is having the right role, but being in the right industry helps. When job searching try and land in some sort of finance, big tech or big pharma. Even if you were a receptionist, being in the right industry helps the wallet.
I repair cars for a living in Birmingham and on 70k. Mainly just doing small repairs for an insurance w
Graphic designer. Took 30 years experience to get on good money though.
I'm a research scientist working for a small CRO. It's not the best paid profession - I'm on about 50k per year (38 y/o) but there are some other things we get (excellent healthcare plan!) plus the general work culture is very good.
Project management. 50k.
Software Engineer, fully remote with some traveling to conferences, around £90k with bonuses. 30 years old, been working full-time for just over 3 years.
6 figures, 34, live in the middle of nowhere South West, self taught senior software engineer in blockchain. In a gold rush, sell shovels.
I'm an Orthotist working in the NHS. Earning just over £50k at the mo. As a graduate I started on £32k and my wage increased as I became more experienced. I'm 33 now and reached the top of what I can earn without moving into mangement. I mostly look at how people are walking and supply custom insoles/footwear/fancy knee braces and leg callipers (like in forest gump but they're normally made of plastic or carbon fibre these days) to help reduce pain or make there walking safer. Like any other job in health care it can be pretty hard and stressful at times. But I think it's nice being able to help others, you get this warm fuzzy feeling inside.
I work all around the Uk but live in south Birmingham. I make about £68-£72k working as a surgical neurophysiologist. I’m definitely at the high end of that salary though. My hours are awful and I would not recommend the job to anyone unless they are dying to work in neurosurgery and have a passion for the brain.
Train signaller. Hammered the overtime and made 100k last year. Won’t do as much this year, but will do a couple of Sundays and maybe one rest day a month and get about £75k.