Which Career?

stphnstevey

I'm 34 and re-evavluating life!

I do a job that is ok, but as most people, is not something I jump out of bed for in the morning. It's quite boring and mundane and been doing it for about 7yrs now. I setup Clinical Trials of new drugs with doctors. I am a contractor, so get paid fairly well and in a round about way clear around £75k before tax. I know this is pretty good, but I have never been one to stop trying.

I decided ages ago that the jobs I would enjoy, don't pay much! And if I am going to do a job I don't enjoy, I may as well get paid as much as possible for it! Therefore I am happy to do a job purely for the money

So I have come to consider several career paths as below:

I am looking for something that has a low qualification time and cost (2yrs ideal and part time), low stress, enjoy and interesting if possible, can make into a scalable business, any location (UK, abroad), think I might be good at and obviously pays well! (better than what I currently make)

PILOT
Think would enjoy, but not a business and salary reaches a ceiling

FINANCIAL ADVISER
Sales would be high stress for me. Accountant below seems same returns but less stress

PLUMBER
Not really a scalable business and salary ceiling.

VET
Would enjoy, but salary isn't high enough return for 7yrs training and cost. Prefer doctor below as higher salary for similiar training

STOCK BROKER/CITY TRADER
Restricted location to London and high stress. Accountant below seems same returns but less stress and any location

DOCTOR
Would enjoy, but long training and cost. Need move USA for best salaries

PROPERTY DEVELOPER
Don't think I would enjoy and to me high stress as such large amounts of money risking. Also not sure I would be good at this.

LAWYER
Could do law conversion course, but still need 2yrs in practise training at low salary. Not enjoyable, but scalable business and good salary (particularly in USA)

ACCOUNTANT
Could do qualifications part time, start bookeeping business now. Not enjoyable, but scalable business and good salary

Any help welcome and (constructive) criticism!

Mistral001

stphnstevey wrote: »

I'm 34 and re-evavluating life!


STOCK BROKER/CITY TRADER
Restricted location to London and high stress. Accountant below seems same returns but less stress and any location

That looks like the best job for you. You can make a £billion at it by not working very hard like one noteable person did recently. Looks like just the job for you.

gingerdad

any selfish money grabing role seems to suit... banker sounds best... me i rather enjoy life

poet123

I think the above comments smack of jealousy.

OP those are quite diverse careers, which require different skill sets. You are in a scientific field now so is that not your area of expertise? The transition to Doctor or Vet would be easier than to the other fields imo. If you do have the skill sets for all the jobs listed you should also surely factor in the enjoyment factor, work is a large part of life and you do want to enjoy it if at all possible. So, my advice would be to narrow it down honestly to skill set,and genuine ability, then to which appeals.

You also need to be realistic about the chances of gaining training in each field. Places at medical school are oversubscribed by huge numbers, ditto Vet school. Pilot training is almost non existent currently. If you look into all these issues you may find some careers are just not viable in the current climate.

Good luck.

gem75

Sorry to say this but you should cross both vet and doctor off your list. Vet school is extremely competitive to get into. An 18 year old with A grade science A levels and months of work experience with animals still may not get a place as it is so oversubsribed. I am guessing that you don't have 3 science A levels at A grade so you would need to spend 2 years doing that first, putting you at 36 before you even start the 5 or 6 years of training.
Medical school is similar although not quite as difficult to get into as vet school but I still think unless you already have a science background, you will struggle to be accepted onto a course.

bristol_pilot

On the basis of your current income, quitting and re-training for a period of many years and then climbing the ladder of your new career until you surpass £75k again (in today's money)...is going to cost you a large fraction of £1M in lost earnings and other costs. Not worth it IMO. Find some other interest outside or alongside work, or maybe something that furthers your current career.

poet123

gem75 wrote: »

Sorry to say this but you should cross both vet and doctor off your list. Vet school is extremely competitive to get into. An 18 year old with A grade science A levels and months of work experience with animals still may not get a place as it is so oversubsribed. I am guessing that you don't have 3 science A levels at A grade so you would need to spend 2 years doing that first, putting you at 36 before you even start the 5 or 6 years of training.
Medical school is similar although not quite as difficult to get into as vet school but I still think unless you already have a science background, you will struggle to be accepted onto a course.

He does have a science background.

gingerdad

poet123 wrote: »

I think the above comments smack of jealousy.

OP those are quite diverse careers, which require different skill sets. You are in a scientific field now so is that not your area of expertise? The transition to Doctor or Vet would be easier than to the other fields imo. If you do have the skill sets for all the jobs listed you should also surely factor in the enjoyment factor, work is a large part of life and you do want to enjoy it if at all possible. So, my advice would be to narrow it down honestly to skill set,and genuine ability, then to which appeals.

You also need to be realistic about the chances of gaining training in each field. Places at medical school are oversubscribed by huge numbers, ditto Vet school. Pilot training is almost non existent currently. If you look into all these issues you may find some careers are just not viable in the current climate.

Good luck.

not at all, i love my life earn decent money, in a job i love, with a couple of great hobbies, and wife kids...

my comments where based more on the way the OP opening comments where made

GD

Croatoan

I am looking for something that has a low qualification time and cost (2yrs ideal and part time),

So you can immediately strike off Pilot, Doctor, Vet, Accountant, Lawyer. Might be wise anyway because at your age you'll struggle with Doctor, Vet and Pilot and you might struggle to get a high paid job as a lawyer (though I accept none are impossible for older people to move into - your chances of being sponsored as a pilot at your age are virtually nil). Plumber seems oddly incongruous with the the others, so Property Developer, Financial Advisor and Stockbroker are what's realistically left, and reading between the lines, they all seem too stressful.
Perhaps you should look at doing what you'd enjoy and accept less money. I used to be an antiques/collectibles trader and absolutely loved it, but alas in the end I wasn't quite earning enough to get by. Now I'm on a comfortable wage but nowhere near as happy and would go back to antiques in a heartbeat if I could just eke out the few more grand a year I'd need to cover the basics (never likely to happen ).

skattykatty

Trying to understand what OP is asking - want out of mundane job, which you do 'purely for the money' in order to train for another job you're happy to do 'purely for the money'! Unsure on why the change is motive is the same, Bored, I suppose if it's mundane. Many of the alternatives not only require intense financial and time commitments but I think also require a sense of vocation?

Why not keep doing the mundane job which pays a fantastic wage BUT over time build skills in areas you enjoy. Yoy never know, one day you may be able to both enjoy AND earn lots of money working.

Hiccups_2

I don't have any advice for you regarding the fields you'd like to move into because that's entirely your own choice if you feel you are able to make the commitment (both in time and having less money available).


However, I feel I should point out the obvious in that ALL careers usually end up being "mundane" and "boring" in terms of the fact that you end up doing the same job day in, day out, unless you continuously seek out new opportunities for change or development. For instance, would you really be any happier as a GP who for most of the time is dealing with the same, routine, common illnesses?


IMO, your biggest difficulty is that you do seem very concerned about the salary you'll receive, so money is a big, if not the biggest, motivating factor for you. The truth is there are no guarantees that you'll end up in a job for the new role you've trained for (see graduate unemployment), let alone manage to get to the top levels demanding the highest salaries (usually disproportionately reported and are not the norm).


If you were training to be a doctor, you would need to set aside 7 years for training; 5 years at uni and a further two years in a placement (assuming that you manage to get a training placement).

So you would need to finance the next 5 years whilst you're studying for a medical degree and the salary for a trainee doctor is only around the £50,000 mark. You should also look around to note how many doctors are working in locum posts, part time, on a pro rata basis. The usual salary for a full time doctor is not much different to what you're on now. Doctors' salaries are over reported and generally only the partners of a General Practice would receive the high salaries that are reported in the press. They manage this because most of them are not employed by the NHS but are actually self-employed and run their General Practice like a business, by receiving money from the NHS for treatments which factor in quality assesments.

I don't know about the USA, but would expect their salaries (in general) to be much lower because they have private medical care so it is an open market and would be based on competition, of course this could include the rare millionaire or two, skewing the average.


Likewise, as a lawyer (again if you manage to secure a training placement with a firm), you would be surprised because a lot of people end up working for law firms as employees with set salaries that look meagre compared to what you are on now.

Becoming a partner of your own law firm, where you could set your own salary, or a barrister would also mean that you would need to generate your own business. You already say "sales" would be high pressure for you. Partners and barristers set high charges for their clients so it may seem lucrative, but at the end of the day, if you don't have regular clients - you won't have regular pay.

With the legal aid cuts (e.g. for family law) this has also seen the end of a revenue stream that was previously taken for granted and would have been easy money for firms to keep afloat.


You say you're bored with your current job so how will you feel after a set number of years of being an accountant or a pilot for instance. I don't think either of these jobs are known for the varying types of work that they offer.


Just bear in mind that people who make a successful transition to another career later in life, and feel satisfied with their decision at the end of it, have usually done so as a result of either following a dream or passion or upskilling to improve their prospects / salary.

Of course, nothing is impossible, but if your salary is important to you, I think you're being a little optimistic in thinking that you could move into another profession and start seeing returns that are higher than your current earnings. You could end up in a position not far from where you are now in another ten years' time and with a lot of "hard-ship" in between.

Perhaps you need to stop thinking about salaries for the moment and think about what you really want to do with your life. If you can't think of anything then I think maybe it could just be a case of the grass being greener on the other side?