Which professions do you think are overworked/underpaid? Similarly which are well paid?

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  • redlfc
    redlfc Posts: 101 Forumite
    Pay isn’t what it once was in the city, but it’s still decent. We pay our interns and graduates about £60k a year probably rising to £100k on average three years in.

    On the other hand you get the respect of society and the satisfaction of making a direct and observable difference, which has to be worth a lot.

    what field is this if you dont mind me asking? as I do have friends in city in finance but 60k for graduate rising to 100k is unheard unless Investment banking?
  • redlfc
    redlfc Posts: 101 Forumite
    Why would this mean that someone should pay you more though? Your value is what you bring to your employer, not what you had to go through to get there.

    I wonder, given that you would have known the salaries before you went down this route, why you’ve chosen medicine as a career.

    I started in the civil service on the equivalent of what today would be about £25k, and it would not have gone up much had I stayed. You are misjudging what others are earning, I think.

    unfortunately I foolishly did not look into the salary side of things in comparison to other jobs especially when taking into account degree length/student loan/low salary increases as junior - my own fault

    Just assumed as a doctor i would be very well paid
  • redlfc
    redlfc Posts: 101 Forumite
    cardsguy wrote: »
    Similar experience here, I’m under 30 and in the 45% tax bracket working in IT in the City - and never had student debt to worry about.
    My first job in London paid around £60k (with 2 years experience).

    what specifically do you do in IT? is it software development? thats incredible - well done!
  • FBaby
    FBaby Posts: 18,367
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    You have to remember 3 years post degree is 6 years post degree for everyone else
    3 years seems a lot to you. I understand this as DD is studying Medicine and the whole road to the end really starts at gcse level. However, 3 years in the scheme of things is nothing.

    Remember that official retirement age is now 67. Three years won't mean much when you'll be able to retire at 60 because for the past 20 years, you've managed to earn £100 to £150k compared to someone who got into a £35k a job at 22 but who at 60 has 'only' managed to earn a salary of £60k in the last 20 years and can't afford to retire yet.
  • redlfc
    redlfc Posts: 101 Forumite
    edited 12 January 2019 at 10:55AM
    FBaby wrote: »
    3 years seems a lot to you. I understand this as DD is studying Medicine and the whole road to the end really starts at gcse level. However, 3 years in the scheme of things is nothing.

    Remember that official retirement age is now 67. Three years won't mean much when you'll be able to retire at 60 because for the past 20 years, you've managed to earn £100 to £150k compared to someone who got into a £35k a job at 22 but who at 60 has 'only' managed to earn a salary of £60k in the last 20 years and can't afford to retire yet.

    yeah thanks thats a good point 3 years is a small amount of time in grand scheme of things. Good luck to your daughter!

    however the 100-150k figures are only for consultants doing private work (naturaly these fields are incredibly competitive and would take additional years of research/audits/publications/ before even being accepted onto one of these specialities) - fully qualified GPs are going to be earning 55-80k depending on OOH work

    The big jump up in salary for hospital medicine is not till consultant which starts at 75k and goes up to maximum of 105k after 20+ years as a consultant by which time youll be 60

    Prior to consultant the max basic salary is 47k as senior registrar!

    Also people who are on 35k jobs at 22 are very unlikely to earn 60k at 60 - in reality it will be 6 figures by 30s
  • FBaby
    FBaby Posts: 18,367
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    I am friends with a number of consults ts and GPSs all in their late 40s/50s and all earn just under or above £100k.

    They do indeed private work, but they do at the SPIRE /BUPA/Nuffield companies in the area. The also do nhs work there. The GP I know earn this too although both work PT now. Another has now decided to become a Locum GP and earns over £100k. She works weekends though at a walk in centre.

    *Also people who are on 35k jobs at 22 are very unlikely to earn 60k at 60 - in reality it will be 6 figures by 30s*
    I don't think that's true. It very much depends on what they aspire to. Finance graduates within the NHS for instance can start at Band 7 and earn £35k in London but only a few will make it to band 8C and earn over £60k even in their 50s.

    In the end, whatever the profession, you make it what you want. Many doctors are happy with a £70k job, especially if marrying another professional. I think the issue is that you are in thos years where you're not really a student any longer but not recognised as valuable employee either so it feels a bit of a kick in the teeth at the moment.
  • redlfc wrote: »
    what specifically do you do in IT? is it software development? thats incredible - well done!

    I work for a large-ish tech company doing a mixture of software development and infrastructure work - and everything else on the side to ensure all is running smoothly. It’s pretty high pressure and I never work only 40 hours - while office hours are not that long you would usually find yourself working out of hours and on weekends (how many, I’m not sure as I don’t keep track). On the upside there is no bureaucracy, no dress code (think shorts and tshirt in summer, which is both funny and awkward when most of the City is wearing a suit and tie), business class travel and very good comp. Definitely a big part of it is going above and beyond, innovating, being passionate and changing the status quo.

    This notwithstanding, a recent CompSci grad (22-23 years old) with some internship experience working for a FAANG (Facebook, Google et al) in London will definitely get at least £60-70k basic and something like $100-120k in stock RSU vesting over 4 years to start with - and even more if they went to grad school or masters, or are specialized in AI or ML. Fair when comparing to being a doctor and saving lives? Probably not, but this is the current job market and where the focus is right now.
  • Pennywise
    Pennywise Posts: 13,468
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    FBaby wrote: »
    Remember that official retirement age is now 67. Three years won't mean much when you'll be able to retire at 60 because for the past 20 years, you've managed to earn £100 to £150k compared to someone who got into a £35k a job at 22 but who at 60 has 'only' managed to earn a salary of £60k in the last 20 years and can't afford to retire yet.

    And that GP's, dentists, consultants, etc tend to retired even earlier than 60 these days. Both my GP and NHS dentist retired in their mid 50's.
  • Pennywise
    Pennywise Posts: 13,468
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    redlfc wrote: »
    however the 100-150k figures are only for consultants doing private work

    No, around £100-£120k is perfectly do-able for experienced partner GPs and NHS dentists working full time. The last firm I worked for had a lot of doctor/dentist clients and I still do a few now I have my own practice. One of the biggest challenges at the moment is keeping their total incomes under the £100k threshold to avoid the penal marginal tax rate of 62% and avoiding their NHS superannuation pension pots breaching the lifetime threshold, hence why so many only work 3/4 day weeks.
  • Gavin83
    Gavin83 Posts: 8,739
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    I'm quite surprised by this. I work in IT (I'm a DBA, although have done other roles in the past) and £70k is the top end I usually see in London for roles that aren't consultancy or management and that usually involves working for investment banks with long hours and a high demand environment. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place!

    I'm in the position at the moment where I could earn more elsewhere but it's likely to lead to more stress and the work/life balance won't be the same. It's all about working out your priorities.

    Tax also makes a big difference at this level. Is it worth adding more working hours and more stress to earn a few hundred more a month after tax?
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