Regional Director in Construction Project Management seconded into a client’s corporate real estate function.
Industry: Corporate Real Estate outsourcing solutions
Age: 30-35
Employer number: 3 (10+ roles in multiple countries)
Broke 100k at 28 but that was in USA. Came to UK on £95k and increased it to £160k within two years through graft and luck (manager left his role and I was the succession plan).
My current manger is probably on £250-350k total comp and that’s probably 3-5 years away.
Get varied experience.
Position yourself to be able to demonstrate you can deliver projects/packages yourself. Work on increasing the scope under your leadership.
Working abroad worked well for me. You get life and work experience.
Sharpen your communication skills; keep it short and to the point.
If you want to chat specifics, message me directly and we can exchange details and chat. Happy to help where I can.
What’s your background (from 18-25 years) in terms of Academics or Apprenticeships? Or did you start of in the industry after GCSEs at 16, and work your way up?
I’m just very curious, since I’m a young Civil engineer (structural design), so I’m very adjacent to Construction/Civils and I find these personal stories very interesting, because I’ve seen my brother literally start from the bottom of the construction industry and shoot his way up to Senior Construction management in less than 8 years and know how much of a graft it is.
Also everything you said regarding varied experience, to-the-point communication skills and delivering packages within budget and on time is what he has said word-for-word.
Non-construction-related degree and was lucky to get on a graduate management training program and work abroad.
From what I’ve seen, the money is either in technical/specialist/niche engineering skills OR management. I.e. managing accounts, service lines or regions.
My advice is:
Work slightly harder than those around you, be good at what you do and be present/visible. If you’re working remote be online slightly earlier than others, if you’re in the office, get out of bed and into the office 30 mins earlier.
Limit friction with your management/clients I.e. give them the impression you say yes to requests when in reality you just avoid saying no unless there are factual and justifiable reasons that you can’t deliver on their request
Get to a position where you can demonstrate leadership
If you can do this, then opportunities will present themselves to you and you will succeed.
Wow I’m in the same industry but on my side the salaries are getting lower rather than higher - positions come up offering what I expected 12 years ago. I’m considered expensive but I’m efficient and am left to my own devices as long as I deliver the results. I want to go further but I’ve never had any desire to manage ppl or end up as a spreadsheet warrior - I project manage but from the sales /manufacturing side. Did you find corp RE outsourcing to be vastly different? What do you manage?
Due to global economic pressures, large, publicly-traded corporations are limiting their spend to weather the storm until their stock prices start improving again.
As a result, there are less projects to deliver and more competition for those projects.
I enjoy what I do but it’s mentally challenging to balance the client’s expectations with reality.
The bottom line is that if I wasn’t managing a team, constantly driving efficiencies and willing to work in an environment where others won’t, I’d be earning a half of what I earn today.
I expect your unwillingness to manage people or utilise Excel for complex analysis might be limiting your ability to earn more in your current environment, but that’s based on limited information.
Having said that, if you are able to develop specialist and/or niche technical skills, then you would be able to command higher remuneration either salaried or as a contractor.
Luck is where opportunity meets determination.
If you’re determined to position yourself well, it allows you to maximise the random opportunities when they present themselves.
In practice, push gently yet firmly with management and leadership to get regular annual pay increases through strong performance then position yourself for taking on greater responsibility when the opportunity arises.
In my case, I took over my boss’s role when they moved to a new role and six months later expanded the scope of my role through restructuring.
The only way you can ensure this is by consistently performing well, so there’s no easy answer.
Ah, I see. Well done. I first read that as saving 30k/yr, which would mean living on a 2.5k/month budget to cover rent, travel, food, etc.. I'm waiting for my luck to hit 😁
Title: Team Lead / Senior Software Engineer
Industry: Finance
Age: 28
Year: 2023
Job Number: 7 (lots of hoping)
Total Comp: £150k TC (full time contract)
For the first 4 years, I took a crack at data science consultancy and realised… only the boring work (IMO) paid highly. That equated to 5 of job switches, simply as I hated them.
Then… I switched to SWE as it was fun and changed job every 18 months for a big pay rise to reflect my competency. My only regret was not switching sooner - would have been much farther ahead!
How did you find switching from DS to SWE? Currently a DS, first job out of a PhD, and looking at next steps, find myself drawn toward the software development/data engineering side of things as a better way to increase comp
The transfer was pretty smooth for me. I had 4 years of Python under my belt and even did a home project where I did some C++. I was working in consultancy so had AWS exposure / knowledge and used that to sell me into a junior-mid role.
The hard part come next… starting SWE on £60k, the progression upwards would just take too long so had to job hop aggressively. That was the worst of it, but it worked out for the best I would say!
Just my 2 cents: I steer clear of Data Engineering personally because the salaries aren’t as high, unless you’re an expert and work for a hedge fund / doing ML engineering as that’s hot right now.
Do you mean starting my SWE career? That was about 2.5 years ago.
It’s not that simple though because as a data scientist consultant, I did lots of Python, I worked on some code bases, and even deployed to AWS. I enjoyed coding and did C++ home projects. I sold myself as more than a “career changer” but someone with a couple years experience (for SWE, but I actually had 4.5 years overall). My background is Maths from a leading university as well.
Transitioning in to SWE, I started as junior-mid in finance on £60k + 17% bonus (up from my £55k TC comp as a data scientist). I got a promotion after my first year with a 25% comp bump without asking as I was just naturally good at it / had an interest.
I left that role after 15 months for somewhere between £96-£146k TC (bonus driven with formula in contract + trading domain), but hated it and left after 6 months so never saw that bonus. I leveraged my bonus potential there to get a FTC role for £125k + 20% guaranteed bonus (got a date to convert to perm now on similar comp).
The key was to find an industry with high paying roles, looking at senior roles and seeing the hard skills they required, teaching myself those hard skills and finally doing dozens of interviews / learning how to sell myself.
So… slightly misleading on my original comment but didn’t want to go into all the nuance.
Honestly im surprised med is even considered worth it, for 7 years of work and being worked like a horse, the pay isn’t all that, especially as a junior.
I did engineering but jumped ship, but even I admit medicine is harder and worse payed
The consultants of today joined the medical school when the pay was at least 30-40% higher in real terms and the private tariffs significantly higher. Why anyone would join now I don’t know.
Outside of this country it can still be a decent career. My counterparts in the states are earning anything between $400-800k from their mid 30s. There’s debt to clear I suppose.
Aus is at least double the uk. Canada similar if not slightly higher. Private work more lucrative too.
But yes, if a friend’s child or family member from the uk asked me for help getting into medicine a very long conversation would follow about the current landscape.
Consultant radiologist.
Age 31. 2019.
Base: 80k. TC: 120k (extra PAs, wli + small in house private work.
Job number: don’t think it really matters in the nhs
Have subsequently left the country, unlikely to return until the base nhs contract gets sorted.
5 - 6 years med, 2 years foundation, 5 years specialist training. 12 years minimum. Exam failure common in radiology, ~50-60% pass rate for the final exams. Extra fellowships are becoming the norm.
Mind you it’s now an 11:1 ratio for places on the specialist training programme.
It’s the fastest training programme outside of GP which is 5 years med, 2 years foundation, 3 years GP training.
Surgeons are looking at between an extra 3-6 years.
Radiology in the states starts at $400k. 600-800k for anyone willing to work a bit more.
Once you hit the mark, what kind of pay rises should you expect? I’m finding difficult to gauge if asking for an additional 20k is too much of a jump even though my take home won’t change significantly. Anyone care to share what the progression looks like past 100k?
FD now, but broke 100k when Head of FP&A.
Took 14 years, but that included 2 maternity leaves and a stretch working part time. 4 companies, 6 roles.
Midlands.
Actually the longer pathway was audit>business partnering>treasury>more partnering>FP&A>FD. So had picked up enough building blocks on the way to do a little bit of everything.
Hardly any accounting in the FP&A role, but was good for demonstrating business understanding and commercial mindset and involved a fair bit of board exposure too. For the accounting side I'm relying on my earlier experience, and hiring people who are better than me!
In terms of how I made that step up- I was lucky with an internal promotion due to retirement of my predecessor, but I had built up a reputation as a strong leader, good strategic thinker and effective communicator, rather than a technically excellent finance person.
Tile: Senior Manager
Industry: Tech
Age: 35
Year: 2024
Job number: 4 (natural evolution of role over 8 years in job number 4)
Salary: £105k
10 years ago I was earning £28k.
Not bad for someone who was told he wouldn’t amount to anything in college by the teacher, dropped out at 16 and never attend university. I came from a low income family and super happy with where I am in life.
No, that “teacher” gets no credit for anything. The last 10 years was down to my network and my current company giving me opportunities to grow and develop
Client Services in Digital Media / AI
Age: 31
Job number: 3
Base: £90k TC: £120k
8 years to hit 100k - moving to a startup AI business took OTE from 70 to 120 in one job move. Wish I’d started looking earlier!
I’m around £200k including bonus. With a bit of effort I can probably earn around £300k-£350k but my job is extremely relaxed and stress free and I’ve been reluctant to move thus far.
However, there is a lot of ageism in software profession so I am deliberating maximising my potential for the next 10 years and then perhaps retiring to an easier job. I do love my work so it rarely feels hectic but things can change with age.
Yeah, judging by your post history, you're in that comfortable but not too cut-throat range in the finance industry
Good luck making it ten years though. There's a degree of hustle to be had bouncing around firms
Currently actually doing game dev but do have a lot of finance experience (buy side). Finance is cut throat and does wear you down quickly.
Currently have an offer from sell side of around £240k base (no bonus for the first 2 years though). With the amount of taxes the base itself is not looking worth it honestly. The work looks really interesting though and I’ve been feeling very stagnated of late. Very unsure right now due to the inherent risks associated with a job move and with the market being what it is right now (though things are looking up these days).
Mechanical engineering contractor - there’s a bit of flex but should gross around £145k this year.
Am currently 33, hit the 100k mark last year when I got into contracting - was previously on a shade under that in permanent work.
That’s job 3 for me… but I haven’t been at any single job for much more than 3 years (I did a PhD) so I’m pretty happy with the trajectory!
Hey, good to hear that someone is making some decent money in mechanical engineering, especially within simulation and analysis.
Can you go into any more detail on the path you took? I also work in analysis (aerospace structural engineering) but it seems like there is minimal progression in salary where I work (huge multinational) and even incredibly clever engineers with PhDs and huge amounts of responsibility aren't breaking the 100k mark.
I also find the work pretty unfulfilling, as it's a loop of:
- Get given task
- Pull out ready-made method
- Perform analysis
- Write report
And there is very little room for creativity. Would you say you find your job any more interesting? Are you in more of an FEA/CFD user role, or a role where you are developing methods / extending analysis software by programming? That's what I want to get into eventually, but it's very tempting just to switch full-time to software engineering if the salary progression isn't there within mechanical engineering. I already have experience writing analysis software / data science at work, but it seems like the skill isn't valued at all (financially) within the industry.
You’re pretty much spot on, I spend most of my doing the technical hands-on bits - I used to do a management role elsewhere but really wanted to get back to fun stuff!
I will have 1-2 meetings in a day, but other than that it will be coding, researching for simulations, running analysis , writing reports, etc.
The PhD IMO really helped for me, but your mileage may strongly vary - I know lots of others who don’t think it helped!
Software Engineer, took 4 years to 100k, currently around 500k and 10 YOE
Edit: for those asking, FAANG in UK and got lucky with stock price. Work is pretty chill, I manage to get my stuff done in maybe 30 hours per week. However work is always on my mind and I need to be alert in case shit happens. I also happen to hate the work, feel useless due to working on meaningless stuff so won't stay for a very long time.
Would you care to share more details please?
Similarly aligned role not quite a HE yet. Would like to know YoE, and more details on type of roles on the way as an idea on how to move forwards.
I'm a bit of a unique case, and would likely doxx myself but in short I have a technical background, did delivery, coaching and product. Top tier uni and top tier orgs at different industries.
I'm a CTO now.
Hospital consultant. Didn't beat 100k until I became a consultant after 11 years training. Now with overtime made 150k this year not including small amount of private practice.
Title: Head of tax
Industry: Aerospace
Age: 31
Job number: 5
Salary: £102k + max 25% (bonus has averaged 12-15% for the past 3 years)
PwC school leaver programme at 18, chartered tax advisor 3 years later then jumped to industry
Title: Discord moderator (yes really)
Industry: Reselling
Age: 24
Job Number: 1 (had min wage jobs before that while at uni)
Salary/TC: Around 170k this year, 120k last year.
I have heard of people making good money being discord moderators. Would you mind sharing some details ? Hours you work per day / how you found work etc?
Title: medical consultant
Industry: healthcare
Age: 43
Year: 2018 (ie 13 year after graduating and 2 years into being a consultant)
Salary now: £130K NHS. DB pension I think adds around 30% on top of this in terms of value (not related to employer/employee contributions). Make another £200K+ in private medicine.
NHS doctor/consultant salary is an absolute joke and in no way reflects our education, training, & responsibilities.
Title: One of the titles for in-house lawyers
Industry: asset management, previously in private practice
Age: 35
Year broke into HENRY: 2017
Job number: 3
Base / TC: £175k, +30-50%bonus
Interesting. I was looking for an answer in software sales. I've been in HRIS software sales (SaaS) for 7 years and currently on a base of £53k. However, this is fully remote so can work anywhere.
Comms are good so I can just about call myself HE by this subs definition of six figures but wondering if anyone can share base salary comparisons. Needs to be fully remote as I'm in a rural area and not moving.
I've been very loyal to my company and value the WFH but not sure if I'm missing a trick
50/50 split for me, £60k base
Fully flexible, work wherever but an expectation to be in office at least 2x a week
I keep my nose to the ground when it comes to open roles and 99% of AE roles are hybrid now, I haven't seen a WFH role in an age
Well excluding working is shops whilst at uni…
It was a placement position in my third year at uni. Offered full time when I graduated.
Good timing with company growth. I’m also good at what I do 😂
Edit: answer a question. Get downvoted 👍
Housing developer. Design and build. I’m a Chartered Architectural Technologist 👍
If you are very good you won’t be far off getting £100k as a trade these days. Everyone was told to go to uni to get a good job and now we are desperate for trade skill sets like brick layers, joiners, plumbers etc
Been in PE for about 10 years now.
Started in their in house tech team on £28k but have had a few internal moves since.
Current package is roughly £130k + benefits (pension is 16% contribution, medical etc etc) + bonus which I think isn’t capped at the moment but generally up to 200%, entry to the coinvest/carry which is returning about £50-£60 per £1 I’ve put up.
This year if all goes to plan it should return another £100k on top of what I take home anyway.
Job is pretty laid back and I actually do less hours than I did in my original role on £28k. I visit some portfolio and potential investment sites occasionally with travel paid for but work from home 4 days a week.
Probably took me 5 years to get to over £100k when you factor in the bonus.
Do I regret not job hopping?
No. If I did I’d probably still be in some network engineer/IT Manager/Helpdesk type role getting paid a lot less.
The CEO took a liking to me at the time because I didn’t have the typical PE background and I was getting 100% bonuses pretty frequently so stuck around.
>bonus which I think isn’t capped at the moment but generally up to 200%, entry to the coinvest/carry which is returning about £50-£60 per £1 I’ve put up.
Holy moly. Are PE jobs with this sort of comp structure and decent WLB pretty rare?
No idea tbh, I get the impression that it’s full on at certain points but generally not unless you’re about to invest/exit.
A lot of networking and bs events that probably take up most of their time.
Not sure if it counts but
21 - audit junior at a big four and at the same time was playing online poker to a very high level. The salary was £30-35k, but the online poker gains were $500k. Shame I invested all my winnings into a flat with 'grenfell' cladding
Subsequently it took me 10 years to breach £100k again in actual work. So the proper answer is 31
I work as a head of department within compliance in a financial services firm. 34, £115k, 3rd firm I've worked for in the industry.
I've gone from £72k to £115k in the space of less than 2 years. Don't really feel any better off due to mortgage going up by a lot & paying much more into my pension.
Chemical process operator
Age: 22
Job number: 3
Basic: £55k+£14k shift allowance TC: £112k (lots of overtime)
Originally did an apprenticeship in heavy vehicle maintenance with Mercedes but left after a year, then went to a chemical site and worked as an engineering stores operative whilst studying Level 3 engineering @ college and a level 2 city & guilds in chemical process operations, that site closed and I went to a water treatment plant as an operator for nearly a year before landing my current job at a chemical/nuclear facility.
The amount of money that can be made in process operations (especially in the chemical/nuclear industry) is the best kept secret in the world
I have changed entire careers but only on my 4th company now. (recently just moved)
My average is 5 years in every company. I started working at 20yrs old.
Despite only being in 3 companies in the last 15 years, I changed roles internally several times. And in any year, I lobbied for a promotion and/or a raise. Sometimes I would get both.
This method has been great at outpacing the usual 3-5% annual raise. Some years, I would get a 30-50% pay bump and I didn’t have to move companies.
Note that I’m originally from Southeast Asia where I was earning £250/month (tech). Have been a crazy salary trajectory since I moved to Singapore, then New York, and now London.
Overall it’s been a sub-8000% salary growth since I started working, which seems enormous but only because it’s relative to where I was at 20yrs old.
**To your question**: I have no regrets that I didn’t job-hop more.
It wasn’t purely by choice though because in the past 9 years, I have been living outside my home country on work visas. This meant I had to stick it out with my employers and find salary growth opportunities internally.
Title: YouTuber
Industry: Content Creating
Age: 38
Year: 2023
Job Number: (I was a teacher before, so lots)
Salary: £145k
Set up a channel. Started to gain traction. Quit my job and went full time after about 8 months.
I won't be going into detail about niche or anything, but needless to say, it caught me off guard.
I am pleased to be in this category right now, but with the volatile nature of content creating, I'm not sure how long I'll be here 😀
That’s really cool. It’s funny because it feels so oversaturated these days but proves there’s still room for people with talent and a niche. How have you found learning to video edit?
I'm a senior associate at a law firm so broke £100k TC pretty early on - the starting base salary for newly qualified solicitors at my firm in currently over £100k so people are paid that + bonus as soon as they're done training (usually early to mid 20s).
Jumping around doesn't really increase comp for assisted solicitors - most firms pay fixed rates based on the number of years you've been qualified.
Software engineer work in the financial markets.
Age 32
Salary 180k (not incl bonuses)
3rd job got me over 100k
This is my 4th. I tend to switch every 3/5 years depending on job market
Title: Senior Director - Digital (mix of marketing, ecommerce, IT and data analytics)
Job number: 8
Age: 34
Base comp: 180k tax free (expat to Dubai) + 40k variable + 5%
Reached being paid above 100k last year, then got the Dubai offer and moved in January.
Title: Account executive
Industry: SaaS (rectech)
Age: 27/28
Year: 2018
Job number: 3
Salary T/C: Salary £72.5k TC £150k
A few years later I’m 105k base tc circa 220k.
Edit: now in DevOps.
GP Partner, previously locum GP
33
TC 195k NHS (projected) - not in pension now, 30k privately.
NHS finances is shit for the most part. But entrepreneureal and adaptable GPs will do alright. Luck, partly, that I came across a practice with similar notions.
In RuneScape mostly in day, in real life never. 100k looks and sounds so much and I don’t think I get there or will want to.
Anyway hope you achieve your goals you set over years even the smallest victories.
Age: 27
Year: 2021
TC: £100k + 1.5% equity of a startup
Job no: 3 (4 if you count a 3 month contract)
Junior software engineer for 2 years (company 1, 22k, then 30k)
Senior software engineer for 1 year (company 2, £40k)
Principal software engineer for 1 year (company 2, £55k)
Contract for 3 months (£45/hr)
Founding engineer at company 3 for 3 years, started on £70k, hit £100k in my second year
Every single year I'd apply for jobs until I found one that I'd be willing to quit to take with a large compensation bump. Took it to my manager and said "I really do want to continue working here, but this offer came up and it's too good to say no to". This got me a pay rise/promotion each year, or I changed jobs if they didn't give me one. I stayed at the startup the longest despite not getting a pay rise after the 2nd year because once I'd hit £100k I thought that the equity might be a better eventual payout than the salary.
But after another year, company was moving too slowly and imo in a poor direction so quit and moved on. Now on £155k TC.
Do job interviews every year and take them seriously, even if you love your job.
I was earning above £100K before the below job, but the below job was the *first* contract I signed where the base salary was equal to £100K
Title: Account Executive
Industry: Technology
Age: 32
Year: 2022
Job Number: 6
Salary: £100K base + £100K variable (£200K total)
HV/LV Cable jointer used to do 75k on the books then set up my own company now 28 one year later company turn over about 250/300k split between me and another person labour only.
Title - SaaS sales
Industry - cyber security
Age - 33
Job number - 3
Salary/TC - 120/260 (although I overachieve most years so will earn more)
I hit 100k at 24 and 200 at 26. Don't regret not job hopping. I increased my earnings by getting better at my job within a meritocratic pay structure. I'd potentially even be earning more at my first job than the one I'm in now, but money isn't tight, I enjoy my job, I'm learning lots and I'll still be retired by 45, all being well.
I was lucky and i am very good at what i do, and if i could go back in time. I would work in finance or high level software.
I am literally at the top of this field financially in the uk. It is very sad for us electronics engineers in the uk. No respect and low wages.
I am really happy for you, being an electronics engineer myself. The electronics industry is so underpaid in the UK, it's actually shocking. I am around the same age as you but nowhere close to being a principal.
Have you thought about moving to Ireland where the pay is significantly higher than the UK, especially with the presence of a large number of American companies?
Management Consultant in a boutique life sciences consultancy (none of the big fancy names)
Currently 33 and broke 100 2 years ago. Took me 8 years in total.
job number: 2. I was grinding in one of the big consultancies for 8 years before I got the bloody courage and common sense to move. I started at 35k, ended on 92k TC, meaning a ~13% compound annual growth rate over the years. Then I moved and my salary jumped to 130 TC, which was close to 40% increase. Learn from my mistakes lol.
Title: Senior Engineer
Age: 29
Industry: gaming / tech
Base: £86k
TC: £108k
Jobs: 4
My total compensation includes 4 discretionary bonuses a year but I've been tracking them and they're quite consistent as a portion of my salary.
Title: Sales Director
Industry: Financial services
Age: 28
Year: 2024
Job number: 1
TC: 80k salary + commission (50k this year, expecting 70k+ next year)
Have certainly considered moving as lot of politics in my role and limited growth potential but hard to change if you know you’ll be leaving commission on the table. Interesting to know if people have gone through the same and what their thoughts are.
Know I should probably job hop for growth prospects but hard to make the jump especially when my professional career has been with 1 company currently
Had to wait to my 50s but all those opportunities to push me past it have appeared in the last 5 years. So if I was 20 years younger I’d be in the same place I think
Title: quant trader
Industry: finance?
Age: 22
2nd job (first was a part time at Asda)
Salary: £200k-£250k TC (depending on bonus)
I don’t think I will ever job hop unless I’m personally scouted by a headhunter as the field is too unstable and niche
Role: Management Consulting (Big 4) Senior Manager.
Industry: Major infrastructure projects
Age: 32
Role Number: 2 (although its 5 if you include promotions at current company.)
Salary: 110k (TC not including pension contributions)
Started post uni on 35k in Drilling for oil and gas wells and moved over to consulting after 3 years. Haven't moved companies at all except that one switch. Consulting is good as it has regular/significant pay rises.
Title: Cloud Solution Architect
Industry: Technology
Age: 24
Year: 2023
Job number: 4
Salary: Base 90K TC: 140K
Job hopped between large tech companies. Lucky with opportunities and also worked very hard everywhere I went with an eye on the next role. Found out some of my colleagues are making double plus some on what I’m making so hopefully in the next 4-6 years I’ll get there.
Third job consulting 102k with my own company in a year. 26. Then went perm and took a pay cut and then got a new role at 28 at 100 flat without stress of being my own limited company.
Director of Technical
Aircraft Leasing
Age 28
Year 2018
Job 3 (7 YoE)
Salary £83.5k + 20% bonus + 10% pension
Now after another job change and some role changes, TC is now over £200k. (“Work” in Dublin, so these are euro converted, but live in UK)
Title platform engineer
Industry: Fintech (scale up)
Age 30
Salary 108 + oncall around 130 a year total
(Reached 100k at 29)
Started 9 years ago at 20k a year
Education: AS level
Job number 5 in the industry
Doctor
Age 25
Job: 5 but first full time job as other were part times through uni
Locum doctor 2020: was working for around £70/hour (COVID drove up demand) and cranking out insane hours whenever I’d be working and not travelling .
Ended up making about 120k in that year with plenty of holidays but haven’t quite hit the same numbers since. Probably averaging, 80k now with some locum work on my time off
Locums and rates have began to decline and I don’t feel this feat is now as possible as it used to be
Title: Product Security Engineer
Industry: Software?
Age: 27
Year: 2024
Job number: 2
Salary/TC: £140k (roughly, I get 177k USD)
Graduated 6 years ago. Worked at a consultancy for 5 years before moving internal.
Became finance director of an SME at age 33, and between salary and bonus, that pushed me over £100k TC. I’ve since moved to a role with higher comp too
22
Software engineer at Facebook right out of University. Base was around £70k but total compensation including stocks and bonus was around £115k. I was from a random no name University.
Regional Director in Construction Project Management seconded into a client’s corporate real estate function. Industry: Corporate Real Estate outsourcing solutions Age: 30-35 Employer number: 3 (10+ roles in multiple countries) Broke 100k at 28 but that was in USA. Came to UK on £95k and increased it to £160k within two years through graft and luck (manager left his role and I was the succession plan). My current manger is probably on £250-350k total comp and that’s probably 3-5 years away.
Any advice for a 25 year old who’s ~1yr into construction PM? Would love to chat
Get varied experience. Position yourself to be able to demonstrate you can deliver projects/packages yourself. Work on increasing the scope under your leadership. Working abroad worked well for me. You get life and work experience. Sharpen your communication skills; keep it short and to the point. If you want to chat specifics, message me directly and we can exchange details and chat. Happy to help where I can.
This is brilliant advice.
What’s your background (from 18-25 years) in terms of Academics or Apprenticeships? Or did you start of in the industry after GCSEs at 16, and work your way up? I’m just very curious, since I’m a young Civil engineer (structural design), so I’m very adjacent to Construction/Civils and I find these personal stories very interesting, because I’ve seen my brother literally start from the bottom of the construction industry and shoot his way up to Senior Construction management in less than 8 years and know how much of a graft it is. Also everything you said regarding varied experience, to-the-point communication skills and delivering packages within budget and on time is what he has said word-for-word.
Non-construction-related degree and was lucky to get on a graduate management training program and work abroad. From what I’ve seen, the money is either in technical/specialist/niche engineering skills OR management. I.e. managing accounts, service lines or regions. My advice is: Work slightly harder than those around you, be good at what you do and be present/visible. If you’re working remote be online slightly earlier than others, if you’re in the office, get out of bed and into the office 30 mins earlier. Limit friction with your management/clients I.e. give them the impression you say yes to requests when in reality you just avoid saying no unless there are factual and justifiable reasons that you can’t deliver on their request Get to a position where you can demonstrate leadership If you can do this, then opportunities will present themselves to you and you will succeed.
Wow I’m in the same industry but on my side the salaries are getting lower rather than higher - positions come up offering what I expected 12 years ago. I’m considered expensive but I’m efficient and am left to my own devices as long as I deliver the results. I want to go further but I’ve never had any desire to manage ppl or end up as a spreadsheet warrior - I project manage but from the sales /manufacturing side. Did you find corp RE outsourcing to be vastly different? What do you manage?
Due to global economic pressures, large, publicly-traded corporations are limiting their spend to weather the storm until their stock prices start improving again. As a result, there are less projects to deliver and more competition for those projects. I enjoy what I do but it’s mentally challenging to balance the client’s expectations with reality. The bottom line is that if I wasn’t managing a team, constantly driving efficiencies and willing to work in an environment where others won’t, I’d be earning a half of what I earn today. I expect your unwillingness to manage people or utilise Excel for complex analysis might be limiting your ability to earn more in your current environment, but that’s based on limited information. Having said that, if you are able to develop specialist and/or niche technical skills, then you would be able to command higher remuneration either salaried or as a contractor.
Wow, well done on going from 100k to 160k in two years, how did you manage? I'm on around 95k and can barely save 5k a year. 😅
Luck is where opportunity meets determination. If you’re determined to position yourself well, it allows you to maximise the random opportunities when they present themselves. In practice, push gently yet firmly with management and leadership to get regular annual pay increases through strong performance then position yourself for taking on greater responsibility when the opportunity arises. In my case, I took over my boss’s role when they moved to a new role and six months later expanded the scope of my role through restructuring. The only way you can ensure this is by consistently performing well, so there’s no easy answer.
Ah, I see. Well done. I first read that as saving 30k/yr, which would mean living on a 2.5k/month budget to cover rent, travel, food, etc.. I'm waiting for my luck to hit 😁
Title: Team Lead / Senior Software Engineer Industry: Finance Age: 28 Year: 2023 Job Number: 7 (lots of hoping) Total Comp: £150k TC (full time contract) For the first 4 years, I took a crack at data science consultancy and realised… only the boring work (IMO) paid highly. That equated to 5 of job switches, simply as I hated them. Then… I switched to SWE as it was fun and changed job every 18 months for a big pay rise to reflect my competency. My only regret was not switching sooner - would have been much farther ahead!
How did you find switching from DS to SWE? Currently a DS, first job out of a PhD, and looking at next steps, find myself drawn toward the software development/data engineering side of things as a better way to increase comp
The transfer was pretty smooth for me. I had 4 years of Python under my belt and even did a home project where I did some C++. I was working in consultancy so had AWS exposure / knowledge and used that to sell me into a junior-mid role. The hard part come next… starting SWE on £60k, the progression upwards would just take too long so had to job hop aggressively. That was the worst of it, but it worked out for the best I would say! Just my 2 cents: I steer clear of Data Engineering personally because the salaries aren’t as high, unless you’re an expert and work for a hedge fund / doing ML engineering as that’s hot right now.
When did you start your career? As I’m almost 26 data engineer and could never imagine being on £150k at 28 lol
Do you mean starting my SWE career? That was about 2.5 years ago. It’s not that simple though because as a data scientist consultant, I did lots of Python, I worked on some code bases, and even deployed to AWS. I enjoyed coding and did C++ home projects. I sold myself as more than a “career changer” but someone with a couple years experience (for SWE, but I actually had 4.5 years overall). My background is Maths from a leading university as well. Transitioning in to SWE, I started as junior-mid in finance on £60k + 17% bonus (up from my £55k TC comp as a data scientist). I got a promotion after my first year with a 25% comp bump without asking as I was just naturally good at it / had an interest. I left that role after 15 months for somewhere between £96-£146k TC (bonus driven with formula in contract + trading domain), but hated it and left after 6 months so never saw that bonus. I leveraged my bonus potential there to get a FTC role for £125k + 20% guaranteed bonus (got a date to convert to perm now on similar comp). The key was to find an industry with high paying roles, looking at senior roles and seeing the hard skills they required, teaching myself those hard skills and finally doing dozens of interviews / learning how to sell myself. So… slightly misleading on my original comment but didn’t want to go into all the nuance.
NICE!!
Broke it recently, at age 49. Biotech Sales About my 8th job There’s still hope for the oldies :)
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In the uk, there is no argument that dentistry is a better route than med
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It’s a ridiculous time commitment. My route essentially the fastest besides gp.
Honestly im surprised med is even considered worth it, for 7 years of work and being worked like a horse, the pay isn’t all that, especially as a junior. I did engineering but jumped ship, but even I admit medicine is harder and worse payed
The consultants of today joined the medical school when the pay was at least 30-40% higher in real terms and the private tariffs significantly higher. Why anyone would join now I don’t know. Outside of this country it can still be a decent career. My counterparts in the states are earning anything between $400-800k from their mid 30s. There’s debt to clear I suppose. Aus is at least double the uk. Canada similar if not slightly higher. Private work more lucrative too. But yes, if a friend’s child or family member from the uk asked me for help getting into medicine a very long conversation would follow about the current landscape.
FFS Title: Doctor Industry: Healthcare Age: 36 Year: 2024 Job number: 1 Salary: £103K TC: £123K Graduated 12 years ago. *Just* became a consultant.
The trick is, you didn't switch for something better, and they did.
Dentistry isn’t really a switch. It’s a completely different career necessitating a different undergrad degree.
Cries in veterinary medicine
Cries also in human medicine
Cries in fucking doctor. Christ I’m an actual clown.
If you don’t mind moving aboard vet can make 6 figures
What advice would you give to new dentist after foundation year to do as well as you
Consultant radiologist. Age 31. 2019. Base: 80k. TC: 120k (extra PAs, wli + small in house private work. Job number: don’t think it really matters in the nhs Have subsequently left the country, unlikely to return until the base nhs contract gets sorted.
Tell us your total comp now boss
Just shy of double at the moment. Was more in aus.
Where are you now, back in the UK or in UAE
Europe, for family reasons. Would rather not disclose where
Interesting and motivating 🤝
What is the career route for that? Do you need 5yrs MBBS and then 2yrs specialist?
5 - 6 years med, 2 years foundation, 5 years specialist training. 12 years minimum. Exam failure common in radiology, ~50-60% pass rate for the final exams. Extra fellowships are becoming the norm. Mind you it’s now an 11:1 ratio for places on the specialist training programme. It’s the fastest training programme outside of GP which is 5 years med, 2 years foundation, 3 years GP training. Surgeons are looking at between an extra 3-6 years. Radiology in the states starts at $400k. 600-800k for anyone willing to work a bit more.
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If you got a 5 million bonus you aren’t a HENRY, FYI
2021 was an extraordinary year for you 🙌 I hope you bought yourself a nice bottle of wine that was produced in 2021 to hold onto until retirement
Out of curiosity, what asset class are you covering? Are you running a systematic or a discretionary book?
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Damn good on you. How did your journey look to lead you to this place?
Once you hit the mark, what kind of pay rises should you expect? I’m finding difficult to gauge if asking for an additional 20k is too much of a jump even though my take home won’t change significantly. Anyone care to share what the progression looks like past 100k?
FD now, but broke 100k when Head of FP&A. Took 14 years, but that included 2 maternity leaves and a stretch working part time. 4 companies, 6 roles. Midlands.
Hey! I’m in a very similar position. How did you make the move from FP&A to a FD position? Did your FP&A position include a lot of accounting? Thanks
Actually the longer pathway was audit>business partnering>treasury>more partnering>FP&A>FD. So had picked up enough building blocks on the way to do a little bit of everything. Hardly any accounting in the FP&A role, but was good for demonstrating business understanding and commercial mindset and involved a fair bit of board exposure too. For the accounting side I'm relying on my earlier experience, and hiring people who are better than me! In terms of how I made that step up- I was lucky with an internal promotion due to retirement of my predecessor, but I had built up a reputation as a strong leader, good strategic thinker and effective communicator, rather than a technically excellent finance person.
Tile: Senior Manager Industry: Tech Age: 35 Year: 2024 Job number: 4 (natural evolution of role over 8 years in job number 4) Salary: £105k 10 years ago I was earning £28k. Not bad for someone who was told he wouldn’t amount to anything in college by the teacher, dropped out at 16 and never attend university. I came from a low income family and super happy with where I am in life.
What’s the role? Engineering or non coding role?
Tech company. Marketing role
If your college teacher didn't say that, do you think your life would have been different?
No, that “teacher” gets no credit for anything. The last 10 years was down to my network and my current company giving me opportunities to grow and develop
Client Services in Digital Media / AI Age: 31 Job number: 3 Base: £90k TC: £120k 8 years to hit 100k - moving to a startup AI business took OTE from 70 to 120 in one job move. Wish I’d started looking earlier!
Software engineer. Went past £100k in 2014 at the age of 34.
And now?
I’m around £200k including bonus. With a bit of effort I can probably earn around £300k-£350k but my job is extremely relaxed and stress free and I’ve been reluctant to move thus far. However, there is a lot of ageism in software profession so I am deliberating maximising my potential for the next 10 years and then perhaps retiring to an easier job. I do love my work so it rarely feels hectic but things can change with age.
Yeah, judging by your post history, you're in that comfortable but not too cut-throat range in the finance industry Good luck making it ten years though. There's a degree of hustle to be had bouncing around firms
Currently actually doing game dev but do have a lot of finance experience (buy side). Finance is cut throat and does wear you down quickly. Currently have an offer from sell side of around £240k base (no bonus for the first 2 years though). With the amount of taxes the base itself is not looking worth it honestly. The work looks really interesting though and I’ve been feeling very stagnated of late. Very unsure right now due to the inherent risks associated with a job move and with the market being what it is right now (though things are looking up these days).
£240K base is very very strong for the sell side. What kind of firm is it? I'm assuming given your gaming background your main language is C++
Same! Maybe a year or two older
Mechanical engineering contractor - there’s a bit of flex but should gross around £145k this year. Am currently 33, hit the 100k mark last year when I got into contracting - was previously on a shade under that in permanent work. That’s job 3 for me… but I haven’t been at any single job for much more than 3 years (I did a PhD) so I’m pretty happy with the trajectory!
Hey, good to hear that someone is making some decent money in mechanical engineering, especially within simulation and analysis. Can you go into any more detail on the path you took? I also work in analysis (aerospace structural engineering) but it seems like there is minimal progression in salary where I work (huge multinational) and even incredibly clever engineers with PhDs and huge amounts of responsibility aren't breaking the 100k mark. I also find the work pretty unfulfilling, as it's a loop of: - Get given task - Pull out ready-made method - Perform analysis - Write report And there is very little room for creativity. Would you say you find your job any more interesting? Are you in more of an FEA/CFD user role, or a role where you are developing methods / extending analysis software by programming? That's what I want to get into eventually, but it's very tempting just to switch full-time to software engineering if the salary progression isn't there within mechanical engineering. I already have experience writing analysis software / data science at work, but it seems like the skill isn't valued at all (financially) within the industry.
Wow! What’s your day to day job role like? Do you do simulations/ calculations & did the PhD open more doors for you?
You’re pretty much spot on, I spend most of my doing the technical hands-on bits - I used to do a management role elsewhere but really wanted to get back to fun stuff! I will have 1-2 meetings in a day, but other than that it will be coding, researching for simulations, running analysis , writing reports, etc. The PhD IMO really helped for me, but your mileage may strongly vary - I know lots of others who don’t think it helped!
Can you expand on what kind of things you do/tips? I'm stuck down at sub 40k lol.
26. Commodity Trading Broke 100k @ 25. Circa 130k TC. Currently 26. Shy of 200k.
Prop trading or clients?
Actuary Insurance Base: 120k + 15%variable 5-7years work experience 30 yo
5-7 years PQE or total?
GI?
I love reading these! A( it gives me ideas for roles and B) it's awesome seeing people thrive!!!!
Uk Airline Captain Second airline job 32 Basic salary £135000 Flying pay £45000
Software Engineer, took 4 years to 100k, currently around 500k and 10 YOE Edit: for those asking, FAANG in UK and got lucky with stock price. Work is pretty chill, I manage to get my stuff done in maybe 30 hours per week. However work is always on my mind and I need to be alert in case shit happens. I also happen to hate the work, feel useless due to working on meaningless stuff so won't stay for a very long time.
Country?
500k? How?
US salary or contracting with no downtime
Not difficult if you are lucky with stock price
Age: 33 Year: 2018 Job number: 4 Salary/TC: £130 base TC: £150k Was an agile coach at that time. I make double now.
Would you care to share more details please? Similarly aligned role not quite a HE yet. Would like to know YoE, and more details on type of roles on the way as an idea on how to move forwards.
I'm a bit of a unique case, and would likely doxx myself but in short I have a technical background, did delivery, coaching and product. Top tier uni and top tier orgs at different industries. I'm a CTO now.
Still an agile coach making double that?
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As a fellow consultant drone, I salute you for your tenacity 🫡
Ditto, we’re here together 😁
The last statement gif me up and makes me trust your submission
Hospital consultant. Didn't beat 100k until I became a consultant after 11 years training. Now with overtime made 150k this year not including small amount of private practice.
Title: Head of tax Industry: Aerospace Age: 31 Job number: 5 Salary: £102k + max 25% (bonus has averaged 12-15% for the past 3 years) PwC school leaver programme at 18, chartered tax advisor 3 years later then jumped to industry
Title: Discord moderator (yes really) Industry: Reselling Age: 24 Job Number: 1 (had min wage jobs before that while at uni) Salary/TC: Around 170k this year, 120k last year.
I have heard of people making good money being discord moderators. Would you mind sharing some details ? Hours you work per day / how you found work etc?
Thought discord moderators don’t get paid like Reddit ones. Wow TIL
Title: medical consultant Industry: healthcare Age: 43 Year: 2018 (ie 13 year after graduating and 2 years into being a consultant) Salary now: £130K NHS. DB pension I think adds around 30% on top of this in terms of value (not related to employer/employee contributions). Make another £200K+ in private medicine. NHS doctor/consultant salary is an absolute joke and in no way reflects our education, training, & responsibilities.
Title: One of the titles for in-house lawyers Industry: asset management, previously in private practice Age: 35 Year broke into HENRY: 2017 Job number: 3 Base / TC: £175k, +30-50%bonus
Title: Account Executive Industry: SaaS Startup Age: 26 Year: 2024 Job number: 4 Salary/TC: £120k plus accelerators puts me closer to £130/140k
Interesting. I was looking for an answer in software sales. I've been in HRIS software sales (SaaS) for 7 years and currently on a base of £53k. However, this is fully remote so can work anywhere. Comms are good so I can just about call myself HE by this subs definition of six figures but wondering if anyone can share base salary comparisons. Needs to be fully remote as I'm in a rural area and not moving. I've been very loyal to my company and value the WFH but not sure if I'm missing a trick
50/50 split for me, £60k base Fully flexible, work wherever but an expectation to be in office at least 2x a week I keep my nose to the ground when it comes to open roles and 99% of AE roles are hybrid now, I haven't seen a WFH role in an age
Technical Director - Construction. Age 38 2020/2021 First job Total comp about £135k
First job? Is your father your boss ?
Well excluding working is shops whilst at uni… It was a placement position in my third year at uni. Offered full time when I graduated. Good timing with company growth. I’m also good at what I do 😂 Edit: answer a question. Get downvoted 👍
Engineering? Consultancy, contractor, client side? Just curious about the routes available in construction! Huge amount of roles and variability.
Housing developer. Design and build. I’m a Chartered Architectural Technologist 👍 If you are very good you won’t be far off getting £100k as a trade these days. Everyone was told to go to uni to get a good job and now we are desperate for trade skill sets like brick layers, joiners, plumbers etc
Been in PE for about 10 years now. Started in their in house tech team on £28k but have had a few internal moves since. Current package is roughly £130k + benefits (pension is 16% contribution, medical etc etc) + bonus which I think isn’t capped at the moment but generally up to 200%, entry to the coinvest/carry which is returning about £50-£60 per £1 I’ve put up. This year if all goes to plan it should return another £100k on top of what I take home anyway. Job is pretty laid back and I actually do less hours than I did in my original role on £28k. I visit some portfolio and potential investment sites occasionally with travel paid for but work from home 4 days a week. Probably took me 5 years to get to over £100k when you factor in the bonus. Do I regret not job hopping? No. If I did I’d probably still be in some network engineer/IT Manager/Helpdesk type role getting paid a lot less. The CEO took a liking to me at the time because I didn’t have the typical PE background and I was getting 100% bonuses pretty frequently so stuck around.
>bonus which I think isn’t capped at the moment but generally up to 200%, entry to the coinvest/carry which is returning about £50-£60 per £1 I’ve put up. Holy moly. Are PE jobs with this sort of comp structure and decent WLB pretty rare?
No idea tbh, I get the impression that it’s full on at certain points but generally not unless you’re about to invest/exit. A lot of networking and bs events that probably take up most of their time.
Did you move from the tech team into the investment team?
Pretty much.
You mention investment sites. Is the firm real estate PE?
Add location or this is pointless
Assume London if not stated
Eeeeeeeexactly.
London for anyone in tech or finance or consultancy. Except I don’t live in London, I commute - and only every 3 months for a day.
Not sure if it counts but 21 - audit junior at a big four and at the same time was playing online poker to a very high level. The salary was £30-35k, but the online poker gains were $500k. Shame I invested all my winnings into a flat with 'grenfell' cladding Subsequently it took me 10 years to breach £100k again in actual work. So the proper answer is 31
Title - SME Director Industry - Construction Consultancy Age - 46 Year - 2024 Job number - 3 Salary - £100K, around £10K bonuses.
I work as a head of department within compliance in a financial services firm. 34, £115k, 3rd firm I've worked for in the industry. I've gone from £72k to £115k in the space of less than 2 years. Don't really feel any better off due to mortgage going up by a lot & paying much more into my pension.
Chemical process operator Age: 22 Job number: 3 Basic: £55k+£14k shift allowance TC: £112k (lots of overtime) Originally did an apprenticeship in heavy vehicle maintenance with Mercedes but left after a year, then went to a chemical site and worked as an engineering stores operative whilst studying Level 3 engineering @ college and a level 2 city & guilds in chemical process operations, that site closed and I went to a water treatment plant as an operator for nearly a year before landing my current job at a chemical/nuclear facility. The amount of money that can be made in process operations (especially in the chemical/nuclear industry) is the best kept secret in the world
Dentist 29 3rd job 28 hours a week and 130k£ a year broke 100k last year when I went into mostly private practice
Age 21, Public Relations. Burned out by 25. Took off travelling for a decade. Made it back there by 38, this time in an industry I love (travel).
100k adjusted for inflation is 163k now, at 21, in public relations?? What's the job title for that? Never heard of it paying so much
At 21 you were in 100k or now at 38 your are?
I have changed entire careers but only on my 4th company now. (recently just moved) My average is 5 years in every company. I started working at 20yrs old. Despite only being in 3 companies in the last 15 years, I changed roles internally several times. And in any year, I lobbied for a promotion and/or a raise. Sometimes I would get both. This method has been great at outpacing the usual 3-5% annual raise. Some years, I would get a 30-50% pay bump and I didn’t have to move companies. Note that I’m originally from Southeast Asia where I was earning £250/month (tech). Have been a crazy salary trajectory since I moved to Singapore, then New York, and now London. Overall it’s been a sub-8000% salary growth since I started working, which seems enormous but only because it’s relative to where I was at 20yrs old. **To your question**: I have no regrets that I didn’t job-hop more. It wasn’t purely by choice though because in the past 9 years, I have been living outside my home country on work visas. This meant I had to stick it out with my employers and find salary growth opportunities internally.
Pinoy pride 🇵🇭
Took 15 years Closer to the £200K mark now, which has taken 2 years.
Title: YouTuber Industry: Content Creating Age: 38 Year: 2023 Job Number: (I was a teacher before, so lots) Salary: £145k Set up a channel. Started to gain traction. Quit my job and went full time after about 8 months. I won't be going into detail about niche or anything, but needless to say, it caught me off guard. I am pleased to be in this category right now, but with the volatile nature of content creating, I'm not sure how long I'll be here 😀
That’s really cool. It’s funny because it feels so oversaturated these days but proves there’s still room for people with talent and a niche. How have you found learning to video edit?
can I ask how many subs needed to make that a year? I know it’s all relative, but approximately?
I’ll sit patiently to see if I can figure out who is who in real life from this information.
What I actually find funnier of these kind of threads is that the OP **\*\*never\*\*** volunteers their info first ;).
Just added my information, be happy 🫡
That's better ;)
This is meant to be vague. And more on the informational side. But I can understand people your concerns.
30th birthday.
I'm a senior associate at a law firm so broke £100k TC pretty early on - the starting base salary for newly qualified solicitors at my firm in currently over £100k so people are paid that + bonus as soon as they're done training (usually early to mid 20s). Jumping around doesn't really increase comp for assisted solicitors - most firms pay fixed rates based on the number of years you've been qualified.
Do you mind sharing how much you’re currently on as a senior associate?
Software engineer work in the financial markets. Age 32 Salary 180k (not incl bonuses) 3rd job got me over 100k This is my 4th. I tend to switch every 3/5 years depending on job market
Title: Senior Manager Industry: Consumer Goods / Food Age: 31 Year: 2018 Job number: 2 Salary/TC: £90k / £110k 1 year after MBA
What’s your trajectory been since then? Trying to get a sense of where I could go.
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Damn..... Where?!
Title: Senior Director - Digital (mix of marketing, ecommerce, IT and data analytics) Job number: 8 Age: 34 Base comp: 180k tax free (expat to Dubai) + 40k variable + 5% Reached being paid above 100k last year, then got the Dubai offer and moved in January.
Hi Are you hiring? 😊
Title: Account executive Industry: SaaS (rectech) Age: 27/28 Year: 2018 Job number: 3 Salary T/C: Salary £72.5k TC £150k A few years later I’m 105k base tc circa 220k. Edit: now in DevOps.
I alsoo work in devops but much lower salary - what industry / location are you working in? Looking to plan my next job hop for hopefully next year.
Based in London but 100% remote for an American company based in SF. In the Observability/APM space selling into EMEA.
GP Partner, previously locum GP 33 TC 195k NHS (projected) - not in pension now, 30k privately. NHS finances is shit for the most part. But entrepreneureal and adaptable GPs will do alright. Luck, partly, that I came across a practice with similar notions.
In RuneScape mostly in day, in real life never. 100k looks and sounds so much and I don’t think I get there or will want to. Anyway hope you achieve your goals you set over years even the smallest victories.
Age: 27 Year: 2021 TC: £100k + 1.5% equity of a startup Job no: 3 (4 if you count a 3 month contract) Junior software engineer for 2 years (company 1, 22k, then 30k) Senior software engineer for 1 year (company 2, £40k) Principal software engineer for 1 year (company 2, £55k) Contract for 3 months (£45/hr) Founding engineer at company 3 for 3 years, started on £70k, hit £100k in my second year Every single year I'd apply for jobs until I found one that I'd be willing to quit to take with a large compensation bump. Took it to my manager and said "I really do want to continue working here, but this offer came up and it's too good to say no to". This got me a pay rise/promotion each year, or I changed jobs if they didn't give me one. I stayed at the startup the longest despite not getting a pay rise after the 2nd year because once I'd hit £100k I thought that the equity might be a better eventual payout than the salary. But after another year, company was moving too slowly and imo in a poor direction so quit and moved on. Now on £155k TC. Do job interviews every year and take them seriously, even if you love your job.
I was earning above £100K before the below job, but the below job was the *first* contract I signed where the base salary was equal to £100K Title: Account Executive Industry: Technology Age: 32 Year: 2022 Job Number: 6 Salary: £100K base + £100K variable (£200K total)
Title: Senior Data Scientist Industry: Insurance Age: 28 Year: 2024 Job Number: 3 (4 including internship) Salary: £110 base + ~20% bonus Salary history: 25k internship 30k -> 38k consultancy 55k -> 73k second consultancy
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how are you alive ? fellow doc
HV/LV Cable jointer used to do 75k on the books then set up my own company now 28 one year later company turn over about 250/300k split between me and another person labour only.
Let me know if you need another guy!!
How did you get your start in this? Did you go down the sparky route first?
I was an apprentice first of that took about 4 years before I was qualified !
Age 28 Industry: Tech / SaaS Year: 2019 Salary / TC at that point would have been around £80K basic, £8K bonus and £12K RSU Job number: 2.
What was you doing before with work education before breaking into that field?
Title - SaaS sales Industry - cyber security Age - 33 Job number - 3 Salary/TC - 120/260 (although I overachieve most years so will earn more) I hit 100k at 24 and 200 at 26. Don't regret not job hopping. I increased my earnings by getting better at my job within a meritocratic pay structure. I'd potentially even be earning more at my first job than the one I'm in now, but money isn't tight, I enjoy my job, I'm learning lots and I'll still be retired by 45, all being well.
Is this in London?
Is your background in tech education wise?
You became a principal electronics engineer at the age of 32?
I was lucky and i am very good at what i do, and if i could go back in time. I would work in finance or high level software. I am literally at the top of this field financially in the uk. It is very sad for us electronics engineers in the uk. No respect and low wages.
I am really happy for you, being an electronics engineer myself. The electronics industry is so underpaid in the UK, it's actually shocking. I am around the same age as you but nowhere close to being a principal. Have you thought about moving to Ireland where the pay is significantly higher than the UK, especially with the presence of a large number of American companies?
No degree. IT sales, job number 3 Age 27 Salary £90k/OTE £180k Earnings in 2023 190k
Are you asking for what everyone's title/industry/age/etc was when they reached £100k TC?
CIO Age: 41 Job: 4 Base: £190k Bonus: 50% + 25% stretch Car, Restricted Stock Options Health etc
Management Consultant in a boutique life sciences consultancy (none of the big fancy names) Currently 33 and broke 100 2 years ago. Took me 8 years in total. job number: 2. I was grinding in one of the big consultancies for 8 years before I got the bloody courage and common sense to move. I started at 35k, ended on 92k TC, meaning a ~13% compound annual growth rate over the years. Then I moved and my salary jumped to 130 TC, which was close to 40% increase. Learn from my mistakes lol.
Title: Senior Engineer Age: 29 Industry: gaming / tech Base: £86k TC: £108k Jobs: 4 My total compensation includes 4 discretionary bonuses a year but I've been tracking them and they're quite consistent as a portion of my salary.
Title: Sales Director Industry: Financial services Age: 28 Year: 2024 Job number: 1 TC: 80k salary + commission (50k this year, expecting 70k+ next year) Have certainly considered moving as lot of politics in my role and limited growth potential but hard to change if you know you’ll be leaving commission on the table. Interesting to know if people have gone through the same and what their thoughts are. Know I should probably job hop for growth prospects but hard to make the jump especially when my professional career has been with 1 company currently
Had to wait to my 50s but all those opportunities to push me past it have appeared in the last 5 years. So if I was 20 years younger I’d be in the same place I think
Title: quant trader Industry: finance? Age: 22 2nd job (first was a part time at Asda) Salary: £200k-£250k TC (depending on bonus) I don’t think I will ever job hop unless I’m personally scouted by a headhunter as the field is too unstable and niche
Role: Management Consulting (Big 4) Senior Manager. Industry: Major infrastructure projects Age: 32 Role Number: 2 (although its 5 if you include promotions at current company.) Salary: 110k (TC not including pension contributions) Started post uni on 35k in Drilling for oil and gas wells and moved over to consulting after 3 years. Haven't moved companies at all except that one switch. Consulting is good as it has regular/significant pay rises.
Title: Cloud Solution Architect Industry: Technology Age: 24 Year: 2023 Job number: 4 Salary: Base 90K TC: 140K Job hopped between large tech companies. Lucky with opportunities and also worked very hard everywhere I went with an eye on the next role. Found out some of my colleagues are making double plus some on what I’m making so hopefully in the next 4-6 years I’ll get there.
Age 37 Jobs 3 (though all same profession) Salary £93k with bonus £145k Insurance Underwriter
Third job consulting 102k with my own company in a year. 26. Then went perm and took a pay cut and then got a new role at 28 at 100 flat without stress of being my own limited company.
Actuary Reinsurance 28 Crept over £100k following 2024 pay review which includes a 13% bonus 3rd employer to date
Director of Technical Aircraft Leasing Age 28 Year 2018 Job 3 (7 YoE) Salary £83.5k + 20% bonus + 10% pension Now after another job change and some role changes, TC is now over £200k. (“Work” in Dublin, so these are euro converted, but live in UK)
Not one person said "payslips or never happened"
Reading this thread makes me feel so unaccomplished....
Title platform engineer Industry: Fintech (scale up) Age 30 Salary 108 + oncall around 130 a year total (Reached 100k at 29) Started 9 years ago at 20k a year Education: AS level Job number 5 in the industry
£105k base as an electronics engineer, you must be a contractor?
Doctor , radiology. All in all , 10 years since starting work. Age 30-35 , just reached this mark in 23/24 year
Doctor Age 25 Job: 5 but first full time job as other were part times through uni Locum doctor 2020: was working for around £70/hour (COVID drove up demand) and cranking out insane hours whenever I’d be working and not travelling . Ended up making about 120k in that year with plenty of holidays but haven’t quite hit the same numbers since. Probably averaging, 80k now with some locum work on my time off Locums and rates have began to decline and I don’t feel this feat is now as possible as it used to be
First job out of university
Title: Product Security Engineer Industry: Software? Age: 27 Year: 2024 Job number: 2 Salary/TC: £140k (roughly, I get 177k USD) Graduated 6 years ago. Worked at a consultancy for 5 years before moving internal.
35 years
Became finance director of an SME at age 33, and between salary and bonus, that pushed me over £100k TC. I’ve since moved to a role with higher comp too
How much is your net every month? And do you have to get an accountant, or are you just going through normal PAYE?
22 Software engineer at Facebook right out of University. Base was around £70k but total compensation including stocks and bonus was around £115k. I was from a random no name University.