The 5 year plan to £50k

[Housey]

Cheers. Ja I've always got my eyes open for new stuff, opportunities are everywhere if you look hard enough

Excellent.

It's amazing how many people don't look further than the end of their nose. On this forum I've read time and again people who have the mindset of "if I do this for the next 5 years and prove myself then the next role/grade could be mine....could be..." Madness. Get good, become valued, do great things but trade on it and don't hang around for the perfect moment as it never arrives and you'll wonder why those around you keep getting promoted and then finding excuses as to why more of than not. If a company tells you to do X for 5 years then come and talk to me about where next and you are over 30, hell over 25 even you are probably in the wrong company.

 

[Diddums]

Excellent.

It's amazing how many people don't look further than the end of their nose. On this forum I've read time and again people who have the mindset of "if I do this for the next 5 years and prove myself then the next role/grade could be mine....could be..." Madness. Get good, become valued, do great things but trade on it and don't hang around for the perfect moment as it never arrives and you'll wonder why those around you keep getting promoted and then finding excuses as to why more of than not. If a company tells you to do X for 5 years then come and talk to me about where next and you are over 30, hell over 25 even you are probably in the wrong company.

I guess some people just don't have the mind for it. I have people close to retirement age working for me who earn £33k and wear our crap demoralizing uniform. They seem happy doing it so fair play to them, but I vowed I'd never let myself get to that age and still be unblocking toilets.

 

[Housey]

I guess some people just don't have the mind for it. I have people close to retirement age working for me who earn £33k and wear our crap demoralizing uniform. They seem happy doing it so fair play to them, but I vowed I'd never let myself get to that age and still be unblocking toilets.

This is true and each to their own. More aimed at those who talk ambition but don't act it. I have said many times if you are happy then this is more important than anything else. We are all different, all want different things and all power to those who retire happy at 60 with not a worry in the world.

 

[crinkleshoes]

Old thread I know, but it's certainly possible to hit that.

Rough info:

21yo, dropped out of 2nd year of uni... was earning £24k/year with little work and hated the course
22yo, dropped that self-employment and moved to a "real" job... more hours, but £30k
23yo, moved up to better job... normal hours and £40k
25yo, secondment to Switzerland with same company and bump to ~£80k
28yo, failed to get another job in Switz after contract ended, back to UK and needed a job, so accepted £32k + company car with personal use
29yo, bump to Technical Director of established company and just shy of £100k
+ various other forms of passive and active income have skyrocketed things somewhat

31yo this year

I'm happy with that... especially with being a degree-less yobbo... it's only very recently my uni professor head of department mother has stopped pestering me to go back to uni

Hope you get what you want... but it was around 24yo that I realised life comes before work and money. Money certainly helps with the freedom side of things though, which brings a form of happiness. Only tip is don't let the pursuit get in the way of family & friends. More often than not, the choice is EITHER money or family/friends and the latter is the more fulfilling choice.

 

[Nitefly]

Old thread I know, but it's certainly possible to hit that.

Rough info:

21yo, dropped out of 2nd year of uni... was earning £24k/year with little work and hated the course
22yo, dropped that self-employment and moved to a "real" job... more hours, but £30k
23yo, moved up to better job... normal hours and £40k
25yo, secondment to Switzerland with same company and bump to ~£80k
28yo, failed to get another job in Switz after contract ended, back to UK and needed a job, so accepted £32k + company car with personal use
29yo, bump to Technical Director of established company and just shy of £100k
+ various other forms of passive and active income have skyrocketed things somewhat

31yo this year

I'm happy with that... especially with being a degree-less yobbo... it's only very recently my uni professor head of department mother has stopped pestering me to go back to uni

Hope you get what you want... but it was around 24yo that I realised life comes before work and money. Money certainly helps with the freedom side of things though, which brings a form of happiness. Only tip is don't let the pursuit get in the way of family & friends. More often than not, the choice is EITHER money or family/friends and the latter is the more fulfilling choice.

That does seem a rather short time to become someone of that seniority within an established company - what sort of field is this? I don't think I'll have the sort of technical expertise to make that sort of seniority for ~10 years and I'm the same age as you... although I suppose I did have 6 years of education post-school (not all career related) plus a year out faffin'.

In any case you've obviously done well for yourself - good for you.

 

[crinkleshoes]

It's IT based.

I got lucky with the places I've worked and what I've done.

I've done work for a lot of very large multi-national companies which name-dropping helped me leap-frog usual stepping stones & my secondment to Switz was running a managed service for a large pharma company.

These bits all helped get me where I am now.

Not sharing because it's easy skill-wise or luck-wise... only sharing to show the gains the OP is expecting are possible, if rare.

There are people of equal intelligence who stuck with their uni course and got their degree who have done much much worse than I have.

Irregardless of extra-curricular activities - I've done well for myself.

 

[aowc02]

Excellent.

It's amazing how many people don't look further than the end of their nose. On this forum I've read time and again people who have the mindset of "if I do this for the next 5 years and prove myself then the next role/grade could be mine....could be..." Madness. Get good, become valued, do great things but trade on it and don't hang around for the perfect moment as it never arrives and you'll wonder why those around you keep getting promoted and then finding excuses as to why more of than not. If a company tells you to do X for 5 years then come and talk to me about where next and you are over 30, hell over 25 even you are probably in the wrong company.

couldnt agree more. you see this a lot in IT :/ too many First / Second liners are afraid to stick their neck out to be given the chance for more responsibility.

just happy with being purely comfortable doing a 9-5. nothing more, nothing less.

 

[Nitefly]

It's IT based.

I got lucky with the places I've worked and what I've done.

I've done work for a lot of very large multi-national companies which name-dropping helped me leap-frog usual stepping stones & my secondment to Switz was running a managed service for a large pharma company.

These bits all helped get me where I am now.

Not sharing because it's easy skill-wise or luck-wise... only sharing to show the gains the OP is expecting are possible, if rare.

There are people of equal intelligence who stuck with their uni course and got their degree who have done much much worse than I have.

Irregardless of extra-curricular activities - I've done well for myself.

Thanks for replying

Business support roles for large mega-companies seems the only way of making serious monies relatively quickly. 'Core business' professionals (excluding some City roles) are well paid but just chump change in comparison - boo hiss

I know someone who earns a tonne by managing the allocation of company shares to employees (albeit internationally, so there must be lots of compliance issues). It just must be more complicated than I imagine.

 

[Housey]

I too am a ficko without a degree

"Bought my way in, now all these Ivy League schmucks are suckin my kneecaps."

 

[Diddums]

I too am a ficko without a degree

"Bought my way in, now all these Ivy League schmucks are suckin my kneecaps."

Same. My wife is very much of the opinion that you need a degree to be successful. I'm the opposite.

That said, I'm doing an engineering degree with the open university and it's very satisfying to get those results and I'm fairly confident it'll help me in my career in one way or another.

 

[Housey]

Well a degree can help people move quicker and it is a requirement for some roles, but it is an indisputable fact that you do not need any form of formal qualification to be a success if your measure of success is a career and wealth. This forum is frequented by a higher standard of educated people due to the nature of the site and that tends to come with commentary that implies qualifications are the key to the world, but they are not in many cases and for many people. Sure, if you work in IT as many do in a technical role they are often a requirement and provide differentiation allowing employers to be selective but once you have years of experience their value takes second stage to experience more often than not as long as you stay current.

Having said that I would still urge people to follow their education ambitions as it can make life a hell of a lot easier in some situations, is vital in others and education is a good thing too. My personal education journey stopped at a BTEC in Business and Computing from which I secured my first job as a computer operator and programmer (COBOL & BASIC), something I was really not very good at and back then computers were far from pervasive in business but I could see they would be. I had not completed my course when I secured the job and it had little influence on me getting the role as I recall as I was recommended by a teacher to the companies MD. Having said all that I never miss an opportunity to learn, be their professional courses I am able to attend, reading which I do a hell of a lot or working with clever people I can learn from, be they old or young.

 

[aowc02]

The ability to deal with people, the ability to talk and explain confidently, trumps any skills you pick up in most degrees.

Its the most important skill(s) to have.

 

[Diddums]

Agreed, and I'm pretty confident and have no issues speaking to anyone. I've worked with loads of people who think you're not allowed to talk to the big cheese, I find this such a self-defeating mentality, those are exactly the people you should be speaking to if you want to climb. Weird.


Housey one of my first coding triumphs as a wee lad of about 12 was coding Snake in qbasic. Went on to Turbopascal after that but just lost interest over the years.

 

[randomshenans]

21yo, dropped out of 2nd year of uni... was earning £24k/year with little work and hated the course

I too am a ficko without a degree

Me too. I did the very same as Crinkle. 2nd year, was earning 18k at the time though but that was part time.

You must have a degree though, everyone knows this... :/

 

[Kreeeee]

It's IT based.

I got lucky with the places I've worked and what I've done.

You make your own luck by working smart and being observant enough to notice the opportunities.

Too many people work hard and not smart, and hope that someone notices them rather than sitting the opportunities and sizing them.

 

[crinkleshoes]

Me too. I did the very same as Crinkle. 2nd year, was earning 18k at the time though but that was part time.

You must have a degree though, everyone knows this... :/

That lil business of mine was great... was working 2 hours a day, 7 days a week... 1 hour in the morning and 1 in the evening... could work from anywhere and was raking in £2k/month.

Was massive money for me when I'd only received a £3800/year loan to live off (supplemented it with working for the uni IT team until that point).

Seemed silly to work as a research grad as I wouldn't have earned much more than that, would have had to work a lot more & didn't find it as fulfilling as I'd hoped.

Ended up stopping that and going to get a "real job"... regretted it at the time... but working for some very large clients gave me some big name drops which pushed me forward more than I thought it would.

 

[crinkleshoes]

You make your own luck by working smart and being observant enough to notice the opportunities.

Too many people work hard and not smart, and hope that someone notices them rather than sitting the opportunities and sizing them.

I appreciate that, but it wasn't my mindset at the time... so can't claim I planned things like that in the early days... I was just chasing more money and/or better hours and/or easier/more interesting/more technical work in my first few positions.

Basically looking for something I hated less than what I was already doing to pay the bills and buy more toys.

Wasn't for a few years & the loss of a cat while I was working from home that make me realise I should have had other priorities.

Still blame myself for that... I was so engrossed in working hard, I'd let the cats out for the day as they wanted to go out and my jerry-rigging of the back door had failed so they were locked out. I could have taken a break, was just working to get it done as fast as possible to impress management. It started raining very hard and I hadn't even thought to check they could get back in. One of my kitties took refuge under a car and was in the wrong place when the car's owner decided to go for a drive

Only discovered the back door had closed after I had a call from the vet that the car driver had taken my kitty to to let me know he wasn't coming home again.

Horrible experience... but at least I learned a solid life lesson from it. I still worked hard, but my priorities shifted after that day.

 

[flibbage0]

Interesting reading these stories they always give me some motivation to seek out other opportunities.

I am currently doing a job that I don't enjoy at all, the problem is I have only been doing it for less than a year but it's the same rubbish, there's not much more to learn.

My question is would it look bad on my CV to leave a job after 12 months? The job I do I can always come back to I just don't want it to look bad when I'm applying for industry jobs.

 

[Diddums]

I appreciate that, but it wasn't my mindset at the time... so can't claim I planned things like that in the early days... I was just chasing more money and/or better hours and/or easier/more interesting/more technical work in my first few positions.

Basically looking for something I hated less than what I was already doing to pay the bills and buy more toys.

Wasn't for a few years & the loss of a cat while I was working from home that make me realise I should have had other priorities.

Still blame myself for that... I was so engrossed in working hard, I'd let the cats out for the day as they wanted to go out and my jerry-rigging of the back door had failed so they were locked out. I could have taken a break, was just working to get it done as fast as possible to impress management. It started raining very hard and I hadn't even thought to check they could get back in. One of my kitties took refuge under a car and was in the wrong place when the car's owner decided to go for a drive

Only discovered the back door had closed after I had a call from the vet that the car driver had taken my kitty to to let me know he wasn't coming home again.

Horrible experience... but at least I learned a solid life lesson from it. I still worked hard, but my priorities shifted after that day.

It's interesting to hear this. Not gonna lie, I honestly thought for a while that you just got lucky and were often in the right place at the right time or had a career handed to you by mom & dad. It's certainly changed my perception to learn that it wasn't actually plain sailing and that it did take some dedication and sacrifice.

Good on you dude, well done, for realsies

 

[dowie]

Thanks for replying

Business support roles for large mega-companies seems the only way of making serious monies relatively quickly. 'Core business' professionals (excluding some City roles) are well paid but just chump change in comparison - boo hiss

If you're talking circa 100k by age 30 then there are various approaches for non-grads. Sales is the obvious one - various recruitment consultants, estate agents etc.. without degrees exceeding that amount.

You've covered city jobs I guess, the typical barrow boy types have been replaced in various areas by grads but I guess there are still some opportunities out there. (Brokers perhaps and some commodities firms - there is still one open outcry trading floor left in London, the LME)

One interesting one is barrister's clerks, the barrow boys of the legal world, they're potentially replaceable going forwards but some of them seem to earn some serous $$$. Again similar types to the city - Essex boys, East End of London types.

Chartered accountancy is another one, you can qualify in approx 4 years without a degree AFAIK.

Lastly various tradesmen in London, see for example the TV show a while ago re: Pimlico Plumbers, all the "drains men" were on over 100k, the plumbers were on a bit less.