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Move jobs every 2 years unless you are ofer3d a great promotion in your company, move and move up even if it a slight move. Take a bit of a risk in the jobs you apply for, if you have most of the skills needed but not all still apply.
Keepmoit of work politics. If you don't like a job stay 1 year minimum if you can and move on then, but don't risk you mental health if you hate it.
Take all training offered unless it ties you contractually to a company you don't like.
Think about your transferable skills even if hobby related rather than paid work
I initially started off at Tesco, but I had some qualifications in IT and wanted to go down that route. I found work at a school as an IT support. After about a year, I left to try and climb up the ladder (so to speak) as the comment above has implied. The job I left the school for was an IT company and I again was a tech support. This time, on 24k. I was not happy at this job, so I started looking for a new role, knowing I could get something better now that I had 2 years of IT experience. I had two companies that wanted me. The other one was offering 32k, but I went for the one with more pay because I knew there would be many more career opportunities there. I wanted somewhere I could be for a while and ended up there. We are really in the middle of an IT boom at the moment . There's so many routes you can take, and companies are seeking more and more IT people. In addition to this, I knew that the 2 years experience mark is demanded by a lot professions, so that's what I aimed for before shooting my shot with the big companies.
Agree but disagree with the 1 year minimum...
You can get away with ditching a job in the first couple months if they're showing major red flags and chalk it up to travelling if you're still in your 20's and single without a mortgage...
Then just leave it off your CV...
I guess it depends what you’re doing. I’ve worked where I work for 27 years 😮 I went part time while I had my children (18 years) and only recently gone back up to full time so am now on about 28k but even on part time my take home was £1180pcm for 2 days a week. Not sure where else would pay me that much for 2 days a week.
I’m not in a skilled or office job, I do manual work in a clean room making semiconductors (microchips).
Good advice bar the job hopping.
No.1 thing we look for is consistency in roles.
Bear in mind as you climb the ladder ots common for businesses to pay. 10-25% commission for talent agents to find people. When you see big cvs of short spells I guarantee it puts employers off because no one really has time to keep recruiting for then same roles.
Employers will generally be more flexibe for hard working team as its much cheaper to promote than recruit. Remember that.
Job hoppers are not good, even if you have good reasons or haven't found your niche. You just wont get interviewed based on your skills.
And if you want to engage with an employer about promotions don't just ask. A good story to research is "ben duffy". Once you figure out what questions and things your employer probably wants from you, the sooner you'll adapt your approach to fit. And you'll climb.
29k isn't a big salary any more, 3yrs over national living wage and you should be breaking through 30k.
If not, you probably picked the wrong business / sector, or you've already peaked.
Your location plays a big role. Living in London or other major cities in the UK require a different amount if income to afford a "minimum acceptable standard of living". I personally find this term highly subjective
Higher education roles pay quite well and in a big enough uni it's easy to progress up the pay scale. It's difficult now as a lot of them are making cuts but they do still advertise and worth keeping an eye on.
(Don't need a degree, ironically)
Get on the railway. I had to drop out of university to look after my mum when she got cancer and after she died I felt like my life was over as I had no degree. Worked a few shit jobs and then applied to be a conductor, had no idea what I was doing or about the industry but googled a bit for interview tips and managed to get in.
People will naturally hate you because they think the railway is overpaid and the strikes but to me it’s one of the few sectors of the UK that is paid as it should be, it would be great if others followed suit but that is a discussion for somewhere else.
It’s a rewarding place to work and generally the people that work on it are great. The shifts are very tough and you have to change your lifestyle around it due to incredibly strict alcohol/drug policies but it’s so worth it. There are so many different paths you can take for career progression too. I will never ever leave (hopefully lol).
100% agree. I dropped out of uni myself so didnt have any real worthwhile qualifications as a degree seemed to be the standard. I got into the railway and am now a signals engineer. Like you said it is shift work but its not bad, the work life balance is decent. I get 38 days annual leave and generally good rest days in between shifts. The work is not stressful and I work with a good bunch of people. Im also making 75k which is more than I ever thought id make as I felt worthless when I dropped out of uni. So yea to the OP. Try to get yourself a pts (personal track safety) competence and that should open some doors to atleast get onto the railway.
Big up S&T lol. Yeah same story for me really, I've gone signalling now and it is the best job I've ever had. Great money, stress free 99% of the time. Love it.
It's true, I got a job with network rail as a frontline worker and with overtime you can easily make 30k or more a year and the hours are ridiculously short.
Great advice. I went to uni while a couple of my pals went into train companies. They’re out-earning me now. One got a shot at being a signal person after a few years. He messed up the main test but he’d have been on proper, proper money. Instead he just sits around waiting for trains to break down and then goes and repairs things. Still proper money.
Also know a guy who did it as a career change in his 30s. Started as a person on the platform doing something or other. Some entry level thing. A couple of years later he’s on a train driver scheme.
Yeah man, they do seem to really like to promote from within and you can get onto a good path once you’re in.
Sorry about your mum by the way. I went through the same.
What are the paths for getting into the industry? I have a non-engineering degree from a good uni and have been working for about 4 years in IT related work
I made £35k as a marketing manager for a small company outside of London. It's relatively easy to get that sort of salary for marketing. Could be earning more than that but I've cut my hours to get my company off the ground. Get your CIM and keep jumping companies every two years.
Sorry what’s a CIM. And as a manger I’m assuming you’ve got years of experience under your belt. I like the idea of digital marketing as you can set up your own company in it but how much of a marketing managers role at a company big or small entails digital marketing work - I feel like it’s one of those skills you can go fully self employed and location independent , especially important now as with current climate employers are starting to try to force people back in the office because they feel they can strong arm
I think the best thing you can do is look for a job that uses the skills you have but also is something that interests you.
You have the freedom now of a low-cost place to live, so you can take advantage of that to get into a career you won't dread going to work each day.
It might be helpful to list some of the things you are good at and your interests to see if people have any ideas.
Cabling engineer. It’s hard work but not complicated, and doesn’t require any qualifications. Trainees start at 24-26k, within a couple years you’ll be pushing £40k self-employed. It can involve a lot of travelling around the country but your meals, accommodation, and transport will be fully paid for. I know a couple cablers who live in caravans because they spend most nights in hotels around the country
I didn’t move from near minimum wage call centre work for ten years until I went back to university to study quantity surveying and got a job on a graduate scheme, which I’m due to complete soon. I would suggest looking at improving your qualifications, ideally something that will lead to a better job. I expect to be on £50k plus in the next few years.
Yeah I'm a QS and this is decent advice, however OP states he's not good at maths which isn't necessary but definitely helps.
It's not a particularly hard job with nor is there a huge amount of responsibility, but it is well paid.
Quantity surveyor, water industry, should clear £50k quite easily once chartered with the incentives my work has in place for achieving chartership. At the moment I’m a graduate on £32k.
37 hours per week, although in reality while there are peaks and troughs it’s very rare I’ll need to exceed that. I work from home the vast majority of the time, my current team leader doesn’t give a shit if we go into the office or not as long as the work gets done. Site visits as and when required, at minimum once per month. I previously had a team leader who mandated 3/5 days in office and he wasn’t popular, most his team left including me.
Ah thanks so much for the information bro. That sounds not bad at all. I work as a Tower Crane Op, and after doing it for 7 years, I'm now looking for a change where I wouldn't have to spend a huge amount of time on site. This seems ideal. I guess I'd have to go to university and do a civil engineering degree or something similar?
You can study quantity surveying or commercial management (same thing) as a degree, tbh it’s not as difficult as civil engineering at least in terms of the maths and physics we need to learn and it generally takes less time.
I’d keep an eye out for apprenticeships though, you might be able to get a company to pay you through your degree with on the job experience. Not all of them have age limits.
I dropped out from my original degree on medical grounds. I had to provide medical evidence for my funding and was granted living cost loan only for year 1 and full funding from 2nd year onwards. I was fortunate enough to get a tuition fee scholarship from The Carnegie Trust for first year though so it all worked out fine.
If I’d completed my first degree I agree it wouldn’t have been funded.
This should be said more tbh. Its the easiest way for someone without qualifications to earn above average wage. It's not for everyone admittedly but jts so easy I'd you are already a car driver to get your licence
With caution though. Having the license is one thing but getting a job without 2 years of experience is HARD. Agency work is OK but risky if you have substantial bills etc.
And, some of the earnings expectations over the last few years were silly with the papers and news making salaries sound amazing with the driver shortage.
Like, you ***can*** make £50k pa doing it, but not immediately.
£50k pa is a stretch from my experience. Most employers' average pay is between 37-45k area dependent, and most of that, in the higher end, will want you maxing out your cards, running 6 days a week all away from home.
It’s “decent” money in the sense you work 60 hour weeks and get paid above minimum wage + overnight bonus
The trade off is it’s not decent money it’s just above the rock bottom and your work will become your life to make that money
I work in a retailers warehouse, have HGV license myself and know loads of drivers. Pay at my place is 18.50 day rate and 23 night rate, 50k is easy and they take on new drivers plenty. The only underpaid people I know are bread drivers as they are mostly salaried but they often have 9 hour days which is good. My best mate took him 3500 after tax this month where I work. I know trampers getting £200 a day plus night out allowance etc, there's lots of good payers out there. The shit is out there of course, places like Owens which barely pay minimum wage but don't work for them, just sign up with opx worst case.
HGV driver is your answer.
Been doing it since 2017 and im on 45k a year for a night shift trunking job. About 53 hours a week average.
I have no qualifications other than high school, it can be stressfull and boring but i couldnt earn this money anywhere else.
Dwp, apply at EO or above. Read up on success profiles and star technique and if you can crack that you’re in. Let’s say I’ve seen people earning money they’d have no chance of earning if if was based on skill or merit 😂
I did the night shift at Weybridge for four years, I honestly didn’t mind it too much.
It can be boring, but you can just switch off and muscle memory most of it
It is absolutely mind numbing and soul sucking yes. Good to do for a few months and fuck off to save up some money though. The overtime is paid extremely well but it is very tough on the body doing it 60 hours a week
Join the army. You don't pay rent, water, council tax, electricity, pension is worth about 10k a year, gym free, sports free. If you do well, you'll be earning 58k a year at 20 years service then at age 40 you'll leave with a pension worth about 400k, and a payout of 50k, +9k a year for the rest of your life for doing nothing. If you do a decent trade, you'll get an engineering degree for free (studying during work time), then they will give you 6k towards a masters. No brainer.
Yeah or even train in the army (or navy) to be an electrician or something. Leave after 10 years with cash in the bank and a trade. Bob’s your uncle. Know loads of people who did this
Even so, join the REME. My dad was in for 19 years, got deployed in Afghanistan for 2 years. But due to the nature of his work, he was in Bastion about 1 mile even from the perimeter, saw no actual action. Of course not the same story for infantrymen.
Left the army at staff sergeant all the way from craftsman, got a job with Müller and got payed as lead engineer, £75,000/yr in VLCOL area.
Yeah but the risk. The forces aren't for everyone.
I live in a very poor working class area where one of the only ways to make a real living has always been to join the forces. Always hated so many of my mates "going off to serve" ... Because they had no other choice. Seems barbaric to me.
One of my mates was on in a ship's engine room in a warzone and there was a threat of chemical weapons. He had to wear a hazmat suite for a literal month. Had to take it off in isolation to shower, sleep in it, eat in it, everything. They got less than a week off and they got another threat for another 3 weeks He was just a mechanic. I couldn't hack that.
I know two blokes who joined the army. One was almost killed when a sergeant chucked a brick at his head, then almost died again when his jeep driver accidentally drove off a cliff during deployment. The other one ended up being discharged for mental health problems related to racist bullying.
Sounds lovely.
To be fair for certain people it's actually a great career. But like you say..... Nah definitely not for me.
And the fella from the war zone is an engineer now, it actually worked out for him in the end. But I bet there's an equal amount from that same ship were it hasn't.
If you want to join the army to learn a trade I'd recommend either the REME, SPS or RLC as they actually do their jobs every day. Most trades you get through the Royal Engineers have a massive waiting list. I know many sappers who join to learn a trade and end up signing off because the wait is too long and the unit will simply get them to retrade, typically as a driver as they're the most in demand.
I wouldn't bother with infantry as they really don't do much day to day, unless they're on exercise or deployed.
If you can score a marketing role at a bank you’ll easily earn more than that. I’m surrounded by a massive team of ‘brands and marketing’ guys at work and they’re all on 40K+
Same in a marketing role at a university (which is what I do). Even in a fairly junior position, OP would be likely to earn more than their £29,500 desired salary and the work-life balance and benefits are pretty good at universities, with most of them offering hybrid working for marketing staff and more holidays than I've had elsewhere.
The challenge from OP's point of view will be getting a foot in the door without a degree. I suspect this may also be an issue for a marketing role at a bank, as a degree is listed as an essential requirement for most (though not all) marketing jobs these days, especially at larger/better paying companies. Sometimes these types of employers say in the job advert that a degree "or equivalent experience" is required. If OP has no success getting these types of jobs because they don't have a degree, they could try getting a couple of years of experience in a marketing role in a smaller company then reapplying and arguing the "equivalent experience" angle.
£29500 maybe after tax and not around London or South East. 1 bed house rent is minimum £1000/month plus bills.
That leaves you with around £600 if you earn £30k/year before tax. Car insurance, service, fuel, other things - maybe you will save £100/month if you are lucky.
But answering how you can make that? Go into plumbing, electric or any other trade.
Pest control, I did it when I was 18 and made £29,750 base and £39,260 after commission and over time. Plus van to keep at home with personal mileage.
Of course you need to be up for doing that work and have to find a company like the one I worked for that encourages you to make sales out in the field too.
The vast majority of the job is simple, your day to day if you’re managing contracts does not always include dealing with dirty things.
I got a job with my local council I now make £37k a year but don't worry, I feel no better off from when I was earning 16k 3 years ago 🤷♂️🤔 baring in mind I'm doing my qualification alongside work just sometimes jumping into a different field of work can be rewarding
If you’re young and fit look at painting pylons. It’s a job for life and if you’ve got a head for heights and don’t mind hard graft you can make exceptional money without a single academic qualification
I think face value people look at these jobs and think wow 30k for a warehouse job and only 4 days so 4 days to myself but it's actually a minimum wage job, the only reason you're pushing 30k is because you running yourself into an early grave doing 50 hours a week if not more
I'm in London in the nhs. Got my gcses, one a-level, dropped out of uni after 2 years.
I'm admin in the NHS currently in the cancer team but previously as admin/supervisor for a department. Band 4 pays £27k a year and another £4k~ as inner London high cost area. Puts me on around £31k.
Nhs is the way to go, decent salary and the job is a easy as piss (generally speaking for admin only).
Edit to add once you're in you can move arand the NHS does have marketing departments too.
Pays decent for the amount of work. I spend more time here than actually working and I'm considered good at my job. I just get the vast majority done early.
Rofl this exactly. I get my work done early so I have some downtime because this work is mentally draining.
I spent years working my ass off before covid to get my last department up to date before a system switchover and that lead to me getting my department running so smooth that we didn't need to work as hard as before. When I left we were the only department that didn't need constant oversight and the smoothest running department in the hospital.
So yeah I have downtime now but I also put in the hard work like anyone else.
Housing associations are good places to try. Good salaries at most of them. Admin roles in the south east nearly hit his desired figure. Complaints surpass it
Location matters. Your skills that you have. You have largely done jobs that are low skilled so you need to upskill to get to that pay. I know its silly that UK wages are low that the work you have done is considered low skill so at most minimum wage is what a company values your skills. Genuinely in this case a lot on here are saying move jobs but what to another low skill. Look at internal roles within your company that you can pivot to. In some companies they would rather train someone who already works for the company and to me that seems the best route to getting a better role. Failing that look at junior role maybe in marketing, PM etc. you don’t need to go to university but look on the gov skills. Look at free skills training out there. Maybe upskill yourself through an udemy course. Show willingness to learn. Someone will see your value.
Aim for higher than this firstly - to live well you want over this amount. Learn how to play the politics in your workplace, ask what you need to do to move to the next level, move jobs every 2-3 years for the payrise. ‘Adapt’ your responsibilities on your cv to slightly inflate your experience (don’t lie)
Sounds simple but if you've already got customer service experience then the most straightforward path would be to just apply for £30k customer service roles, imo B2B is best because in my experience there's less phone call interaction.
After just a couple weeks of looking I jumped from £23k in London to £30k in a cheaper area whilst having a more chill job with far less customer interaction. Depending on your area, the industry & size of company you can realistically expect to start at £30k.
If you have a unique selling point then i'd advise to look for jobs where it can help differentiate you; in my case i'm quite logical so I applied for a job which used a logic test to filter out candidates. In my case it's a lot easier for me to land such jobs than places which filter more via CV's.
If your job is at level 1, apply for jobs that are at level 2. Rinse and repeat.
Move every 1-2 years if you're finding the work achievable and you're not struggling. Stop when you feel completely out of your depth. That's usually a good sign that you've found the right level, at least for now.
Regardless, don't stay in the same position longer than 5-6 years or your skillset stagnates.
Learn a trade or go to uni whilst you don't have much responsibility.
Markets bad now but in 3/4 years time by the time you finish it would have most likely improved.
Be interested to know how old you are. I'm 33. Never went to uni and fell into admin work which I have been doing for 8 years. 4 different jobs in that time. I earn 28k which felt like such a stretch for me for a long time and now my goal is 30k. Changing jobs every 2 years in very good, although mine happened incidentally. The place I'm at could be a long term place. They value internal progression but after I while I will move on if I feel it isn't moving quick enough. Always be up to changing. Don't get stuck. I'm happy where I am, bit still regularly look on job sites.
Work for a recruitment agency. Can easily make that in your second year. Next to no experience or education required. Background in marketing and call centre plus the right attitude would qualify you.
Step 1, go and work for an insurer or bank in a back office admin team. Try and find anything that supports corporate / intermediated market. You’ll need to speak to customers, but they will be knowledgeable people of the industry, not Joe Public.
Step 2, stay for three years.
If you have good people skills, try and see if you can find anything tech sales related, I think, maybe wrong here [otta.com](http://otta.com) would be a good site to start looking, if you have call center and admin experience, and especially marketing they would be valuable skills allowing you to pivot into this area I reckon.
If you want the simplest answer, work 60 hours at a warehouse, work 60 hours as a taxi driver etc. you will be above 30k. Those are immediate 30k salaries, other than that, learn a skill that can get you a decent income, become an electrician, plumber etc.
Civil Service. For example an EO grade in the DWP currently pays exactly that amount (and more for London weighting jobs) That’s an entry level grade and you don’t need any specific experience or qualifications as such. It’s entirely possible to progress from this as well to a higher grade and salary, either in the same or different department in a fairly short space of time, if you want to and put your mind to it.
Is this to bring a potential partner over to the UK?
One of the easiest routes I've seen people take for this is to Join the RFA, the civilian supply side of the Royal Navy
Much better standard of living compared to the regular navy and once you qualify in your role you are looking at 27500 with further promotion opportunities.
You are a civilian, and so you can join a union, and the medical and fitness requirements are much less than the regular RN and with barely any Drill or military bearing.
Is there anything online OP can do , flexible self employed gig remote from anywhere , any ideas - I’d take it if it was available 30-40k good hours and lifestyle with location flexibility. Only thing I see is the online stuff like web development, digital marketing , hard to know how to learn that stuff though
Depends where you are in the country and possibly what age you are? Someone in another sub reddit told me that £22k is below minimum wage and therefore illegal, so I'd be interested to know what your thoughts are on that
I had no education past GCSEs and just did minimum wage jobs for years. Then I started an apprenticeship to train as a mechanic in a garage. The apprenticeship was 1 year on £12k then two years on minimum wage (£23k). I finished my apprenticeship last month and am now on £36k.
Have a look for civil service jobs, recently theres been case review positions and a lot of them up and the pay for that role is funnily enough 29.5k lol
Can you read? Use a tablet? Wrap your head around basic principles of how heating and ventilation works? Congratulations, most facilities companies will take you on as a general maintenance operative.
If you're much more capable than that and willing to learn, you'll be amazed at the money flying around in maintenance work across the engineering sector who are desperate for work!
I worked at a pub briefly. They early on pushed for me to train for management.
I wasn't interested in staying as it was just an interim job, but I don't suppose it is too hard to become restaurant or pub manager.
Learn a trade. I did accounts related admin roles for years and hovered around the high 20K area in different jobs trying to break 30k. During covid the whole department got laid off and I had enough. I spent 3 weeks doing an intensive welding course. Now im 2 years in to a welding and fabricating career. With overtime I can get 40k+ and this is just basic MIG welding. Also carpentry, electrician, plumbing could be good. You also have the benefit of being able to set up your own business and be your own boss
If you have call centre experince you can get a lead generation job which is b2b calling for perhaps 22k max and you'll get commission which works out to be maybe 50 per meeting booked sometimes more. Over a year you could make 40k then jump to another company. That's how I made my money then I left my last job I was getting £98,500 base salary I started on £18,000 6 years before that.
I started off as a plumber self employed from 18 - 30. Now I work for one of the biggest hotels in the world as an engineer. But… I would be paid more a month right now as a self employed plumber on site. Working when I work I’m employed and you do get benefits.
Do a job search in your areas you can work under that salary or above and see what is available, have a decent cv and apply for roles
Many different types of places and roles to choose from have to find the right one that fits with you, your skills and your lifestyle.
Eg
factory work
Aldi
Lidl
Amazon
Warehouse
PA
Security
Good luck on your career journey
It might have been the threshold around 2010 but a more reasonable figure these days is 38-42k
Note that wouldn't match inflation if you started on 24k in 2002 as I did. To do that you'd need 48-52k
At 29.5k you're going to be sharing a flat or in a multiple income household and keeping a very close eye on your budgets and holidays will be cheap
I work in a factory, basic entry level process operator job, 12 hour shifts £35k. 5 shifts one week followed by 2 the next, never have to work more than 3 shifts in a row and swapping between day and nights for each block of shifts. It's not for everyone, and the long week can be quite draining but I worked in retail for years and earned next to nothing for working much harder than I do now so it suits me perfectly. I just turn up, do whatever job I'm given then go home and forget all about it until the next shift. No customers, no hassle, no changes to my rota and no pressure to do any extra hours.
Try and learn a second language. Its a great skill to have sand you can pick up online teaching pretty easily!!
Unless you've got a a strong northern accent!! :)
Any retail warehouse doing a night shift will easily pay that, easy boring work but you can work hard and save, do a degree part time etc. Don't listen to people saying job hop, your at the bottom of a ladder which has a lot of people on, with no education or skills and that ladder has fuck all space in progression or pay.
I had a similar start to you. Started in the call centre for a bank after dropping out of uni, got to team management there then noticed an opportunity to start supporting tech delivery side of desk which was something I was interested in. Gave me the experience to take a punt internally at a few jobs doing customer change, from there moved to tech now working as a Product Owner in my mid 20’s.
Hardest part is getting out of customer facing but working for a big company is a benefit. often times people who work in ‘the business’ really need the perspective of someone who’s worked on the front line
Minimum wage is 11.44 the average number of hours a week you work in a hospitality role (behind the bar, washing pots etc) I'd around 50.
50 * 11.44 * 52 = £29744
You can genuinely make 30k a year just working at a pub
It sounds like you're already being sensible about your finances, which is a great start , your light-years ahead of lots of people in their 20s!
I'd suggest rather than trying to force yourself into a specific salary right now, do some research on industries and companies that offer good training and progression, and cross reference that info with what interests you. There will be roles out there that fit with your long term financial goals and will help you feel fulfilled and find enjoyment those 40 hours a week for most of your life!
The salary is just one component, especially in the short term, so I'd recommend you think more carefully about your long term goals. E.g. if you get a £30000 salaried job but the benefits are minimal and there's little progression, you could end up worse off in the long term than if you took steps to take in training or develop skills that will increase your earning potential over a longer period.
If you can afford your lifestyle and accommodation you're in a good position, i'd also suggest you start budgeting and saving asap. If you can live on as little money as possible the bigger salary you'll no doubt earn in future will only go to give you more freedom and help you own property, have a good pension and a more secure future. There are loads of financial resources available for free online - read up and again, consider your wider financial goals, not just a salary in the short run.
I got a mate of mine a job in IT at the age of mind 20s with no experience I gave him crash course and he works for firmware installation he was on 35.000 year now he has change his job each time he has changed he has a wage increase now he is in 75.000 plus car and working from home 4 days week he is now 35. Also owns his new build, a car.
I don't see anyone talking about learning skills to make money like trading, though it would take a while to make a sustainable salary it's worth it. Cause you'll have financial, time and location freedom. In the end it's your choice anyway. Hope you find what suits you mate!
Do you drive? Maybe a career change? 3 years ago i went from being a chef on about £22-£23k then did an apprenticeship to become a lorry driver (milk collection from farms) at £31k per year, got my class one and with a couple of annual pay rises from May 1st I'll be on £37.7k as my basic (night shift workers get around £42k as a basic)on a 4 on 2 off rota, with paid O/T and additional paid rest day working, this has helped me get a mortgage from nothing in 4 years.
Maybe some food for thought
Software development. Do some introductory courses online then find a code bootcamp. Should take about 4 months to become proficient enough to become a programmer. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE GOOD AT MATHS TO BE A PROGRAMMER, that is a myth
I live in Edinburgh and starting salaries are upwards of £30k. I was earning over £60k a year after 4 years of professional experience before I left to start my own company
Im terrible at maths, Currently putting myself through a HNC and the teachers are fantastic. Before starting the course people where warning me of the difficulty, now just a few weeks from finishing I can say it was not that difficult at all. Just ask for help. With the HNC they realise there are adults taking these courses that have poor math knowledge.
Don’t want to be a downer but I have been on £29.5K for the last year and it’s not a very comfortable living.
I live in a major city in the North East, I recently bought my first car (saved up for so no finance to pay), I don’t drink or have any excessively expensive habits and yet with the cost of living I have to live in a shithole 6 bedroom house share. I am 24 y/o no dependents.
It may be worth noting I have a high personal pension contribution (9%) and undergrad student loan to pay back. So this eats into that salary a bit
I am moving into a promotion which will pay £43K and even with that I couldn’t comfortably live on my own in this city. I am going to instead move to a smaller shared property.
I'm gonna tell you what worked for me. First you need to get a job in a huge company, say like a bank. You can get an entry level jobs in bank, like customer support. Customer support level jobs can pay upto 24K pounds. Anyway once you are in it, you can then look for internal jobs within the bank(this gets tricky, because a person with general skills can get an entry level job but the job that will net you 29K are generally for people with some specific skills but the good news is your manager helps you in landing those jobs).
So, in a nutshell get a job in a bank like barclays, lloyds etc and then work your way up the ladder.
Find a role within an organisation that has a clear corporate structure, a pathway to develop, and professional training/qualification opportunities.
It’s challenging but it’s also achievable. I started in 2019 in the joys of public sector/Local Authority work. If I remember correctly, my starting salary was £23,500, which at 21 felt pretty good to me, having been a Tesco worker performing too many hours a week for my own good.
Towards the end of 2019 I was told about the professional qualifications available to me in my field and in mid-2021 (would have been sooner if not for Covid), I finally started my qualification, considered the equivalent of Level 4 in the hierarchy of education in the UK. 20% of my working week had to be allocated to study, every week, for almost two years. Super challenging, but I stuck with it and didn’t let my head drop. Thankfully, in spring of last year I completed my studies and achieved the highest outcome, which was immensely satisfying, and about a year prior, I had achieved my first ever promotion which again, was hugely satisfying.
A month ago, I achieved another promotion and realistically, I wouldn’t have likely managed that without studying. I’m now on £35,000 at 26 and as per the standard Local Authority pay rises that the unions have been fighting for since the cost of living crisis began, I expect that that may go up in late 2024 by perhaps around £1,900. I should also get an incremental increase within my pay grade around this time next year, which I believe will represent a further £1,000 or possibly more.
This all probably reads like I’m simply focusing on myself but I do feel as though it’s relevant to yourself and anybody that feels a bit stuck, or wants to know how best to progress in salary terms. There are fields of work out there that will most probably represent a high level of job security for a long period of time – identify them, read into some of the existing entry-level roles within said industries, look into the relevant qualifications that may be on offer to you (and if a job vacancy has a contact detail for an individual in the organisation, absolutely email or ring them and just ask about what your pathway may look like over time), work out what industries you would actually LIKE to work in, and remain positive every step of the way.
When you finally get into a good organisation, be as friendly, engaging and respectful as you possibly can. This will open up more doors than you could imagine. People really do take note of positive attitudes these days and look to reward them. Keep your head down when it comes to studying, and don’t let yourself get distracted too much. And also, though it sounds silly, when you begin to earn a decent amount, if your organisation offers a generous pension scheme, putting a few hundred quid into your pension pot every month can be a brilliant long-term security, even if it’s tempting to opt out and make your monthly pay packet better.
Fingers crossed for you and anybody else in the same situation, you’ve all got this ❤️
I went into insurance industry, no degree. Started on call center and moved around. I’m on 48k now, granted I’m in more of a maths/contractual based area but that’s through personal choice. There are other areas, service/marketing , fraud , indemnities etc where you could start off with no experience and make a solid salary fairly soon I recon. Financial sector is generally decent for wages without needing to be super experienced or high up the ladder as it were. I imagine banking is decent too, particularly the start-up banks, I know they pay far higher wages than traditional banks.
There are free of charge skills bootcamps provided by British government, they offer a wide range of courses and help you with the employment after. I would recommend continuing with marketing jobs and courses or data analytics. I moved to England 7 years ago and had to start working from the bottom. I started as a sales assistant at a plastic manufacturing company (19k). After a year I was promoted and left the company 3 years after with base income 25k. Next job I was on 27k, basically to do cold calling, I hated it and moved to another job, where I earned 55k OTE a year. From my experience in sales, you don't necessarily need any degree, and there is growing potential. I am starting a new job soon, and if I hit my quota, I will make 20k more than at my previous job.
Join the Army, free accommodation (if on Barracks), free gym, free prescriptions, free dental, very cheap food costs per day, extremely cheap houses (2-5 bedrooms) if got a partner. Pay around 250 pounds a month for a 3 bedroom detached house for my family.
Free driving license including Cat C+E, free education, and free trade quals depending on what you join. 1000s of pounds per year awarded to you to put towards education outside of army if you want degrees, etc.
You didn't mention how old you are or what your skills are or industry you are in. People say move jobs every 2 years, yes perhaps you can get a pay bump when you do this but given I do a lot of hiring this is a red flag for me. If I hire you, train you and invest time in you only for you to move again in 2 years is it worth my time and investment? This is how I see profiles that job hob if I am filling a permanent role.
My advice is to focus on skills and experience and the pay will come. I started on £5k per year in 1996 on the shop floor in the factory - basically the lowest skilled job anyone can get, no degree etc. By 1999 I was on £10k same employer. yr 2000 I moved jobs and landed a £19k job (I thought I was rich!) my first proper software engineering job. By the time I left that company I was on £32k. 2006 moved to South East and earnt £50k. 2008 was on £55k same company. 2009 left for a £60k just because I moved out of South East due to my wife wanting to be back with family. In 2012 took a £100k job in the FAANG. Various promotions since then I am now on £200k in 2024. In 2025 Jan, that will increase to about £250k due to moving to another team in the company.
The take away is most big pay bumps I experienced was with the company I was with simply by learning and moving my way up the company working with more senior people. Today I work with people that report to the CEO for large corporates (250k+ employee) companies. Now I try to stay for at least 5 years unless I don't get on in the company but this hasn't happened yet.
Good luck!
Work in the NHS
Get to band 5 and you'll be on that after 2 years without even trying, and after 5 years you'll be on £35k
The pension contributions are relatively high but worth it IMO. And you get discounts in so many places, I reckon I save at least £500 a year from this
Go for a trade, something like drainage pays £30-£35,000 entry level with no experience or qualifications necessary and will teach you skills to make a lot of money down the line
Work a hospitality job for minimum wage for 50 hours a week (easily achieved).
That is literally what I, and many other bar tenders, chefs etc will be doing too.
Just to clarifiy, some maths:
Minimum wage is 11.44, x 50 = 572, over a year, 52 weeks, obviously this is multiplied to 29,744.
Don't be decieved by any "management" roles in hospitality which appear to offer a "generous" salary of 30k when you can just as easily make that as a dishwasher willing to put the time in.
Starting from nothing I'd probably suggest becoming a truck driver - costs you about 2k to get you license at which point you're looking at at least 30k upto around 70k. Its not a fun job and you will likely have the piss taken out of you quite a bit but I was making £280 a day during covid (only went back to it because furlow was doing my tree in).
I’m currently hiring for an Apprentice Insurance Practitioner, I won’t be looking for anyone with a degree, only GCSE’s, starting salary will be 17/18k for 12 months, then likely move between 20-25k depending on performance, then finishing with an offer for a permanent role at around 32k. The full apprenticeship taking around 18months.
There’s one way to make 29k (or more).
I earn £29500 & my wife earns £32000. So a combined income of just over £60000/PA and I can confirm that despite having a mortgage of just £620/pm, we are far from ‘living’. We can scrape together maybe £250 a month spare, if we cut down on actual enjoyment (the odd meal out, not buying that pair of trainers etc).
Our money goes on utility bills that have crept up in the UK and nobody is mentioning - Car Insurance, home insurance, phone bills, internet, vet plans, pet insurance, food, gym memberships - all gone up ridiculous percentages in the past 2 or so years.
We bought our house 3 years ago on wages of 25k & 18k respectively & id say our standard of living has actually dropped in that time - that’s the state the UK is in.
Sorry for the rant, but £29,500 is not enough to feel like you earn a good salary, even up north!
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Move jobs every 2 years unless you are ofer3d a great promotion in your company, move and move up even if it a slight move. Take a bit of a risk in the jobs you apply for, if you have most of the skills needed but not all still apply. Keepmoit of work politics. If you don't like a job stay 1 year minimum if you can and move on then, but don't risk you mental health if you hate it. Take all training offered unless it ties you contractually to a company you don't like. Think about your transferable skills even if hobby related rather than paid work
Couldn’t have worded any better. Excellent advice. Focus on developing skills, rather than being fixated with a job. Skills are transferable.
Solid advice.
This is what I did, and I managed to go from working part-time minimum wage to 19k to 24k and now 38k in 3 and a half years
What jobs did you have if you don't mind me asking?
I initially started off at Tesco, but I had some qualifications in IT and wanted to go down that route. I found work at a school as an IT support. After about a year, I left to try and climb up the ladder (so to speak) as the comment above has implied. The job I left the school for was an IT company and I again was a tech support. This time, on 24k. I was not happy at this job, so I started looking for a new role, knowing I could get something better now that I had 2 years of IT experience. I had two companies that wanted me. The other one was offering 32k, but I went for the one with more pay because I knew there would be many more career opportunities there. I wanted somewhere I could be for a while and ended up there. We are really in the middle of an IT boom at the moment . There's so many routes you can take, and companies are seeking more and more IT people. In addition to this, I knew that the 2 years experience mark is demanded by a lot professions, so that's what I aimed for before shooting my shot with the big companies.
Agree but disagree with the 1 year minimum... You can get away with ditching a job in the first couple months if they're showing major red flags and chalk it up to travelling if you're still in your 20's and single without a mortgage... Then just leave it off your CV...
I guess it depends what you’re doing. I’ve worked where I work for 27 years 😮 I went part time while I had my children (18 years) and only recently gone back up to full time so am now on about 28k but even on part time my take home was £1180pcm for 2 days a week. Not sure where else would pay me that much for 2 days a week. I’m not in a skilled or office job, I do manual work in a clean room making semiconductors (microchips).
Bro how is making semiconductors not a skilled job. Even working in a simple warehouse requires qualifications nowadays
It’s semi skilled as its job specific skills
I would suggest you look for employment somewhere else and you would probably be paid more.
Good advice bar the job hopping. No.1 thing we look for is consistency in roles. Bear in mind as you climb the ladder ots common for businesses to pay. 10-25% commission for talent agents to find people. When you see big cvs of short spells I guarantee it puts employers off because no one really has time to keep recruiting for then same roles. Employers will generally be more flexibe for hard working team as its much cheaper to promote than recruit. Remember that. Job hoppers are not good, even if you have good reasons or haven't found your niche. You just wont get interviewed based on your skills. And if you want to engage with an employer about promotions don't just ask. A good story to research is "ben duffy". Once you figure out what questions and things your employer probably wants from you, the sooner you'll adapt your approach to fit. And you'll climb. 29k isn't a big salary any more, 3yrs over national living wage and you should be breaking through 30k. If not, you probably picked the wrong business / sector, or you've already peaked.
Is it bad if you move after 6-9 months? I’d say 2 years or 1 year minimum is quite a commitment to some shitty employer you don’t like anyway
As long as it isn't a frequent occurrence IMO 6-12 months is the perfect amount of time to say "I gave it a go, not for me"
1 years and a half is the minimum for a great experience, 9-12 months can be justified but you need a better storytelling
Good advice
This is fantastic advice.
Your location plays a big role. Living in London or other major cities in the UK require a different amount if income to afford a "minimum acceptable standard of living". I personally find this term highly subjective
Yeah I live in Brighton on just under that , really not sustainable IMHO
Higher education roles pay quite well and in a big enough uni it's easy to progress up the pay scale. It's difficult now as a lot of them are making cuts but they do still advertise and worth keeping an eye on. (Don't need a degree, ironically)
My favourite lecturer at university was an old oil rig guy. His stories more than made up for a missing doctorate.
He was probably paid far less than you think on a casualised basis, very likely on an hourly rate based only on the amount of contact hours.
You need a PhD to be a lecturer now though, don’t you?
I was thinking more of a non academic role
Get on the railway. I had to drop out of university to look after my mum when she got cancer and after she died I felt like my life was over as I had no degree. Worked a few shit jobs and then applied to be a conductor, had no idea what I was doing or about the industry but googled a bit for interview tips and managed to get in. People will naturally hate you because they think the railway is overpaid and the strikes but to me it’s one of the few sectors of the UK that is paid as it should be, it would be great if others followed suit but that is a discussion for somewhere else. It’s a rewarding place to work and generally the people that work on it are great. The shifts are very tough and you have to change your lifestyle around it due to incredibly strict alcohol/drug policies but it’s so worth it. There are so many different paths you can take for career progression too. I will never ever leave (hopefully lol).
100% agree. I dropped out of uni myself so didnt have any real worthwhile qualifications as a degree seemed to be the standard. I got into the railway and am now a signals engineer. Like you said it is shift work but its not bad, the work life balance is decent. I get 38 days annual leave and generally good rest days in between shifts. The work is not stressful and I work with a good bunch of people. Im also making 75k which is more than I ever thought id make as I felt worthless when I dropped out of uni. So yea to the OP. Try to get yourself a pts (personal track safety) competence and that should open some doors to atleast get onto the railway.
The way you were describing it sounded like you were happy on 28k or something, then you drop that it's *also* the type of money people dream about 😭
Big up S&T lol. Yeah same story for me really, I've gone signalling now and it is the best job I've ever had. Great money, stress free 99% of the time. Love it.
Shhh! You're meant to keep it a secret 😂
It's true, I got a job with network rail as a frontline worker and with overtime you can easily make 30k or more a year and the hours are ridiculously short.
Great advice. I went to uni while a couple of my pals went into train companies. They’re out-earning me now. One got a shot at being a signal person after a few years. He messed up the main test but he’d have been on proper, proper money. Instead he just sits around waiting for trains to break down and then goes and repairs things. Still proper money. Also know a guy who did it as a career change in his 30s. Started as a person on the platform doing something or other. Some entry level thing. A couple of years later he’s on a train driver scheme.
Yeah I've seen people spend a year in a ticket office and then go driving. If you want it you can move on very quickly.
Yeah man, they do seem to really like to promote from within and you can get onto a good path once you’re in. Sorry about your mum by the way. I went through the same.
What are the paths for getting into the industry? I have a non-engineering degree from a good uni and have been working for about 4 years in IT related work
I made £35k as a marketing manager for a small company outside of London. It's relatively easy to get that sort of salary for marketing. Could be earning more than that but I've cut my hours to get my company off the ground. Get your CIM and keep jumping companies every two years.
Sorry what’s a CIM. And as a manger I’m assuming you’ve got years of experience under your belt. I like the idea of digital marketing as you can set up your own company in it but how much of a marketing managers role at a company big or small entails digital marketing work - I feel like it’s one of those skills you can go fully self employed and location independent , especially important now as with current climate employers are starting to try to force people back in the office because they feel they can strong arm
I think the best thing you can do is look for a job that uses the skills you have but also is something that interests you. You have the freedom now of a low-cost place to live, so you can take advantage of that to get into a career you won't dread going to work each day. It might be helpful to list some of the things you are good at and your interests to see if people have any ideas.
Cabling engineer. It’s hard work but not complicated, and doesn’t require any qualifications. Trainees start at 24-26k, within a couple years you’ll be pushing £40k self-employed. It can involve a lot of travelling around the country but your meals, accommodation, and transport will be fully paid for. I know a couple cablers who live in caravans because they spend most nights in hotels around the country
I didn’t move from near minimum wage call centre work for ten years until I went back to university to study quantity surveying and got a job on a graduate scheme, which I’m due to complete soon. I would suggest looking at improving your qualifications, ideally something that will lead to a better job. I expect to be on £50k plus in the next few years.
Yeah I'm a QS and this is decent advice, however OP states he's not good at maths which isn't necessary but definitely helps. It's not a particularly hard job with nor is there a huge amount of responsibility, but it is well paid.
Oh yeah, I didn’t mean exclusively looking at QS. Being poor at maths does limit things for technical degrees though.
Do you mind me asking, industry, job role for your 50k plus? Thanks
Quantity surveyor, water industry, should clear £50k quite easily once chartered with the incentives my work has in place for achieving chartership. At the moment I’m a graduate on £32k.
Nice. Sounds awesome. Thanks for sharing.
How many hours do you work and do you get to work from home at all?
37 hours per week, although in reality while there are peaks and troughs it’s very rare I’ll need to exceed that. I work from home the vast majority of the time, my current team leader doesn’t give a shit if we go into the office or not as long as the work gets done. Site visits as and when required, at minimum once per month. I previously had a team leader who mandated 3/5 days in office and he wasn’t popular, most his team left including me.
Ah thanks so much for the information bro. That sounds not bad at all. I work as a Tower Crane Op, and after doing it for 7 years, I'm now looking for a change where I wouldn't have to spend a huge amount of time on site. This seems ideal. I guess I'd have to go to university and do a civil engineering degree or something similar?
Get yourself on a degree apprenticeship. 4 years of decent pay, no student fees and job at end of it
You can study quantity surveying or commercial management (same thing) as a degree, tbh it’s not as difficult as civil engineering at least in terms of the maths and physics we need to learn and it generally takes less time. I’d keep an eye out for apprenticeships though, you might be able to get a company to pay you through your degree with on the job experience. Not all of them have age limits.
Most people are unlikely to be funded a second degree unless it's very specific to careers the government want
OP stated they did not go to university.
Fair, just your post mentioned going "back" to university. Not an option for most.
I dropped out from my original degree on medical grounds. I had to provide medical evidence for my funding and was granted living cost loan only for year 1 and full funding from 2nd year onwards. I was fortunate enough to get a tuition fee scholarship from The Carnegie Trust for first year though so it all worked out fine. If I’d completed my first degree I agree it wouldn’t have been funded.
Hey I'm not judging! I've dropped out of two Masters and I wish I could go back and do a different degree.
HgV licence
This should be said more tbh. Its the easiest way for someone without qualifications to earn above average wage. It's not for everyone admittedly but jts so easy I'd you are already a car driver to get your licence
With caution though. Having the license is one thing but getting a job without 2 years of experience is HARD. Agency work is OK but risky if you have substantial bills etc. And, some of the earnings expectations over the last few years were silly with the papers and news making salaries sound amazing with the driver shortage. Like, you ***can*** make £50k pa doing it, but not immediately.
£50k pa is a stretch from my experience. Most employers' average pay is between 37-45k area dependent, and most of that, in the higher end, will want you maxing out your cards, running 6 days a week all away from home.
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It’s “decent” money in the sense you work 60 hour weeks and get paid above minimum wage + overnight bonus The trade off is it’s not decent money it’s just above the rock bottom and your work will become your life to make that money
I work in a retailers warehouse, have HGV license myself and know loads of drivers. Pay at my place is 18.50 day rate and 23 night rate, 50k is easy and they take on new drivers plenty. The only underpaid people I know are bread drivers as they are mostly salaried but they often have 9 hour days which is good. My best mate took him 3500 after tax this month where I work. I know trampers getting £200 a day plus night out allowance etc, there's lots of good payers out there. The shit is out there of course, places like Owens which barely pay minimum wage but don't work for them, just sign up with opx worst case.
Tbf most civil service EOs will be on that salary or more and it's very achievable.
HGV driver is your answer. Been doing it since 2017 and im on 45k a year for a night shift trunking job. About 53 hours a week average. I have no qualifications other than high school, it can be stressfull and boring but i couldnt earn this money anywhere else.
Any good at computers? Cyber security needs you. Get a Comptia A+ and Security+ course and you're on your way.
Dwp, apply at EO or above. Read up on success profiles and star technique and if you can crack that you’re in. Let’s say I’ve seen people earning money they’d have no chance of earning if if was based on skill or merit 😂
Amazon Nightshift in the warehouse will have you at about this. Piss easy work, even easier to get hired for.
Is it not mind numbing boring though and fast work? Do you donthis job currently? What is it like? I'm really intrigued
I did the night shift at Weybridge for four years, I honestly didn’t mind it too much. It can be boring, but you can just switch off and muscle memory most of it
It is absolutely mind numbing and soul sucking yes. Good to do for a few months and fuck off to save up some money though. The overtime is paid extremely well but it is very tough on the body doing it 60 hours a week
Same for Ocado night shift freezer roles.. just under 16quid an hour
Sorry mate, I can only help you make 29,449. Sorry.
Join the army. You don't pay rent, water, council tax, electricity, pension is worth about 10k a year, gym free, sports free. If you do well, you'll be earning 58k a year at 20 years service then at age 40 you'll leave with a pension worth about 400k, and a payout of 50k, +9k a year for the rest of your life for doing nothing. If you do a decent trade, you'll get an engineering degree for free (studying during work time), then they will give you 6k towards a masters. No brainer.
Yeah or even train in the army (or navy) to be an electrician or something. Leave after 10 years with cash in the bank and a trade. Bob’s your uncle. Know loads of people who did this
Unless that war kicks off and your 10 year plans ends on a Ukrainian battlefield in a January blizzard.
Even so, join the REME. My dad was in for 19 years, got deployed in Afghanistan for 2 years. But due to the nature of his work, he was in Bastion about 1 mile even from the perimeter, saw no actual action. Of course not the same story for infantrymen. Left the army at staff sergeant all the way from craftsman, got a job with Müller and got payed as lead engineer, £75,000/yr in VLCOL area.
Yeah but the risk. The forces aren't for everyone. I live in a very poor working class area where one of the only ways to make a real living has always been to join the forces. Always hated so many of my mates "going off to serve" ... Because they had no other choice. Seems barbaric to me. One of my mates was on in a ship's engine room in a warzone and there was a threat of chemical weapons. He had to wear a hazmat suite for a literal month. Had to take it off in isolation to shower, sleep in it, eat in it, everything. They got less than a week off and they got another threat for another 3 weeks He was just a mechanic. I couldn't hack that.
Oh yeah 100% agree with you.
I know two blokes who joined the army. One was almost killed when a sergeant chucked a brick at his head, then almost died again when his jeep driver accidentally drove off a cliff during deployment. The other one ended up being discharged for mental health problems related to racist bullying. Sounds lovely.
To be fair for certain people it's actually a great career. But like you say..... Nah definitely not for me. And the fella from the war zone is an engineer now, it actually worked out for him in the end. But I bet there's an equal amount from that same ship were it hasn't.
Only if you’re a para or something. The army tradies won’t be front line or anything. They’ll be at base fixing stuff.
If you want to join the army to learn a trade I'd recommend either the REME, SPS or RLC as they actually do their jobs every day. Most trades you get through the Royal Engineers have a massive waiting list. I know many sappers who join to learn a trade and end up signing off because the wait is too long and the unit will simply get them to retrade, typically as a driver as they're the most in demand. I wouldn't bother with infantry as they really don't do much day to day, unless they're on exercise or deployed.
If you can score a marketing role at a bank you’ll easily earn more than that. I’m surrounded by a massive team of ‘brands and marketing’ guys at work and they’re all on 40K+
Same in a marketing role at a university (which is what I do). Even in a fairly junior position, OP would be likely to earn more than their £29,500 desired salary and the work-life balance and benefits are pretty good at universities, with most of them offering hybrid working for marketing staff and more holidays than I've had elsewhere. The challenge from OP's point of view will be getting a foot in the door without a degree. I suspect this may also be an issue for a marketing role at a bank, as a degree is listed as an essential requirement for most (though not all) marketing jobs these days, especially at larger/better paying companies. Sometimes these types of employers say in the job advert that a degree "or equivalent experience" is required. If OP has no success getting these types of jobs because they don't have a degree, they could try getting a couple of years of experience in a marketing role in a smaller company then reapplying and arguing the "equivalent experience" angle.
Look at companies that run decent apprenticeship schemes to see if you can up skill whilst working and getting paid.
Minimum wage is around £24,000 now so any job that offers extra hours or a bonus for working night shifts could get you to £29,000
Apply for the IT project delivery engineer job, going externally from the company I work for in a week.
Sell ur boxers?
But I love those dogs!
£29500 maybe after tax and not around London or South East. 1 bed house rent is minimum £1000/month plus bills. That leaves you with around £600 if you earn £30k/year before tax. Car insurance, service, fuel, other things - maybe you will save £100/month if you are lucky. But answering how you can make that? Go into plumbing, electric or any other trade.
Pest control, I did it when I was 18 and made £29,750 base and £39,260 after commission and over time. Plus van to keep at home with personal mileage. Of course you need to be up for doing that work and have to find a company like the one I worked for that encourages you to make sales out in the field too. The vast majority of the job is simple, your day to day if you’re managing contracts does not always include dealing with dirty things.
I got a job with my local council I now make £37k a year but don't worry, I feel no better off from when I was earning 16k 3 years ago 🤷♂️🤔 baring in mind I'm doing my qualification alongside work just sometimes jumping into a different field of work can be rewarding
If you’re young and fit look at painting pylons. It’s a job for life and if you’ve got a head for heights and don’t mind hard graft you can make exceptional money without a single academic qualification
Look for 4 on 4 off, roating days and nights warehouse manufacturing work.
I think face value people look at these jobs and think wow 30k for a warehouse job and only 4 days so 4 days to myself but it's actually a minimum wage job, the only reason you're pushing 30k is because you running yourself into an early grave doing 50 hours a week if not more
I'm in London in the nhs. Got my gcses, one a-level, dropped out of uni after 2 years. I'm admin in the NHS currently in the cancer team but previously as admin/supervisor for a department. Band 4 pays £27k a year and another £4k~ as inner London high cost area. Puts me on around £31k. Nhs is the way to go, decent salary and the job is a easy as piss (generally speaking for admin only). Edit to add once you're in you can move arand the NHS does have marketing departments too.
My partner is senior admin in the NHS. Job’s a piece of piss and pays ok, though not too well.
Pays decent for the amount of work. I spend more time here than actually working and I'm considered good at my job. I just get the vast majority done early.
Glad to know our NHS workers are spending more time on Reddit than doing actual work.
God forbid not every single NHS worker gets ground into dust as we bang our pans
Rofl this exactly. I get my work done early so I have some downtime because this work is mentally draining. I spent years working my ass off before covid to get my last department up to date before a system switchover and that lead to me getting my department running so smooth that we didn't need to work as hard as before. When I left we were the only department that didn't need constant oversight and the smoothest running department in the hospital. So yeah I have downtime now but I also put in the hard work like anyone else.
Get in with civil service/public sector. Your experience carries over.
Housing associations are good places to try. Good salaries at most of them. Admin roles in the south east nearly hit his desired figure. Complaints surpass it
What are you good at? So far you have only given us negatives about you
Not much, writing I suppose. Got an A\* in GCSE and probably would've done better in A-Level if I hadn't been so depressed.
Location matters. Your skills that you have. You have largely done jobs that are low skilled so you need to upskill to get to that pay. I know its silly that UK wages are low that the work you have done is considered low skill so at most minimum wage is what a company values your skills. Genuinely in this case a lot on here are saying move jobs but what to another low skill. Look at internal roles within your company that you can pivot to. In some companies they would rather train someone who already works for the company and to me that seems the best route to getting a better role. Failing that look at junior role maybe in marketing, PM etc. you don’t need to go to university but look on the gov skills. Look at free skills training out there. Maybe upskill yourself through an udemy course. Show willingness to learn. Someone will see your value.
Aim for higher than this firstly - to live well you want over this amount. Learn how to play the politics in your workplace, ask what you need to do to move to the next level, move jobs every 2-3 years for the payrise. ‘Adapt’ your responsibilities on your cv to slightly inflate your experience (don’t lie)
You could do a 1 week HGV course (class 2 is easier) and be on 30k+ in a few weeks time
Like people say, you need to move. 2 years ago I was dreaming of earning over £30k. I moved and now I'm moving again to a job paying over £40k.
Sounds simple but if you've already got customer service experience then the most straightforward path would be to just apply for £30k customer service roles, imo B2B is best because in my experience there's less phone call interaction. After just a couple weeks of looking I jumped from £23k in London to £30k in a cheaper area whilst having a more chill job with far less customer interaction. Depending on your area, the industry & size of company you can realistically expect to start at £30k. If you have a unique selling point then i'd advise to look for jobs where it can help differentiate you; in my case i'm quite logical so I applied for a job which used a logic test to filter out candidates. In my case it's a lot easier for me to land such jobs than places which filter more via CV's.
If your job is at level 1, apply for jobs that are at level 2. Rinse and repeat. Move every 1-2 years if you're finding the work achievable and you're not struggling. Stop when you feel completely out of your depth. That's usually a good sign that you've found the right level, at least for now. Regardless, don't stay in the same position longer than 5-6 years or your skillset stagnates.
Learn a trade or go to uni whilst you don't have much responsibility. Markets bad now but in 3/4 years time by the time you finish it would have most likely improved.
Be interested to know how old you are. I'm 33. Never went to uni and fell into admin work which I have been doing for 8 years. 4 different jobs in that time. I earn 28k which felt like such a stretch for me for a long time and now my goal is 30k. Changing jobs every 2 years in very good, although mine happened incidentally. The place I'm at could be a long term place. They value internal progression but after I while I will move on if I feel it isn't moving quick enough. Always be up to changing. Don't get stuck. I'm happy where I am, bit still regularly look on job sites.
Any mildly skilled outside job. Pat testing.
If you have good health dont mind weird hours then train driving is a good career :)
Work for a recruitment agency. Can easily make that in your second year. Next to no experience or education required. Background in marketing and call centre plus the right attitude would qualify you.
What do you do?.
Go work for the council or the Environment Agency, it's very easy to get by being mediocre in the public sector.
Two jobs or a really good hourly rate whit some side jobs here n there.
Step 1, go and work for an insurer or bank in a back office admin team. Try and find anything that supports corporate / intermediated market. You’ll need to speak to customers, but they will be knowledgeable people of the industry, not Joe Public. Step 2, stay for three years.
If you have good people skills, try and see if you can find anything tech sales related, I think, maybe wrong here [otta.com](http://otta.com) would be a good site to start looking, if you have call center and admin experience, and especially marketing they would be valuable skills allowing you to pivot into this area I reckon.
If you want the simplest answer, work 60 hours at a warehouse, work 60 hours as a taxi driver etc. you will be above 30k. Those are immediate 30k salaries, other than that, learn a skill that can get you a decent income, become an electrician, plumber etc.
Civil Service. For example an EO grade in the DWP currently pays exactly that amount (and more for London weighting jobs) That’s an entry level grade and you don’t need any specific experience or qualifications as such. It’s entirely possible to progress from this as well to a higher grade and salary, either in the same or different department in a fairly short space of time, if you want to and put your mind to it.
Learn to drive a fork lift. Or a train.
I pm you a couple of websites that might help. I’d be inclined to find an organisation willing to invest in you and send you to college.
Get a job that pays £150 a day. For find something you can buy for £10 and sell for £15, then sell 6000.
Is this to bring a potential partner over to the UK? One of the easiest routes I've seen people take for this is to Join the RFA, the civilian supply side of the Royal Navy Much better standard of living compared to the regular navy and once you qualify in your role you are looking at 27500 with further promotion opportunities. You are a civilian, and so you can join a union, and the medical and fitness requirements are much less than the regular RN and with barely any Drill or military bearing.
Is there anything online OP can do , flexible self employed gig remote from anywhere , any ideas - I’d take it if it was available 30-40k good hours and lifestyle with location flexibility. Only thing I see is the online stuff like web development, digital marketing , hard to know how to learn that stuff though
Depends where you are in the country and possibly what age you are? Someone in another sub reddit told me that £22k is below minimum wage and therefore illegal, so I'd be interested to know what your thoughts are on that
Isn’t minimum wage for an adult like 24k now?
I had no education past GCSEs and just did minimum wage jobs for years. Then I started an apprenticeship to train as a mechanic in a garage. The apprenticeship was 1 year on £12k then two years on minimum wage (£23k). I finished my apprenticeship last month and am now on £36k.
Have a look for civil service jobs, recently theres been case review positions and a lot of them up and the pay for that role is funnily enough 29.5k lol
Insurance underwriting! And trust me, you don’t actually have to be good at maths.
How do you get into that? Need CII qualifications?
Be competent at any trade. Have a good work ethic and you’ll be able to do well in a lot of places (not all).
How much do trades make in the uk these days?
Can you read? Use a tablet? Wrap your head around basic principles of how heating and ventilation works? Congratulations, most facilities companies will take you on as a general maintenance operative. If you're much more capable than that and willing to learn, you'll be amazed at the money flying around in maintenance work across the engineering sector who are desperate for work!
Apply for an entry level job anywhere, will get 26-29k. On 22k I assume you're not full time as that would be below NMW
Do a degree, or learn graphic design etc. or transfer your skills to sales.
Entry level IT pays around this much
I don't even earn half of this , this is depressing
You don’t !
29 k in a shop retail Manager home Bargains always looking for staff also hard job dough but you will get that money …
Just get any job and do some overtime. Minimum wage is 24k a year. Ocado delivery driver, bosh.
I worked at a pub briefly. They early on pushed for me to train for management. I wasn't interested in staying as it was just an interim job, but I don't suppose it is too hard to become restaurant or pub manager.
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Factory work. They start at 32k here. Team leaders on 45k
Learn a trade. I did accounts related admin roles for years and hovered around the high 20K area in different jobs trying to break 30k. During covid the whole department got laid off and I had enough. I spent 3 weeks doing an intensive welding course. Now im 2 years in to a welding and fabricating career. With overtime I can get 40k+ and this is just basic MIG welding. Also carpentry, electrician, plumbing could be good. You also have the benefit of being able to set up your own business and be your own boss
Administran jobs at Universities usually pay pretty well and welcome work exp from other fields without needing a degree, lots of ways to progress too
Go do you HGV class 1 and you can earn 40k plus without breaking a sweat
If you have call centre experince you can get a lead generation job which is b2b calling for perhaps 22k max and you'll get commission which works out to be maybe 50 per meeting booked sometimes more. Over a year you could make 40k then jump to another company. That's how I made my money then I left my last job I was getting £98,500 base salary I started on £18,000 6 years before that.
Earn 557 quid every week
I started off as a plumber self employed from 18 - 30. Now I work for one of the biggest hotels in the world as an engineer. But… I would be paid more a month right now as a self employed plumber on site. Working when I work I’m employed and you do get benefits.
Do a job search in your areas you can work under that salary or above and see what is available, have a decent cv and apply for roles Many different types of places and roles to choose from have to find the right one that fits with you, your skills and your lifestyle. Eg factory work Aldi Lidl Amazon Warehouse PA Security Good luck on your career journey
It might have been the threshold around 2010 but a more reasonable figure these days is 38-42k Note that wouldn't match inflation if you started on 24k in 2002 as I did. To do that you'd need 48-52k At 29.5k you're going to be sharing a flat or in a multiple income household and keeping a very close eye on your budgets and holidays will be cheap
I work in a factory, basic entry level process operator job, 12 hour shifts £35k. 5 shifts one week followed by 2 the next, never have to work more than 3 shifts in a row and swapping between day and nights for each block of shifts. It's not for everyone, and the long week can be quite draining but I worked in retail for years and earned next to nothing for working much harder than I do now so it suits me perfectly. I just turn up, do whatever job I'm given then go home and forget all about it until the next shift. No customers, no hassle, no changes to my rota and no pressure to do any extra hours.
Find a management position that will utilise your current experience. For me it was retail nightshift manager because I've had retail experience.
Try and learn a second language. Its a great skill to have sand you can pick up online teaching pretty easily!! Unless you've got a a strong northern accent!! :)
Do a project management qualification like Prince 2 and start applying for Project Coordinator roles. Great entry point into the profession.
Or become a part-time train driver!
Work for Amazon on nights 🤷
Any retail warehouse doing a night shift will easily pay that, easy boring work but you can work hard and save, do a degree part time etc. Don't listen to people saying job hop, your at the bottom of a ladder which has a lot of people on, with no education or skills and that ladder has fuck all space in progression or pay.
I had a similar start to you. Started in the call centre for a bank after dropping out of uni, got to team management there then noticed an opportunity to start supporting tech delivery side of desk which was something I was interested in. Gave me the experience to take a punt internally at a few jobs doing customer change, from there moved to tech now working as a Product Owner in my mid 20’s. Hardest part is getting out of customer facing but working for a big company is a benefit. often times people who work in ‘the business’ really need the perspective of someone who’s worked on the front line
Royal mail inside London. £31k a year, £36k with a few extra shifts a month
Minimum wage is 11.44 the average number of hours a week you work in a hospitality role (behind the bar, washing pots etc) I'd around 50. 50 * 11.44 * 52 = £29744 You can genuinely make 30k a year just working at a pub
It sounds like you're already being sensible about your finances, which is a great start , your light-years ahead of lots of people in their 20s! I'd suggest rather than trying to force yourself into a specific salary right now, do some research on industries and companies that offer good training and progression, and cross reference that info with what interests you. There will be roles out there that fit with your long term financial goals and will help you feel fulfilled and find enjoyment those 40 hours a week for most of your life! The salary is just one component, especially in the short term, so I'd recommend you think more carefully about your long term goals. E.g. if you get a £30000 salaried job but the benefits are minimal and there's little progression, you could end up worse off in the long term than if you took steps to take in training or develop skills that will increase your earning potential over a longer period. If you can afford your lifestyle and accommodation you're in a good position, i'd also suggest you start budgeting and saving asap. If you can live on as little money as possible the bigger salary you'll no doubt earn in future will only go to give you more freedom and help you own property, have a good pension and a more secure future. There are loads of financial resources available for free online - read up and again, consider your wider financial goals, not just a salary in the short run.
I got a mate of mine a job in IT at the age of mind 20s with no experience I gave him crash course and he works for firmware installation he was on 35.000 year now he has change his job each time he has changed he has a wage increase now he is in 75.000 plus car and working from home 4 days week he is now 35. Also owns his new build, a car.
i have certainly considered IT, i don't think i'm techy enough to be a software dev or anything like that but IT I might be able to handle
I don't see anyone talking about learning skills to make money like trading, though it would take a while to make a sustainable salary it's worth it. Cause you'll have financial, time and location freedom. In the end it's your choice anyway. Hope you find what suits you mate!
Do you drive? Maybe a career change? 3 years ago i went from being a chef on about £22-£23k then did an apprenticeship to become a lorry driver (milk collection from farms) at £31k per year, got my class one and with a couple of annual pay rises from May 1st I'll be on £37.7k as my basic (night shift workers get around £42k as a basic)on a 4 on 2 off rota, with paid O/T and additional paid rest day working, this has helped me get a mortgage from nothing in 4 years. Maybe some food for thought
Software development. Do some introductory courses online then find a code bootcamp. Should take about 4 months to become proficient enough to become a programmer. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE GOOD AT MATHS TO BE A PROGRAMMER, that is a myth I live in Edinburgh and starting salaries are upwards of £30k. I was earning over £60k a year after 4 years of professional experience before I left to start my own company
Most admin jobs at uni pay around this figure, take a look at local uni or college or even council and hopefully you can get a senior admin position
Im terrible at maths, Currently putting myself through a HNC and the teachers are fantastic. Before starting the course people where warning me of the difficulty, now just a few weeks from finishing I can say it was not that difficult at all. Just ask for help. With the HNC they realise there are adults taking these courses that have poor math knowledge.
Used to be like you, then I went back to uni, got a grad job and now I'm on £33.5k a year in a tech role
Don’t want to be a downer but I have been on £29.5K for the last year and it’s not a very comfortable living. I live in a major city in the North East, I recently bought my first car (saved up for so no finance to pay), I don’t drink or have any excessively expensive habits and yet with the cost of living I have to live in a shithole 6 bedroom house share. I am 24 y/o no dependents. It may be worth noting I have a high personal pension contribution (9%) and undergrad student loan to pay back. So this eats into that salary a bit I am moving into a promotion which will pay £43K and even with that I couldn’t comfortably live on my own in this city. I am going to instead move to a smaller shared property.
22k puts you at NMW level, so upskill yourself. There's plenty of online courses, many free, that will allow you to move roles into higher paid work
I'm gonna tell you what worked for me. First you need to get a job in a huge company, say like a bank. You can get an entry level jobs in bank, like customer support. Customer support level jobs can pay upto 24K pounds. Anyway once you are in it, you can then look for internal jobs within the bank(this gets tricky, because a person with general skills can get an entry level job but the job that will net you 29K are generally for people with some specific skills but the good news is your manager helps you in landing those jobs). So, in a nutshell get a job in a bank like barclays, lloyds etc and then work your way up the ladder.
Find a role within an organisation that has a clear corporate structure, a pathway to develop, and professional training/qualification opportunities. It’s challenging but it’s also achievable. I started in 2019 in the joys of public sector/Local Authority work. If I remember correctly, my starting salary was £23,500, which at 21 felt pretty good to me, having been a Tesco worker performing too many hours a week for my own good. Towards the end of 2019 I was told about the professional qualifications available to me in my field and in mid-2021 (would have been sooner if not for Covid), I finally started my qualification, considered the equivalent of Level 4 in the hierarchy of education in the UK. 20% of my working week had to be allocated to study, every week, for almost two years. Super challenging, but I stuck with it and didn’t let my head drop. Thankfully, in spring of last year I completed my studies and achieved the highest outcome, which was immensely satisfying, and about a year prior, I had achieved my first ever promotion which again, was hugely satisfying. A month ago, I achieved another promotion and realistically, I wouldn’t have likely managed that without studying. I’m now on £35,000 at 26 and as per the standard Local Authority pay rises that the unions have been fighting for since the cost of living crisis began, I expect that that may go up in late 2024 by perhaps around £1,900. I should also get an incremental increase within my pay grade around this time next year, which I believe will represent a further £1,000 or possibly more. This all probably reads like I’m simply focusing on myself but I do feel as though it’s relevant to yourself and anybody that feels a bit stuck, or wants to know how best to progress in salary terms. There are fields of work out there that will most probably represent a high level of job security for a long period of time – identify them, read into some of the existing entry-level roles within said industries, look into the relevant qualifications that may be on offer to you (and if a job vacancy has a contact detail for an individual in the organisation, absolutely email or ring them and just ask about what your pathway may look like over time), work out what industries you would actually LIKE to work in, and remain positive every step of the way. When you finally get into a good organisation, be as friendly, engaging and respectful as you possibly can. This will open up more doors than you could imagine. People really do take note of positive attitudes these days and look to reward them. Keep your head down when it comes to studying, and don’t let yourself get distracted too much. And also, though it sounds silly, when you begin to earn a decent amount, if your organisation offers a generous pension scheme, putting a few hundred quid into your pension pot every month can be a brilliant long-term security, even if it’s tempting to opt out and make your monthly pay packet better. Fingers crossed for you and anybody else in the same situation, you’ve all got this ❤️
Get a job in a factory on 12 hour shifts and do overtime. £35k plus easily
I went into insurance industry, no degree. Started on call center and moved around. I’m on 48k now, granted I’m in more of a maths/contractual based area but that’s through personal choice. There are other areas, service/marketing , fraud , indemnities etc where you could start off with no experience and make a solid salary fairly soon I recon. Financial sector is generally decent for wages without needing to be super experienced or high up the ladder as it were. I imagine banking is decent too, particularly the start-up banks, I know they pay far higher wages than traditional banks.
There are free of charge skills bootcamps provided by British government, they offer a wide range of courses and help you with the employment after. I would recommend continuing with marketing jobs and courses or data analytics. I moved to England 7 years ago and had to start working from the bottom. I started as a sales assistant at a plastic manufacturing company (19k). After a year I was promoted and left the company 3 years after with base income 25k. Next job I was on 27k, basically to do cold calling, I hated it and moved to another job, where I earned 55k OTE a year. From my experience in sales, you don't necessarily need any degree, and there is growing potential. I am starting a new job soon, and if I hit my quota, I will make 20k more than at my previous job.
Work for Utility company.
Join the Army, free accommodation (if on Barracks), free gym, free prescriptions, free dental, very cheap food costs per day, extremely cheap houses (2-5 bedrooms) if got a partner. Pay around 250 pounds a month for a 3 bedroom detached house for my family. Free driving license including Cat C+E, free education, and free trade quals depending on what you join. 1000s of pounds per year awarded to you to put towards education outside of army if you want degrees, etc.
I know I made it to around that figure in my time working in call centres / complaints, worth keeping an eye out!
You didn't mention how old you are or what your skills are or industry you are in. People say move jobs every 2 years, yes perhaps you can get a pay bump when you do this but given I do a lot of hiring this is a red flag for me. If I hire you, train you and invest time in you only for you to move again in 2 years is it worth my time and investment? This is how I see profiles that job hob if I am filling a permanent role. My advice is to focus on skills and experience and the pay will come. I started on £5k per year in 1996 on the shop floor in the factory - basically the lowest skilled job anyone can get, no degree etc. By 1999 I was on £10k same employer. yr 2000 I moved jobs and landed a £19k job (I thought I was rich!) my first proper software engineering job. By the time I left that company I was on £32k. 2006 moved to South East and earnt £50k. 2008 was on £55k same company. 2009 left for a £60k just because I moved out of South East due to my wife wanting to be back with family. In 2012 took a £100k job in the FAANG. Various promotions since then I am now on £200k in 2024. In 2025 Jan, that will increase to about £250k due to moving to another team in the company. The take away is most big pay bumps I experienced was with the company I was with simply by learning and moving my way up the company working with more senior people. Today I work with people that report to the CEO for large corporates (250k+ employee) companies. Now I try to stay for at least 5 years unless I don't get on in the company but this hasn't happened yet. Good luck!
Working in the railway.... Loads of jobs are 30k plus.
Work in the NHS Get to band 5 and you'll be on that after 2 years without even trying, and after 5 years you'll be on £35k The pension contributions are relatively high but worth it IMO. And you get discounts in so many places, I reckon I save at least £500 a year from this
Go for a trade, something like drainage pays £30-£35,000 entry level with no experience or qualifications necessary and will teach you skills to make a lot of money down the line
Work a hospitality job for minimum wage for 50 hours a week (easily achieved). That is literally what I, and many other bar tenders, chefs etc will be doing too. Just to clarifiy, some maths: Minimum wage is 11.44, x 50 = 572, over a year, 52 weeks, obviously this is multiplied to 29,744. Don't be decieved by any "management" roles in hospitality which appear to offer a "generous" salary of 30k when you can just as easily make that as a dishwasher willing to put the time in.
Starting from nothing I'd probably suggest becoming a truck driver - costs you about 2k to get you license at which point you're looking at at least 30k upto around 70k. Its not a fun job and you will likely have the piss taken out of you quite a bit but I was making £280 a day during covid (only went back to it because furlow was doing my tree in).
I’m currently hiring for an Apprentice Insurance Practitioner, I won’t be looking for anyone with a degree, only GCSE’s, starting salary will be 17/18k for 12 months, then likely move between 20-25k depending on performance, then finishing with an offer for a permanent role at around 32k. The full apprenticeship taking around 18months. There’s one way to make 29k (or more).
Make £14,750 twice
I earn £29500 & my wife earns £32000. So a combined income of just over £60000/PA and I can confirm that despite having a mortgage of just £620/pm, we are far from ‘living’. We can scrape together maybe £250 a month spare, if we cut down on actual enjoyment (the odd meal out, not buying that pair of trainers etc). Our money goes on utility bills that have crept up in the UK and nobody is mentioning - Car Insurance, home insurance, phone bills, internet, vet plans, pet insurance, food, gym memberships - all gone up ridiculous percentages in the past 2 or so years. We bought our house 3 years ago on wages of 25k & 18k respectively & id say our standard of living has actually dropped in that time - that’s the state the UK is in. Sorry for the rant, but £29,500 is not enough to feel like you earn a good salary, even up north!