What do you do that you earn six figures?

r/financialindependence • u/fidgit86 • 9d ago

It seems like a lot of people make a lot of money and it seems like I’m missing out on something. So those of you that do, whats your occupation that pays so well?

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u/--his_dudeness-- 9d ago

Yuuuuup. And all the misery that goes with it. I’m on year 7 now

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u/kewissman 9d ago

I lasted 15 years before I crashed. Gone 75% of the time in North America, Europe, Asia.

I loved it actually, but missed my family and the kids were quickly growing up.

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u/xwhooshx2 9d ago

what did you shift to instead?

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u/kewissman 9d ago

Church Administrator

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u/Yadona 9d ago

You don't get those years back

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u/9throwaway2 HCOL 9d ago

I burned out fast; 1.5 years and then took a 5 mo vacation before going back to school.

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u/Username56382 9d ago

What do you do now?

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u/9throwaway2 HCOL 9d ago

Uni prof. Still make six figures, but worse stress. GO figure. I make great choices.

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u/JustaRandomOldGuy 9d ago

I lasted 4 years with one of the big 5 (now big 4). I was offered manager of a new site and turned it down. They were shocked, that was a path to partnership. I realized going that route meant missing my kids grow up. I quit a few months later.

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u/123097bag 9d ago

You’re supposed to leave the firm by now and go work at a client where you will be a VP automaticall

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u/greedymeatball 9d ago

Get into industry before you get too far into consulting! Hard to get into industry after a while. Easy to go back into consulting later on.

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u/LeeMayney 9d ago

Just curious, what you mean by "get into industry" before consulting?

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u/greedymeatball 9d ago

I said get into industry before you get too far into consulting. Typical Management Consulting is a high paying, but stressful job. It can be fun for a little while you’re young and traveling a ton, but as you get older, job expectations and life goals change. When you’re older and more experienced, harder to shift out of consulting into a equivalent role in a non-consulting company.

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u/LeeMayney 9d ago

Yeah, I did understand what you meant about going too far, I just didn't want to write it all out haha.

So by get into industry, do you mean get experience in a specific industry/field? Or do you mean take work where you're employed in-house by one company? Or have I missed the point completely?

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u/greedymeatball 9d ago

In house. Leave the consulting company and work for a non-consulting company in the industry you specialize in as a consultant. Ie if you’re a management consultant that typically consults on healthcare clients, leave consulting sooner than later to join a healthcare company like a health insurance company or hospital system. It’s hard to make that switch to an equivalent role as you go up the consulting ladder because 1) you’re probably making a lot of money consulting and 2) you’re competing for fewer jobs against people that have been at that company for longer than you.

On the flip side, it’s easier to move from industry into consulting. Consulting companies like to hire people that know the industry and know potential client well.

Work life balance at consulting companies tends to suck. Work life balance at industry companies tends to be good. IMO, make the switch sooner if you value work life balance and career potential.

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u/LeeMayney 9d ago

I'm with you now. Thanks for answering my question. I'm studying occ psych and feel like I would like to freelance/be a consultant at some point. It's interesting to hear that it may not be as good a work life balance as you might expect when working for yourself though.

It's a shame that in-house jobs in occ psych jobs seem to be few and far between in the UK.

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u/greedymeatball 9d ago

Let me also add: I was referring to mostly management consulting as OP had posted. Typically with a major consulting company (EY, Bain, Deloitte, Accenture, etc). Typically the work life balance is low and travel requirements are M-Th every week. I can’t speak to individual consultants.

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u/LeeMayney 9d ago

Yeah ofc, I understand there'll be differences, but I do think there is a lot of overlap in the types of things you'd expect to encounter in either field. Especially as a lot of the roles Occ Psych would qualify you for are with companies such as EY and Deloitte. Will be interesting to know if or how standards will change given the pandemic (I imagine slightly less travel and more zoom meetings even when we're back to normal, but you never know).

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u/howtoretireby40 9d ago

Hm, my experience has been the opposite where partners don’t like to hire industry folks unless they’re a certified superstar at a skill set they don’t have yet. They would rather train a fresh college grad that never experienced work life balance before and in serious need of approval, lol.

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