Well Paid Jobs with Work Life Balance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So we all know the route to serious income is Big Law firms with their partner track

If you believe this you haven't lived in NY, CA or any money center throughout the world. I know a lot of sales people and even realtors who make more than big law partners.

Top tier professional incomes:

Biglaw partners: $5 million
Investment bankers: $50 million +
Tech and hedge fund executives: $100 million +

And biglaw partners are always bitching about the gap because they work every bit as hard, but they're essentially the hired help. For a smart and educated cohort, you would think that they would update their business model from charging $1k/hr for legal advice. That model is dying.

Divide these numbers by 5, and it is more representative. Point remains though.

The numbers are for the top of the profession rather than a representative figure. It seems that if you made a faustian bargain to trade your youth, life, health, relationships with loved ones in exchange for money, the legal profession would not be even close to the best place where it would pay off to do this. I don't know how many biglaw folks servicing a-hole clients (i was one of these clients) for 80-100 hrs a week do it for the love of the law.

Seems like the IB/PE/Tech crowd wants to work hard to cash out and retire early while the lawyers match their lifestyle to their income and stay on the treadmill forever. Few amass enough to be able to stop working and continue to live as they've become accustomed to. Lawyers also tend to get trapped by the trappings of their profession.

Very astute observation. I think issue is that most in big law are strivers but not risk takers or smart enough to be entrepreneurs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So we all know the route to serious income is Big Law firms with their partner track

If you believe this you haven't lived in NY, CA or any money center throughout the world. I know a lot of sales people and even realtors who make more than big law partners.

Top tier professional incomes:

Biglaw partners: $5 million
Investment bankers: $50 million +
Tech and hedge fund executives: $100 million +

And biglaw partners are always bitching about the gap because they work every bit as hard, but they're essentially the hired help. For a smart and educated cohort, you would think that they would update their business model from charging $1k/hr for legal advice. That model is dying.

Divide these numbers by 5, and it is more representative. Point remains though.

The numbers are for the top of the profession rather than a representative figure. It seems that if you made a faustian bargain to trade your youth, life, health, relationships with loved ones in exchange for money, the legal profession would not be even close to the best place where it would pay off to do this. I don't know how many biglaw folks servicing a-hole clients (i was one of these clients) for 80-100 hrs a week do it for the love of the law.

Seems like the IB/PE/Tech crowd wants to work hard to cash out and retire early while the lawyers match their lifestyle to their income and stay on the treadmill forever. Few amass enough to be able to stop working and continue to live as they've become accustomed to. Lawyers also tend to get trapped by the trappings of their profession.

Very astute observation. I think issue is that most in big law are strivers but not risk takers or smart enough to be entrepreneurs.

Investment bankers aren't really risk takers either, they play with other peoples money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So we all know the route to serious income is Big Law firms with their partner track

If you believe this you haven't lived in NY, CA or any money center throughout the world. I know a lot of sales people and even realtors who make more than big law partners.

Top tier professional incomes:

Biglaw partners: $5 million
Investment bankers: $50 million +
Tech and hedge fund executives: $100 million +

And biglaw partners are always bitching about the gap because they work every bit as hard, but they're essentially the hired help. For a smart and educated cohort, you would think that they would update their business model from charging $1k/hr for legal advice. That model is dying.

Divide these numbers by 5, and it is more representative. Point remains though.

The numbers are for the top of the profession rather than a representative figure. It seems that if you made a faustian bargain to trade your youth, life, health, relationships with loved ones in exchange for money, the legal profession would not be even close to the best place where it would pay off to do this. I don't know how many biglaw folks servicing a-hole clients (i was one of these clients) for 80-100 hrs a week do it for the love of the law.

Seems like the IB/PE/Tech crowd wants to work hard to cash out and retire early while the lawyers match their lifestyle to their income and stay on the treadmill forever. Few amass enough to be able to stop working and continue to live as they've become accustomed to. Lawyers also tend to get trapped by the trappings of their profession.

There's no reason to work in big law other than the money. It's miserable, but a newly minted sucker, er , law grad, is born every minute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Govt attorney, $130, 3 days a week at home, fairly flexible otherwise. I don't doubt it is well-paid, but it is 1/3 the amount I was making before I switched to the flexible job.

Are you happy with your choice?

[Anonymous]

It project manager $125..

Work at home 2 days a week, commute 20 minutes, every day is casual day since my work is international and everything is a conference call, flex time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Govt attorney, $130, 3 days a week at home, fairly flexible otherwise. I don't doubt it is well-paid, but it is 1/3 the amount I was making before I switched to the flexible job.

Are you happy with your choice?

Extremely! It has been six years, and I've never regretted it for minute. I've always worked too much, and that hasn't really stopped, but now the extra hours are for volunteer organizations, and I don't feel beholden minute by minute. Extreme difference in my stress level and ability to participate in my child's life.

[Anonymous]

Lawyers can never make really huge money and they will always have to work for it, because they charge by the hour.

Entrepreneurship is the key to work-life balance. I started my first company at 28, and I will never go back to working for someone else.

[Anonymous]

Nonprofit mktg director. I make about $140k. Not rich by many of your standards, but I have tons of leave and can leave at 4 or 4:30 every day. Long hours are extremely rare and travel is known years in advance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Former sales rep here. Was making $250K when I was 25, and while it was flexible and out of the home, I was on the road a lot, which is really hard with little kids, and then it's hard to be home and functional in the office with around the house.

Burned out eventually... But the nest egg we were able to build up has given us a lot of options, and consulting is an option for me now as well.

What did you sell and how did you get started?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
But there have been a number of threads with folks with part time jobs paying $100k and a flexible low-stress job where the PP manages to telework and have time to work out but makes $140k.

They probably lied. It's an anonymous board, so don't take everything so literally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
But there have been a number of threads with folks with part time jobs paying $100k and a flexible low-stress job where the PP manages to telework and have time to work out but makes $140k.

They probably lied. It's an anonymous board, so don't take everything so literally.

I wrote above, and I'm not lying. I know many others in my boat as well

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Govt attorney, $130, 3 days a week at home, fairly flexible otherwise. I don't doubt it is well-paid, but it is 1/3 the amount I was making before I switched to the flexible job.

Are you happy with your choice?

Not PP but I have basically the same job and am happy. I took a 40% pay cut to leave private practice as a midlevel years ago; this year my paycheck will finally creep back up to what I made my first day out of law school at a firm. No regrets. Sure, more money and more time would both be nice, but I feel like I have a balance. I also think I am fairly compensated for what I do / the fact I leave it at the office. The big consequence of the lower paycheck is a longer commute, because I can't afford the house/neighborhood I want in an area closer to my job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Govt attorney, $130, 3 days a week at home, fairly flexible otherwise. I don't doubt it is well-paid, but it is 1/3 the amount I was making before I switched to the flexible job.

Same here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Govt attorney, $130, 3 days a week at home, fairly flexible otherwise. I don't doubt it is well-paid, but it is 1/3 the amount I was making before I switched to the flexible job.

Are you happy with your choice?

Not PP but I have basically the same job and am happy. I took a 40% pay cut to leave private practice as a midlevel years ago; this year my paycheck will finally creep back up to what I made my first day out of law school at a firm. No regrets. Sure, more money and more time would both be nice, but I feel like I have a balance. I also think I am fairly compensated for what I do / the fact I leave it at the office. The big consequence of the lower paycheck is a longer commute, because I can't afford the house/neighborhood I want in an area closer to my job.

Similar here, except barring serious inflation, I will never (in the government) make as much as I made my first year at a firm. On the other hand I work half as much and I enjoy the work more -- I have more autonomy and more responsibility, and my colleagues are wonderful. I work about 44 hours a week, which is pretty amazing for a full-time lawyer. Rarely take work home or check email after work unless I want to (less often now I have a baby). I make about $100k but that should gradually increase as I move up the scale. A couple weeks ago I saw a job posting that sounded amazing but I decided not to apply because I really don't see how I could have a better work-life balance than I have currently, and with a 9 month old and hopefully another baby in a year or two, that's important to me now. The biggest downside is the commute, but I had the same commute when I was in biglaw -- commutes in this area just suck.

I do wonder at the people making $100k or more for part-time (30 hours or less) work. That sounds pretty amazing. But I don't think I could do my job part time. I thrive on the pace and I usually want more work, not less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It project manager $125..

Work at home 2 days a week, commute 20 minutes, every day is casual day since my work is international and everything is a conference call, flex time

May I ask for whom you work? I am also international but NOT IT, and while I can work from home I have a lot, a lot of travel. Looking for something with 10% or less travel.