The Big 4 – Medicine, Law, Finance, and Tech – are known for their high salaries. But what about other careers that can pay over $200,000 a year?
An internet user asked, “What are the careers that pay over $200,000 a year that aren’t the Big 4 (Medicine, Law, Finance, Tech)?” Here are the top responses!
Pilot
“The main thing with aviation is you’re getting paid to be away from home. The lifestyle has perks, like free flights and only working 10-15 days a month. But you’re probably going to be staying in hotels 3 days a week until you retire.”
Management Consulting
“Yeah. Good management consultants can make hundreds an hour. Knew someone who worked for a very reputable firm. She was a senior consultant and was paid around $300/hr.
I don’t even want to know what her billable must have been. One of the nicest homes I’ve been in from someone who neither inherited money nor owned a company.”
Fashion Design
“Fashion Design. It’s a much more realistic career path than most people realize. I studied history in college but realized there weren’t a lot of jobs doing that. So I got an internship in fashion design at a chain clothing store, got a full-time job as an assistant making about $50k, and got steadily promoted over the last few years.
I am now working for a department store making over $200k as a Design Director. The average starting salary per level is this:
Assistant Designer: $50k-70k
Associate Designer: $75k-90k
Designer/Design Manager: $100k-115k
Senior Designer: $125k-140k
Design Director: $175k-250k
VP of Design/Creative Director: $250k-400k
People typically get promoted to the next level with about 2-3 years of experience at each level. I got to the Director level with 7 years of experience and have been at this level for 2 years.
The only skills you need are an interest in fashion and a basic understanding of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop which you can easily learn on YouTube.
I work 40 hours per week maximum, get 5 weeks of PTO plus holidays, get summer Fridays, 401, health insurance, etc and only go into the office once a week.
A lot of people think fashion designers are all running their own businesses and basically doing project-runway-style stuff all day but that is extremely unrealistic. Most designers don’t even know how to sew!
The vast majority of fashion designers work for places like American Eagle, Walmart, JC Penney, Kohls, Anthropologie, North Face, etc and it’s a pretty fun corporate job with surprisingly good benefits and much easier to break into than most people think.”
Union Lineman
“Union Lineman, hard work and dangerous but you will make that much in a few years, or more honestly.”
Car Salesman
“I am a car salesman. I cleared 200K last year and am on pace again this year.”
Sales
“Would certainly suggest the field of selling. You’d be surprised how your view of money changes when you’ve got the ability to make $20k in a week.
Those four categories you listed require college or certificates. Selling requires self-education, on-the-job training, and pure volume. Zero luck in selling – all volume, attitude and work ethic.”
Oil Department
“Trades working directly for an oil company. Especially electrical.”, said one.
“It seems like almost any job in oil is lucrative, especially working on offshore rigs. As a recruiter, I usually avoid trying to snag the oil industry talent because it is difficult to compete with the salaries, hard dangerous work in a lot of cases, though.”, another added.
Safety Director
“With my annual bonus, I now make over 200k annually. I’m a safety director. I have masters in occupational health and safety as well as several certifications.
I started in safety and worked my way up with experience and changing jobs. There are safety roles in every industry. Even managers make over 6 figures.”
Mortgage Loan Officer
“MORTGAGE LOAN OFFICER!!! 2-2.75% of the loan amount!!! Split with a broker 70 you/30 them or 8/20. You really just need 1-3 loans a month.
It takes 6 months of working for free to build your book of business and get the first couple of sales though.”
PhD Research Scientist
“The pharmaceutical industry as a PhD research scientist. Takes a couple of years to get over $200k— I think it took me 6 years post-PhD.”
Filmmaking
“Above-the-line filmmaking (Screenwriting, directing, editing, acting, producing).”
Pet Care
“Pet care- you’d never believe how well you can do cat sitting and dog walking or boarding at home- honestly sometimes I think I do better than actual veterinarians!”
Payroll
“Get into payroll. Get a remote payroll job. Get 2 remote payroll jobs. You’ll be very close to 200k to start. Definitely over 200k in a few years. I know a few people doing this.”
Energy
“Energy. I work for a large electric utility and $200k/year jobs are very common at my company. Even ones that start as entry-level.”
Real Estate
“Real estate, I’ve heard, produces more millionaires than any other field. This would be the USA and it has been a while but still may be true.”
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This article was originally published on Mrs. Daaku Studio.