The Student Room Group

Is a 100k salary in the City worth it?

In the legal sector, 60-80h workweeks.
Reply 1
Avatar for Jpw1097
Jpw1097
19
You'd turn down a £100k salary?
Original post by Anonymous
In the legal sector, 60-80h workweeks.


If you go, dont enjoy it, have no time for friends, spouse, family & are a b**** to your boss and have no plan then imo no.

If you enjoy the work & the culture perhaps its worth it, despite the reputation I no some people who enjoy the life of a corporate lawyer

I also dont think going to work in a city firm living a basic life and saving every penny so that in 4 or 5 years time you have half a million in the bank and can then have much more financial freedom for the rest of your life is a bad choice, but its certainly not for me. But I think you need an exit plan should you do this.

Ultimately if you dont enjoy it, dont do it. Time is limited, personally I couldn't sacrifice years of my life away from my friends and family but its a personal decision.
Depends, is it something you want to do? If you would be working those long hours in a job you hate, earning a lot but due to the extreme expense of living in London actually coming away with very little, especially when you factor in how little time you have to actually enjoy life and whatever you may put your earnings beyond merely living towards, then that would probably not be worthwhile. You can have a good quality of life with much smaller salaries, in other cities in the UK.

Of course if you love the work, and you like living in London, and you are happy with the work life balance otherwise, then it's a good deal. I think the number of people for whom all of those apply is a small though...
Reply 4
Avatar for kosh_ki
kosh_ki
13
Maybe I'm reading too much into this question but presume OP is wondering if City life is worth the trade-off in mental health, being unable to pursue dreams they really had etc - in which case it's an easy no for me.

There's definitely a type of person who thrives and finds joy in this kind of environment.
Reply 5
Avatar for Anonymous #1
Anonymous #1
OP
Original post by EmberPlayer
I’d take the job, work for a couple of years trying to save as much as possible, invest savings in stocks (an avg annual return of 20% isn’t too difficult to achieve in this way), live off savings, ez life


Original post by artful_lounger
Depends, is it something you want to do? If you would be working those long hours in a job you hate, earning a lot but due to the extreme expense of living in London actually coming away with very little, especially when you factor in how little time you have to actually enjoy life and whatever you may put your earnings beyond merely living towards, then that would probably not be worthwhile. You can have a good quality of life with much smaller salaries, in other cities in the UK.

Of course if you love the work, and you like living in London, and you are happy with the work life balance otherwise, then it's a good deal. I think the number of people for whom all of those apply is a small though...

Thanks for the replies.

I am a law student at a top RG uni and that feels like that the obvious choice. However, I find the job itself, if not bad, boring, but I do not see any other viable career option. I flirted with consulting but I feel I would 'waste' my law degree, which I have not been enjoying at all. I also explored start-ups etc by a couple of my projects were not feasible at advanced exploratory stage. I also kinda ended up ruining pretty much all my social life due to very long hours spent on my degree and side projects and societies etc. As a result, I think that if, at least, I go for a job with the longest hours possible, at least I will always have something to do, and I won't even have time to feel down. Also, I want to earn a high salary so in that sense I could perhaps go for a US firm where salaries are often above 140k for NQs and got even worse hours (80-100h) depending on the department.

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you