Finance continues to be one of the highest-paying job sectors in the United Kingdom, and it continues to show steady growth, attracting tens of thousands of people with a wide range of skills and academic qualifications. Based on a recent survey from Glassdoor, a finance director, on average, earns an annual salary of around £99,400 a year. The finance industry is one of the most dynamic professional fields with a varied range of opportunities. Not all profiles require advanced educational degrees to start off.
You could very likely compensate for a degree through building skills and experience in various job capacities. Some profiles require you to have specific academic qualifications to start off. Whether it is working as a cashier in a bank to being a financial analyst or a CFO, every job has its benefits as well as disadvantages. Here we take a look at some of the high- and low-paying jobs, and the qualifications required to get in the finance industry in the UK.
Highest Paying Jobs in Finance
- Financial planning and analysis manager—This job profile entails working closely with both top officials of the company as well as external investors, officers, and bank managers. However, the core responsibility is to build business models based on exhaustive analysis of financial data of the company, the market conditions, stock market movement, and provide suggestions on how to improve cash flow and the overall financial situation of the company. They provide suggestions to improve internal financial procedures to make them more effective. The average annual salary of a planning and analysis managers comes to around £62,000.
- Chief financial officer—The CFO is the top executive who is responsible for all of the company’s financial planning and operations. The role involves overseeing the planning of the company’s budget, ensuring funds are optimally utilized or invested. The CFO works in tandem with other top executives to ensure the long-term goals of the company are met while being in a financially comfortable position. He or she would need to know how to leverage technology toward this end. On an average, the annual salary of the CFO comes to around £125,000.
- Tax director—The tax director ensures all the procedures associated with the company’s taxes are streamlined and accurate. The job involves managing staff who perform the paperwork for filing taxes and that a smooth running system is in place for monitoring tax filing. The tax director is updated on all tax reforms in various locations. They are responsible for designing effective tax plans that are compliant with the tax regulations, and that taxes are filed in a way that the company gets maximum benefit of tax returns. The average annual salary of a tax director is around £82,800.
Highest-Paying Jobs in the UK With a Degree
- Credit risk manager—A credit risk manager is required to develop, implement, and maintain policies that would cut down the risk for financial institutions down to the very minimum. The job involves creating highly complex models, and keeping a constant eye on any kind of risks that the individual client or company would be exposed to, for example, a bad investment or a loan default. Most companies hire people with a master’s degree specific to the niche that the company does business in.
- Compliance officer—The job of a compliance officer is to make sure that the organization runs within parameters put in place by the management as well as federal and local regulators. The profile includes conducting risk assessments to get a picture of the level of risk that the organization is facing by failing to maintain compliance. The compliance officer will be required to stay up to speed on various laws and regulations associated with a specific business vertical. They will also be required to conduct orientation sessions with employees on regulations that need to be complied with, and the risk the company faces by not being compliant.
- Actuary—This is yet another high-paying job you can acquire with a finance degree. The role of an actuary is to provide strategic advice from a commercial and financial perspective. In order to provide strategic advice, one needs to use their knowledge acquired in economics and business, statistics, and investment theory, and their understanding of probability theory. Through the application of these theories, an actuary should be able to assess the probability of a specific incident occurring and the potential costs associated with it. An actuary will need to be an excellent communicator as the job involves interacting with investment managers, external stakeholders, financial directors, along with internal departments such as mergers and acquisitions, IT, and the top management, among others.
Lowest Paying Degrees in the UK
It’s widely accepted that certain university degrees hold substantially higher value because of the prestige of the university. However, it is also true that certain degrees are more valuable than others based on the merit of the degree certificate. Choosing some degrees can lead to you earning less than someone with no degree at all.
Owing to the level of debt that students end up incurring for their college and advanced education, choosing the wrong degree—unless you have a specific use case that suits your preferences—can be a critical error. In order to be in a position to pay back student loans, you will be required to earn over a specific threshold, which in 2022 stands at around £27,000.
Here are some of the lowest-paying degrees in the UK as of 2022:
- A bachelor’s degree in arts can get you an average annual salary of around £23,000. To advance beyond this pay scale, you will need some experience to get into positions such as senior graphic designer or project manager.
- Graduates in humanities earn an average salary of around £20,000–25,000. Most graduates have been observed to pursue jobs in human resources, education, retail, and finance. However, a study from 2018–19 revealed that humanities graduates were found to be in full-time employment for a little over half the time a year, with a substantially high number of individuals opting for advanced studies over continuing to work.
- Politics graduates earn around £26,700 a year working in sectors such as marketing, human resources, and retail. To start with, they are generally employed as assistants to politicians, policy officers, and social researchers. There is a reasonable probability of earning higher with more experience.
Average Graduate Salary in UK 2022
According to figures provided by Glassdoor, the average graduate salary in the UK in 2022 comes to nearly £34,000 a year, with £17,000 being the lowest and £66,000 the highest. That said, figures can vary as median salaries vary from region to region, and depending on the industry that a graduate is employed in.
The cost of living is a major factor when it comes to deciding salaries. It’s not surprising that London provides the highest entry level salary. Meanwhile, Northern Ireland is found to provide the lowest.
Based on the price of housing in various regions, Liverpool was found to be the most affordable region for a graduate with an entry-level salary and Cambridge was observed to be the least.
According to industry-wise categorization of salaries, financial services, IT, engineering, and energy solutions were found to be the industries paying the highest entry-level salary for graduates.
Which Are the Least Employable Degrees in the UK?
- Creative writing—The education provided majors in creative writing is generally very specific, with not many models of application apart from writing a novel or poetry. The skill you glean from this degree helps you to write in attractive prose, and understand the process of professional writing. However, this degree does not cover skills to work as a journalist or to be employed in a media company. Hence, it would appear more economically viable to take a degree in journalism, and do workshops or short-term courses in creative writing.
- Communications—As a communications major, students learn about scientific theories behind effective communication and the different means of communication. The problem with this degree is the fact that it covers too broad a subject. Communications graduates pursue jobs in marketing, journalism, or business administration. However, employers tend to prefer graduates in those specific niches. This makes it gaining employment with this degree rather tedious.
- Anthropology and archeology—While anthropology deals with the study of various cultures and its evolution, an archaeology graduate learns the science of excavation and studying human history through findings from these excavations. The job opportunities for graduates in these disciplines are very few. You can expect to gain better opportunities if you are prepared to spend time acquiring a Ph.D. in one of the respective fields. The job profile also involves spending several years as an intern or research assistant with very little pay.
Naveen Athrappully is a news reporter covering business and world events at The Epoch Times.
