Low Prestige High Salary jobs
Often, there’s a correlation between prestige and pay. But what are some jobs that are pretty low in prestige but pay very well?
I’m thinking of a garbageman as an example
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According to 2011 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the average hourly wage of a garbage man in the United States was $16.55, representing an approximate annual salary of $34,420
Go away
The guy has a point though. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0404595/
Basically a documentary on dirty jobs that pay a lot. Like going out to catch gigantic tape warms to sell it as tuna bait.
He does not support his point well if his example of a "high salary job" is a sub $35k/yr garbage man
Underwater Welding, you don't even need a college degree
these guys make insane money was about to say that, especially those that do O&G pipelines 200m/600ft underwater
Lots of former enlisted members of the NAVY get out and make bank in O&G or civilian/corporate submarine ventures as welders. Can confirm
You do need to be proficient in both welding and diving though
Neither is that difficult of a pursuit and often a training program for welding can be done concurrently with diving.
I think it ruins your life expectancy though
Work for the MTA. Some of their engineers take home over $300-400k a year thanks to overtime and strong unions. Similar situation for Hoboken/Port Authority police, they get tremendous pay. CTS decon guys (work for private firms to clean up the blood at crime scenes) also get a lot per hour.
Did not realize MTA took home this much $. Wow
Not anymore after the guys who worked on the LIRR got busted for fabricating their timesheets
that's insane. Why are we humping spreadsheet for again?
family member was mta nypd with no college education doing 170k+ with ot
$170K average compensation for UPS drivers after the teamsters strike.
People who own lawn care service companies.
Heavy equipment/crane rental.
Classic/exotic independent car mechanic.
With significant overtime opps, the guys who work for the power company (Exelon) by me in the Midwest clear $200k a year as overhead linemen, substation maintenance, underground servicing, etc.
Granted these guys are probably working on average 60-65 hours a week with OT but at 1.5-2.0x their hourly. Not many other professions I can think of where you can you make that kind of money at 22 years old.
Can confirm. Utility/Energy guys can pull some serious money. Many have the ability to earn 300k+ with overtime opportunities. For all the unwarranted shit blue collar work gets, the opportunities for young people without college degrees to earn decent wages are certainly there. Honestly pretty great to see some low 20s kid can earn 200k a year working with their hands straight out of high school or JUCO, and shut up all these cucks who think they are the smartest shit in the room because they have a piece of useless paper from a university.
SB
Cousin in the Midwest is a linesman. The pay is good, he'd probably make 80-100k before overtime, but I'd say he averages around 60 hours per week on his feet, a few 75's and some 45's. The downside is he has to work in places like the middle of Iowa, rural South Dakota, etc. for weeks/months on end so he lives in an RV rather than hopping from hotels/motels in random rural markets. No idea whether or not his pay is competitive, just another data point
Overhead lineman have an extremely high fatality rate so it’s quite a risky line of work.
Plumber.
https://money.cnn.com/2016/02/24/news/economy/trash-workers-high-pay/
For reference, some garbage men in NYC make $116k a year. That’s what I was thinking about @cre
Having interned in LMM IB/PE, it’s truly eye-opening how many “prestigeless” business owners are withdrawing millions of dollars a year from their manufacturing/rental/hardscaping business.
Please elaborate. Interested.
Like many have mentioned, business owners are the clear way to make a ton of money - regardless of prestige. As long as the cash flow of the business is there, owners can withdrawal/take distributions of millions of dollars a year (hundreds of thousands). Granted, most of these people have started their companies from the ground up and spend 15+ yrs developing them. Have multiple friends who own “cleaning wipe”/“rental construction”/“hardscaping” businesses that will blow the total comp of a senior md out of the water. Is it risky? Very. Do these people grind for yrs on end to establish their business? Very much so. Are they financially Independent and work 40ish hours a week now? Yep. All about the risk appetite of the person and the willingness to work for “less” in order to build something from the ground up.
Owners of a company for a construction trade (ex. owning a drywall business). One could argue that a major trade (framing, plumbing, mechanical, electrical) is slightly more prestigious. I know of a person who lives in Hawaii and manages the distribution chain for bathroom supplies. The company I worked at awarded him a contract for about $2MM and most have a profit margin of 20-30%. He really is an expert on Bobrick bathroom supplies (soap dispensers, toilet paper roll holders, etc). Mind you that's just one contract from one company.
PWM: the income for my office (dozens of advisors in a tier 2 city where you can get a nice home for
Might want to check your numbers on Chic-fil-a... plus be prepared to move to some fuck-off fly over state and raise your kids in the heart of some meth infested town, as all of the prime real estate locations have been gobbled up. Not to mention the fact that you are never truly an owner and the franchise rake is something like 50%. Ultimately I agree with you.. prestige is for guys with small dicks who shoot their load early.
It's more like $350k-$450k per restaurant, and they limit the amount of restaurants you can run.
Still, that's a shit ton of money for running a chicken joint.
I don't need to check the numbers when I'm speaking from personal experience.
but yes, please tell me how atlanta, charlotte, etc., are flyover country
I swear this site gets more and more infested with pricks
Deleted
This is the second time I’ve heard someone mention “Chic-fil a” on this website and I think it could be a really good spinoff business with employees wearing chic outfits and discounts to customers dressing chic. I think Andre 3000 would be a good chic spokesmodel.
you're telling me someone could buy a chick fil a and make a million dollars a year?
no. I'm saying I know an operator or two who manages multiple ones and during good years, $1mm a year isn't out of the question
You don't buy a Chick Fil A, you operate it.
And yes - multiply $450k times 2 or 3.
Elevator mechanics/repairmen. They make absolute bank and are in high demand
This is triggering
The oldest profession in the world... Gotta be top bucket though.
Hunter-gatherer?
Everyone was a hunter-gatherer but the guy who played bait for the sabertooth hunt was clearly the first specialist.
It's a reference to prostitution
Investment banking is the obvious high pay low prestige industry no?
It's been said, but plumbers. Can make decent money as a #2 guy (no pun intended) for a small company or very good money owning your own shop.
Pornstar
Pros ;
Get pussy
Known to make bank
Cons ;
Disgrace to family
No exit opps
I presume you're talking about male pornstars. I thought they are paid and treated badly, didn't they protest on the streets a few years back? I guess you have to be top bucket. I would say porn producer is a low prestige/high paying job.
I am referring to the top bucket female pornstars that constantly grind 100 hour weeks and have collected MD money. Porn producer is quite an interesting role with transferable skills into other industries such as photography, videography & graphic design and it would not surprise me if Michael Bay took inspiration from TEEN GIRL SQUIRTS LIKE HURRICANE KATRINA. I appreciate a cultured individual with exquisite taste.
Exit opps: HIV POSITIVE ADVOCATE
Watched a documentary on NFLX about this. Really, pornstars don't make a lot of money because its very difficult to make a name for yourself and most people don't make it a career.
The film producers usually find girls from small town mid America who aren't street smart through online ads/Craigslist, then fly them out to Florida, before these girls know what happened they're in a movie, feel disgraced, go back home, and the cycle repeats.
Deutsche Bank
Exploration driller in South America or Africa. Drillers can earn roughly $350k (AUS) in 9 months.
Quants
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DMV workers. 0 prestige and enough pension to make you sick
From this thread, seems like the common theme among very high paid blue collar workers is that they are taking advantage of local government and of federal and/or state OT policy.
Sure, but do white-collar workers never take advantage of the legal system in this country? Some of these blue-collar jobs aren't very desirable anyways. So what if they get paid a little extra.
Mentioned this before, but as of 2019 my buddy is pulling in $1 million/year originating residential mortgages. My brother-in-law is putting away $500-600k per year as a commercial construction contractor (which is NOT glamorous in any way). Neither has a college degree. However, both spent years--decades--building their skill set and client base.
The richest self-made person I know (I know wealthier inherited wealth) has a title company that absolutely kills it. Real estate settlements is as far from prestigious as it gets. His company also does hard money lending. He also does not have a college degree. He's also something like 5'5" and I'm certain his wife is hotter than your girlfriend or wife
Add some others: residential and commercial real estate appraisers make good to excellent money. Residential appraisers don't require a college degree, but most commercial appraisers have a degree, although it's not a glamorous job at all.
1M a year originating loans? Does he run his own shop? And the guy with the title company, are we talking titles for vehicles - is this a large metropolitan area? I love stories like this..
The originator is an employee of a mortgage bank. No ownership interest. Title company (mostly for residential loan settlements) guy owns the title company (in fact, the mortgage guy settles most of his loans via that title company). Both are Latinos, one is an immigrant.
I have a close family friend who owns hundreds of mall kiosks, and a couple cosmetics stores in malls. I don't know how rich he is, but he retired at age 29. Started out as just a retail worker at one of the kiosks, and then apparently scraped together money from his job and from his family to pay for his own, and then scaled. I suspect he probably borrowed money from his family to scale. Spends most of his time these days traveling the world. Has multiple homes across the United States and a vacation home in Europe.
What's he hustling out of these kiosks? fidget spinners?
Haha mostly cosmetics and anti-aging serums. He hires these really aggressive salespeople that go up to everyone.
Dirty jobs does a good job of finding people who don't do compelling work, but get paid. Some of the stuff mentioned here is still pretty prestige, like if you told people you work on classic cars, that seems cool to me and I'm not a car guy.
Dirty jobs had a guy who neutered goats, bit their balls off with his teeth (serious, Mike Rowe talked about it on a TED talk). You're not telling people that at a dinner party.
I was 6 months without a job after finishing my Liberal Arts M.A. (it was full ride, plus TAship so not a total waste of time) and working construction for a few dollars above minimum wage just to keep busy and get some money in my pocket while looking for a career track job.
I met an electrician who was a year older than me (Say 25), but making over 100k a year, owned a 500k home and was married. Sure he worked longer hours than 9-5, but his job certainly was not the dirtiest on site. If you ask me, working as an electrician 50-60 hours a week and making six-fig is a way better gig than being stuck at a sub 45k desk jockey job or working on contract in an office (something that happens to a lot of people with Liberal Arts B.A.s)
My girlfriends dad is a union electrician and I can add that they make a good ass living. He makes over 100 grand a year and basically does whatever the fuck he wants. He was promoted for years of work, but that still shows you are able to make a good living as an electrician.
Owners of dry cleaning businesses in major metropolitan areas can do extremely well.
Also apparently Enterprise Rent a Car management training program is a millionaire factory. You go thru the program, learn how to run a shop, then they let you open a franchise, and you're pretty much guaranteed to be a millionaire within a few years.
Some mortgage brokers do well - esp in a location where the houses are expensive. You earn 1% of the value of the mortgage, but the time is moer efficiently used than a real estate agent.
“They give you the tools to be your own boss”
My friend works high rise construction in NYC, makes bank.
Apparently, they pro rate you depending on how many floors you're up, and he also gets overtime, which is a huge multipling factor.
Railroads pay pretty well and historically a lot of the top brass starts at the bottom.
Aluminum and steel production are brutal jobs but tend to pay amazingly for where they are located.
Amtrak ticket collectors make ~$85k/yr + benefits/pension. Boston bus drivers make ~$100k/yr within a decade. Nurses can make ~$100k/yr.
I knew a crane operator - made $110/hr + union benefits.
Plenty of ways to lead a good life and support a family without being a banker.
But as everyone has said, business owner is the single best way to build wealth. Building the business rarely means you get to extract money out of it for quite some time, but after more than a decade you're looking at a good exit.
Had a client while I was in banking, his company built really high quality exhibits and set up AV for auto shows and other high end trade shows. Started off just him some ~20 years back, it grew to over 350 employees and he exited with over $30M in free cash.
Another client was a DJ, with no college degree, that got frustrated with his station so he went off and started his own station in Iowa in his late 30's - poured his life savings into. Started a second a couple years later. Bought a couple struggling stations in Nebraska. Kept expanding. Ended up owning 20+ stations in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, SD, ND, Montana, and Wyoming. He sold in his 60's and ended up 'retiring' to farming, which included buying a ton of land in North Dakota - ended up being a better investment than his radio stations.
Any fast food store manager makes good money for not requiring college. I know where I used to work GM's pulled 75 - 90k a year at 26, which again, they didn't have to get an education.
Too many posts above so I'm not sure if its been mentioned, but trades in general are unbelievably easy to get into and pay pretty well compared other jobs, including those that require university degrees. It's very common for unionized tradesmen to get something in the range of $35 an hour after a few years of work (with obvious room to grow). There is also a huge shortage right now which is more of an incentive for some.
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Entrepreneur
Entreprenuer is by default very prestigous. A guy who owns a chain of gyms for example is more prestigious, interesting, 'cool', and perception of successful than almost anyone in finance
Harbor pilots make mid six figures: https://www.jacksonville.com/story/business/2011/02/06/risks-and-reward…
Advertising and marketing can be pretty good at top-tier firms.
President of Russia
I sill couldn’t understand why prestigious job is a thing even though we’re assuming that the basic framework of the economic system is rational. Higher pay > than prestige
Linemen
Everyone I knew from high-school who wasn’t exactly the “school type” went into linemen “school” and now make 80-100k a year (and get to travel) when I’m just now graduating and have 100k in student debt. Not gunna lie it kinda pisses me off because half of them are total airheads
Merchant marines - buddies of mine that work as deck hands, engineers, and captains on shipping containers and other vessels make $100K+ first year out of school. Massachusetts Maritime Academy is one school that a lot of these guys come out of. However, these guys are on a ship for 6 months, then get 6 months off paid. Hard to raise a family and have a stable life doing this
Walmart truck drivers pulling 110k
Master plumber if you can test reasonably well. You need one master plumber to open a company and give final sign off. Lots can do the work, but not pass the master test and remain journeymen. They have to work for a master plumber…and still pull decent cash. It’s inherently non-exportable and horribly expensive if done wrong. Any there is work anywhere in the country.
The highest pay per hour to lowest prestige is the the guys who change these light bulbs.
Hourly pay averages between $2,000 - $10,000. One guy makes about 20K per day and works 1 day a month.
non-hypsm top-10 student here. How can I break into this industry? 3.8+ in stat/math/cs...any color on who the top players are in the space and comp/wlb/culture?
Business valuation professionals often make $300K+ 7-8 years post-graduation.
Even though these pay well, I’ll take plugging numbers in Excel and aligning logos in a fully air conditioned office any day over having to do most of these jobs.
rriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight
If you’re lucky - security guard for the city (not contractor) pays around 70-100k+ along with pension benefits.
If you really want action, overseas security (armed) pays around 100k and as high as 200k and you guard embassies and other important locations.
People who do celebrity escorts are paid well. I remember being on a crew to help guard some folks (movie stars) and was well comped for that one night event.
Trades are great. If I lose everything else in life, this is something I can pick up on and start a small business. Welding for example, is simple to get into. The equipment isn’t too expensive. Once you learn, people will pay you to weld stuff, and the rest is history.
Oh, there are truck drivers breaking 200k right now. Friend knows someone who does this regularly, is on FIRE path.
Oh, and individual tax preps shops. One of the owners I know who has been in business for 15+ years makes about 150k yearly just by himself.
Truck driver
Merchant Cash advance sales - high pressure sales job - high failure rate but the guys who crush it - can be making 7 figures in their 20s - look up synergy capital if you don’t believe me
Commercial river boat captain on the Mississippi River. The way it works is that certain families have held licenses to navigate portions of the Mississippi that are passed down generationally, giving them a monopoly where you have no option but to go through them to ferry cargo down through New Orleans. They know which currents and routes to take to avoid crashing into sandbars.
Knew a guy in New Orleans who came from one of these old Cajun families with a license for a one mile stretch. Was making 450k a year at 24. Only had to work 2 weeks a month - but in those 2 weeks you have to be on call 24/7 in case a boat comes through your stretch of the river, even in the middle of the night.
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/river-pilots-seek…
boat captain , especially one that is paid well , is >>>> more prestigious than a banking job lol you are out of your mind.
Anything with the word 'captain' in it, or puts you responsible for lives (airplane) or hundred million dollar equipment (military, commercial) is more interesting/impressive/cool aka prestigious to the majority of the population than working on some deals in a job 90% of the population cant even describe, even if the end of the day you are a glorified truck driver on the water
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