How to get a job at one of the UK’s 10 top-paying firms

GlassDoor has released its latest list of the highest paying companies in the UK. So what does it take to get a well-compensated job at one of these financially generous firms?

The top ten list features some obvious big names from the worlds of tech (Facebook, Microsoft) and finance (Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse). It also includes respected businesses that aren’t household names, such as Salesforce and SAP.

With median total compensation ranging from £80,000 to £110,000, jobs at these companies are no doubt in high demand. Everyone in search of a substantial wage for their work ought to do what they can to develop their skillsets in the areas that these firms find valuable. We take a look at how to do just that.

Become a tech expert

Four of the ten highest-paying companies in the UK work in the tech sector, including Salesforce, the holder of the number one spot. Developing a broad knowledge of technology as a whole will help you keep your options open, but for at least two of these companies, specific niche knowledge will be much more useful.

SAP’s ERP software is notoriously complex. Practitioners often work as contracted consultants advising businesses on how to use it properly. A job at SAP will require you to be as up to date with the company’s software specifics as any of these contractors, if not more so. SAP recruitment agency Eursap have a post on SAP job tips which advises applicants to stay on top of all SAP’s products including SuccessFactors, Sybase and Syclo if they want to make it in the industry.

Similarly, Salesforce’s work is focused entirely on cloud technology, so it will be important to be well-versed in everything to do with the cloud. Recruitment firm Monster say they have found that employers searching for cloud computing employees often want people fluent in Chef, Perl, Python, Java and Ruby on Rails programming languages.

Area-specific tech skills like these will be useful when trying to find work with the other big tech firms on the top paying list: Facebook and Microsoft. Though these tech giants work in many areas of software development, your best bet in trying to get hired by them is to master one area of the business and apply for jobs relating to it directly. This way you will be less of a jack of all trades, and stand out against other candidates with less specialised knowledge.

Know your finance

Four of the top ten paying companies in the UK are technology firms, but five of them are finance businesses. With Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, MacQuarie Group, Bank of Canada and Nomura International all paying top dollar for their workers, it’s clear that one way to have a high-paying career is to follow the money.

There are several ways to get started on the finance career ladder. Most of the tips in Investopedia’s guide to getting a job on Wall Street are applicable to trying to find work in London’s Square Mile. Internships at key financial institutions are very valuable, as is a broad base of finance knowledge.

Unlike some fields, a degree is not necessary to secure a job in the financial sector, though there are several finance degree courses around the country which will certainly do you no harm.

At the start of your career in finance, Investopedia recommends getting experience in several areas of the industry. Try to find positions in equities, fixed income and portfolio management and see which one is the best for you whilst gaining real-life experience. Then go after the jobs at one of these top ten companies.

Learn a foreign language

Though finance and technology do not have much in common in terms of required skills, there is one way to increase your employability to all the companies on this list — including the as-yet-unmentioned McKinsey & Company consultancy firm. The way to do this is to learn foreign languages.

All of the companies on the list are multinationals, working in other nations and with people from those nations. Facebook is now a top five website in all but 13 countries. There is no doubt that people able to speak the languages of the company’s millions of non-English-speaking users will be an asset to the company. Similarly Microsoft’s products are available worldwide, and the firm has offices all over the world.

McKinsey’s Economic Development division works with governments all over the world on growth strategies, meaning a little language knowledge could get you a long way at the company.

Finally, the finance institutions on the list, most notably Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse, actually originate from countries where English isn’t the native language. Knowing German or French in the case of these two companies will be very useful in cross communicating with other branches and clients.

Pic Credit – Images Money, Flickr, CC