It almost goes without saying: money isn’t everything. However, we curious cats can’t help it, we want to know where we stand among our peers.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) run the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings every year. The data below is based on a random sample of 1 per cent of all the workers who carry out occupations, using PAYE tax records from 2015 to 2016.

Here’s the top ten highest paying jobs in the United Kingdom. Time to reconsider our career options, we think:

The highest paying jobs in the UK

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Looks like the surest way to a high paying job is to become an aircraft pilot or a flight engineer. Average salaries clock in at £84,968 per year. We say this because the job title ‘chief executive’ or ‘senior official’, although first in the ranking at £85,285, is pretty vague. We don’t even know which industry they’ve taken the sample from.

Coming in third is air traffic controllers (£80,043 per year), transport associate professionals (£75,524) and marketing and sales directors (£70,787).

Interestingly, this list is in sharp contrast to recent research published by LinkedIn, looking at the highest paying jobs in America. According to their list, nine out of ten of the top paying jobs in the US are in the medical industry.

Cardiologists in America get a whopping $356,000 per year and are ranked first on their list. This is followed by radiologists, anesthesiologists, surgeons and medical directors. Whoa.

However, in contrast to the United Kingdom, medical professionals don’t even show up in the top ten highest paying jobs. Huh. Perhaps that’s food for thought for anyone thinking of studying medicine abroad.

Our advice? There are many ways to find jobs and carve out your career path. It’s not always about the money – and not everyone can be a doctor or a flight engineer. What we’re trying to say is: you do you, boo.

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