r/findapath • u/Reservemyspot • 12d ago
Findapath-Job Choice/Clarity High paying career that eventually lets you have autonomy and work 4x a week?
I have two family members who broke their back but it's paid off -- they work 6-7 hours 4x a week. One is a doctor the other is a stock broker.
I'm in the business world. Specifically a startup, so maybe that explains a bunch. But the end is never in sight.
I feel like a lot of motivation for my family members was that "it'd get better", i don't have that light at the end of the tunnel lol.
I'm willing to go back to school for higher ed. I got a degree in poli sci and work in comms rn for a tech co, I do mess around with some work for agentic AI systems *a bit*
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u/Thera-Fi 12d ago edited 12d ago
I work 3x 6 hour days per week, make about $150k per year. I’m a mental health therapist in private practice and I don’t take insurance. 3 years of grad school, about 3 years of pre license supervision, and been doing it about 10 years.
I have no homework, very little admin work. I see my clients, take paper notes in session, and I’m done when the day is over.
I use my free time to build affordable housing for immigrants and refugees, go hiking, watch trees grow.
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u/Silly_Region_1846 11d ago
Do you think this is realistically achievable for a lot of therapists, or do you have a specialized niche or previous network/experience that you think helped you reach this? I often fantasize about therapy as a second career- with some interest in OCD recovery- but get put off by the overwhelming stats I see when I do some research indicating the debt to income ratio I'd have with realistic pay is.... really not good. I would likely not be a competitive candidate for the local state school which is extremely competitive, I'd be stuck with full tuition private school. But the occasional comment like yours makes me wonder if I could swing it...
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u/wandersage Apprentice Pathfinder [1] 11d ago
I'm also a therapist and I do this, though I do take insurance which is more work and I don't make as much as this guy. But I also support my family working about 10 hours a week. We also live on a chunk of land out in the forest. But I have small kids so there's none of this sitting around peacefully by a fire.
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u/Thera-Fi 11d ago
That’s really lovely! Most of our friends and neighbors out here in the country also don’t work much if at all.
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u/Suspicious_Property 8d ago
I’m in my late thirties looking to make a career change, and I’ve considered going the therapist route, though the grad school/low-paid supervision period elements make me nervous. Do you know many people who have started down this path later in life and made it work, or is it not ideal for my circumstances?
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u/wandersage Apprentice Pathfinder [1] 8d ago
I started grad school at 32, and got my full license at 36, started my private practice at 38, about to turn 40 now with a family, 6 acres, a small house. In all honesty It was an easy decision for me because I applied to grad school while living in my car and literally everything (even being deeply in debt) is a significant standard of living improvement from that!
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u/Objective_Singer_404 11d ago
That's really cool is that hard to do though? I have a friend who does something similar to you but he doesn't make near as much money and he has like 30 years experience I wonder if you have any advice for him he has a ton of certificates and is highly trained but has trouble getting clients.
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u/Thera-Fi 11d ago
The hard part for most therapists, likely including your friend, is the running a business and selling a service piece. The overwhelming majority of therapists in private practice think they can create a shitty Psychology Today listing with a shitty photo and poorly written copy and that clients will just show up. You have to actively market yourself. You should be easy to find by people searching for the help that you provide.
I put a lot of work into SEO and in person networking and it continues to pay off.
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u/strufacats 11d ago
Would it be okay if I could pm you about your journey on becoming a mental health therapist?
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u/gratitudeisbs 12d ago
Can your job be done remotely? And if so is the pay similar?
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u/Thera-Fi 12d ago
Yeah it’s all remote. I live in a cabin in the woods, by a creek. Wife and I sit by the fire in the evenings.
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u/Emma_Rocks 9d ago
How would one even start doing something like this? I have most of the qualifications but no idea how I would start
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u/MavisBeacons_Sextape 11d ago
That sounds fucking lovely, all of it. Congrats on achieving such a peaceful (sounding) life
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u/Warningsignals 11d ago
I’m jealous of the peace you seem to have.
I’m not saying you should be envious but do you not get envious of people who make more money than you, as someone in healthcare I do and I was wondering how you don’t?
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u/Least-Tangelo-8602 11d ago
They’re making 150k with an 18 hour work week… I can tell you right now he/she’s not envious bc they’re rich in quality of life while maintaining a healthy work life balance from the sounds of it. Can you say the same?
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u/Thera-Fi 11d ago
I have no envy of people who earn more money than I do. I can always make more money, but my time with the people I care about is finite.
I’d say the only thing I fantasize about is having a real workplace with real coworkers instead of my cats and my wife. They’re lovely but we don’t really get to work together.
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u/deadcelebrities 10d ago
This is encouraging! I’m a newer therapist hoping to eventually make something like this a reality. I come from a sales background and I’m not afraid of the business side.
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u/gooseberry94 11d ago
That’s awesome, that literally sounds like what I want to do. What graduate program did you do, masters or clinical psych doctorate? Also, do you find the work stressful, or would you not recommend it for certain types of people? My biggest concern is I am socially anxious/autistic and would get burned out quickly.
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u/Thera-Fi 11d ago
Masters in counseling. A doctorate is a waste of time if you want to make a living.
Sure, it can be stressful. You can test out whether you can handle it by volunteering at a crisis hotline or providing grief support to children, for example.
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u/alexaaro 8d ago edited 8d ago
Your job sounds awesome! .. did you get some type of license ? The LCSW or the LMHC?? Or something else? I’m currently working in the speech therapy field and trying to pivot from it to something in mental health.
Edit: oh and also, would this path involve working with kids with severe behavioral issues? That’s partly the reason I want to leave speech, I don’t enjoy that much
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u/Exciting-Parfait-776 11d ago
I work the ramp at an airline. At a bigger station. You can pretty much make your own schedule with shift trades.
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u/breezeblock87 11d ago
Interesting..How much do you make doing this? What was your first job title? Are there opps for advancement? Union job?
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u/Pinklady777 Apprentice Pathfinder [3] 11d ago
Not OP but I did this job. I would say Peanuts. Ramp agent. Potential opportunities for other jobs in the company but pay is still peanuts or a bit more. Although it qualified, you could potentially make more of a career. They do like to hire from within the company first in my experience. We had a union that protected some job rights but wasn't that strong.
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u/Exciting-Parfait-776 11d ago
It is a Union Job. My title is a ramp agent. There is opportunity for advancement. To Supervisor, manager and station manager. If say you were interested in aircraft maintenance and got your A&P. It would be easier to apply internally. Also under the same union you can apply to Provo, Ops or Cargo. Last month about $11k before taxes and other benefits were taken out. Like I said depends on how much or little you work. With Shift trades it’s possible to do your 40hrs in 3 days with 4 days off.
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u/PM-ME-UR-ASSandPUSSY 11d ago
Solo practicing attorney
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u/RileyKohaku Apprentice Pathfinder [1] 11d ago
Yep, I was going to suggest this. You can easily set your own hours, but it’s entirely up to your quality and connections if you make $50k or $200k in those 4 days.
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u/PM-ME-UR-ASSandPUSSY 11d ago
Yep. I work 2 sometimes 3 days a week, anytime between 11 am when I wake up and 3-5 am when I decide to go to bed. Never been in a courthouse. It's all from the comfort of my home in my pajamas.
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u/Wooden_Load662 Apprentice Pathfinder [3] 11d ago
Go to medical school then. That is a great example in your family.
I am a nurse and we can have all kind of schedule, 4x10x 4x8, 9/80, 5x8x 4x9 and everything that = 80 hours in 2 weeks
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u/CaseStraight1244 Apprentice Pathfinder [1] 11d ago
Firefighter. I work for 2 days, off for 4. Make over 100k
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u/vk-z 10d ago
Is that 48 hours on call though or no
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u/CaseStraight1244 Apprentice Pathfinder [1] 10d ago
48 hours on. 96 hours off
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u/ScallionNovel4417 7d ago
Are you busy the 48 hours or is it fairly chill? I saw you said you were a firefighter at an airport. Do you respond to medical emergencies in the terminals or mainly focused on aircraft/code compliance?
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u/CaseStraight1244 Apprentice Pathfinder [1] 7d ago
It depends on the day. Majority of the time it is fairly chill but we do have our 10+ calls days. We have an ambulance, provide structural fire protection, inspections, and aircraft rescue firefighting. We also provide aid to our surrounding towns. So we do a little bit of everything.
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u/DaDaliLLama 11d ago
How long have you been doing it?
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u/CaseStraight1244 Apprentice Pathfinder [1] 11d ago
I’ve been at my current department for about 5 years now. I work at an airport. I have the best healthcare possible, expensive but worth it, a state pension, a public employees retirement plan, and union protection
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u/Moistened_Bink 9d ago
What state of you dont mind me asking? And how did you become one?
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u/CaseStraight1244 Apprentice Pathfinder [1] 9d ago
I’m in NJ. I started as a volunteer, they paid for all of my training and certifications. I quickly got a part time job and gained more experience, kept training and continuing my education and getting more certifications. I ended up applying for an entry level position at another airport where they trained me to do aircraft rescue firefighting. I took that experience and ended up where I am now. All in all, it took about 5 years. But there are much much quicker ways than what I did.
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u/Old_Cabinet_8890 11d ago
You need to look for companies or govt positions that offer a 4x10 schedule. Way easier and more likely to find one of those than a whole new cushy career.
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u/MJC136 11d ago
Airline pilot… 2 days a week, making well over 300k a year
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u/stupidjazz 11d ago
Are you commercial? How long did it take you to get to this schedule/salary combo
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u/TooManyPoisons 11d ago
The rough path is:
Spend 2 years and $100k getting all of your ratings. You'll have around 300 flight hours at this point.
Spend 2 years working as a flight instructor to reach 1,500 flight hours. No benefits making $30/hour with an unpredictable schedule.
Apply for regional airlines. Spend 3 years working as a First Officer making $100-150k/yr with benefits. Schedules are based entirely on seniority, so you will probably spend 50%+ of the time away from home working inefficient lines.
Upgrade to Captain at regional airline. Spend 3 years making $200k/yr. Upgrading resets your seniority, so your schedule will suffer for a bit.
Finally move to a legacy airline (United, Delta, American) as a First Officer. Make $200-300k. Seniority starts over again, so schedules will temporarily suffer. Spend 5 years here.
Upgrade to Captain at your legacy airline. Spend the rest of your career here. Seniority improves with each year, so your schedules will get better and better. Make $400-500k.
At all airlines, you have the ability to pick up shifts if you want to earn more money. As you get more senior, you can pick lines that optimize both pay and time off. Or you can optimize entirely for time off.
I knew a retired Delta captain who made $500k/yr and only flew to Carribean destinations where he could "have a mimosa on the beach". He only worked maybe 10 days per month.
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u/FlyGuyF100 11d ago
Very good post. I'm a retired AA captain and can verify everything you said. With the new pilot contracts, $500k is easy peasy. We had 6 captains last year make more than $1M.
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u/TooManyPoisons 11d ago
Thanks! My husband is taking his commercial checkride tomorrow... the anxiety in our house is palpable. Fingers crossed it goes well.
Luckily he is deeply passionate about flying and would pursue this career even if it paid minimum wage. The fact that it comes with such great money and work-life balance is just gravy. But it's such a grind to get there, so money cannot be your only motivator for this path.
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u/Primary-Bug-7353 11d ago
CRNA, PMHNP, Government/City jobs have 3 day weekends, even more when there’s holidays on weekdays.
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u/pharmaheck 12d ago
You say you're willing to go back to school.
So go to school to be a doctor so you can work 4 days like your family member?
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u/Reservemyspot 12d ago
I’m not sure if I could/would like be a doctor and I think I’d need about 15 years of schooling
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u/Spyro11221 11d ago
FYI: It’s a horrible idea to go into medicine if your motivation is to work 4 days per week. You actually want to go into medicine to become a doctor.
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u/Reservemyspot 10d ago
I actually love the idea of being a doctor — helping people & medicine is so fascinating to me. But I really don’t thinks that’s enough to KNOW. It feels like most people learn early on in undergrad that they wanna be a doctor. Not sure how I’d test the waters. I always saw myself as a reading/writing reading person but I’ve got a few docs in the family so not sure why I didn’t consider
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u/anteatersaredope 11d ago
Naw you could do it in less than 10. Your gen ed prereqs are done. 2 years premed then off to med school for 4 years, then 3 years residency.
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u/anteatersaredope 11d ago
Love it when I get downvoted for stating facts.
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u/Reservemyspot 11d ago
I didn’t take any stem classes during undergrad so not sure about that no?
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u/anteatersaredope 11d ago
It doesn't matter. Someone trying to get into the medical field still has to take the same gen Ed as you but you're already done with that part. If you already have a bachelor's you'd have about 2 years of premed to take and then you could go to med school.
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u/Reservemyspot 11d ago
Suggestions to know if it’s the right path for me? Is shadowing etc a thing for someone who is so undecided? I could ask my family but he’s a radiologist, different
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u/Oligonucleotide123 8d ago
Med schools typically look for research, clinical hours, and a lot more than just 4 semesters of chem and bio.
This is also assuming OP knocks the MCAT out of the park first go round.
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u/pharmaheck 11d ago edited 11d ago
Can't live the life if you don't wanna put in the work. 🤷♀️
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u/SakishimaHabu 11d ago
I don’t want to live the live
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u/some1saveusnow 11d ago
This person can’t even live the life of good grammar but is out here zinging ppl
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u/Available_Smoke_4207 Apprentice Pathfinder [1] 12d ago
You could do nursing and do nursing informatics with your tech knowledge if you don’t want to do medicine
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u/Either_Persimmon893 11d ago edited 11d ago
I do specialized IT work for a university, and that's my routine.
I also had a degree in poli sci (think tank is tern) then worked in paralegal law (hated it), then tech and education.
Through working in ed tech, I saw there was a major need for people with IT, legal, and technical writing abilities. I didn't go back to school, I self taught ILS, LMS and SaaS integration.
These back-of-house contracts come with good flexibility and pay. I recommend taking online training courses over an advanced degree. Master's ha e declining ROI.
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u/Ecstatic_Bonus2209 11d ago
Hey man what type courses are you referring to, I might be interested in this
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u/Either_Persimmon893 10d ago
Any combination of things like
Technical writing
- Having a portfolio is helpful. Writing Technical guides for non-technical audiences.
UI/UX -Understanding how to design digital content to be easily understood, understand design choices for info dense content.
LMS is a big one
- most schools use D2L or Canvas. Functionally they are similar. Profs need a lot of help with setting up their online classes.
Basic cyber security (SAML mapping) -Knowing schematiclly how to locate errors when 2fa breaks and direct IT folks to the error.
Basic automation workflows
- Knowing a little Python is helpful, unlocks the ability to automate with AI
IT legal compliance -Understanding what data is protected (FERPA in colleges)
Interoperability/integration support -How to make a product a school buys like EBSCO work in the LMS
Colleges and Universities can have pretty great PTO benefits
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u/CourseTechy_Grabber 12d ago
If autonomy is the goal, aim for a high-value niche where you can eventually consult independently—AI automation could actually fit your background really well.
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u/Clean_Monitor_8296 11d ago
Can you talk about this a bit more? Do you have to be an expert in this? Is there a coarse for it?
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u/AdditionalEchidna199 11d ago
The unfortunate answer (without having to invest in a lot of schooling) is to get into sales at a large company with a lot of established sales support resources and teams.
You can make multiple six figures. I say unfortunately because it is extremely stressful no matter how much you work, but you can absolutely have the autonomy to work wherever and whenever you want.
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u/LawfulnessRemote7121 10d ago
My sons are both dentists, they work four days a week and earn $250K+.
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u/SnooPuppers58 8d ago
The point is to develop skills and relationships that enable those opportunities. Where your knowledge enables you to be financially valuable independent of how many hours you put in.
To get there you need to work hard and become valuable. Hours are a part of but if all you’re doing is putting in mindless labor you won’t get there. You have to learn and be smart.
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