You need to earn at least £56,000 to be considered successful

Success is a pretty subjective topic, but new research from a London recruitment company thinks they’ve managed to defined the point at which you’ve finally “made it”. Job site REED think the perfect wage is £56,000, but the successful person also expects to have an unrealistic seven weeks off a year and £500 of expenses a month. Away from money in your pocket, weirdly enough the report claims having your own parking space is a sign of hitting the big leagues. Talk about low expectations, but presumably the London equivalent is having your own designated seat on the tube. On the downside, you probably won’t be on £56,000 until your thirties at the very earliest, unless you can land a decent finance job.

There’s a running theme about how much time off you’re getting off in the research. The dream work day runs from  8:45am-4:37pm – just less than eight hours – and the ideal amount annual leave is just under two months. With such long holidays, it sounds suspiciously like most of the people interviewed secretly want to be a headteacher. Everyone wants their own office, but what workers really want is their own PA or receptionist too. Offering some advice, as recruiters often do, the spokesperson said:

“For candidates, the best way to get on the path to career success is to check you’re in the right role. Compare your salary to others at your level, and if you’re not being paid enough or think you deserve more, the ideal next step is to see if there are other jobs out there that could better meet your needs. Think about the package as a whole, weighing up factors like holiday, flexibility and ultimately – take home pay.”

Success probably involves a suit and a vintage red to some people

Apparently most people want to reach their goals and hit their peak by the age of 40, which is ideal because they’d have to have gone through at least four job roles to get there. It’s not all about the money though, as 11 per cent just want two computer screens and all a quarter of people sadly just dream about leaving work on time.