Advice needed - career advice UK

Hi there fellow redditors, first off, I'm sorry if this is not the subreddit for this but as this is related to educated, I felt like this is the subreddit for this. If any better subreddits are known, do not hesitate to comment and I was surely comply.

So, UK here, I'm a Year 10 student here (14m) in highschool, preparing for important GCSEs next year (diplomas). I am stuck at a dilemma as to what to do for further education. I'm an able and extremely talented student with A** grades predicted for all of my subjects so I have a wide variety of careers open to me. In the UK, we pick 3 additional GCSE subjects to do a GCSE in, in Year 9 and due to wanting to keep a broad availability of career choices, I went ahead and picked Engineering, French and all of the sciences (biology, chemistry and physics). My dilemma is that I've heard everyone's advice which tell you to pick something you love to do for the future.

I love computer science and have been doing everything related with computers from net security to programming on my own, as a result of my passion. I have been gaining grade 9+ with the new curriculum which is basically, more than 95% of the marks available, constantly. I have already received apprenticeship offers from GCHQ (UK intelligence service) and I really aspire to do something with computers, preferably programming. I have done many projects, both big and small, at various levels with various programmers on a range of platforms such as Github and Gitlab and I have established a good reputation throughout the community and my school.

The issue though lies in money. Programmers, in average, even the most senior ones, from statistics in the UK, earn at most 80k. Considering my naturally gifted intelligence in nearly all subjects, I feel like it would be a waste to get a job with this wage - 80k is not mediocre by any means and would be an easy and relaxing life but I feel jobs such as medical ones certainly have a higher wage, even reaching 250k in some cases, and I feel like I have the potential to reach these places (not to sound big headed). But then again, I am good at science but I feel like I would not be satisfied in the long run if I chose a medical profession as I would love a job related to computers.

It may seem like a long way but I'd like to plan my life from now before it gets too late as time flies :) and I ultimately, want to lead a happy life making the most of every moment. I am now stuck at this crossroad and I would like a truthful insight into the industry. How would I go at just going for money? How would I go at using all opportunities available? What is your experience? Do you regret your career choice? Should location changes be considered? How will jobs change as time goes on?

I hope you can help me out here and thanks for taking the time to read my query. I would be happy to provide more information, whether personal or about the education system or ... and looking forward to your answers!

Submitted December 21, 2016 at 02:47PM by EducatedExterminator http://ift.tt/2hUHGXB