DW did a bunch of stuff, but did career counseling at high end universities for 4 or 5 years and then quit in 2003 to open a part time private practice and have kids. I have done lots of things: Corporate intelligence analyst, conference director, corporate librarian/data monkey, rating agency analyst, high yield/distressed debt analyst, and regulator. I quit in January of 2014 at age 41, spent 8 months recovering and enjoying life, and then fell into a gig [mod edit] (not really, but it sounds far more interesting than my excruciatingly dull contract job doing some work for a megabank).
Can't help you with savings percentage. From about age 25 or 26 I always maxed my 401k. 100% of DW's business earnings have gone into a solo 401k (although some years that was a few grand). For a long time we had a 15 year mortgage and then paid an extra $1k/month on it (wish I had not done that, in retrospect). When I got a bonus, we usually saved the vast majority of it.