Career Decisions (IT Professionals please read!)

Bassmansam said:
Isn't this below minimum wage?
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You're right, I forgot about the recent change to minimum wage (I only got the higher pay packet in November because they forgot to put it in October's - the November wage slip was the highest number I've ever seen! :p ) so yeah. It's actually a little over £10,000 if I remember rightly. Not going to work it out though because I'm lazy.

Still, this far in to the job, I should be on more. I think I'm paid lower than the majority of others on our region's team but I actually end up doing more than a fair few. It sucks. :o
 
Job Title/Description: Forensic Examiner

Typical day-to-day work: Extracting cruical evidence from suspect hard drives and narrowing it down to the "juicy" stuff. Creating scripts to extract data required by clients. Travelling around the country collecting forensic evidence.

Highest qualification (GCSE/Diploma etc): BSc Computer Science

Job satisifaction (do you enjoy your day-to-day work): Yes,

Job security(do you feel you are at risk of having your job outsourced to india?): I'm too new to the job to really say.

Salary(optional): 30k+
 
Blackhawk47 said:
You have way more experience then me and looking for more specific job roles. Nearly all the perm jobs I have applied for in the past year get up to 100 applicants from 12-24k jobs. In fact I only managed to get through to interview stage for perm jobs on a handful of occasions - and those weren't ideal jobs in terms of location/at the time.
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I wouldn't be surprised if I'm the only applicant for the one I have an interview for next week lol. Applications are restricted and has some pretty specific requirements, will see if that helps me!

My biggest issue is finding something that's commutable, don't want to move.

As said if it gets near the end in this job then contracting will be back on the table, not too fussed where I go for that.
 
Blackhawk47 said:
No of course I am not better off. Most of the people I went to school are at uni now and when they finish at 21 you really think they will be in a as well paying a job as me?
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Yes, absolutely. I graduated from Uni, started on £27k and was on £60k+ within 2 years.

As Fox says, you earn what you earn (which is hardly big money) because you work 50+ hour weeks, not because you're somehow more special than those that went to Uni.
 
Job Title/Description: IT support/admin

Typical day-to-day work:supporting 100 users, from outlook to firewall.

Highest qualification (GCSE/Diploma etc): failed high school.

Job satisifaction (do you enjoy your day-to-day work):it is alright, i could do with more money and i hate being supervised. But i get to sit on reddit and ocuk forums a lot of the time.

Job security(do you feel you are at risk of having your job outsourced to india?): no chance.

Salary(optional): not enough.
 
Job Title/Description: IT Contractor (Infrastructure)

Typical day-to-day work: Advising on systems design, designing and implementing consolidation exercises, performance analysis etc

Highest qualification (GCSE/Diploma etc): A Levels

Job satisifaction (do you enjoy your day-to-day work): Love it

Job security(do you feel you are at risk of having your job outsourced to india?): No job security at all as a contractor, comes with the territory though

Salary(optional): Depends on the month! In PAYE terms between £40k and £90k per annum I guess.
 
Basher said:
Yes, absolutely. I graduated from Uni, started on £27k and was on £60k+ within 2 years.

As Fox says, you earn what you earn (which is hardly big money) because you work 50+ hour weeks, not because you're somehow more special than those that went to Uni.
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Look I'm not saying it's not worth it but plenty of people have stated that they don't have a degree and yet are working IT. Placements are limited at the moment, so most who get a degree, will be looking for perm work just like I am. Sure, my dad went to Uni and came out qualified as a quantity surveyor, sponsored by a company to do the degree and worked for them during and after he finished. He's now financial
commercial manager at siemens.

I am just fed up of people drawing up there own conclusions to my situation. I could just go for boring low end admin positions for 12-14k a year.

Just because everyone else on here is lucky enough to get perm job doesn't mean that because I am working on a contract basis right now that i have made a bad choice. I wasn't working a
10 hour day because it was the perfect job, it's just that is what the company did for all contractors. It was only 7 weeks long as we completed the projects earlier than anticipated in the end but good experience and looks better on my CV then having nothing. :(
 
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Blackhawk47 said:
Look I'm not saying it's not worth it but plenty of people have stated that they don't have a degree and yet are working IT. Placements are limited at the moment, so most who get a degree, will be looking for perm work just like I am. Sure, my dad went to Uni and came out qualified as a quantity surveyor, sponsored by a company to do the degree and worked for them during and after he finished. He's now financial
commercial manager at siemens.

I am just fed up of people drawing up there own conclusions to my situation. I could just go for boring low end admin positions for 12-14k a year.

Just because everyone else on here is lucky enough to get perm job doesn't mean that because I am working on a contract basis right now that i have made a bad choice. I wasn't working a
10 hour day because it was the perfect job, it's just that is what the company did for all contractors. It was only 7 weeks long as we completed the projects earlier than anticipated in the end but good experience and looks better on my CV then having nothing. :(
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Holmes, nobody's beating on you for your choices/circumstances - just the words you use to describe them :)
 
[TW]Fox;17994604 said:
Your average grad finishing an IT degree and going into IT would be earning between £18k and £32k (Depending on role - £18k for entry level stuff, £32k if you are elite enough to join the grad scheme of one of the multinationals following a succesful placement). Quite how you think that working in a temp job for £10 an hour makes Uni pointless is beyond me and probably the rest of the posters in this thread.
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33-37k starting salary for grads where I work and its not a multinational or a bank - just a mid sized software firm.

Though yes I totally agree, though there are people who can do OK without a degree you'll generally not be better off with one.

Assuming that temping for £10 a hour is better than getting a good degree in the long term is a bit silly.
 
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Job Title/Description: IT Development Officer

Typical day-to-day work: PL/SQL & SOA

Highest qualification (GCSE/Diploma etc): Bsc Computing

Job satisifaction (do you enjoy your day-to-day work): It's ok.

Job security(do you feel you are at risk of having your job outsourced to india?): Not really, as the contractors we get from india are paid way more :)

Salary(optional): Enough :)
 
dowie said:
33-37k starting salary for grads where I work and its not a multinational or a bank - just a mid sized software firm.

Though yes I totally agree, though there are people who can do OK without a degree you'll generally not be better off with one.

Assuming that temping for £10 a hour is better than getting a good degree in the long term is a bit silly.
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I'm not temping though. Think about it, at siemens I stared on £6 per hour and got increased to £8 after a certain amount of time. Course I was learning on the job...pretty much a given. Rail telecoms is a hell of a lot more interesting than first line support. That's just my opinion and all I was saying in my first post was that it isn't a must to go to Uni straight away, The OP was asking for opinions and that's what I gave. If I had gone to Uni, I would come out with a degree in one hand and no work exeperience in the other. I'd be surprised if you prove that everyone on a comp sci degree jumps into an £30k a year perm job.

Times have changed, just look at unemployment numbers.

This link will explain exactly what I have been talking about: http://www.reed.co.uk/job-details/L...d+Humberside&s=307&ns=True&sr=1&FromSector=1&
 
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Basher said:
And what about all the graduate jobs on that very same site with salaries of £30-£50k?

Good graduates don't start on helpdesk work.
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This is the job advert of what I am doing now, you can say what you like about me but they on 9 other people to do the same job and most are recent grads.


Back to Search Results
DATA ANALYST

Type:Full Time
Remuneration:
Duration:Temporary
Hours per week:35 per week
Location:GB,Leeds
Contact:Please contact the Edinburgh Office for more details
Start date:Immediately

Description:
DATA ANALYST
•
• Large Financial Global Organisation
• Excellent work environment
• Fantastic offices not far from the city centre
• Free bus service from train station
• Excellent benefits including canteen, Starbucks, gym

This is an excellent opportunity to join a busy team and looking for someone immediately.

Duties include:

• Large volume of data input so need high level of accuracy 8000/9000kspm
• Interrogating the groups customer database to identify up to date registered addresses for each 8k customers whose historic details are on a spreadsheet
• Apply a range of criteria to determine the eligibility of the 8k listed customers to make a claim under the terms of this agreement
Key skills
• Reliability
• Integrity (as this role involves accessing customer records)
• Accuracy/high level of attention to detail
• Available immediately
• Ideally a graduate
 
Blackhawk, when I was a recent grad I did a similar thing. I got paid £6 per hour for it (back in 2002) and was under no illusions that it was a temp job, not contracting.

I'm now a contractor and, believe me, it's a world away.
 
Job Title/Description: Embedded Software Engineer

Typical day-to-day work: Mash the keyboard until things work.

Highest qualification (GCSE/Diploma etc): 2:1 Degree

Job satisifaction (do you enjoy your day-to-day work): Sometimes fun, sometimes not.

Job security(do you feel you are at risk of having your job outsourced to india?): Got "outsorced" myself to HK, so pretty secure.

Salary(optional): Below average (3 years xp), and higher costs here make me a sad, sad panda. But good for cv working abroad (bad for English :D).
 
This seems like fun :)

Job Title/Description: Network Overlord (im not kidding, I have business cards and everything, I was allowed to choose my title as HR didn't know what to put me down as, in retrospect "Head of I.T" may have been more sensible)

Typical day-to-day work: Turn up, fix problems that have occurred since 5 yesterday, sleep in server room, have dinner, fix any new problems, occasionally carry out network maintenance, play WoW, change backup tapes and go home.

Highest qualification (GCSE/Diploma etc): FdSc Computing, or Cisco CCNA the former looks good on paper whereas the latter is actually useful in the real world.

Job satisifaction (do you enjoy your day-to-day work): Yeah, its fun I guess.

Job security(do you feel you are at risk of having your job outsourced to india?): Not a chance, the company would actually fall apart without me, im the only one who knows how to keep the system running, our accounts software is from the 80's lol.

Salary(optional): £14,339


I would like to stress before im called lazy/etc my work is mostly reactive, I spend a lot of time doing nothing but if something goes down and we're about to lose a £250k contract or the accounts system dies, etc im on the case and the case gets packed (I dunno if its a real phrase but it works for me :D).
 
Blackhawk47 said:
This is the job advert of what I am doing now, you can say what you like about me but they on 9 other people to do the same job and most are recent grads.
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I worked as a temp in a bank for a while when I'd just finished uni, I didn't stay there for more than a few weeks - it was a temporary job.

A friend of mine was working in a pub for a bit when he finished uni - he now works at a private equity firm. I'm sure that at the time the non-grad bar manager who'd been there for a few years could point out that his jobs is actually quite good and he'd just employed a guy from a top uni on a fairly basic wage... Imagine if he'd gone to uni too he'd be in the same place as this grad but instead he's a manager and gets his own flat etc...

Difference is that 5 years on the bar manager is still a bar manager living in a flat above the pub and earning 25-30k or whatever bar managers earn. My friend who did work in a bar briefly after graduating owns his own house in London and is now buying a second home.
 
[TW]Fox;17980318 said:
Sorry but earning £20k a year after 8 years of work does not 'proove' that a degree is 'not neccessary'.
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I make over 20k with a 5k car allowance and mileage pay and i have less than 3 years in the industry with NO quals other than A levels

(which were not even I.T related)

so you dont need a degree
 
[TW]Fox;17998011 said:
You think that is IT Contracting?
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I don't get you fox. I never said I was IT contracting. Doesn't mean I wasn't contracting before. Anyway, what's your problem you know who I was working for and what on (rail telecoms - network rail projects). I've seen IT contractor jobs and it is something that you can do own, eg setting up an office of new computers and the like, which is completely different to what I was doing and you keep pestering me about job titles. I was given the title assistant engineer by the head of engineering, I didn't make it up or just give myself that title.

Once again, I ask, what are you doing that's so great and important. Please tell me.
 
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