Market rate for IT jobs

randomshenans said:
What people neglect to factor in with London jobs, that you have to commute to (or the cost of relocation) is that you have to earn about 6-7k more gross, to make it pretty much break even.
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From where I live I'd also lose about 2-3 hours of my life a day commuting. I can just about handle day trips using the tube and stuff so the thought of doing it every day really doesn't do anything for me... Especially in the summer!:eek::D
 
I actually enjoy my 3 hours a day commute time (about 1hr 30mins door to door if planned correctly).

It is the only time of my week to myself, away from family and away from work. Read a book, have a nap, watch a TV show etc... It lets me get some good exercise into my day as well with ~5miles of walking total each day.
 
As has been said salaries for 1st and 2nd line can vary wildly from company to company.

My first job was as a desktop analyst (10 years ago now) which as part of a big team covered 1st, 2nd and some 3rd line stuff as well as project work (with the latter coming as you'd been there a bit longer to learn stuff).

Starting salary for that was 16k back then, I believe now the company have changed things up and now there's people who solely do 1st line who start on about 18k to 20k, with the 2nd liners only a bit above that.

Then their infrastructure 3rd liners are on between 25k and 35k at a guess, that's covering (depending on which team you're in) stuff like windows domain admin, exchange, sql, citrix, vmware etc. I'd likely expect the op's salary/job to more closely match this role and salary range out the three.

Which for the area isn't/wasn't bad, but still not great.

I left after about 4 years on 27k where all I did was project work really by that time, largely SMS stuff (the product before SCCM) and left to be an SMS contractor.
 
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JBod said:
I actually enjoy my 3 hours a day commute time (about 1hr 30mins door to door if planned correctly).

It is the only time of my week to myself, away from family and away from work. Read a book, have a nap, watch a TV show etc... It lets me get some good exercise into my day as well with ~5miles of walking total each day.
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Have to agree with this. I Commute everyday and quite enjoy it, Same as Bod I watch tv shows I need to catch up on, listen to music and maybe chat with friends on hangouts all the while being transported into London on the train, although I couldnt do it via car, I would get to angry :p
 
Done the mega commutes, never again. Nothing beats a sub 30 minute cruise into work, even if the Government, council and petrol companies want to bend you over for taxes, parking and fuel
 
d_brennen said:
What would a well travelled 3rd liner expect as an opening salary in the financial services sector?
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No idea... not heard of '3rd line' existing in this context

support guys start at 35k at my place(vendor) and can earn an extra 15k or so from on call/shifts- can be much higher at banks, especially for contractors.

Highest paid support roles would likely require application and asset class specific knowledge and would likely be on the trading floor of various banks... these would also be front line roles and can pay up to circa 800 a day.
 
3rd line (support and admin of AD, SCCM, Citrix, Exchange etc) is in the region of 35k I believe. Above that is senior positions, then architect / management. I imagine a senior architect position to be up to about 80k... A long way off but everyone goals
 
the_chicco said:
Unfortunately when you start delving into corporate financials you can't simply place your data in the 'cloud'. There are significant and substantial guidelines around where your data is physically and logically held, not to mention where it traverses boundaries (country, location, etc).
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Indeed, and there are many other reasons why I don't think the decision makers within companies will be falling over themselves to migrate away from Exchange and Sharepoint:

-Nobody is going to get fired for sticking with Exchange, but a botched migration to some other system could open oneself up to a lot of flak
-Microsoft products are easy to get resource for i.e. if plenty of people out there who can support it
-Likewise Exchange/Outlook combo is very common throughout business so incoming users are comfortable with it from day one
-Personally I think Sharepoint is great and I probably only use a fraction of the potential, maybe there are other tools as good out there but it meets my needs very well

Anyway back on topic bear in mind the figures some people quote for what they started on will be from years ago, I applied (failed) for a desktop support role about 10 years ago and the salary range was £12-14k, but I'd expect that to be more like £16-19k now allowing for inflation.

As for the London weighting someone mentioned £6-7k required to break even above, maybe at the low end but I'd say once you get into the higher tax bracket it need to be a lot more than that, i.e. someone on £50k outside London is unlikely to take a job in the capital on £56-7k all else being equal (i.e. assume they have no particular desire to live/work in London, jobs and prospects are the same etc). From a personal standpoint I sometimes ask myself what I'd need to be offered to take a job in London, I think +£20k would be the starting point and even then by the time you've taken off tax etc, bought a season ticket etc still isn't a massive increase vs the hassle of commuting or relocating.
 
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I've applied for a contract that's a 2hr drive each way, probably on a good run, but it's an amazing chance, so I'd just have to suck it up. Might pick up a diesel though, not sure the S4 would be that suitable. Not that relevant really, but just talking about commute wise.
 
Is the London commute really that bad? Ive always fancied workin in the capital but I hate my 25 minute morning train commute as it is.
 
I have no clue what my wages should be compaired to other people. I'm a technical consultant, I deal with BigIP F5s, Juniper Firewalls, IIS, BizTalk and loads of other things, configuring them, building them, designing firewall rules etc.
 
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I'm just glad I'm not in IT any more. Couldn't keep up with it and I never did any official qualifications, and I've got used to my lifestyle.

16k doesn't seem unreasonable for a first job or junior job though.
 
It used to be first IT jobs paid quite well. Looking at salaries now, you might as well forget it and stick your crappy student retail job. Pays the same
 
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randomshenans said:
What is it you do now FF?
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I started off in IT as stated, before, during and after uni where I did an engineering degree. Carried on in the IT telecoms industry for about 8 years or so, working for a specialist company setting up telecommunication and bespoke IT solutions on luxury yachts - got to see the world and work with people all around the globe too, which of a teenager through to a young 20 something guy was very exciting.

I got fed up with my lack of training as well as career and personal devleopment. Furthermore, I had got as far in the company as I could - next step be was to be a director which they weren't interested in (besides I was still too young and immature in terms of business) - though I did offer them a business case to start up an office down in the south coast of France or Spain where most of our business was and that I would head up that region, but again they showed no commitment. Though to be fair this was still a time where IT was a well paid and slightly niche market, not as saturated as it is now, as such it commanded a better salary - even pre-uni I was being paid £10/h which for the 90s was a nice bit of income!

Changed jobs to something completely different, working in operational management for a cash management/logistics company, large FTSE100 corporation, along with operational/line management I developed my Lean Six Sigma skills and joined the continuous improvement team where I acted as an internal management consultant within the group which was amazing, right up my street. I won't name the company owing to the sensitive nature of the work but it's not hard to guess. However owing to numerous restructures it was time to move on again and after more than half a dozen years I felt I had done my "time"!

I now work for a massive £15bn+ infrastructure and engineering project in London, using a mixture of my skills from engineering to project management and lean six sigma but also a fair bit of IT work but in the sense of using technology rather than building/configuring it!

So I've had a bit of a meandering path, but it just shows if you apply yourself and work hard within the industry that you're working you don't have to get typecasted in a certain role, an if you pick up more skills along the way it makes you more interesting to employers!
 
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Nice FF, a little similar, yet I am still in IT but drastically moved. I'm heading the more consulting/management route than technical now too, I hope. Fair play though, you put in the work, you reap the rewards.

Mr^B - Nothing wrong with coding for 20yrs, if you're getting what you want out of it. I work with a guy who's been coding forever, he still likes it, but he's been a contractor for the past 15yrs, so you know, I'm sure he's OK!
 
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