Job dilemma and Interview query(s)

[CLAWS]

Hi folks,

I currently work for a law firm. Been doing legal IT for coming up to 4 years now and its time to get out of it.

An absolutely gorgeous agent at HAYS Recruitment has put me forward for a job at a "quango". My dilemma is that whilst I really want the job because it is a step forward and also out of legal IT, it is paying less than what I am on now.

The agent advised that I would start on the bottom end of the pay range and then it would increase every year. The caveat she said however is that she is unsure if they are affected by the public sector pay freezes and should it be the case I would not get a payrise until the year after.

Now the wife and I are putting as much as we can into saving for a deposit for a house and whilst this might sound silly - taking a pay cut isnt really ideal and will only slow our saving progress.

First and foremost, can anyone advise if a quango would be affected by public sector pay freezes?

The pay cut I would be taking is a £1000 less than what my yearly salary is now. I'm probably being petty but after a hard earned payrise earlier this year it just seems a little counter productive to my plans. This is especially so if there is a chance I wont be getting a payrise at the new place until the year after.

When I go to the interview would it be wise to ask if they are affected by the pay freezes?

Should I ask if they are willing to negotiate the salary whether they ask about salary expectations or not? (I'd be happy if they gave me what I am on now to start with).

A bit of a muddled post, but any feedback would be good

 

[CLAWS]

Yes, you're likely to be affected by pay freezes. I'd at least ask them to match your current salary.

I was thinking the same but then at the same time if they dont ask me what my salary expectations are, would it be a wise move in asking?

@s0ck - I dont like legal IT. Never liked it. Funny thing is though, everyone here likes me and my manager and the IT Director absolutely love me. I want to do something different so that a few more years down the line I am that much more marketable and therefore wont constantly be pigeon holed in legal IT roles. Its also a case of wanting to progress because where I am, everybody is pretty much set in stone, i.e. been here 14-15 years and therefore wont be leaving anytime soon. My manager has said she'll push to get me involved in projects such as virtualization, office 2010 and windows 7 deployment but she reckons she'll hit a bottle neck with the Technical Operations Team Leader who runs the 3rd line department and is an absolute Twazzack!

@AtticusFinch - Thats exactly what has been playing on my mind. There should be no reason to devalue myself after all the hard work I've put in over the last 4 years.

@vanandjuanunited - Thats actually a scary thought

 

[CLAWS]

Some sound and pretty elamentary advice really from most. I'll go to the interview in any case since Ive got that far.