Plan a career in IT: goal - £100k PA.

I was going to send you a DM @Diddums but doesn't seem to be enabled.

I completely understand your reasoning behind achieving this accolade.

I hope you get there soon! It surprisingly doesn't seem to leave you with that much, but perhaps if you don't have kids then it'll be a boon - though London will suck it out of you! :D

Good luck and go get 'em! :cool:
 
I have been tempted to try the short contract/moonlighting thing but not sure if I'd have time. A friend of a friend does it with data science stuff, in some cases he basically bids for fixed-price contracts as a small consultancy and it's all done around his regular contracting gigs. I don't think he does enough to put things over 400k though, that's still quite a lot unless you're working unholy hours. I do need to speak to him about it again but it sounded like it was more along the lines of an extra 60-80k or so to add to his regular contractor income of circa 200k-ish.

If you actually have a perm/salaried 9-5 then it gets a bit iffy with your employment contract but if you're contracting 9-5 then I don't think there is anything to prevent it/it's none of their business really (any more than a plumber also working on another house etc..) and you can basically just double up like some of the US people on r/Overemployed do (something which you can't really do easily in the UK otherwise thanks to PAYE etc..).
 
Last edited:
Agreed ^^^

Most companies will expect their salaried employees to only work for them - and if not, its likely an omission in their contracts that a competent HR* would be wanting fixed ASAP. There's some (hopefully common sense) leeway e.g. helping friends and family out, but anything paid or consuming lots of time would be an issue. I'm assuming "normal" employment here, not a zero hours contract. Anyone on zero hours should be free to work for whoever they want and whenever they want.


As a contractor, the more gigs the better as its solid evidence when it comes to IR35 disputes with the tax man.

* I'm assured such unicorns exist
 
Diddums said:
I've moved from a mindset of "take what you can get and be grateful" to "I know my value, I know what I can bring to a client and I know where I want to be and how to get there".
Click to expand...
Life, professional life especially, is so much better once you realise a few things :
  1. Employers need you more than you need them
  2. Your relationship with your employer is a contractual one. It's not a 'family' or any of that guff. You don't owe them anything beyond the terms of your employment.
  3. Your job is only as secure as your notice period.
None of which is to say you don't care about your job, or do your utmost to excel and help your company succeed, or that people you work with/for can be great friends....but when people start thinking the relationship with their employer is anything more than contractual, is when people end up unhappy, even exploited.
 
Last edited:
mid_gen said:
Life, professional life especially, is so much better once you realise a few things :
  1. Employers need you more than you need them
  2. Your relationship with your employer is a contractual one. It's not a 'family' or any of that guff. You don't owe them anything beyond the terms of your employment.
  3. Your job is only as secure as your notice period.
None of which is to say you don't care about your job, or do your utmost to excel and help your company succeed....but when people start thinking the relationship with their employer is anything more than contractual, is when people end up unhappy, even exploited.
Click to expand...

I only learnt those lessons over the past five years.
 
Diddums said:
I've just accepted a new role as the technical manager of one of the UK's most prestigious museums (think Ricky Gervais ;))
Click to expand...
FTFY
50743284567_066c0db645_o_d.gif
 
Diddums said:
Just popping in to say I'm still reading this and really appreciate all the input everyone's given, some seriously good insight here and it's made me think twice of where I am career wise and where I want to be.

I've just accepted a new role as the technical manager of one of the UK's most prestigious museums (think Ben Stiller ;)) so I've got my work cut out on that one for a bit, it's far off the £100k target but it's a step in the right direction, and I think with some focus on the more corporate side of my industry (contract management, P&L, etc) I could probably push for the £100k in the next few years.

As for why £100k?

I started in London in 2006 moving furniture for £50 a day. I've pushed myself and am currently on £60k and I want to continue pushing. I have very personal reasons for needing to show up certain people in my history, and to prove to myself that despite having an extremely difficult youth, I'm still able to achieve something, and the proof of that is continuously improving my success levels in life, despite my very challenging youth and lack of education.

It's hard to explain, lets just go with "personal reasons" :p
Click to expand...


Just want to say a massive congratulations and that your bias to action is amazing. So many people want different things in life but the motivation vs. the discomfort of change holds them back and, as we've seen on here many times, nothing then happens. As soon as you start the first steps and realise how much you control it and how it isn't so overwhelmingly hard, you cannot be stopped! Well done and I look forward to seeing you smash that 100k mark, because you totally can.
 
This thread is interesting. I went graduated in computing from an average uni with a 2:2, i pretty much coasted through it so i guess i got what i deserved. I then worked in a few univerities doing admin roles.

My last job was in a college MIS dept where i was reintroduced to SQL, this sparked my interest again so i did a Python udemy course in which i'm in the process of completing In the meantime i did get another job as data analysis in November 2021, i put off the python course for the first 6 months of that job as i found this job quite demanding. I had to level up my excel skills and learned some power query/VBA. I resumed the python course after about 6 months or so and i'm doing a captstone project for it(doctor/patient booking programme). I will put this and a couple of other mini projects that i have in mind on github.

I do like analysis work and having learned python i'm wondering do i look for another role where i can use python skills for data analysis or do i go the junior developer route with it. I'm on 30k at the moment and the job is based in London but i live on the SE London/Kent border so the money is ok, but i'd like to be on 40k in the next 5 years or so.
 
Last edited:
You can do this. I've got no technical background; I was a Sales Trainer prior to getting into Salesforce in 2019 (I had good exposure through a long term implementation of Salesforce internally)

I was on £29k as a Sales Trainer, moved to my first role as a Salesforce Consultant with a Salesforce Partner on £45k. Increased to £50k after 6 months.
Increased to £60k and promoted to a managerial position after 1 year.
Further incremental increases to £72k over the following couple of years.
Changed jobs this week to a new company in a different country on £80k but with significantly less responsibility than my previous job.
Aiming for 100k in the next 3 years, and it doesn't feel miles out of reach.

I was 18 grand in debt when I started the new job in 2019, I have paid all that off and have now got a healthy wodge of savings.

I am not a coder, and I am not an IT guy - I am 60% business/process and 40% technical, and the technical stuff I do is all declarative (clicks and settings, not raw code)

If I was still living in the UK I think I would be on 100k by the end of this year with one company change - but the market here in Austria is not as mature, and salaries in the sector are generally not as good as they are in the UK, Germany and Switzerland.
 
Last edited:
It would be interesting to know which verticals you big hitting BDM's are operating in?

Coming out of owning my own business after 7 years, it seems likely I'm going to fall into an account director, strategic account manager type role as it's where I'm more comfortable but the salaries don't seem to have progressed much, at least north of the border. I sell/plan/manage enterprise-level technical solutions for retail with some big brands on the books.
 
I've shared my path in the past but it might help, too.

I was headhunting in london in 2008 at 23 earning 35k a year when I was made redundant in the financial crisis.
No one wanted headhunters, so I thought I would start in IT. I had always built my own computers and stuff but never thought about working in IT. I Got a public sector service desk job for 15k PA in 2008 at 23.
I worked every night learning and during the day I busted my ass and took on more and more at work. I was promoted within 6 months to 18k (woo)but also started to take on project work, and they offered training so I went on a 2 week boot camp to do my MCITP EA (as it was at the time, MCSE I think it is normally)
In 2009 I got a job working for a small IT consultancy who subbed me out to clients all around cambridge and kept learning every night. I was on 27k at 24
2010 and I was offered the opportunity to take either a 5k pay rise from my boss or a contract they had on 195 a day sys admin. My boss knew I was hungry to earn more and didn't think the 5k would keep me but had just promoted someone who had been there a year longer so said politically it was hard but here's another offer. He had gone contract early and so I rolled the dice. This took me to about 50k.
2011 I was in France and had known that my contract was not forever so was throwing my CV out to random places. One in Basel. I got a call asking if I could go to interview. I was about a 3hr drive away in france, so was like why not. Missed my fligth the next day had to get another, but after 6hr of interviews they offered me the contract. 500 a day / 126k a year
2012-2017 - I increased my rate over the next few years to max out at 100 an hour, and think my best year with overtime and everything I did 220k but I really wasn't enjoying what I was doing to be fair.
Lost my contract in 2018 and it was actually a bit of a relief. I took a couple of months off and then ended up getting a contract as an application service manager for 640 a day. Wasn't as much but it was a super easy job. In the meantime it allowed me to do my own stuff I had been working on since 2014. I carried on launching my own products and doing the easy contact until 2020.
2020 I got sent a job for the AD product excellence and head of product operations FTE role and I was fed up of chasing contracts and wanted to do something more inline with what I love. Product. Negotiated a 150k base and 15% bonus.
2022 increases have taken me to just over 160k base and still my 15% bonus. I don't actually want the Director promotion :cry: I get flexi time as an AD and it gives me about 3 more weeks holiday a year and realised that quality of life beats money over a certain point.

That's pretty much my history of getting into IT to today
 
I think once you are "comfortable" (this can mean wildly different things to different people - to me it means I can afford to live normally, take holidays where I want without being beserk, being able to buy things I fancy within reason, not feeling sick if a chunky bill for something hits the doormat) then extra money is just a treat.
Once I'd cleared my debts, living on my own in the UK on 60k definitely felt comfortable to me - maybe not so much if I lived in London.
 
I completely agree. I think an age hit me where it was time vs. money (well, time, stress, lack of freedom etc) and you do have to get to a point and age I think to feel this, but it was like meh, I'll take the freedom and flexibility over 50k more. But I completely understand that this comes post comfortable point.

I have a couple of things to clear now post separation, which I'm trying to do very quickly, so afterwards I'll be beyond comfortable and keep ramping up my investments at the same time. I never want to retire and do less. More time = more time for fun!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom