Taking a 4k pay cut

You choice of course, but given you were considering taking a £4k pay cut it seemed reasonable to assume you had sufficient money available. The rates of return are so extraordinarily high that it seems bonkers to ignore them, to the extent that even paying down debt is probably a worse option in the majority of cases. The ISA funds may be accessible as well I guess(?) were you to need to call on it.

Congratulations on the new job, btw :)
 
I pay 2.5k out in child maintenance and also it's a 50 mile round trip so although I could and would sacrifice 4k I would have really struggled on 20k but obviously it would be a necessary sacrifice. The shares you need to keep in 3 years before you can remove or 5 years to be tax free. The ISA Im not sure on how long you have to keep your savings in before withdrawing but they match up to 3% that goes directly into the pension pot.

I agree the rates are generously high and I'd love to max it out but 25% from 5.5% is a good start. In a couple years when my pay increases I could max my contributions to 11.5% = 33%.
Actually just read again and I can't join the share scheme until a year so I may as well go on the platinum until then.

Thank you :)
 
Congrats on the post. My ears pricked up when you mentioned CMMs. Production/Manufacturing Engineer here (7 1/2 years), might be able to be of some use if you've got any questions, or just want a chat/opinions on things.
 
Fusion said:
Congrats on the post. My ears pricked up when you mentioned CMMs. Production/Manufacturing Engineer here (7 1/2 years), might be able to be of some use if you've got any questions, or just want a chat/opinions on things.
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Thank you for the offer. Seems like there is a wealth of engineers on this forum :)

Yeah I used to use and program Delcam, now Autodesks PowerInspect with a Faro-arm, and also operated a large flat-bed CMM machine on a grantite bed using PC-DMIS, but only gained basic internal training on that, and never really cared to learn much of it. I did not want to be stuck in that position of knowing too much in terms of CMM considering I already felt trapped in quality due to the Faro-arm; plus from what I read on forums I'd see veterans on there asking for help so it seemed a pretty complex package to bother learning that in a few years would be of no use.
 
Jonnybmac said:
Thank you for the offer. Seems like there is a wealth of engineers on this forum :)

Yeah I used to use and program Delcam, now Autodesks PowerInspect with a Faro-arm, and also operated a large flat-bed CMM machine on a grantite bed using PC-DMIS, but only gained basic internal training on that, and never really cared to learn much of it. I did not want to be stuck in that position of knowing too much in terms of CMM considering I already felt trapped in quality due to the Faro-arm; plus from what I read on forums I'd see veterans on there asking for help so it seemed a pretty complex package to bother learning that in a few years would be of no use.
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Used to work for a big leader in metrology who made indexing heads, probes, styli, the works. Didn't really do a deal of CMM Programming myself, but had to use them plenty of times for inspection. You can get pigeon holed a bit if you become known as the "CMM/Inspection" guy! So many different paths in Engineering you can take though.
 
Fusion said:
Used to work for a big leader in metrology who made indexing heads, probes, styli, the works. Didn't really do a deal of CMM Programming myself, but had to use them plenty of times for inspection. You can get pigeon holed a bit if you become known as the "CMM/Inspection" guy! So many different paths in Engineering you can take though.
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Wasn't Manchester Met was it? We got most of our probes etc from there. Lost a few miss hanging the arm on the magnet and it would swing down and crack the tip :eek:.

That's pretty much the case especially since it was only really me and another guy, who really had no interest to learn so became me as the go to guy and all the weight of the department.
 
Jonnybmac said:
Wasn't Manchester Met was it?
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I'd never heard of them tbh until you mentioned them! They look like a reseller/applications specialist, my old firm designed and manufactured the hardware and are a large company. Had some very big orders, such as for Foxconn, who would ramp up to produce the latest Apple devices in China. Nice partnership to have :)
 
To be honest i presumed they made stuff themselves as they had their name on parts but it was probably just engraved and reselling.

CMM is the future of inspection now mind, especially the laser trackers - they still need development to be more accurate mind but it's nearly there.
 
£20k is what entry level grade 4 admin staff are paid at councils, that's with 15% employer pension contributions and 42 days holiday.
 
I took a 4k pay cut to move from a 1st line to a 2nd line support role (at another firm). I chose the move as the 2nd line job gets me real world experience in writing SQL to find, alter, add and delete date from large production databases on behalf of customers. I feel there is more opportunity to grow (I'm allowed to take c# courses in my down time in the office) as the form like to see 2nd lien support as a step into development.

Yes my last job was easy (28k in the north east for picking up the phone to end users), but I was getting bored after 7 years. The challenge has been worth it in my mind.
 
Syla5 said:
So, how is it going? All good I hope!
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Dream job; keep having to pinch myself to ask if it's real. Days have just flown by and I've actually stopped back each night because I wanted to.

Flexi time so I don't even have to say when I come in or leave I just turn up so long as its between 9:30 and 4.

Today I've had training by printing off an old design of a job, that I was asked to then sketch new ideas on top before drawing them up in CAD which I did.

Pretty simple design and task really but has took me all day although there has been no pressure so far, just trying to be creative but also keeping it as simple as possible.

Hopefully my workflow and thought process improves and I become more efficient, it's scary but exciting, as everyone around me seems so much more clued up - but it's a level I can set myself to achieve hopefully, though I have a lot of learning to do.

Also found out my pension is different to what I initially thought. Its not 3% = 17.5% and 6% = 22.5%, it's actually their contribution so 3% = 20.5% and 6% = 28.5% which I think is insane.

Thanks for asking by the way.
 
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Jonnybmac said:
Dream job; keep having to pinch myself to ask if it's real. Days have just flown by and I've actually stopped back each night because I wanted to.

Flexi time so I don't even have to say when I come in or leave I just turn up so long as its between 9:30 and 4.

Today I've had training by printing off an old design of a job, that I was asked to then sketch new ideas on top before drawing them up in CAD which I did.

Pretty simple design and task really but has took me all day although there has been no pressure so far, just trying to be creative but also keeping it as simple as possible.

Hopefully my workflow and thought process improves and I become more efficient, it's scary but exciting, as everyone around me seems so much more clued up - but it's a level I can set myself to achieve hopefully, though I have a lot of learning to do.

Also found out my pension is different to what I initially thought. Its not 3% = 17.5% and 6% = 22.5%, it's actually their contribution so 3% = 20.5% and 6% = 28.5% which I think is insane.

Thanks for asking by the way.
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Glad to hear everything is going well and sorry for dragging up an old thread. Just wanted to echo what others have offered here, I'm a Design Engineer for a small engine company so if you need any advice on SolidWorks/drafting/etc feel free to give me a shout and I'll do my best to help.
 
Always take as much as you can re employer pension contributions!

Even if it leaves you tight in the short term - decent graduate engineer schemes like this one sounds like will have regular pay reviews where you can expect 10%+ + “cost of living” increases on a yearly basis so your income will increase quite quickly if you do well.
 
Thank you both for the advise it seems there's a wealth of engineers in this place that are all happy to offer assistance. My boss is pretty keen on passing down information. He sets an hour a week for a technical talk of choice where everyone sits down to discuss a subject. I got tasked choice and chose fasteners, as the broad range of different fasteners available to choose from scares me in knowing the ideal fastener.

My work has been scrutinised to the nth degree also, checking my tolerance allowances and even the presentation of my drawings with dimension spacing and to link dimensions in the same view for the difference processes i.e dimensions to cut out a pocket all in one view.
 
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