The 5 year plan to £50k
- Thread starter FoxEye
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He bought a cat.
Well as of this morning I signed on the dotted line for my new role, and that should see me safely over £50k. Ironic that I've ended up doing what I first envisaged when I started my apprenticeship 6-7 years ago, but gave up the hope of it due to downturn in industry and staff cuts left, right and centre! Hard work, perseverance and not being afraid to stick your head above water works!
I've gone from 37k to 40k to 43k to 58k (inclusive of car allowance) in the last five years. Surprised myself !
Soldato
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Kinda on topic, anyone got any surefire tips on negotiating starting salary? I’ve got an offer on the table but it’s approx £4K under what I was initially looking for. I don’t want to make the move at less than this and their opening suggestion has been a reduction in max bonus by 5% for an increase of £2k. (Ie still 2k short and I don’t want a trade off on bonus). Any ideas without sounding too stubborn? Salary surveys suggest the going rate can be north of £10k more than their offer so I don’t think I’m being unrealistic.
Just tell them. You seem to have already communicated something back to them to cause them to come back with another unsatisfactory offer? What did you say to them when you started negotiating? Did you leave it unclear or can they not budge any further? Because if I'd gone back to someone and said I'd want more money in order to move and they came back with a new offer that didn't really change anything aside from distribute some of the potential variable comp into a higher base salary then I'd likely just say no thank you.
Don't be afraid to walk away, if they're not offering the amount you want/believe you can get and you're otherwise employed then turn them down and apply for other roles. If the market rate is as you believe then you should get it elsewhere, if on the other hand you get multiple offers more like the one you turned down then you've perhaps made a mistake in your assumption re: how much you can get paid for the role.
Don't be afraid to walk away, if they're not offering the amount you want/believe you can get and you're otherwise employed then turn them down and apply for other roles. If the market rate is as you believe then you should get it elsewhere, if on the other hand you get multiple offers more like the one you turned down then you've perhaps made a mistake in your assumption re: how much you can get paid for the role.
Soldato
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As above. Hold your ground, don't be paid less than you're happy with.
Just say you're really interested in the role and would love to work for the company but don't want to start with bad feeling on either side - if their compensation structure is so far out line with your expectations it's never going to work long term.
If they're just playing the game they'll make make a realistic offer, if that's just their salary structure, lucky escape.
If they're just playing the game they'll make make a realistic offer, if that's just their salary structure, lucky escape.
Soldato
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Well they've come back with +2k at the original bonus rate (so no trade off). Still 2k below what I asked for.
So you asked for £4k extra and they only gave you £2k extra? Hold your ground or like @dowie said, don't be afraid to walk away. Is there anything in your mind that could help you to justify not receiving this additional £2k (to make up £4k)?
Soldato
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Yep... the agency don't think they can get any higher and that the offer is competitive with the market (although I never trust what they say).
I said today I'd accept now if they gave the extra £2k but nothing came of that yet and I said I'd consider the offer over the weekend.
Eh, depends where you work I guess.
For me I have a lot of responsibility at 2nd line and I actively work with senior IT on bigger projects, along with the day to day stuff as part of my role. I've only been in IT for a little over a year, but I've moved up pretty fast.
I wish you luck on your goal, but a strong drive and not throwing money away will get you there quicker than 5 years.
Shut up. Shut up shut up shut up.
I had some. Sold them. ArrrrrrgshdfgHGJHAGLAJKG.
I had to LOL at this.
I'm glad I can laugh at myself tho. Thoroughly deserved in this instance.
Tbh I don't post in this thread anymore as it seems to be helping others achieve their own ambitions, and that's great. I don't want to bring the tone down
All joking aside, it might be interesting both for you and your audience to understand why you gave up on this plan, and if you have a new plan going forward. Were you too ambitious? Too inflexible? Do you have other issues that impacted on your ability to execute? Was the advice given in this thread wrong, or just too hard for you to follow?Tbh I don't post in this thread anymore as it seems to be helping others achieve their own ambitions, and that's great. I don't want to bring the tone down
If I gave you a simple answer, it would be the wrong answer.
I guess like just about everybody else, my reasons are complex; a mixture of fears, hopes, conflicting desires, insecurity. It would be easy to point and say, "He's too lazy to..." or something along those lines. The trouble is I'm internally conflicted about just about everything. Nothing is every simple.
I don't even understand myself a lot of the time. Some of my ideas are only half-formed and fleeting. These rarely amount to anything.
Why does anyone do what they do? For the most trivial of actions you could probably give a simple, accurate answer. "I ate that doughnut because I saw it and it looked good." "But I didn't eat the second because I'm going to a party tonight and I want to watch my figure." "But actually I nearly did eat it because my willpower let me down." "But then I remembered a promise I made to my Dad and..."
What I'm trying to get at in a very roundabout kind of way is that there is no simple answer for why I'm not sitting on £50k or shooting up the wealth ladder.
Maybe I'm not capable? Maybe I'm not clever enough. Maybe I'm not driven enough. Maybe I'm too soft.
Maybe I'm not the kind of person I thought I was?
Maybe my priorities aren't even set in stone. Maybe my priorities aren't concrete because I have so few responsibilities that I can go whichever way the wind blows. Or maybe that's because I'm too stupid/apathetic.
I can't give you a simple answer. I don't have a clear picture myself.
That probably wasn't the answer you wanted
Is that a genuine question? Think about when I started and tell me that's a genuine question, not a dig (because you expect I will have failed completely)
honestly even most people who were adamant about them being the next best thing would have sold them when they made a bit of money... very few people who bought in early actually made huge sums - when their investment of a few quid (or time/electricity spent mining a few coins) made a few thousand they cashed them in. Obviously one poster on here has made decent money though some of that is from active trading I believe rather than simply buying and holding from near the beginning.
Soldato
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Update:
So, having decided I could do without the additional 2k, I verbally accepted the role.
Had the contract through email today, turns out it's a 37.5 working hours (9-5:30)... I've had several London (city) roles over the years and have only ever seen 9-5 (35 hours), so hadn't even thought to ask this.
So in effect makes this 7% less of an offer once you factor in the additional hours.
I imagine i'm going to look faintly ridiculous if I go back and question this now? In my experience you never work purely your contracted hours anyway (I totally expect to be doing well over the contracted hours, as I do often currently, accountancy if anyone's wondering), but this being within the contract has rubbed me up the wrong way somewhat.
I thought 35 hours was/is the norm for city based accountancy roles...
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