What salary bracket are you in?

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Yeah, I worked for a school and had the same thing. You've got to be careful what time of year you hand in your notice because it could work out you've done more work than you've been paid for that year but if you hand it in so you leave at the end of the summer holidays, you just had six weeks pay for doing nothing .

 

I made £17,300 basic in my last job, I was there for 5 years having started on £12,500.

I think in the UK at the moment there is such a gap between wages and cost of living that it makes things very hard. My brother was a care assistant making about 8k per year and paid off his morgage in 12 years..now days that kind of salary wouldnt get you anywhere on the property ladder.

I hate to say it but the only way I can see myself getting a house is either : a) property crash b) lottery win and c) inheritace.

 

I've been in the IT industry for 2 weeks and I'm starting out on 21K, going up to 22K when I complete my 3 months probation.

Quite a jammy start if I do say so myself!!

 

Ermmm, I don't know really!

I'm working for a small company that's expanding loads at the moment and they're heavily reliant on their IT dept. A lot of the interview was about 'me' as a person and how I work with others, as apposed to my skills and qualifications etc.

I think they also realised they had a big gap when it came to looking after their network and hardware. I don't think the job was originally advertised as systems administration but more of a user support role.

I guess I must have made them realise that they needed me! I must say I have hit the ground running and been kept extremely busy!

 

This is a hard one - my salary has gone up and down depending on what I've done.

When I've been contracting, I've obviously been paid more - when I was a DBA I was on £22ph - started on £12, then every three months when they renewed the contract I asked for some more until I got to the heady heights of about 800 quid a week.

Most of my 'salaried' roles have been around the 25-27 mark, but I've never done 1st or 2nd line support - its always been at a more senior level.

In fact, I'm walking talking living proof that you can earn good money and get a sys admin/network admin role without first line experience! I realise, however, that I'm probably the exception to the rule...

Currently earning £29k, but am moving to a new job in the next six weeks or so where the pay is arounf £36.5k.

I think if you live in London, there is absolutely no way you can be 'comfortable' on your own and live in a reasonably decent place on less than £35k a year. I'm lucky enough to be married - our household has a combined income of about £50k a year and we still live in what I consider to be a shithole!

 

I think alot of it depends on the sector and area... I do a 3rd line technical role for a district council and earn around 22k.

Now for the area thats really good and compared to similar IT positions it is good as well, but when you look at house prices and living costs it makes you reflect how that it isn't all that!

Recently we had a contractor in to fill a 2 month void, and i found out he earns about 40k per year contracting as nothing more than a box shifter.

So next year i'm looking to move into the contracting field so my earnings could double, so i suppose its all a matter of perspective and making the right move.

I've found crap people who move often end up earning more than good people who a loyal. Just the way of the world i suppose!

 

Alot of valid points raised here, as Matt says above moving alot can have its benefits on your salary, but too much gets noticed and can hamper progression (people dont want to hire people if they see they cant stay in one play for too long), Personally I feel any talented IT folk should be on more than 25k in london, but maybe i just got lucky, most of my friends are on the 26k mark but have no where near the experience I do (they went and did those degree things, which while very beneficial cut out about five years real world experiance) one of the guys I know who does have experiance is on 250 a day contracting in the financial sector, and will move to a 50kpa perm position with them, the work however is very basic, his last role was managing user accounts for a large investment bank and he earnt about the same, great money but on more than one occasion he has considered leaving IT because its 'boring', heh go figure

I have a funny pay structure now as I get a basic salary as well as some comission, however the majority is still in my basic (over 50kpa) with upwards of 15k o.t.e (on target earnings) which are uncapped so i could burn the candle at both ends and make a killing, my last freelance consultancy days raked in over £450 a day to boot

Had i stuck it out in the same place for years this would not likely be the picture i paint, however I dont advise everyone start looking for new jobs every year to up there salary, I've found i have exhausted most the options for me in certain roles very fast and moved about a fair bit because of it, like i said it does have its downsides though

What it comes down to is experience and ambition, I see a lot of talented people on here who will definatly go far if they have ambition, but it's not an over night thing (remember I have a pretty hefty ammount of experience for a 24 year old in IT)

At the end of the day it's just as much about job satisfaction as it is about salary, I'm at a point in my career where I can afford to be a little choosey about who I work for and I will walk out on a company that I feel doesnt maintain professional conduct (the kind that say they will do anything just to seal a deal then struggle sending underskill staff to do it for instance, very cowboyish) but I love the work I do, and thats far more important to me than making more dosh, it's important to enjoy waking up in the morning

 

Hi Ryan,

Do you mind if ask how you've progressed so far in IT at a young age?

Is it primariliy because you took the gamble of working in the City and gaining experience there? Obviously not to mention knowing your stuff!!

I only ask because i'm 25, 7 years full time experience, a whole host of qualifications and a wide ranging skill set - my problem is one minute i'm giving myself a hard time because i feel i should be achieving more but on the other hand i look at myself compared to other people i know and i'm way ahead.

I do have a plan - at the end of next summer (when i'm on a sure financial footing) i plan to do a bit of contracting and maybe working in a city while i'm still only 26... but part of me says sod it and do it now!!

I guess i've just out grown the roles i've been doing and feel with the amount of work i do and the quality i produce i should be earning more??

Sorry guys just guess i'm venting!!

 

Well Matt,
I'll try and explain, but to be honest sometimes even I'm not sure, I know im really good at what I do, but I never used to have that confidence

When I started out I was real young, my first IT job stemmed from my work experiance at 14, so i got a nice early start to my career, i knew early on that my age would go against me, so I did some certs (MCSE, A+, N+ all before i was 16) and i got a lucky break with a guy I met at the netcafe doing contracting, got some nice names on my CV despite the fact the work wasnt all that challanging (in the City, the names count as much as the work does), I got a lucky break with my first investment bank job too, i had been out of work for almost 12 months at that point, used the time to get my CCNA, CCDA, CCNP and CCDP (already had cisco experiance but no qualifications) and that opened up plenty of doors for me
The benefit of working in a wide variety of places is the myriad of skills you pick up along the way, I have a page on my CV that lists core skills and technologies I have used, supported, etc and i seriously can't fit another word on the page (i've actually dropped a few things I consider non essential on it to boot)

that level of experiance and diversity of skills is whats opened the doors to so many different roles (and the level at which the role sits) for example my current role is that of Senior Consultant and i'm the youngest person on the team, i'm actually younger than some of our engineers who sit in the 15 - 20k bracket

Qualifications and Experiance are not all that it takes though, im ambitious and passionate about IT and it keeps me on my toes, and on the bleeding edge, this exposure enhances my understanding of future trends and upcoming tech and that sets me apart from many of the folks i work with, very view have the intricate level of understanding of technology that I do and it makes it that much harder to marry that tech to business situations, this is apparant to my clients and my employers and its what gets you a good reputation and a brilliant reference

Love what you do, then do what you love

Hope that helps

 

So when are you going to upgrade that MCSE Ryan? Not getting slow in your old age are you?

 

He has been wearing his Christmas hat since last Christmas - prob the grey hair and bald patch showing!

 

you betcha

without trying to go too far off topic, my current role isn't as ms focused as it once was and i'm busy with VMWare and NetApp certs at the moment so its not top of the list, I want to get the new one before i start on my MCAP though