Those with jobs in IT, reasonable salary?

hobo28

Have you worked out your salary including the company car/fuel tax? It can work out to be a lot. Esp. if your salary is £15k.

What sort of firm is it? You say you're going to be a field technician. Doing what? If your going out just fixing hardware then your unlikely to get much networking experience. A mixture of networking/software and hardware is the best.

If you're single, no ties & kids then it might be worth it to survive for a year IF you are definately going to get the right experience.

At the end of the day, there's no real definition of "qualified". I was one of the first MCSE's in the UK. It meant something back then. Now they're two a penny. Don't even look now when I'm interviewing and I haven't been bothered to update my MCSE. No-one's asked either.

The people I find who do the best are those who have a genuine interest in computers and all things shiny. If your the type of person who can spend all day in front of a PC then come home to a marathon World of Warcraft/Battlefield session then you'll be fine.

the_grey_lantern

I'm just about to complete a masters and graduated from an undergraduate degree with a 1st last year. I was worried about having no industry experience but I've had several job offers as a software engineer in London starting on at least £25,000.

The IT industry is massive and I guess your salary depends on which sector you're in, your location, qualifications, and experience.

Good luck.

nej

£15k + car (make sure you get the cheapest available one, or possibly even a van) in the North, with zero experience as a trainee isn't horrendous. Yes, you could possibly go and get some other job paying more, but without the prospects.

If they are going to train you then I'd say go for it. In the long-run it should be worth it, espcially if you can get some "qualifications" such as Cisco out of it.

Are they tying you in for any length of time? I.e. if you leave before x years do you have to repay any training costs?

nearlyrich

pault123 wrote:

"and I get 11p per business mile for diesel."

So you pay for the diesel yourself and get reimbursed in your pay at the end of the month?

Not quite, I pay for all the fuel using a cashback credit card then claim business mileage on my expenses (which I try to do once per month, although company policy is you can do an expense claim as often as once a week.) The expenses are paid by bacs into my bank account and so don't get mixed up with my wages etc.

Astaroth

With my employers we dont get any set benefits (other than discounts off of our own products) but can spend our salary on optional benefits like a company car or pension or child care vouchers etc.

With my car I pay £512 a month to lease the vehicle as a non-company car for 2 year lease where as to get it as a company car would be £494.00 from my gross salary plus £297 BIK tax (both include full servicing/ insurance etc)

I personally have moved around the country a fair amount over the last few years (and so have many of my friends) so when I am out and about in the UK there is almost always someone I know near by which I take the opportunity to see whilst the company are paying for me to be there. I dont mind being away a couple of nights a week but dont want to be away 4 nights a week every week. The majority of my team have come from a consultancy background where typically you get a good wage but often work 60+hrs a week and so your good wage becomes a great wage because the company pays for food/ transport etc and you are just too damned knackered to do anything when you arent actually at work so all the wages goes into savings (though of cause you dont have a life either)

£15k does sound a little on the low side even for someone with no experience if they intend to throw you out onto the road after training (which the company car suggests they will). Would be different if you were going to be doing an office roll for 6-12months after doing training to get you the experience before having to stand in front of customers.

Nesima

pault123 wrote:

Hi,

I have been offered a job as a mobile field technician. Company car, laptop etc. :beer:

They will fully train me from the ground up in networking, and their software package.

The job requires a lot of time on the road, and overnight stays. What would be the minimum salary you would expect me to be offered?

What amount per year would you class as too little, what amount reasonable, and what amount probably quite generous as I have no qualifications?

I don't want to reveal just yet what ive been offered, just trying to get a feel first off you guys what you would expect? / offer a trainee?

I work in IT and recruit staff for a PLC.

Given you have no qualifications and they are going to train you up i.e. make you a trained, qualified and experienced person I think a starting salary of £16 - £18k would be about right.

Once you have proved yourself and your worth they should give you a significant pay rise (perhaps after 6 months), because they want to retain you and see a return on their investment.

The company car, laptop and mobile phone are not perks they are simply tools of your job. Never let any employer try and say they are part of your benefits.

Company cars are still very good value for most people, I pay £230 per month for a VW Passat, the cost include all fuel (business & private) and all other expenses. When you pick the car you want choose something with low CO2 emissions and a moderate price (£15k - £20k), this will minimise the tax cost.

Good Luck.