Average Placement Year Wage?

MercilessKiller

Hey

I'm about to start looking for a placement year for next year. Not sure if its too early and if employers will ignore me but hey, will give it a try.

Either way I want to know the average wage. My old high school says it pays between £11k and £15k for a junior IT Technician depending on age and qualifications. I've done a CISCO IT Essentials course though and they know me very well.

Advice would be much appreciated I'm doing a network computing degree but for my year out looking for IT Technician or 1st and 2nd line support.. sound good?

ta

CM86_2

I was offered £8.5-9k, but that was for a placement in the media, and they're rare as hen's teeth!

DrFluffy

My placement year paid £16K - that was back in 1997.

greyster

I was on 9k working for the MOD.

What you are being offered sounds perfectly reasonable. I did BSc (Hons) Computer Systems and Networks as my undergrad and thats most people on my course got. The upper limit if I remember was someone working for Ford on 16k and I was probably on the lowest, out of those who actually got a placement.

I can't stress this enough but you really should be concerned about how much experience you will get on this placement. I'd rather work for free on a good placement than earn 15k+ on one which will not give me 'an edge' when applying for jobs after uni. Employers really want experience (catch22 for students).

molit

I think when I did mine - 9 years and 7 years ago, the guide was generally 150-225 a week, however, in one of the 2 cases I got a nice bonus on top of that. Not sure how much the ones at work are now paid, but think its around the 11k to 12k mark. Agree with the other posters about making sure that you are getting good quality experience, but dont let this narrow your search too tightl, i completed one placement in an economics/finance area (I'm a scientist by trade) and think that this has probably added more to my experience, than doing a very conventional scientific reseach role.

Certainly do do one because it makes getting a job so much easier, but I found it put me off wanting to do further study, as I discovered I liked being able to buy things.

MercilessKiller

Surely IT Technician for a year is very good experience. I dont think it is classed as commerical, technical in a school? But practically I'd get a LOAD of work to do

Plus i know the head tech guy and he'll def work me hard lol

Sillychuckie

I got an IT placement (software developer) a few years back.
Got £13,500 for it, and the company is a huge one that you'd all know.
I wouldnt expect much more than that, but the experience is what matters.
I jumped straight into a grad job and my final year was an absolute breeze thanks to all I had learned on the placement.
Don't let salary cloud your judgement, go for what is best in the long run (future prospects etc).

tweek_2

I know a lucky git who is getting 32k for a placement year at an investment bank doing IT. Weird thing is, he wasn't the best performer academically, looking to get a 2-2 from an average university. So it's worth a look!

And before you ask, he wasn't lying, I've seen his contract!

Ian85

I've just finished my placement year and was on about £16k. When I was looking for placements (2004/05), they seemed to pay from about £11-17k pa.

I reckon that I'd go for the placement that seems to offer the best prospects/varied work etc and is similar to your course, rather than the best paid one.

anewman

Well I do know one story about placement year wages. A friend did his placement year in Germany. One day, out of the blue, a student (from the same university) who was going to go there next year called him - to ask about the company he was working at. The student asked him if x euros was enough to live on. This was twice the amount he got and he was understandably very unimpressed.

rhig

I would want at least 15k in your position but a good placement is obviously more important. Junior IT Technician for a school is a very low position, even for a placement student. Even network managers for schools are rarely graduates, or very skilled, virtually all of the technical side is dealt with by the network supplier the school lease from, (usually RM).

As a technician you will probably spend most of your time rebuilding computers from automatic bootable CDs and installing a few printer cartridges. IMHO the best computing placements are for junior programmers, even for people planning to be network administrators as you will be developing a skill useful to anyone in the industry.

If you do go for a placement find an IT department in a mid-large company or an IT company, you will be challenged far more and will get some contacts and maybe a job for after university.

I don’t mean to sound patronising but being a school technician should be left to the BTEC crowd, it will also reflect badly on you after graduation. You will probably have little experience to work with finding a job and employers will think you copped out of getting a more challenging job or couldn’t get one.