The Trouble With Gen Y

cats_ahoy

BillJones wrote: »

When I left academia in the mid-90s my professor was on about £30k. I was getting £6k to carry out my research. I started on £40k with zero experience when I moved away.

Even £60k, though, is very small compared to what the same person can earn outside.

Wow 6K is very little, I'm guessing it was a PhD stipend? They are now at around £13-14K tax free, but to say you are still technically a student, it is quite a lot, and much more than minimum wage. And will only ever be for 3-4 years, then you get a real tax paying job after it.

BillJones wrote: »

Compared to what, though? My colleagues who stayed at CERN did "well", but on a tenth of what banking paid at the same time.

I see jobs at CERN these days go for quite a lot (a quick google search says ~8000 swiss francs a month starting salary for degree educated), and in the grand scheme of things compared to the average wage in this country that is a lot!

[Deleted User]

BillJones wrote: »

When I left academia in the mid-90s my professor was on about £30k. I was getting £6k to carry out my research. I started on £40k with zero experience when I moved away.

Even £60k, though, is very small compared to what the same person can earn outside.

I left academia for the private sector, after a 2 year stint (ended up as a non-PhD Research Fellow) and within 6 years was earning the same salary as a prof.

Academic salaries are low for the capabilities required; and you can fly much higher outside of it. Not only that, but it's a treacherous career path for many.

I miss academic conferences though

cats_ahoy

ringo_24601 wrote: »

I left academia for the private sector, after a 2 year stint (ended up as a non-PhD Research Fellow) and within 6 years was earning the same salary as a prof.

Academic salaries are low for the capabilities required; and you can fly much higher outside of it. Not only that, but it's a treacherous career path for many.

I miss academic conferences though

Conferences are great fun! Especially the ones with free food and drinks

Even though industry pays a lot more than academia, I still think academia pays a lot compared to other jobs in the UK (I am 25, a lot of people I know from school are on minimum wage/part time jobs, so the academic wages of £30K+ seem a lot compared to that).

I agree with academia being treacherous, but there are some people I know who would do anything to stay in it!

[Deleted User]

Thankfully, we now have a monthly 'knowledge share' at work, where we listen to presentations and then have a free dinner + booze up

My issue with academia is that it is a bit like the army.. it 'trains' you up to be good at stuff for academia, but it can be quite hard to break out to 'civvy' life

I enjoyed my time there, but i've got my sights set on earning £80k+ before i'm forty and that just wouldn't happen working for a uni

cats_ahoy

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Thankfully, we now have a monthly 'knowledge share' at work, where we listen to presentations and then have a free dinner + booze up

My issue with academia is that it is a bit like the army.. it 'trains' you up to be good at stuff for academia, but it can be quite hard to break out to 'civvy' life

I enjoyed my time there, but i've got my sights set on earning £80k+ before i'm forty and that just wouldn't happen working for a uni

£80K+, would that be in the finance/banking industry? Academia is its own little world, and a lot of the time you have to work in different countries for years, with no guarantee of a permanent job at the end of it.

I just want to get a full time job and work on paying my mortgage off.

BillJones

cats_ahoy wrote: »

I see jobs at CERN these days go for quite a lot (a quick google search says ~8000 swiss francs a month starting salary for degree educated), and in the grand scheme of things compared to the average wage in this country that is a lot!

Yes, about £65k per year. Certainly not bad (although not great in Geneva), but still a fair amount less than those people could expect to earn as an accountant, lawyer, doctor or banker.

tincans

Generali wrote: »

AIUI, the boom in property ownership was really down to Right to Buy. Until then barely half of Britons owned their homes.

The boom in property ownership starts after WW2 and predates right to buy.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census-analysis/a-century-of-home-ownership-and-renting-in-england-and-wales/short-story-on-housing.html

50% owned their own home by 1971, and this peaked at 69% in 2001.

It fell to 64% in 2011 and probably has fallen again a little since.

It's pretty simple, most people want a job, a home, a partner and a bit of hope.

Nothing to be celebrated in the fact that home ownership is going backwards with more and more people enjoying the 'flexibility' of 6 months tenancies and zero hour contracts.

[Deleted User]

cats_ahoy wrote: »

£80K+, would that be in the finance/banking industry? Academia is its own little world, and a lot of the time you have to work in different countries for years, with no guarantee of a permanent job at the end of it.

I just want to get a full time job and work on paying my mortgage off.

No, IT.. I fancy eventually becoming a solution architect. I should really go self employed, as wages can go up to £100k, but I've not got the balls to do it

High salaries aren't the preserve of banking and finance!

Good luck in the hunt of a perminant academic job!

GeorgeHowell

Some people apparently think that the Boomers live in 5 bedroom properties and begrudge young people an i-Phone.

There are not many 5+ bedroom properties out there, so that's unlikely.

Many older people sport a smart phone these days, not necessarily a i-Phone because they are not so susceptible to Apple's marketing as the young seem to be. They can hardly begrudge the young an i-Phone.

Some young people however appear to have to possess the very latest version of the i-Phone as soon as it hits the market, likewise the i-Pad and Macbook, with all the up front and ongoing cost that entails. Fine if they can easily afford it. But to live that lifestyle and then bemoan not being able to afford their own property is nonsensical thinking.

Anyone who thinks that is not a reasonable point of view is either living on the proverbial Planet Zog in the constellation Dog in a Manger, or perhaps they are a nasty ageist malcontents given to trollish utterances.

danothy

I'm always amazed at the iPhone angle in terms of affording a house. The cost of a top end piece of technology isn't comparable to the cost of a house. And even if you are obsessed with buying stuff that is costing the equivalent of a typical mortgage payment then it doesn't seem likely to me that you're going to be doing that every month for years on end. New iPhones don't come out that often for a start.