graduates - much did your frist proper job pay?

DayDreamerandGeneralWaster

DontBringBertie said:

Sandtree said:

DontBringBertie said:

£22k a year in 2011 following a Business Management degree. Worth noting that a colleague who started at the same time in the same department was paid £17.5k as he didn’t have a degree.

But what was the guy who started in 2008 on circa £16.5k without a degree earning when you joined and where are the two of you now?

Not sure what the fictional employee you mention was earning in 2008 or is doing now.

In the example I gave, me and my colleague were only 6 months apart in age. So in 2008, I presume he was earning around £16.5k…

I think the point they are making is that you spent 3 years and got into £xxx debt to earn £3.5k more a year.

Perksy5

Most responses on here don't seem to fully answer the question so I'll offer my experience.

I graduated in 2015 having studied history. Trying to get grad jobs was extremely cut throat and I always failed on the last interview.
Due to poor health and a few more surgeries, I continued my 1 day a week at supermarket that paid £10 an hour (time and a half) for working Sundays which I had started in 2012.

Fast forward to Jan 2017, I had been offered a role at a major high Street bank as a temp which I did for 6 months. To this day I'm not sure which job site my CV was head hunted,  and I'm more inclined to believe my 4 years of customer service experience was what caught the recruiters eye rather than my 2:1.

Six months later I was offered full time with the bank earning £16070, as an entry level job. Considerably less than what I earned doing the same job as a temp!

2 years later I worked my way up to a new role earning £22.5k.

2 years later again I'm now on £31k.

I'd like to believe that my degree helped me land my first full time role as I previously mentioned, but knowing full well that the grad jobs I originally applied for paid around 28k, I dont think it mattered.

If I knew for absolute certain I could've landed the same job and career path without uni, I wouldn't have gone.

I didnt have a social life in uni due to poor health, but if I had my health, 10000% go to uni and live.

Life is to experience and not just money. I'd trade my current salary and job a thousand times over to have good health and have enjoyed uni.

Do what works for YOU, ignore the rest 

DontBringBertie

DayDreamerandGeneralWaster said:

DontBringBertie said:

Sandtree said:

DontBringBertie said:

£22k a year in 2011 following a Business Management degree. Worth noting that a colleague who started at the same time in the same department was paid £17.5k as he didn’t have a degree.

But what was the guy who started in 2008 on circa £16.5k without a degree earning when you joined and where are the two of you now?

Not sure what the fictional employee you mention was earning in 2008 or is doing now.

In the example I gave, me and my colleague were only 6 months apart in age. So in 2008, I presume he was earning around £16.5k…

I think the point they are making is that you spent 3 years and got into £xxx debt to earn £3.5k more a year.

£9k of debt, which would be paid off in 2 years of earning an extra £4.5k a year.

TBagpuss

hello007007 said:

After university, much did your frist proper, full time job paid? And was the job/pay what you expecting?

I know the life experiences of university are priceless and for many people the best years of their lives.  Putting that aside did the end qualification, salary and expectations come true too?

Or did your non university mate get to were you wanted to be without the degree(s)?

I think it's very variable based on the degree, the university, and the job.

For me personally ,  absolutely worth it - initial salary was low as you are required to undertake vocational training on the job after the degree in order to fully qualify, (plus I graduated into the 'bust' phase of a boom and bust - 200+ applicants for every job, and at least a third of my peers never did find one in the industry, and that was with the benefit of coming from a well-regarded university)  so the pay reflects  the fact that you are still effectively studying - once I qualified I started earning around £18,500 (and this is just over 20 years ago) and then had fairly fast and steep pay rises over the next few years.

My hypothetical non-university mate would not have got to the same position - there are jobs within the same field for people without the university and postgrad qualifications but they are typically at a lower level in terms of responsibility and pay (and status, if that's important to you) It's possible to qualify via a different route but it's much less common, and mostly people who go that route do so after working in the industry at a more junior level for quite a log time, so by the time they qualify they are older, which obviously has an impact on whether they have time to then build experience and reach the highest levels in terms of income etc.

That said, I was in the very first years of student loans - I think I got a tiny grant in my first year, and took put little loans in the 2nd and 3 years,  the amounts were a lot lower than they are now - I didn't have to start repaying until about 3 year after I started working and had paid them off in full in about 2 years . 

Dr_Crypto

£34k as a F1 doctor well over a decade ago. 

I’m not sure what the junior pay is now but I don’t think it’s kept up with inflation. On the other hand the working hours and rotas are far more civilised than in those days and what I had to do was a fraction of people who started only a few years before me. 

MoJoeGo

£22k, banking, about 25 years ago. Doubled about every 5 years or so until I took a step back for my own sanity...

Jude57

I wasn't able to attend Uni as I had to find a paying job. My lack of a degree certainly slowed my progress in my chosen career but fairly quickly my gaining professional qualifications overtook that. I had the benefit of many years practical experience and the contacts and inside knowledge that came with that so by the time I reached my 40's I'd reached where I wanted to be and was able to change careers and then retire early.

My ex was an electrician, apprenticeship served in the 70's then worked all over the country. He took a short electronics course in the early 80's but that was the extent of his formal study. Most recently, he's been earning a 6 figure salary and that's not unusual at his level.

Of my two nephews, one has a first class honours degree, the other has not. The degree holder was head hunted by a multinational company and started on a high 5 figure salary. The non degree holder was likewise head hunted and started on a slightly lower 5 figures, but with excellent benefits. My nephews had both served 22 years in the Royal Navy and it was that experience and expertise that saw them much sought after, one (degree completed after RN retirement) in the gas and oil industry and the other in maritime safety.

My niece had left school with average 'O' levels and worked in admin jobs until her early 40's when she decided she wanted a career in health. She achieved a first in her degree while working  evenings and weekends in a supermarket, found an NHS job immediately but moved around a bit to find the right job/location combination and has now bought her first house.

There are many routes to an interesting and well paid career; a degree is only one of them and in every case I've mentioned, hard work played a major part.