New job found - Should be happy, but a few concerns......

[Ray Singh]

A little background...
I have been working for Nokia UK since leaving university almost 15 years ago. I was on quite good wages and had great benefits including final salary pension and family healthcare.However, earlier this year, I was made redundant as Nokia are really struggling with competition from Apple and RIM.
Obviously there is a healthy severance package, but I was very keen to find employment asap to save the severance package as opposed to start to use this for day to day living.

Yesterday I was offered a job working as a civil servant. Its a position that is completely different to mobile communications, but does sound very interesting. Whilst I should be happy, I have a couple of concerns.

1) Wages - the annual salary is 10.5% less than I was on at Nokia. Is this something that can be made up within a few years in this sector? Or are civil servants also under pay freezes. The contract does talk of annual reviews.
2) Private Healthcare - is not included. Is this a must and should I consider taking this privately?
3) How long will a company allow you to learn the new job, it is completely different to anything I have done before.

I have obviously has it quite good at Nokia, but all good things come to an end. So naturally I am scared.

Any help is appreciated.

[Mojooo]

I am sure you will get a lot of people turning up to slag off the public sector

Healthcare - I am a staunch uspporter of the NHS but I wont lie - I have recently had a couple of ops and the quicker waiting time on private healthcare would have made a significant difference to my life.

Pay - can't speak for the civil service but I have experience of working for councils and I believe pay freezes are everywhere at the moment and pension shcemes are being made worse - so dont expect finance to improve significantly unless you get a promotion.

[0a]

Firstly congratulations! It's getting more unusual to get employment in the public sector.

I'm the first to wine about "useless civil servants" etc. I have plenty of civil service friends, and their experiences vary. One is perfectly happy on what I would say a reasonable wage for his position, easy hours, but I would class him as lacking ambition- however for him his role is ideal. Another rose rapidly in his department, felt he'd hit a ceiling after 5 rewarding years and left to go back into private industry, but he enjoyed it.

Doing 6 months or a year there won't necessarily be seen as bad. I did 6 months at a company and was poached by an offer I could not refuse- I have explained this in subsequent interviews and it's always been seen as positive. Perhaps take this job now and get yourself plenty of time to move to another role when it turns up.

I'd also work out what your post tax income is- no idea what you would be earning, but it might be that you are taking less of a relative hit on the pay than you think.

Are there any other job offers on the horizon? It's a tough time and companies/government are increasingly recruiting internally or not at all.

I can't help regarding promotion as I hear varying things from each civil service friend I talk to. Don't worry regarding the learning unless the job is very specific, every new person will be new to the role.

[voicey]

After talking to a friend who has been unsuccessfully looking for work since his redundancy several months ago I'm of the opinion that any job is better than no job at the moment.

[don4l]

Congratulations on finding a job!

The healthcare thing wouldn't influence me unduly. If you need urgent treatment, then you will use the NHS even if you have private cover.

The pay cut is simply a sign of the times, and you should make it up in a couple of years.

IMHO, you should be chuffed to bits.

Don
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[Russ T Bolt]

Ray Singh said:

A little background...
I have been working for Nokia UK since leaving university almost 15 years ago. I was on quite good wages and had great benefits including final salary pension and family healthcare.However, earlier this year, I was made redundant as Nokia are really struggling with competition from Apple and RIM.
Obviously there is a healthy severance package, but I was very keen to find employment asap to save the severance package as opposed to start to use this for day to day living.

Yesterday I was offered a job working as a civil servant. Its a position that is completely different to mobile communications, but does sound very interesting. Whilst I should be happy, I have a couple of concerns.

1) Wages - the annual salary is 10.5% less than I was on at Nokia. Is this something that can be made up within a few years in this sector? Or are civil servants also under pay freezes. The contract does talk of annual reviews.
2) Private Healthcare - is not included. Is this a must and should I consider taking this privately?
3) How long will a company allow you to learn the new job, it is completely different to anything I have done before.

I have obviously has it quite good at Nokia, but all good things come to an end. So naturally I am scared.

Any help is appreciated.

1, In the grand scheme of things a 10% drop is very small. I am assuming you are going in at a senior level. Yes they are under a pay freeze, and even when that is lifted it isn't easy to progress.
2, You will be able to join Benenden, it does cost, but not much and they are excellent
3, I would imagine the Civil Service would be supportive and provide training.

I thought there was a recruitment freeze on with the Civil Service, i'm surprised they are still recruiting.

[condor]

Congratulations on getting a job!! I think that should be your first thought and be thankful for any benefits that you might get.

[NobleGuy]

voicey said:

After talking to a friend who has been unsuccessfully looking for work since his redundancy several months ago I'm of the opinion that any job is better than no job at the moment.

condor said:

Congratulations on getting a job!! I think that should be your first thought and be thankful for any benefits that you might get.

Is a 10% drop in wages better than not taking it and being 100% down? Yup.

[chuno]

10%? Pah! you should be happy!
Like others have said - you are lucky to get a job so quick.

I was made redundant in July. Am now working for myself doing the same thing. The income that i am making is currently 75% less than i was earning than when i was employed, but it's enough for me to live off so i am happy.

It's funny, i'm actually a lot happier now. I knew it would be difficult, but it's actually not that bad. As long as you don't have big debts then it's surprising as to how easy you can adjust your lifestyle if you want to.

If you find out you really want private healthcare then surely you can just pay for it.

I know it's an old cliche, but money isn't everything.....

[anonymous-user]

Russ T Bolt said:

I thought there was a recruitment freeze on with the Civil Service, i'm surprised they are still recruiting.

the civil service is too big an organisation to have a blanket ban on recruitment and various change programmes within departments are necessitating the need to replace some skills that are lost through various redundancy schemes. Obviously there is a difference betweeen a post and a person and just becuase people are leaving, thats not to say that the post they are currently doing and soon to be departing is not still required. the challenge at the moment is getting the balance right between meeting targets set by the Govt and maintaining capability delivery.