Anyone working in IT who can help me?

[xjay1337]

Carl_Manchester said:

geeks said:

lostkiwi said:

For example consultancy gets around £60-£100k pa typically.
1st level support is £25-30k

Errr these are unrealistic!

Milton Keynes - 1st Line upto £20k £22k tops!
Consultancy is a wide field, salaries from £30 - 6Ok

Hopefully OP lives near to Reading as there are plenty of opportunities in that area of the UK.

Here are the permanent salary consultant bands that I know of (contractor rates excluded), good luck to you!

1. 18 k- 2x k
2. 2x k- 65 k
3. 65 k - 100 k
4. 100k - 120 k
5. 120k - 180 k
6. 350k - 500 k
7. 1m - 3.5m
8. Steve Ballmer.

In my personal experience.
(with my qualifications I mentioned before).

First line/service desk £15k
After 6 months moved to a local company (also £15k)
1 year later moved to another company doing blade server builds and wireless - £22k
4 months later headhunted to go back into telephony and was on £26500
after 3 years of doing telephony and wireless (gained a few vender qualifications) moved company and now on £30k base with £4800 a year car allowance + OT + bonuses . I'm on the highest rate of tax already

Realistically for your first IT position expect £15-£20k maximum

[daemon]

lostkiwi said:

Certifications are definitely worth while as they will help you rise above others with no certification.
That said they aren't worth what they used to be as there are still plenty out there with them and if you're competing with someone with experience it may not help.
If you don't do it you have no chance at all as no employer will be willing to take the risk.
In terms of salary its very dependent on experience, location, industry and the actual role.
For example consultancy gets around £60-£100k pa typically.
1st level support is £25-30k
Architects are £50-75k.

Server support pays less in general than DBAs.

Best way to see what a job will give in return is to look at Jobserve and see what the going rates are.

With absolutely no other practical experience, these training courses will NOT translate directly into the job roles you describe.

Roles like that are based on a combination of experience, skill and training.

With no experience, you're going to be starting at the bottom, and personally i wouldnt be taking on training that forces you down a particular route at this stage.

Also each of those role types you describe require a certain mindset and personality attributes. A training course will not give you that.

[daemon]

Prizam said:

Have you thought about going down the linux / sys admin route?

Very technical roles like this require a certain aptitude for it. I wouldnt be trying to pigeonhole myself at this stage with no idea if i have the mindset or desire for it.

[daemon]

Carl_Manchester said:

Hopefully OP lives near to Reading as there are plenty of opportunities in that area of the UK.

Here are the permanent salary consultant bands that I know of (contractor rates excluded), good luck to you!

1. 18 k- 2x k
2. 2x k- 65 k
3. 65 k - 100 k
4. 100k - 120 k
5. 120k - 180 k
6. 350k - 500 k
7. 1m - 3.5m
8. Steve Ballmer.

That bears no relation to anything in the real world i've ever seen. Can you show us any jobs advertised for say, a IT Consultant Level 5?

I would say the bulk of people in IT top out at maybe £60K

It would take the truly exceptional to break six figures - or go contracting . Its certainly not a foregone conclusion that you will progress into big money. I know a lot of complete dolts in IT who are paid average at best.

Edited by daemon on Wednesday 2nd December 08:56

[DoubleByte]

I work for a rather large company that amongst other things sells 'software' to airports. We have actively recruited talented/knowledgeable 'users' from some airports with no technical knowledge whatsoever. They are not involved in any technical roles but work closely with our customers who love being able to throw ideas around with people from other airports. Maybe that is a career route for you? You would have to really know your stuff and be an excellent communicator.
It may be worth cosying up with your suppliers to see if there are an openings or at least get yourself known.

[Carl_Manchester]

daemon said:

Carl_Manchester said:

Hopefully OP lives near to Reading as there are plenty of opportunities in that area of the UK.

Here are the permanent salary consultant bands that I know of (contractor rates excluded), good luck to you!

1. 18 k- 2x k
2. 2x k- 65 k
3. 65 k - 100 k
4. 100k - 120 k
5. 120k - 180 k
6. 350k - 500 k
7. 1m - 3.5m
8. Steve Ballmer.

That bears no relation to anything in the real world i've ever seen. Can you show us any jobs advertised for say, a IT Consultant Level 5?

Level 5's you can find on Jobserve, there are 2 or 3 live roles on CWJOBS. One is through McGregor Boyall

Heres it the jobserve one :

https://www.jobserve.com/gb/en/search-jobs-in-Berk...

Above Level 5 you will be contacted by one of the usual suspects who specialise in that type of recruitment, they do not usually advertise these Managing Director roles for open application.

[DragsterRR]

DanL said:

IT support is (in my opinion) the bottom rung of IT related stuff, and pays accordingly. Programming can pay quite well - if you have an aptitude for it, I'd go that route rather than onto a help desk.

Depends what type of system you support.

[Stupeo]

My recommendation would be to find an industry that appeals to you and focus on IT within that industry. For example, I decided to move into Healthcare IT around 9 years ago (after only 3.5 years in general IT - straight outta school at 16). I've managed to progress very quickly and create a so far great career. I've worked up to Architect level and especially in Healthcare IT, the salary can easily break the 6-figure barrier. I know many of my colleagues are past this with < 10 years experience in the field.

For example, a new joiner with us (implementation engineer type role, with some SQL and scripting skills) is earning ~£60,000 and has no qualifications but 4 years experience in our field.

A good company to look at for example, GE Healthcare IT.

M

[dugsud]

Dannyboy85 said:

My current job is at an airport in an operations role. Mostly procedural task like marshalling aircraft, runway inspections. I have customer service experience from this and previous roles but other than that not Alot of transferable skills and experience. This one of the main reasons for looking at these courses. In terms of experience of computers at the moment it's only been desktop user stuff really. I could afford to take abit of pay cut but not much less than £23k really due to mortgage, etc.

Thank you everyone for your feedback I really don't know what I should go for at this point.

Sounds more interesting than IT....can we swap

[daemon]

Carl_Manchester said:

daemon said:

Carl_Manchester said:

Hopefully OP lives near to Reading as there are plenty of opportunities in that area of the UK.

Here are the permanent salary consultant bands that I know of (contractor rates excluded), good luck to you!

1. 18 k- 2x k
2. 2x k- 65 k
3. 65 k - 100 k
4. 100k - 120 k
5. 120k - 180 k
6. 350k - 500 k
7. 1m - 3.5m
8. Steve Ballmer.

That bears no relation to anything in the real world i've ever seen. Can you show us any jobs advertised for say, a IT Consultant Level 5?

Level 5's you can find on Jobserve, there are 2 or 3 live roles on CWJOBS. One is through McGregor Boyall

Heres it the jobserve one :

https://www.jobserve.com/gb/en/search-jobs-in-Berk...

Above Level 5 you will be contacted by one of the usual suspects who specialise in that type of recruitment, they do not usually advertise these Managing Director roles for open application.

This doesnt seem to bear much relation to what you originally said though - that there were 7 consultant salary bands?

This seems to be a director post, not a consultant? And i'm not seeing a mention of "Level 5"?

What you've got there seems to be a list of ranges, not what is recognised as Consultancy Levels on the open market?

And yes, once you get to director level, you tend to be approached rather than applying on the open market. Certainly when i was IT Director it was on the back of a recommendation, a phone call from the CEO, then a meeting over a coffee in a hotel with him and his second in command.

I do IT contracting now though.

Edited by daemon on Wednesday 2nd December 20:51

Edited by daemon on Wednesday 2nd December 20:53

[Carl_Manchester]

so, a senior 'consultant' working at big tech or consultancy firm working in what I have stated as band 5 will typically fill a role to be a Programme Director or a very Senior Architect.

The types of firms that pay these kind of wages will be either the likes of a top tech software or hardware firm (take your pick), the big 4 consultancy firms or, within the CTO team within a top financial institution who run a consultancy team within the company rather than, paying even higher rates to an external consultancy which can touch £2k-2.5k per/day at that level (corporate-to-corporate rate).

From what I know at band 6 this will typically be an Managing Director level position at a consultancy who does either FTSE 100 CIO interim, field CTO's or CIO advisory. They are still a consultant however, what they do is much more niche. A managing director IT role outside of a consultancy for a UK based role within financial services can pull in around £350k, these guys will be product managers that sit inside the CIO practice.

Whether these bands exist outside of the company that I have knowledge of, I have no idea.

I hope that answers your question, if not keep posting and I will see if I can answer them.

[daemon]

Carl_Manchester said:

Whether these bands exist outside of the company that I have knowledge of, I have no idea.

Ah right. It read like you were presenting them as industry wide, not your company specifically

Are those published internally? Very rare for a company to publish senior management and beyond pay bands for fear of a revolt by the minions.

[xjay1337]

swerni said:

£150k for support?
thats good going

Haha.
Sorry. I meant the 40% bracket.
I can dream though!!!