I have recently left the job that I have been doing for the past four years for a UK based insurance administrators.
The job was simply to oversee all IT activity and to carry out support and development work. To do this I needed Visual Basic / VBA experience and to understand the nature of IT in the heavily regulated Financial Services sector.
I now need to find my replacement. The salary is excellent by most people's standards. The job is in the South East.
50 000 Pounds a year . I knew money was a different thing in UK, but.. Estonian average is about 4 625 pounds a year, people on that position probably get 2 times more, programmers get three times more, but it's still much..
When I graduated in 1996 my first job as trainee analyst programmer was £16k p.a.
Then I was promoted after 1 year to analyst/programmer and got about £24k p.a if I remember rightly.
Promoted to senior analyst programmer a year later and my wages jumped to £32k p.a
I then left that company to take a senior analyst programmer role elsewhere for £40k p.a.
When I took the job I am now trying to fill it was inititally on a contract basis at £30 per hour but after a couple of years they wanted me to go permanent and made me an offer I couldn't refuse - £53k per year + bens.
Pretty normal here for a heavyweight developer or manager role.
But then you have to remember the high cost of living in the UK. My mortgage is £1000 per month. I pay £1300 per month in taxes. Petrol was costing me around £60 per week. Household bills are around £250-£300 per month.
Because I don't want to work 5 days a week. Now I work only 2 days and I can still pay my mortgage and bills.
It also means that because I now have a limited company and work for a variety of clients I pay corporation tax instead of income tax. I only pay myself £526 per month in wages. That is tax free because of the Lower Earnings Limit. The rest I pay in dividends.
And I also get to write off much more costs against profit - e.g. phone bills, some fuel etc. There are all sorts of ways of reducing my tax bill this way.
Now I work on my terms, when I want to, for who I want to. I'm much happier.
I've been doing high pressure IT jobs for 10 years. There's only so much you can take, especially in an industry like Insurance.
hehe. I would mate honestly lol but the fact is I can only afford to do only 2 days because of the tax advantages I mentioned.
Don't get me wrong. I'm only working two fixed days a week for one particular client. The other 5 days I work for other clients. I probably will end up doing more hours in a week now but that's fine by me because now I choose when those hours are. If I want to work on a Sunday morning or a Saturday night I can. If I want to do a trackday on a Wednesday I can do that too.
Wrong end of the country, unwilling to relocate, not enough experience anyway (I'll be very lucky to get a job paying half that, actually most of the jobs I'm looking at only pay around a quarter of that figure).
3 of the same problems I'm having too, I left college 1 year ago last week, and I still haven't got a job. IT Jobs in the Newcastle/Durham area for people without previous working experience are very hard to comeby.
I'm beginning to think about re-locating just so I can find something. 50k a year would be nice, but I don't have the experience, and programming confused me! :P I'm after a job in the technician/hardware side of it all.
One thing does strike me though GF. How come you have to find your replacement? seems a bit odd to me. Surely that's HR's job.
I did a Business Studies degree with a year in industry. That helped because I already had experience in the Insurance sector. When I left uni I got a job washing cars before the term was even officially over. After 6 weeks I took a job as a filing clerk with Cornhill Insurance.
After a couple of months someone who worked there saw that they were looking for graduates for their IT trainee programme. They suggested I apply so I did, along with about 3000 other people (it was advertised in Prospects)
There were aptitude tests and an initial interview. Then the shortlist of about 30 candidates were taken off for two days of intense scutineering at a big country house. Literally we were watched the whole time, had to work in teams, do presentations and we were even watched during the meals to see how we interacted in a social context. It was tough but kinda fun at the same time. Then a final interview and 6 of us got offered jobs.
So it was easy and difficult all at the same time.
I'm quite lucky in that I seem to do well in interviews. I've only ever not been offered the job once in all the interviews I've ever done. I'm not afraid to sell myself (it became a running joke at Cornhill).
Just be positive, find out as much about a job when you apply as possible. Construct each CV based around each job description/advert so it is tailored to the role. Highlight the skills that you have and breifly describe how you developed those skills. Match your skills to the responsibilites described in the job spec/ad.
Use lots of positive language in the CV and covering letter. It has a subconcious effect on the reader. Words like positive, enjoy, happy, keen, look forward that type of thing.
After you send your CV in, a phonecall offen doesn't hurt. You can say you are checking they recieved it. This shows you are really keen. If you are lucky you might even speak to someone involved in the decision making process. This can only help your chances (unless they think you are a complete t0553r in which case you probably don't want that job anyway )
Always have some questions to ask in the interview about the role. Make sure you have plenty as often many of the questions you think of prior to interview will be answered during and if you mindlessly ask them they will think you weren't listening to them. Always pause to think when each question is asked. It gives you time to best construct your answer and it makes you appear calm and considered.
And remember. If you don't get the job its not because you weren't good enough. It was because the interviewer failed to see your potential and clearly must be an idiot.
The only job I didn't get I felt instantly uncomfortable with the interviewer. Sometimes that can happen. Personalities don't always mix well.
And also remember there can be a 1000 reasons why you didn't get a response when you sent your CV in. Don't let that kind of thing affect your confidence. Looking for a job can be tough with all the knock backs. The hardest thing is getting the interview. Once you've achieved that you are virtually there. And if you still don't get it, it might have been because someone in the team already may have similar skills to you or a similar nature and they don't want to un-balance the team. It's not always because they didn't rate you.
As I say, most important thing is to stay positive and keep the belief in yourself.
Good luck mate - you are about to embark on a very exciting part of your life.
. I knew money was a different thing in UK, but.. Estonian average is about 4 625 pounds a year, people on that position probably get 2 times more, programmers get three times more, but it's still much..
. It is somewhat similar apart from not in Finance