Last 'proper' Job: Technical Director of web agency. Wage: Plenty. Worth it? : Money was nice, commute was rubbish. Work was real good when it was good and not so good the rest of the time. Current job: : Self employed indie developer / Carer and Mom to twins. Time is split depending on hospital appointments and school hours. Wage : Has it's ups and downs, but so far is still okay when 'down' Worth it? : It has to be, I have no choice
^^ was an MCSE engineer back at the end of the 90`s (NT4 server) - gave it all up for my children (long story)
My last job before ill health and redundancy was a delivery driver in the Borders of Scotland. I loved it as I pretty much a loner and it could be 30 miles between drops. But the Border folk were a different breed from city dwellers, friendly, helpful, kind and caring. I loved it. Money was OK, it was plenty for me would have liked more,who doesn't want more and a job I really miss these days I might add.
Job title: Business Manager Employer: Department of Health Wage: £26,594 (just got a £300 rise...) Next year, I'll get the same, most likely. Beats the hell out of the £0 rises we had for the last 2 years. What I do: I'm the expert on the "better regulation" agenda for the department, meaning I advise people about drawing up impact assessments and how regulations they are planning could affect businesses and charities. What I really do: Mostly talk to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills about how the NHS is actually public sector and how their initiatives for promoting business growth don't apply to us. Mostly its What I don't like about it: 7am trains to London. What I do like about it: getting a pot of Chicken Katsu Yaki Soba for the 5pm train back to Leeds. Is it worth it? Yes. I'm seeing more of the rest of government, more policy for DH than I ever did before. I was disillusioned in my last job (see this thread, 3 years ago) but I'm really enjoying this post.
A little bump from me. Hating my Job now but the wage for my area has me staying. One colleague recently had his Jaw broken, fractured eye socket and broken nose for nothing, had to be blue lighted to hospital in an ambulance. This is only one of MANY attacks on staff and although we somewhat understand this is a hazard in our job there has never been so many assaults since this company took over. Assaults Indiscipline Major drug use Staff assaults (some not returning to work) Daily staff shortages (major and unsafe) Never finishing work on time Staff investigations......................... Only to name a few. Not long ago I was threatened with a large improvised bladed weapon (third time in 3 years) and NOTHING has been done about it........ I could rant all night but it wont fix anything Rant over, hope everyone else is doing better
There's doing a dangerous job and there's doing a dangerous job with no risk mitigation. Is the difference in wages really worth what appears to be working on a ticking time bomb?
There is nothing at all in my area that pays what I am getting and my fear is that if I changed Jobs then financially I would struggle. Privatisation ruined what was a good Job and made it unsafe. If only the government would step back in and take control then things could go back to normal.
A "little" bump...?! That does sound rough as hell, I'm not sure I'd stick it out for the money. Wow, that was a while ago! Job Title: Business Intelligence Developer/Analyst Salary: Not far off double what it was in my last post there (excl. 14-19% bonus/benefits and pension) Worth it? Even with my wages doubled within in 6 years, probably not. The culture here really doesn't lend itself to a data-driven/analytical mindset and once you hit my job grade there's pretty much no option for progression unless you want to be some kind of people manager. Time to go, but I'm not in a hurry; I have other priorities in life. I still couldn't tell you what I actually want to do - though I'd prefer not to end up in financial services again...
Yeah I get you. There's no harm in keeping an eye out anyway. You never know when something might crop. Stay safe dude
Well I did look for a mainly desk based job, then turned a couple down and am now here. Job: PhD Research Student at Loughborough Wage: 13k Do I like my job: Yeah it can be good, a little too flexible at times for my own self control. Is it worth it: Depends if I get to call myself a doctor in two years time
How times change (thank the lawd!) Job: Overlay pre-sales consultant, Analytics Software Pay: Still no comment, call me old fashioned. Is it worth it: Far more so than the one above. My territory covers pretty much half the globe, so there can be a fair bit of travel around northern Europe, Middle east and the US - this can be good and bad. I'm not often away for more than 3 days per week and when I'm not travelling I'm based at home which is nice. The summer period is quiet, and the majority of a few months is spent at home with fairly low utilisation. It soon ramps up to more than make up for it, but it's always flexible, and with a 3yo daughter that's nice. I'm the the go-to in my area in this role like the one above, however usually the conversations I'm having are business focussed instead of overly technical, so it's not as high pressure as before to know everything. A fair chunk of my time is spent presenting or otherwise talking, which suits me. Still frustrations aplenty (oh, if I was king!), but I think I've mellowed out a bit in the last 5 years and just change what I can, and accept what I can't for what it is. That definitely helps.
Job: Cab driver Pay: Barely over minimum wage, zero benefits (company decided it would be cheaper to pay the fine rather than provide health insurance as required by law) Pros: easy, work independently, can take a month or two off and still have a job. Cons: Customers suck, hours suck, company sucks, this is the job you take when you've given up on life Worth it? Oh HELL no!
Job: Software Engineer in a startup Pay: Living comfortably in London, yet no prospect of ever buying a house here Pros: It's fairly easy, flexible with working remotely, not much pressure from business people, can turn up quite late (get to sleep in the mornings) Cons: Not very challenging, mostly doing CMS style work day in day out, CTO doesn't seem to like me, unspoken expectation to work overtime for the company even though I have no equity Worth it? Hard to say. It's above average salary, but below average technical challenge and possible career dead end. CTO unlikely to adopt newer technology and methodologies. I am comfortable where I am at now, but not fully satisfied and I know it's a false sense of security - will definitely switch if a more involving opportunity turns up, even if it means a slight salary cut
Bummer - that's supposed to be the the upside of working at a startup to make up for everything else that generally sucks :/
Equity is really no longer a factor when looking for jobs in startups. The amount of legal restrictions around vesting and how they can turn it into worthless junk makes it a purely theoretical things. Although having actual stock would make it a bit sweeter. I guess that's what you get when you work somewhere that had just barely gotten series A funding
I've been pondering a move over to startup land for a few months now, especially since analytics (my bag) is such a hot topic at the moment - I've just not found the right company to start propositioning yet (though I have been fairly passive in my search). I had a chance to move to a now-fairly-successful-then-mostly-unknown startup in 2012 and it kind of stings right now to think what could have been (that said, they've still neither IPO'd nor been bought, and I feel like their USP then is no longer very interesting, so they could still fade into insignificance)... at the same time for every startup success there's a dozen flops. I've seen a few colleagues do very well out of it, though at the same time I've seen a few be back on the job hunt a year later with nothing to show for it.
Nothing to sting really, unless the company is bought or IPO'd, the equity is next to worthless. Most likely you're not allowed to sell it to the third party and the company doesn't guarantee a buyback. Unless what you're getting equity in is a surefire hit, I wouldn't budge on salary because someone promises you 0.5-1.5% equity. After all some stake in nothing is also nothing Also, in my experience, very unlikely you can make something out of a startup in short-medium term... especially in the UK. Very risk averse culture, both on the technical and business/funding fronts, I find it quite hard to swallow
