I have just been offered a promotion at work to the rank of Senior Prison Officer (in the gym). Now this all sounds really good, but here me out. This entails: Collecting and escorting prisoners Ensuring prisoner, staff and visitor safety. Equipment safety Fire safety checks Staff sickness records Staff disciplinary Staff shifts, Annual leave hours and TOIL. Daily staff detailing Annual Performance delivery reports Staff training needs and annual refresher Now that is only a small list, I could go on, but they want me to give up 7 days’ worth of annual leave per year to allow me this privilege! But on a positive note, I can buy back the Annual Leave I gave back Or, I can keep the same pay, pension, Leave and sick policy, have more free time to train in prisoner gym sessions and have way less stress and worry with next to no responsibility. Not really sure I have a choice Current pay £38,200 Offered pay after promotion £38,200
T obe fair, I didn't get a pay rise after mine, 6 months later they do a company wide pay review and realise I'm 30% under paid, so it might come...
Also worth considering if it'll lead to further promotion and an actual pay rise by showing some willing. Yours is an industry with chronic staff shortages after all, which can't hurt the prospect of further promotions?
Wow, I need to update this thread - started a new job in August. Job: Senior Concept Artist, Video Games Industry (Dundee-based studio) Salary: <£40K start, £45K projected, plus bonuses / perks. I'm now earning double my first salary when I started in the industry in Jan 2019. Is it worth it? Heck yes. Working for a larger outfit with infinitely better management, the job is fantastic. No company is perfect, but this one does a lot of things right, which would explain why they have become so successful (and are continuing to grow). This is my first senior position and it's been great so far, a very different experience from simply "doing the job". I spend a large portion of time basically doing management / personnel tasks, and it's great experience to boot.
@LennyRhys It's nice to hear somebody in the games industry is happy in their job. Articles only ever seem to be about doom and gloom about company setups so it's good to get an alternate take.
Man found my 2010 post. What an optimistic little prick I was lol I actually stayed at the same charity for 10 more years, worked my way to deputy CEO, very much enjoyed my role, got paid decent money for the voluntary sector. Brexit happened and roughly 30% of charities in the UK went bust Inc mine. Now I'm working for a big national that delivers public sector, government and NHS contracts. The exact kind of company I said I hated on my 2010 post lol. But needs must. I'm much less senior, but my company loves me and there's lots of room above me to progress into (unlike working on the charity sector). I'm paid about 50k currently, health insurance, and other benefits. Which isn't bad for Norfolk in my 30s, but seeing I was on 26k in 2010 I'm definitely disappointed with my earnings in 2024! I'm far from in love with what I do now and the company I work for isn't going to win any ethics prizes. Very much at a stage of considering some sort of career change, but can't bare the thought of going back to some sort of lower level role for **** money. Although I could just stay put and I'll probably be on 60-70k or so in my 40s, which isn't bad, but still hating my company.
May I ask why? I started similar and now on similar. I personally feel it seems pretty reasonable progression. Although I did not make much effort over the years by jumping ship and playing the career game, just naturally progressed through a large company.
Wyyyxxxy, good to see you man! I think I've just reached an age where I'm disatisfied and feel I should have / could have achieved more....or at least be doing something I enjoyed instead! My partner is a solicitor for a sizeable energy company, she's earning around 100k + a sizeable bonus every year. I suffer a little form the comparison even though I know I really shouldn't! I am starting to look at some side gigs doing public speaking and corporate social responsible consultations though. That's much more my bag so might cheer me up!
Comparison robs joy, grass is always greener on the other side, etc. Yes, there's always stuff can be done to achieve more or work for a more fulfilling company (over recent years, I really want to get into combating climate change, renewable sector etc). I'm in the same boat. It will end up either going with a pay cut for more fulfilling company or forego current work-life-life balance and sell my soul in the finance sector for money. In the end I said F it and spend as much time as possible with my family. I really do get your feeling sometimes, there's many around me achieving more, a lot more. I think it's normal wanting more. Key is making sure if it's what you really want. Because nothing comes for free. Side gigs are probably better than career change, just from these very short posts.
FIgured I'd give an update as my opinion has changed/is changing. There's been no change in role (at least in terms of salary and title) but due to a colleague leaving I've taken on more responsibility and work as they weren't replaced. Working for a startup I'm aware things don't work quite the same way they might in a larger company, but having been almost 2 and a half years since that initial pay rise, and currently not feeling confident about that changing anytime soon, plus the fact we're now looking to move and sadly banks care quite a lot about salary when it comes to mortgages and whatnot, I think I'm really having to actively start looking for a new role again sadly! (or of course aim for a similar outcome to last time, being the threat of resignation to force their hand maybe)
Job: Infrastructure Engineer at an MSP Wage: £34,850 (£38,000 with bonuses) Is it worth it: Yes, despite the company being small and dealing with a lot of teething problems, I get hands-on experience with new hardware from a variety of vendors almost daily. This has really helped me develop the ability to switch between different vendor devices and understand their specific quirks. It also allows me to better support my family, so overall, I’d say it's worth it for that ability alone. I feel we should add a new category, because is it worth it and am I happy are 2 different things. Am I happy: I’d say I’m on the fence. I don’t feel like I’ve been able to specialise in any specific area, which leads to massive knowledge gaps. Management doesn’t seem to truly understand skills or certifications, they assume everyone is capable of everything. However, when it comes to managing some of the larger networks we run, this is definitely not the case. CCNA and CCNP are not interchangeable. At times, I feel like I'm perceived as not being good at my job when tasks come up that are beyond my skill level, which is frustrating.
It has been a while so I thought that I might post an update: Job: Listed on the internal systems as Senior R&D Engineer - However, I have nothing to do with R&D, I am more of a project engineer acting as specialist technical support for the UK and global sales of earthing and lightning (and surge) protection materials. Wage: Starting in 2007 - £27,000 growing to £49,619 as of next month. Is it still worth it: Yes, I think so. Over the years in this role I have become very well known (and hopefully respected) within the lightning protection industry as someone who is able to give (relatively) unbiased information about a subject that is a lot more complex than people initially think. I now sit on a couple of technical committees for a trade organisation and am partially responsible as part of that for the training and accreditation of lightning protection designers and installers. I get a lot of work coming in from people who have heard of me via other jobs and people within their organisation so I guess that isn't a bad thing. As for prospects - I am pretty happy staying where I am and doing what I do now, it is a bit of a niche industry and if I wanted to move on up through positions, it would possibly mean having to move to other companies within the industry, but I am pretty happy where I am now. We are looked after pretty well, my current manager is fairly hands off, he knows that the two of us in the department know what needs to be done and he is happy for me to take on the general organisation and day to day running of things, a situation that I am extremely thankful for.
4 and a bit years later, the more things change the more they stay the same. Same job, same company, now at 26 years, still earning just above average, major changes are afoot which will mean me working from home 5 days a week, and I'm not sure how I feel about that yet.
I've never posted one of these 'ere, 'cos I've always felt self-conscious about it all. But as we're all in a sharing mood, why not? Job: Freelance journalist, author, photographer Wage: None, 'cos self-employed. Revenue, then, pedant: A little under six figures before expenses and tax in the last financial year. Wait, seriously?: Yeah, surprised me too. The oldtimers - which is most of the people 'ere - will remember when I started writing the news, back in 2007. It was two articles a day, which I did in my spare time on top of my actual job as a network manager. For that, I got £200 a month (fiver a story, maths-fans!) - paid as a physical cheque. When Dennis took over - switching to BACS payments, often paid a month or two late - I also started writing for Custom PC (requiescat in pace), taking on the Download column for £125 a month on top. Download went away, I did Custom PC's news for a bit, Mobile Tech Watch launched then died a death, until we hit upon Hobby Tech - which ran for, annoyingly, a month under a decade. So, totting it up: from 2007 to... 2011 or so, I was earning about £325 a month for my writing. Before tax. Nice bit of pin money, but I wasn't giving up the day job. Until I did. Had a few other clients come in, and started taking on a heavier workload on the site. Was earning enough to take the gamble and see where freelance life took me. First invoice I've got from the post-Dennis era, after David Ross took the site over, I'd been bumped to £550 a month. I was still writing for Custom PC with Dennis, too, and a few other magazines: Micro Mart (miss you, babe), Linux User & Developer, the occasional PC Pro, even Computeractive! at one point. Never Computer Shopper, though, and it's too late now. Sob. Filled in the gaps with some corporate ghostwriting work (if you ever read a particularly nice piece with a C-suite executive byline from a Major Antivirus Firm, that was probably me!) Things were going pretty well. I wasn't rich, but I was comfortable enough. In the years since, though, a lot of those outlets have gone: Micro Mart was the first, I think, then Linux User & Developer. Custom PC got sold to Raspberry Pi, weirdly, who ran it for a bit then sold it on to PCNetworkN or whatever it's called as a digital-only outlet - only for it to turn around and kill the brand, though last I checked Ben and a few others were still soldiering on as "PCGamesN Hardware" or something like that. I didn't follow them in the move: as part of the shift away from print they wanted to refocus on the core Windows PC stuff, and that ain't my bag, baby. Somewhere along the line I fell in with the Raspberry Pi crowd, meeting Eben Upton at some event or other at Bletchley Park. He reached out to me and asked if I wanted to write the official user guide, which turned into a publishing deal with Wiley. That led to an official guide to the BBC micro:bit, too, before Wiley's contract terms for future editions turned sour (no, like hell am I paying for index creation, that's your job) and we walked away. That, in turn, led to the launch of Raspberry Pi Press (and the acquisition of Custom PC, later down the line) for which I still write the official user guides. No royalties on those, tho'. At this point I'm getting regular income from my online and occasional magazine work (for the ones that haven't closed), book contracts every couple of years or so, some royalties from Wiley, and the ALCS distributions twice a year. Things are good. Which is why when Artie from Hackster.io reached out over social media, I kinda... ignored him for a year or so. Which turned out to be a mistake: Hackster.io is owned by Avnet, a huge B2B electronics outfit. They've a decent budget, and I've a ridiculous work ethic: a match made in heaven. Taking on Hackster.io as a client meant a big jump in earnings: my revenue is now a little under six figures, all told. Not bad, given it started at £200 a month all those years ago. Are there downsides? Oh, aye. I'm self-employed, which means no employer's pension contributions (and no pension to speak of), no sick days, no holiday pay: if I don't work, I don't eat. And the hours? I start at about 0700 each morning, and typically finish 12 hours later unless something's overrun. I've got better about not working weekends, but it still happens sometimes - got a review due on Monday, so I'm probably going to lose at least one day this weekend for finishing that off. I've got the beginnings of carpal tunnel syndrome, my back's wrecked from all the sitting. Is it worth it? Yes. It means I've been able to be the sole breadwinner for a nuclear family, like the American Dream. Despite not being American, nor living in the 1940s when that kinda thing was not only possible but normal. Will the good times roll? Eehhh... I've already lost two clients to generative AI (and good riddance, I don't want my stuff next to that crap), and if Hackster.io went away tomorrow I'd really be in trouble - it's the vast majority of my billing these days. For now, though, I'm making hay while the sun shines and trying not to think too much about the oncoming dusk.
