London, UK - Jobs/Salaries

I'm doing a quick google search for jobs in the UK and the appear to be severely low compared to the US. Example for a Senior Voice Engineer (Consultant or Lead) - CCNP R&S/CCNP Voice the going rate in the states is around $125-160K. I was thinking the UK would offer a minimum of 100K in British Pounds. So far I'm seeing 35-50K BP.

Am I right on this assumption? Am asking because ideally I'd like a position with a global company that can provide direct placement in the UK.

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Reef-Tip

Don't forget the exchange rate. It is about .66 at the moment.

DJohnsonRose

Its true, I am a system admin and I earn under 30k in the US my job would probably pay 50k +

sieff

I considered that also. Ideally I would want 100,000 in pounds for an annual salary. 100K would be ideal, but 85-95 would work.

sieff

DJohnsonRose wrote: »

Its true, I am a system admin and I earn under 30k in the US my job would probably pay 50k +

@djohnsonrose so do they lowball on salaries or is that just normal. i saw a position for 500-600 pounds a day as a 6 month contractor. It was a Sr. Architect position, this is the best salary I've seen there... but the permanent positions are extremely low. the last time I was in London my expenses were through the roof. I would need at least 100K pounds a year to live comfortably in "City of London". thats about $160K US...

Master Of Puppets

Strange, the pay is high in the UK from what I know.Most IT people in the UK get very good salary. Also bear in mind that you guys in the states have a higher cost of living, in Europe stuff is cheaper

However, the UK is really not the cheapest of all places.

buzzkill

sieff wrote: »

I would need at least 100K pounds a year to live comfortably in "City of London". thats about $160K US...

Most people who work in the city center don't live there because like you have hit upon, it's so expensive.

DPG

The problem is that the UK is flooded with those certified from two particular countries known for churning out certs via ****.

MiikeB

Also keep in mind that in my experience the companies paying the middle to upper end of salaries don't tend to advertise them as openly on job boards.

nel

As a Brit, i can say that what you see is correct. A CCIE R&S will usually get you around the 60-75k per year mark give or take. A senior without could get you up to 60 but previously i have seen them advertised for around 45-55k per year. Those jobs are usually based in the city of london or its surrounding areas/linking systems.

I have recently moved to Australia, i am very shocked how over worked people are back home and how much little pay you get in comparison. It really is a sad state of affairs. Sadly, the UK market is also flooded with people which drives salaries down with small areas condensed with massive amounts of people. There is also is huge gap between contract rates and perm rates. In Australia you can get perm jobs that are very close if not the same wage as contract rates in some cases. This is not the case in the UK.

Generally, the only way you are going to maximise your income above these figures in the UK is to go contracting. Obviously the roles above are technical and not managerial.

London is an awesome place though if you can get over the hussle and bussle.

sieff

well I'd like to relocate to the UK regardless... I would take lower pay if necessary. However, my only problem now is getting work visa. Any pointers in getting a UK company to sponsor a visa is appreciated. So far I've only networked with American companies that can sponsor, but thats really hit or miss.

Master Of Puppets

DPG wrote: »

The problem is that the UK is flooded with those certified from two particular countries known for churning out certs via ****.

I wouldn't worry about it. If you're a dumper it takes a 10 min interview if not less and you're out the door. It is extremely easy to catch someone like that.

jibbajabba

Master Of Puppets wrote: »

I wouldn't worry about it. If you're a dumper it takes a 10 min interview if not less and you're out the door. It is extremely easy to catch someone like that.

Agree. I work in the UK and most of my jobs here were London based (financial companies). Every interview here were based on the same format.

1. Phone Interview with agency
2. Phone (technical) interview with company
3. Face to Face (technical) interview with company
4. Executives with company
5. HR and so on.

On each interview I was grilled to such a technical extend where dumper would be identified in no time. When I applied for design jobs, I had to do proper designs using flipboards and defend the design. Make no mistake - I did fail the odd interview as the questions went so deep that I reached my limit quite quickly.

As for salary - I am amazed sometimes how fast some people in the US reach 6 figures. $100k is around £65k - I have not seen a job with that sort of money here .. not as system admin anyway ... Even our network engineers are way below that. I had one job interview for an investment bank as senior admin .. Job was related to VMware, Exchange, Powershell, usual Windows stuff - they paid all the way up to £80k, but even they changed the job to be a contractor role instead (£450 / day as your own limited company).

But bottom line - the average salary in London for (senior) IT jobs is indeed £55k / $80k .. bear in mind, most people commute which isn't cheap. My annual season ticket for the train is £4800 / $7300 - that's after tax .. You have to earn around £6000 / $9000 for that ....

Why would people pay that sort of money for commute ?

Job in London : £55k
Job locally in my area (same requirements) : £35k

That's why

sieff wrote: »

I considered that also. Ideally I would want 100,000 in pounds for an annual salary. 100K would be ideal, but 85-95 would work.

Never, not in a million years. Average CTO salary in the UK is £85k

JustFred

The thing is if you won't to live comfortably, have a nice garden to go with it, you don't want to live inside cities like Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Madrid, Stockholm, Oslo etc. You want to live 30-40km outside those cities and life is still awesome plus lots of space to build your own mini datacenter

. or you can go for a sweat shop like apartment with no room to breath/noisy neighbours and have the government tax you until you virtually have no where to go

. I mean you know you will have to leave the city once you knock some lady up because you would want a bigger place for you and your young family. Perhaps something to think about when looking for jobs in these cities. In the end you can save yourself all the hassle.

jibbajabba

Tax .. good point. I got burnt by it when I first moved to the UK... Went shopping on the rental marked online - finances worked all out just to find out there is a thing called "Council Tax" - So you pay tax on your money to rent on which you pay additional tax ... and that isn't just peanuts .. I paid an additional £100 / month on top of my rent just on tax - that is with 25% discount when living on your own ...

Asif Dasl

OP don't forget Americans get taxed on their worldwide income, you will have to make a second income tax return and pay an additional tax if you earn over $95,100 abroad.

sieff

jibbajabba wrote: »

Tax .. good point. I got burnt by it when I first moved to the UK... Went shopping on the rental marked online - finances worked all out just to find out there is a thing called "Council Tax" - So you pay tax on your money to rent on which you pay additional tax ... and that isn't just peanuts .. I paid an additional £100 / month on top of my rent just on tax - that is with 25% discount when living on your own ...

sounds like slavery to me... an additional tax even if I'm paid by British company and pay UK tax.

I've worked in London for 6 month intervals, which is why I'm determined to relocate there. I was working for an American company and my per diem rate for food and trains was $180USD a day, so I did live rather well and had my hotel paid for separately. I spoke with the hiring manager of the company I was consulting for and they said they could bring me on perm at 100K British Pound / annually a year. However, the position fell through and I got another job in the US, that has me committed to learning Data Center technologies, which is where I'm transitioning from being Cisco VoIP specialist with R&S background to learning about Storage and VMware. My hope is that with more skill I can demand 100K+ in the UK.

jibbajabba

Demand £100k ? You might be staying in the US for years to come.

JustFred

Well 100k is doable if he's working for MI5 or going to be a manager at HSBC?

sieff

JustFred wrote: »

Well 100k is doable if he's working for MI5 or going to be a manager at HSBC?

Guys ... Is £100K not doable? The company I consulted for previously was in Canary Wharf (financial company) and they basically offered converting my current salary into British Pounds, which is basically $100K+ to £100K+. This was to adjust for the higher cost of living in City of London. Again, this is an American based company that has a UK office.... Does that make a difference?

jibbajabba

As a techy? No! Plus, that is not converting, that is like for like. If they said they would be converting your salary, then they would have converted $100k to £ - which is £65k - THAT is a lot more in line with current salaries in London in financial companies. £65k is quite high too - but surely doable.

Unless they offer you the position of a CTO - then £100k is almost on the edge of too little

Canary Wharf is a bit out of central London so I am not sure what financial company that is - as most of them are in the City - Canary Wharf has quite a lot of datacenter though but commuting would be annoying.

Bottom line : Before you go that route - have them confirming your salary in British Pounds. By the way, average single room in a shared flat is about £300 / Week, going all the way up to £2k / week (apartment). If lucky then it includes council tax.

So unless your company sorts housing, commuting is the only way to do this

http://www.rightmove.co.uk

I commute 2hrs / way to London

Trifidw

JustFred wrote: »

Well 100k is doable if he's working for MI5

Apparently they don't pay very well...

From what I've seen, to earn £100k you will have to do short term contracts and be very good at your job. For a permanent position a similar person would be on £60k.

JustFred

I think OP needs to make sure he's getting what he's been promised or he's in for some fun

jibbajabba

Trifidw wrote: »

Apparently they don't pay very well...

From what I've seen, to earn £100k you will have to do short term contracts and be very good at your job. For a permanent position a similar person would be on £60k.

Indeed .. or work for £450-500 / day ... But migrating for a contrator position is probably not what the OP had in mind ... And I agree with JustFred - Make sure you know EXACTLY what you are getting.

There are a lot of Brits here on the forum to give you tips. Make sure you don't get any surprised like I did ... Could be costly and frustrating.

Mechs

jibbajabba wrote: »

As a techy? No! Plus, that is not converting, that is like for like. If they said they would be converting your salary, then they would have converted $100k to £ - which is £65k - THAT is a lot more in line with current salaries in London in financial companies. £65k is quite high too - but surely doable.

Unless they offer you the position of a CTO - then £100k is almost on the edge of too little

Canary Wharf is a bit out of central London so I am not sure what financial company that is - as most of them are in the City - Canary Wharf has quite a lot of datacenter though but commuting would be annoying.

Bottom line : Before you go that route - have them confirming your salary in British Pounds. By the way, average single room in a shared flat is about £300 / Week, going all the way up to £2k / week (apartment). If lucky then it includes council tax.

So unless your company sorts housing, commuting is the only way to do this

UK's number one property website for properties for sale and to rent

I commute 2hrs / way to London

Eh?

Most Financial banks are in C.W, the city has a lot of the investment banks, so you can definitely be in C.W for that

As for the 100k a year, as a techie on a per annum, I think it's impossible to be honest. As others said, you need a C level job for that, and a big company

razar

I've been looking at contractor jobs in London recently and the market seems to have really dried up for networking anyway. Still seems to be quite a few vmware and win server jobs but the networking market is completely dry compared to 1 year ago when I was looking. Quite surprised by this tbh.

Anyone else noticed the same thing?

gorebrush

I am in South Wales and am not seeing a flood of jobs, but for once I am seeing some great Design/Architect Jobs for VMWare/CCIE paying £50K-60K. That is quite good money for this area.

razar

Yea that seems quite good considering even in London I have seen some ccie jobs paying as low as £45k.

jibbajabba

Mechs wrote: »

Eh?

Most Financial banks are in C.W, the city has a lot of the investment banks, so you can definitely be in C.W for that

As for the 100k a year, as a techie on a per annum, I think it's impossible to be honest. As others said, you need a C level job for that, and a big company

Apologies, I think it depends what you are looking at - investment banking / trading etc. Never mind lol ... Most jobs I ever applied for / worked for were most around EC1/2 area ..

Never mind lol .. But bottom line, if the OP would have to pay tax in both, US and UK, then maybe the company pays so much to make up for it. If that is the case then the OP clearly is a techy hot shot as they could get locals a lot cheaper.

Either way - I wish him good luck on his journey

As a comparison how crazy the UK can be.

1st line / 2nd line job ... London : £35k, Scotland : £13k
My sort of job (senior something) ... London : £55k average, Local (Cambs) : £30k

All about location.

gorebrush

Interesting - my current salary is close to £45K but that includes shift allowance, pension and share package.

My base salary is just under £35K

jibbajabba

Cost of living is probably a major factor. Although Wales (using Cardiff as comparison) isn't cheap either I think.

At least your meds are free of charge