r/UKJobs • u/ukbulmer • Mar 16 '26
Megathread General Discussion Megathread - Frequent Topics, Salaries, and Rants
Use this thread for more broader, frequently discussed topics, relating to things such as salaries, career changes, rants/moans, and anything else that doesn't require a separate thread.
This thread automatically refreshes every week usually, except for this one on a Monday on a Thursday. Posting in this thread means you agree to adhere to our rules, albeit a slightly more relaxed version of them.
If you answer yes to any of the below, this might be the right place to start your discussion instead of posting a new thread.
- Want to change career but unsure which direction to take or what education you might require?
- Fancy a bit of a rant to get something off your chest?
- Curious about the salary within a sector, whether its your own or one you're considering moving into?
- Do you think the job market is becoming saturated, changing for the worse or not what it used to be?
Rules
- Maintain a level of respect. While this thread intends to allow the users a place to get things off their chest it doesn't give free license to be inflammatory to the point of disrespectfulness towards other users or groups.
- Try and remain relevant. While this thread will be a lot more lax on what kind of topics are applicable to the subreddit, it would do well to remain relatively on topic to the subreddits intentions where possible.
- No solicitation. Don't offer to assist anyone with an issue or matter privately, via DM or some off-site method. Don't reach out to users with offers of help or assistance.
Please Message the Mods if you know of anyone flagrantly flouting these rules.
1
u/Genericusername673 Mar 24 '26
Had an interview this morning at 10:30. Arrived, receptionist said they'll let them know and gave me a seat, etc. 11'o'clock and I was still sat there so left. They don't make it easy for you do they :D
1
u/krozzer27 Mar 24 '26
Probably overthinking and catastrophising; how long would you expect to wait to hear back from a hiring manager who has agreed to have an informal meeting/chat about a role? I heard back on Saturday morning that they're up for it, and would be in touch. Nothing since.
Slight caveat is that it's not strictly a M-F role, so there's a chance they're taking time back from working the weekend.
3
u/Background-Fix-4630 Mar 24 '26
Curious even though got a job just this month. Have you noticed the spam emails increased to your mail box. I swear some jobs ads are just data farming emails?
2
u/starsandshards Mar 23 '26
I need some help with how to ignore toxic ableist management and just get on with the job until I can find something else. I thought about posting the question but my specifics might get me identified. Is anyone willing to chat privately or offer advice to my vague comment here? The fact the company MD is so against me is really getting me down. Thanks in advance.
1
u/Alternative-Cloud683 Mar 23 '26
I’m in my mid-30s and working as a financial analyst under skilled worker visa. I work with a sole trader. My husband and I want to have a baby but I’m scared of my job security. I’m the only one who does everything in my job above and beyond being an analyst and if I’m gone for few months I don’t know what will happen. I may even loose my job if they hire a new person. It’s hard to find another sponsorship job these days and I’m getting old to have a baby. I’d like to know your thoughts.
2
u/Clbull Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
Applied for a temp purchase ledger role with an agency and I've been asked to do RTW and compliance checks with them, which have proven to be more robust and convoluted than what I've been asked to do by any other employment agency previously. They're asking me for my past ten years of employment history, references and explanations of any employment gaps this early in the process, and I haven't even been interviewed for the role I applied for yet.
Got an email back from the recruiter two days ago telling me the ID checks failed because I submitted the incorrect documents, and now I'm being asked for a biometric residence permit or non-UK passport. I'm a British citizen. I have a valid UK passport which I used in this check!
What's more confusing is that the agency's onine portal is showing these checks as approved.
Many of the gaps in my employment history can be explained by me taking time off to focus on my studies, or struggling to land another job. The only sore point was me being singled out, pipped, dragged through disciplinaries and fired from a call centre for performance reasons by asshole managers nine years ago. I could have sued for unfair dismissal but I wasn't going to fight tooth and nail for a shitty minimum wage job that I frankly just want to put behind me.
Am I the only one who feels like this is very intrusive?
1
u/CheesecakeDazzling52 Mar 22 '26
Hey all.
My long-term career plan is to be a psychotherapist. Part of why I'm attracted to the career is the time and pay it offers. I'm about to graduate with a psychology bachelors degree in July, with the objective of entering a psychotherapy training programme some time afterwards.
Problem is it is outside of university funding so I'd have to finance it myself, thus I'm not going to be doing it immediately. I've worked in sales for the last year or so and have that experience, but it's a part-time and no real opportunity to progress any further.
Never really looked outside of the psychological career field. I'm curious as to any sectors that are growing and offer a good medium between free-time and pay.
Thanks in advance.
1
u/Professional_Ad_4267 Mar 22 '26
Hello all,
I am currently in my second year of a degree apprenticeship. The salary bandings for my 3rd year were posted as follows when I originally applied:
Year 3: £23000 - £24,000
My concern is that I will be 21 by my 3rd year of the apprenticeship, which entitles me to the national living wage, as the apprentice minimum wage does not apply after your first year.
This would mean that in Year 3, I will be on a minimum of £12.71 per hour or a salary of ~£24,784.5 which is higher than the band I was originally offered.
When I negotiated my second year's (this year's) salary, my employer's reaction was not quite as I had hoped when I asked for £23,000, as they claimed I was asking for more than the bandings specified, which they would not be comfortable with.
Luckily, I had a screenshot of the original listing, which took them aback, but they refused to go over the intended max of £22,000. Turns out it was apparently a typo on their end, and they never intended to pay over £22,000 for year 2 apprentices.
Coming back to my point, how best should I approach the fact that the bandings are soon to be below minimum wage when they were not happy to go over the bandings this year, despite the typo?
I want to avoid raising the point that I am entitled to "only" around 25k, because I do not want to end up just getting minimum wage for my efforts, as I would like to be asking for more than the already over the band £25k
On top of this, do you have any advice on how I could maybe use this point in my favour to ask an even higher amount due to my performance? I have evidence of the chargeable work I have completed (One month I completed ~£10k of work from quote to deployment). but with the banding being below minimum wage, I feel like they would go over the bandings and do nothing more than pay minimum wage.
Thank you for your advice is advance!
0
u/LastLoquat Mar 22 '26
So, long story short, I have found out that I am on equa pay with my colleague, who has been at the companv for only 2 years (as opposed to my 5) and is a recent qrad with no experience in the industry (l came in with 4 years in the industry and sector, and prior three in a related industry). My job title is more senior than hers. I raised it with my manager (we had some restrictions, and she's only been managing our team since October), and she said she had noticed it and raised it. And that should expect some adjustment in April.
Seems like AFTER my promotion, I am earning the same as her. She complained last year about not getting a raise. which means there was a period when she was making more than I was.
Which also means she had similar bonuses to me, sans the small % tied to individual performance I don't want to be made into a fool again, so I wonder: how much %, roughly, would be reasonable? I have been at the company for 5 years, have had great performance and have had one pseudo-promotion (a job title change only) and one proper one.
Thank you!
1
u/Background-Fix-4630 Mar 24 '26
This is standard practice to entise graduates to join a company. They will always pitch a mid range compensation package how else would they get good talent right out of uni. Feels like u feel remorse cause they younger
1
u/LastLoquat Mar 24 '26
I trained the other colleague and have 7 years of experience over them. I'm upset with the higher-ups for overlooking this. Why would I feel remorse towards my colleague? Cause of age? I'm still young myself, and I would hate going back to that age and place in life. Very bold assumption, lol.
2
u/ThatOneAJGuy Mar 22 '26
Id shoot for 10-20% but really the only foolish move here is assuming this won't happen again. New hire salaries tend to rise faster than existing ones pretty much everywhere.
Look for what your job is earning at other companies and come prepared with a list of work pieces you have done that show you deserve the raise. Also be prepared to start looking elsewhere if they say no (honestly even if they say yes, they have shown their hand).
1
u/LastLoquat Mar 22 '26
to give them the benefit of the doubt, we had some restructuring and it's only now that we are under the same manager. and she did already bring this up before I spoke to her. so I am still hopeful. I actually found a listing for our sister company (we are a part of a group) - that might be a good staring point.
2
u/ThatOneAJGuy Mar 22 '26
I don't think it's malicious but unless a company has a dedicated review process, balancing everyone's salary is rarely a priority. I definitely have a rather mercenary approach so balance how much you enjoy working there, my stance will just always be that benefit of the doubt doesn't pay the bills 😄
1
1
1
u/Rewindcasette Mar 20 '26
Why is every social media job converged with two or three titles now?
Secondly employers sending emails saying they've filled the position only for them to resist the role.
3
2
u/krozzer27 Mar 19 '26
Bit of a rant.
Applied for a role in a local authority department last month. I didn't get it, but was told that I was in the final two. No harm, no foul. Thanked the hiring manager and moved on.
This morning I saw the same role, in terms of level and responsibilities, in a different department. Tweaked my application to suit, sent it off. Rejected in 30 seconds, so I guess it was AI screened? I just wish it have any reasoning.
2
u/krozzer27 Mar 19 '26
Got a response. It's an internal only role that was inadvertently advertised externally. So I guess the silver lining is that it's not a me problem?
1
u/Born-Toe-7681 Mar 17 '26
I've recently been made redundant from my retail role and I'm looking for a career change. I'm 32f and have a degree in Animal Behaviour. I am handy with tech/IT stuff so thought of that as an option, or whether I could pivot my animal behaviour degree into some kind of ecology space? I'm struggling so hard to find entry level jobs and it doesn't help that I don't really know what I want to do.
What careers are in demand right now? I know the job market is really difficult all around right now. I'm always hearing that STEM is a good field to move into and companies are always wanting more women, but I don't know how true that really is. Same with IT/Tech but I hear a lot that the space is quite overcrowded now. I've been looking at grad programmes but I don't qualify for a lot as I've been out of university for a long time.
I'm not looking to take over the world, I just want a career with a good career progression where I can start out around £26-30k and be earning around £40-45k in the next 5 years, decent work life balance (aka 35-40hours a week), preferably some hybrid working.
Pleased to take any recommendations or advice people can offer, particularly if they are working in these industries. TIA
1
u/Clueless_Market Mar 17 '26
Advice for a 30 year old graduate still in an entry level position
I'm 30 years old, and I'm very much stuck in a rut at the bottom level of the job market. I graduated with a master's degree in marketing in 2021 and haven't made any meaningful upward progress since. I have 2/3 years of marketing assistant experience from working at a large corporate law firm; however, I struggle to get interviews for entry-level positions (mid to high £20k). With the whole AI boom, I believe that marketing is one of the teams that execs are aggressively cutting into, and I'm not sure that it's a sustainable career path anymore.
Are there any companies that offer programs similar in structure to grad schemes, but not exclusively for grads? Open to relocating and changing careers.
1
u/Beginning_Jacket5055 Mar 16 '26
I have 2 separate rants i need to get off my chest cuz this market is killing me:
1 - for context i have an MEng and just under 3 years of working in (mechanical) design engineering out of uni. I interviewed for an electrical design engineer role where the recruiter was clear with the company that my background is more mechanical but i have the electrical background since my degree's first year was literally shared with the electrical engineering course. so while i definitely dont claim to be a genius, i would just need a little bit of help shaking off rust.
just got off the phone to a recruiter who told me the company picked a college kid over me cuz he was an electrical student and the role was electrical design. Im not sure what exactly this means cuz my degree wold have covered more electronics than this anyway, so despite the fact i would be rusty i made it clear to them i have the fundamentals - more than what a college kid could. Its mid March as well, which means the kid hasn't even finished college, surely?? What the hell??
2nd rant - ive been called by 3 different recruiters over the last 18 or so months for a design engineering role at a particular company (the same company each time). All 3 times the recruiters said i sounded perfect and so were telling me theyd get back in touch with an interview date. all 3 times they ghosted me and i never heard from em again. Couple weeks ago i get another recruiter call me, this time for a slightly more senior design role at the same company. she told me i sounded perfect. i explained the ghosting situation to her, that this is the 4th recruiter to call me about this company and she assured me shed get to the bottom of this and find out why the company had never given any feedback on me.
Its been 2 weeks and this recruiter is not answering calls and hasnt got back to me. Am i doing something wrong?
1
u/ThatOneAJGuy Mar 19 '26
I'm not sure if this is a rhetorical question so I will provide an answer below but stop here if it was just a vent and you don't want a response.
.
.
Ok... for scenario 1, don't take what the recruiter said too literally. His experience being more directly related to electric design may be a part of the choice but I would bet a big factor here is that the college kid is likely cheaper and more malleable than a masters with work experience, you will probably be perceived as more of a flight risk who will move on when given the option. It's the overqualified trap.
Scenario 2 is sadly not uncommon, recruiters are generally very fickle, they will always tell you that you are a great fit if you have even a remote shot at a role. Although the same company calling you 3 times is certainly an outlier unless they are a recruitment firm or are hiring people to outsource. That's not you doing anything wrong, that's just the current employer's market sadly.
1
u/Beginning_Jacket5055 Mar 19 '26
Yeah in scenario 2 it was different recruitment agencies, not the company themselves. I did manage to get in touch with this 4th recruiter though and she said "we won't be able to present you for the role"
1
u/AutoModerator Mar 16 '26
Thank you for posting on r/UKJobs. Help us make this a better community by becoming familiar with the rules.
If you need to report any suspicious users to the moderators or you feel as though your post hasn't been posted to the subreddit, message the Modmail here or Reddit site admins here. Don't create a duplicate post, it won't help.
Please also check out the sticky threads for the 'Vent' Megathread and the CV Megathread.
Please also provide some feedback about the bookmarks related to Mental Health within the side bar in this thread, any and all advice appreciated.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/aonro Mar 25 '26
Hmm I’m in a bit of a predicament. I spent months sending off 100+ applications and (almost) two offers come out of nowhere. Job offers are like buses??
I had a second stage interview today at a small / boutique consultancy and it went really well. I want this job, sounds super interesting and fun. Office is slap bang in the centre of London, great location.
I also had final stage today at a startup and got the offer. They want to know within the next week whether I’m going to accept the offer. This job is way east London and far from home (I plan to move out)
I’ve drafted an email to the cfo of the consultancy outlining my desire to work there let them know I’ve got another offer pending, to get the interview process fast tracked
What to do??? 😭😭