Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

infosec.exchange

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 245 posts

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#111

Post by InCityDreams »

makingstuffs wrote: post #91
reedf1 wrote: post #77

This has caused a bit of a stir because the UK hasn't quite understood the relative weakness of wage growth for the last 10 years. The culturally understood milestones of "high pay" 30/50k have also not increased with inflation. I get paid well for the UK - but I could triple or even quadruple my salary in the US/Australia. Combined with relatively high taxes (my marginal tax rate is 60%) - it isn't a great value pro…

The worst thing about it all is our healthcare is barely even a benefit anymore. You’d be more likely to find a leprechaun than get an appointment with a doctor and don’t get me started on dentistry.

To where are you referring?

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#112

Post by FartyMcFarter »

sandworm101 wrote: post #104
baazaa wrote: post #75

This is a problem across the civil service, although not as stark as this example usually. The cult of the generalist has long meant that specific skills are considered almost worthless. Instead of the civil service being an assemblage of people with different skill-sets, it instead consists chiefly of administrators with no more skills than a high-school graduate (although they do have tertiary degrees). Jobs which…

I seriously doubt that the head of cyber security at such a place would ever do any coding. The primary job would be administrative, the needed skill the management of people. 55k is a joke, but lets not pretend that this position requires l33t hacking skills. This is a job about hiring and firing people, about selecting policy and judging the qualification of prospective contractors. And it's a job about writing rep…

But if you never did any coding, you may not understand enough to effectively lead a team of people who do that.

For example, how are you going to understand what's going on or resolve technical conflicts? Just outsourcing all the decisions probably makes you much less useful.

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#113

Post by TrackerFF »

ilovefood wrote: post #51

Could it simply be, that these types of jobs (high rank, low pay) are reserved to wealthy people? It might be so that the only ones that can apply are people for which the salary is a mere formality - it's just listed because it might be mandatory for the paperwork. Kind of similar to how artificially high housing cost is some sort of gatekeeping/community control and not actually reflecting demand in some places...…

Having worked in a tangent government field, I can tell you that many of these "head of..." people tend to float from one similar job to another.

It wouldn't surprise me if the person that gets hired for this job, has little to no experience with cyber security.

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#114

Post by vidarh »

makingstuffs wrote: post #86

I get a lot job offers in my LinkedIn inbox and newsletters from places like glass door as I like to keep my eye on the market. One thing I’ve been seeing a lot recently is salaries for dev roles steadily dropping in the UK. The concerning thing, in my opinion, is that the poster linked by OP seems disillusioned as to the standard of living in the UK. They specifically mention being paid £55k as being equivalent to $…

My council tax in zone five for a mid range priced terraced 3 bedroom house is below £200 a month before the single person deduction (25%).

Literally the first search for a 1 bed property to rent in zone 5 (Croydon, specifically), showed up several around 1100/month. The furnished ones in the more expensive new-builds certainly are around the 1500/month range. Those are in band A, while my house is in band D, so even lower council tax, before taking into account the single person deduction.

E.g. a single person in a band A property in Croydon will pay around 1200/year in council tax. Varies by borough, of course.

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#115

Post by ClumsyPilot »

SilverBirch wrote: post #89
jojobas wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you entire IT team is 40, it's plausible to assume that the entire security team is these 2 analysts and their sought-after boss. Even if it's "a" head, why would anyone qualified for leading an infosec team be interested?

For the same reason that anyone works in the civil service. It's a very restrained pace of life, you literally have to count your hours and take time off to ensure you don't work more than 37.5 hours a week, there's flexibility to work from home and your working hours, the pension and the benefits are fantastic. If you live to work then this job isn't for you, but it's quite a nice job if you're not that invested in…

I have seen 'chill' roles with more pay in the private sector.

Thats befire we bring up that, move outside london and your costs go down 30%

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#116

Post by ubercow13 »

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #88
reedf1 wrote: post #77

This has caused a bit of a stir because the UK hasn't quite understood the relative weakness of wage growth for the last 10 years. The culturally understood milestones of "high pay" 30/50k have also not increased with inflation. I get paid well for the UK - but I could triple or even quadruple my salary in the US/Australia. Combined with relatively high taxes (my marginal tax rate is 60%) - it isn't a great value pro…

You think you would triple or quadruple your comp in Aus? The US I get, but Aus seems to be about the same as the UK. Also, how is your marginal tax rate 60%? I'm guessing you mean 40%. https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates

Personal allowance tapers after 100k, making the effective marginal rate 60% between 100-125k. If you include student loan payments too, it's actually more like 69%!

There are other even more extreme marginal rates hidden in the tax system if you have children, I believe there are even some circumstances of >100%

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#117

Post by incone123 »

dubcanada wrote: post #100
makingstuffs wrote: post #86

I get a lot job offers in my LinkedIn inbox and newsletters from places like glass door as I like to keep my eye on the market. One thing I’ve been seeing a lot recently is salaries for dev roles steadily dropping in the UK. The concerning thing, in my opinion, is that the poster linked by OP seems disillusioned as to the standard of living in the UK. They specifically mention being paid £55k as being equivalent to $…

What part of > £55k as being equivalent to $100k in the US Is not? I don't see any argument for that not being correct. Everything you said about costs, sounds that exact same as $100k in the US. Unless you live in North Dakota, chances are you are paying pretty close to the same percentages for rent/foot in a larger city such as San Fran or Chicago. Not exactly sure what zone 5 is, but a rough search gave me $2500 f…

Zone 5: London's public transport has a fare system based on concentric circles. Zone 1 is the centre. Zone 5 housing used to be affordable on average Joe wages.

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#118

Post by sandworm101 »

Outsiders miss the underlying class struggle here. When an employer underpays a position the door opens to nepotism and class discrimination. If the pay is below a reasonable wage for the associated costs, ie living in london, only those with outside income will apply. They take the position for the prestige and power the office conveys rather than the money paid. So it goes to the son-in-law of someone important, some upstart who needs a fancy stamp on the resume to justify his inevitable next appointment up the civil service hierarchy. Several New York law firms do this. Pay new lawyers nothing and you are free to hire only from a narrow group of legal and political families. Also, every political party filling campaign positions with "volunteers" hoping to get a position of power if the condidate wins office. They are all sons and daughters from political families.

Once upon a time many high positions did not pay. Some even required regular payment from the office holder. Want to be near the seat of power in london? Want the ear of the king? That will cost you. Ever watch tales about The Three Musketeers? In reality, the musketeers were drawn from elite families because they had to cover all of thier own costs. It was a prestige position for sons of power wanting to work near the palace.

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#119

Post by tankenmate »

negamax wrote: post #83
baazaa wrote: post #75

This is a problem across the civil service, although not as stark as this example usually. The cult of the generalist has long meant that specific skills are considered almost worthless. Instead of the civil service being an assemblage of people with different skill-sets, it instead consists chiefly of administrators with no more skills than a high-school graduate (although they do have tertiary degrees). Jobs which…

Civil service is also government's secret graduate job creation program. Can't get hired by private sector beyond counter jobs, civil service welcomes you. It's a racket through and through

I think it's a more a case of "don't attribute to maliciousness what can easily be explained by stupidity"; i.e. the powers that be a trying to cut their way to success.

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#120

Post by ClumsyPilot »

InCityDreams wrote: post #111
makingstuffs wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst thing about it all is our healthcare is barely even a benefit anymore. You’d be more likely to find a leprechaun than get an appointment with a doctor and don’t get me started on dentistry.

To where are you referring?

Uk - Britain is ceaselessly proud of it's NHS, and 10 years ago it was fine.

I wiuld call in as a student complaining about a running nose and would get an appointment withing a day or two.

In the past few years it fell off a cliff.

Recently I called in about a serious infection and got told there are no appointment left this month. At all. It was the 2nd of March.

Thr only way to get treatlent is to go to the accidents and emergency department of a hospital and to sit for 6 hours in a queue.

Post reply on HN