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

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

#131

Post by iamacyborg »

vidarh wrote: post #114
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…

Yeah but then you live in Croydon.

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

#132

Post by flixing »

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…

So not true

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

#133

Post by sandworm101 »

FartyMcFarter wrote: post #112
sandworm101 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Such skills are certainly a bonus, but they would not be a requirement. It is common thinking that every good general should first have been a good footsoldier. The reality is that the vast majority of great generals never were. The most important skills for senior leaders to succeed are rarely similar to those needed to succeed on the front lines of any project.

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

#134

Post by williamvds »

vidarh wrote: post #114
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…

I have to assume other young people, like myself, want a mostly furnished place because dragging a ton of furniture around is very annoying. Especially when you're forced to move around every few years because the rents keep hiking up.

And I don't think the adverted price are representative of how much you'd end up paying in just rent. My current place went up £200/mo from £1800/mo advertised, because the agent went back to us (and the other applicants), telling us other people's offers, and goading us into increasing our offer.

Anecdata: I share a 2 bed in Ealing, £2000/mo in just rent, council tax band D which adds about another month's rent a year. If I weren't working in finance and paying more to make up for my housemate's lower salary (my ~70k/yr to his ~£30k/yr) there's no way we'd be able to afford this place. We'd have to find somewhere in a worse location, with poorer quality, or both.

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

#135

Post by dukeyukey »

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 $…

I'm in London, and don't recognise most of this.

Like, I live in Zone 2 with a rent of £1600/month, including heating. My previous place (only a few months ago) was £1450, also in Zone 2. My company is revving up hiring, and we've definitely not seen salaries decrease. If anything, we're prepared to pay more to basically anyone who isn't a new grad.

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

#136

Post by curiousguy »

ubercow13 wrote: post #116
ZephyrBlu wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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%

You can easily put money in your pension and avoid the tax.

So if you’re making 125k and put 25k in your pension, you will only pay taxes on 100k.

Take advantage of tax wrappers and UK tax is kind of okay when comparing with other countries.

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

#137

Post by unmole »

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.

I'm being almost entirely facetious but for ~600 GBP one could fly to India, get excellent dental treatment and fly back.

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

#138

Post by tyingq »

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…

UK payroll taxes are also probably a larger percentage.

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

#139

Post by dukeyukey »

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

Looking at levels.fyi, London pays developers more than anywhere outside the US and Switzerland.

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

#140

Post by newsclues »

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…

Seems like a way for elites to maintain control.

Much like unpaid internships, the paths and positions of power are made unattractive to intelligent and hardworking people who lack generational wealth to work for free or far less than market value, especially when cost of living is so high.

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