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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

#141

Post by ClumsyPilot »

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…

The british government has a parasitic relationship with consultancy companies. They hire consultants for £1,500 per day from PWC, Deloitte, etc.

https://youtu.be/ycVBoWsGLJs

There are 3 kinds of consultants - experienced civil service employees that were poached because they were underpaid - so now the consultancy pays them 80k instead of 50 but charges them out for a fortune.

Or they are generalists working for the consultancy, and are about as skilled as the civil servants themselves.

Only a small fraction of consultants are really so specialised that you only need the expertise occasionally and should be contracting them

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

#142

Post by jstx1 »

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 will not be surprised to see an exodus of skilled workers over the next decade. I personally have set a 5 year target for leaving the country personally, which is sad.

What better options do you have realistically?

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

#143

Post by dukeyukey »

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…

I don't think that's the case - looking at levels.fyi, London pays more than anywhere outside the US and Switzerland. Definitely more than Australia, despite a lower cost of living.

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

#144

Post by roundandround »

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.

The people this manager leads will also not be coders. Governments make virtually no software and any of that would be in a group that is still not connected to the group overseeing overall security.

If he has a windows machine he is familiar with what it does on Tuesdays.. From there its learning about CVEs, etc..

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

#145

Post by [deleted] »

incone123 wrote: post #117
dubcanada wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

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

#146

Post by xenocratus »

iamacyborg wrote: post #131
vidarh wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I pay £1550pcm in a fairly new build in Stratford/Olympic Park, ~60sqm. Used to pay the same (until January) for ~55sqm in Canada Water, but for an older build. These are 1 bed flats I'm talking about.

I do have to say, though, the process of finding them was quite stressful.

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

#147

Post by ubercow13 »

curiousguy wrote: post #136
ubercow13 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Absolutely. The 60% marginal rate will still kick in somewhere though, with the recent increase in annual pension allowance I guess it would be 160-185k, which would actually make it 65% as it'd be on top of the additional rate.

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

#148

Post by vidarh »

iamacyborg wrote: post #131
vidarh wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've lived in Croydon for 20 years, after living multiple other places in London. While it has some real shitholes, it also has plenty of great places. Most of Croydons reputation is down to places most people who live in Croydon never see.

The 1100/month flats I saw were in calm, green, solidly middle class areas with walking distance to several large parks, shops, and great transport links.

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

#149

Post by dukeyukey »

gumballindie wrote: post #94

If you factor in the ever increasing taxes, interest rates and cost of living, this is a junior level salary. They'll get what they pay for.

It's a role managing two employees, they're probably looking at a reasonably mid-level candidate.

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

#150

Post by Aeolun »

sandworm101 wrote: post #133
FartyMcFarter wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> The reality is that the vast majority of great generals never were.

There’s a fuckton of terrible generals that were never foot soldiers. How does that ratio relate to the number of terrible generals that were?

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