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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

#151

Post by ClumsyPilot »

iamben wrote: post #130
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 accide…

Where are you based? I'm in central London and - whilst I agree it has been and could be better - have had no problem getting an appointment. Most of it is app based now, right? I'll message in the morning or the night before, a doctor will video call within 48 hours (usually, but often same day) and will ask me to come in if I need to. Otherwise they'll just prescribe after the call and send the prescription to my l…

There is functional GP left in London? How about in-person appointments?

I am in East London, Newham, with Doctor IQ app, thats been my experience so far

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

#152

Post by dreilide »

agilob wrote: post #121
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 $…

> They specifically mention being paid £55k as being equivalent to $100k in the US. It isn’t. I think you're missing some benefits. I don't know anything specific about this job offer and what would be on the paper offer, but UK public sector offers quite insane benefits compared to private sector, where salary might be like 50-60% of total compensation. Some I'm failiar with: free access to public nurseries (normal…

Agreed - my ex has spent her whole career in the public sector and the benefits are indeed insane. IIRC the pension was especially lucrative (from my POV), it was something like min ~20% employer contribution but I could be remembering incorrectly.

I wonder why they don't advertise all the benefits more explicitly in public sector job listings.

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

#153

Post by dukeyukey »

nivenkos wrote: post #74

European wages are incredibly low, so this isn't so surprising. It is particularly low though, but something like 80k wouldn't be unexpected at all.

It's a US-vs-world thing, not a Europe thing. Looking at levels.fyi, London pays more than anywhere outside the US and Switzerland, and even outpays chunks of the US (albeit not the tech hubs).

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

#154

Post by iamben »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #151
iamben wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are you based? I'm in central London and - whilst I agree it has been and could be better - have had no problem getting an appointment. Most of it is app based now, right? I'll message in the morning or the night before, a doctor will video call within 48 hours (usually, but often same day) and will ask me to come in if I need to. Otherwise they'll just prescribe after the call and send the prescription to my l…

There is functional GP left in London? How about in-person appointments? I am in East London, Newham, with Doctor IQ app, thats been my experience so far

Hackney, Islington, Tower Hamlets, Greenwich - definitely my experience. People are definitely trying, even if it doesn't always work. Hope you get a bit more lucky next time!

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

#155

Post by dukeyukey »

buro9 wrote: post #107

As footballers earn most of their money through sponsorships, so this person will earn most of their money through back-handers from procurement. I wish I were joking, but this is what a salary of this level for this role will amount to.

It's a role managing two employees, that's not exactly kickback territory

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

#156

Post by dukeyukey »

Kognito wrote: post #82

Feels like there might have been a mistake on the job listing. It’s listed as mid-senior, with the same salary band as the roles this would be managing.

It's not too unusual for a manager to learn less than their reports. I'm in London and earn more than my manager.

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

#157

Post by nindalf »

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’ve had the misfortune to work with Accenture acting on behalf of the UK government. They’ve somehow managed to stretch a software project 2 years past delivery date, bleeding the UK taxpayer dry the whole time. At no point have these people shown even a shred of professionalism or competence.

All the while I’m not even sure the boffins at Whitehall even realise they’re being robbed blind. But to be fair, if it wasn’t Accenture robbing them, it’d be some other firm doing the same thing in the same way.

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

#158

Post by jojobas »

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…

If you're paid less, it generally means you're less useful to the society. They value you protecting the UK treasury less than they value you making silly landing pages. You can chill making landing pages just as well, just make them part-time.

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

#159

Post by agilob »

dreilide wrote: post #152
agilob wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They specifically mention being paid £55k as being equivalent to $100k in the US. It isn’t. I think you're missing some benefits. I don't know anything specific about this job offer and what would be on the paper offer, but UK public sector offers quite insane benefits compared to private sector, where salary might be like 50-60% of total compensation. Some I'm failiar with: free access to public nurseries (normal…

Agreed - my ex has spent her whole career in the public sector and the benefits are indeed insane. IIRC the pension was especially lucrative (from my POV), it was something like min ~20% employer contribution but I could be remembering incorrectly. I wonder why they don't advertise all the benefits more explicitly in public sector job listings.

and there she goes to retire safely at 60

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

#160

Post by Aeolun »

SilverBirch wrote: post #84
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...…

The answer is much simpler, it's simply not a high power job. It's an inflated job title for the person in the IT department who leads a team of 2 people focused on cyber security. It reports into the IT department (which obviously at the treasury isn't really an important department), and is several levels away from senior leadership. In the private sector this role would be the most junior level of management- some…

I think the problem is that it is still a high skill job. You are not going to get a PHP developer for that price, much less a cybersecurity expert.
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