Rant: Left my job to work on a production line, now earning more... - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2015, 03:00:26 pm
content: Who on earth decided that being an unskilled "production operative" is a job that deserves higher pay than many a skilled technical job in the UK? OK I'm not any type of engineer, I was just a cluster sysadmin and occasional coder, but I've gone from circa £30k a year (before bonuses) to circa £35k after tax and NIbeforeany overtime. I now also get my lunch and travel to and from work paid for and I'm not working any more hours. There is at least one other person there who joined up for the same reasons, boredom and feeling undervalued, and he's much more highly qualified than I. I'm not complaining about my new job but I now can't for the life of me work out who thought my old pay was a OK after I worked out the minimum time after the extra training they paid for. Is this why interest in STEM subjects is dying out? Is this just something to do with not being in London, is it a just a UK phenomenon, or is it a worldwide issue?

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2015, 03:33:53 pm
content: We don't know what kind of product/service/industry your new employer (or your previous employer) is in? Some just historically pay more than others.Be thankful you are in a place where you have some amount of personal freedom of choice and freedom of movement to make your own decisions unhampered by "collectivism" or "central planning".

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2015, 03:53:33 pm
content: Quote from: Richard Crowley on August 30, 2015, 03:33:53 pmMy previous employer was a university. My current one makes valves for medical and scientific machinery*. But the position I've filled needed zero qualifications beyond basic English and maths comprehension.*There are a lot of small but high value specialist companies like that around here.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2015, 04:39:07 pm
content: Perhaps the difference is that a process operator helps to make a product (profit!) where an engineer just costs money. Overtime and irregular shifts can add up to a serious amount of cash IF you can deal with the irregular schedule.

author: lukier
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 30, 2015, 05:03:04 pm
content: Quote from: Mechanical Menace on August 30, 2015, 03:53:33 pmI think that explains a lotI'll be finishing my PhD in a year and face similar problem. Academic salaries are not that great, especially when compared to London living costs, and I hate "publish or perish" pressure, so probably I'll have to go back to the industry, working for the man as Dave puts it.

author: miguelvp
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2015, 05:07:11 pm
content: My salary nearly tripled when I went from working as a senior programmer at a university to the private industry. So the jump in salaries in the US between universities and private industry might be more than in your country.Edit: This was a couple of decades ago though give or take 5 years.

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2015, 05:20:08 pm
content: Quote from: Mechanical Menace on August 30, 2015, 03:00:26 pmYou 'deserve' whatever other are willing to pay you or whatever you can earn on your own. Now that you are willing to be a 'production operative' you 'deserve' more. Good for you, enjoy it.

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2015, 05:31:25 pm
content: Quote from: lukier on August 30, 2015, 05:03:04 pmQuote from: miguelvp on August 30, 2015, 05:07:11 pm30k after tax is about the norm for a compute cluster sysadmin over here, well where salaries are published anyhows. And that's where industry doesn't just rent their HTC or HPC time off of a uni. It's also about average for a systems programmer.Quote from: zapta on August 30, 2015, 05:20:08 pmOh yeah, but 'they' whine that people aren't prepared to do the job, pay for the education to do it, or go overseas where the pay is higher but refuse to admit that pay has any impact on that. They're only shooting themselves in the foot I guess but they don't seem to want to try and fix the problem, only whine at the government that schools are shit because a lot of kids realise it's not worth the money.QuoteI'm not as snobby as I sound, I just never thought I could get anything better.

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2015, 05:55:53 pm
content: I remember going from a university engineering job to an entry-level technician in the Real World. I was rather dissapointed that my first pay-check was roughly equivalent. My cow-orkers asked me how often we got paid back at the uni, and I told them it was every 2 weeks. They said, Oh! well we get paid weekly here!

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2015, 08:14:21 pm
content: Pay for jobs is based on supply and demand. Employers will try to pay as little as they can while also being able to find someone to fill the position. Someone in the organization thought your old pay was OK because someone else (you) was accepting it and doing the job for that money. Only when you (and all your successors) decline to do the job for that amount of money will the pay be increased.Another thing to consider is that a university is not a business. When you are working for a university you are seen as part of their operating costs and therefore a cost to be minimized. In your new job you are helping to produce products for sale, and therefore you are part of their value stream. Jobs in profit centres are always going to be paid better than jobs in cost centres (except for accountants and lawyers).

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2015, 08:27:32 pm
content: Quote from: Mechanical Menace on August 30, 2015, 05:31:25 pmLet them whine. Nobody owe them a thing, not even learning STEM. ;-)Quote from: Mechanical Menace on August 30, 2015, 05:31:25 pmHopefully there are more leaps waiting for you down the road and hopefully you will recognize and take advantage of them.