To think this salary is an insult?

[FlyingSolo16]

I’m a solicitor and recently interviewed for a position. Five rounds of interview, meetings with different people within the firm, etc etc.

Get to the offer stage and the “competitive salary” they’re offering was £27,500 a year. AIBU or is that an insult?

That really is taking every last drop of piss and then asking for more. I know that one of my clients (I'm a solicitor too), recently hired a 1 year PQE to their in-house team in the (northern) regions for about £55k. That's at a household name financial services company that provides pretty bloody good fringe benefits too. You've got to be able to do better than sub-30k, unless you live in Thurso or somewhere like that.

I think it should be the law that salaries must be included in any job advert though, saves wasting everyone's time.

I hope you told them why you were saying no. Disgraceful wage for that post.

It depends on the discipline: Business, Finance, Law, Computing, etc, there is a shortage. Humanities/Liberal Arts - thw bottom fell out post Covid. DS has gone abroad and was very lucky to find a post.

Abouy 30 years ago a friend of DH's interviewed at a solicitors firm just outside the Home Counties. When they offered they said "for someone with your experience, we can go up to £25k". His response was "how often?".

Tell them it'll be to be tripled or it's a no

My older brother ( he retired about 5 years ago, at the age of 58) was a solicitor. He worked for various small law firms starting as a Legal executive. Then after the recession in the 80’s hecthen ended up working for British Aerospace and he didn’t even go to Uni. As we were from a working class family but my dad’s job was quite well paid) but my brother started off almost like an apprentice , and was continuously taking exams and then had to spend a year at college) He was able to buy a one bedroom flat on his own, in West London at the age of 22, and wasn’t even fully qualified. Times are obviously very different now. My 31 year old daughter didn’t want to go to Uni, because she didn’t want to end up in debt ( as she’s a single parent to my only grandson/grandchild ) but went to college and started working in a PRU as a teaching assistant but gained so much experience there and she’s now a lead safeguarding officer, and works in a secondary school where salary’s are obviously quite low, but she earns just over
£ 32,000. To say that salary for a solicitor is an insult, is a total understatement after all your years studying. Yes it’s true, it does depend obviously where you work, but you’re worth far more than what they’re paying.

Ha ha, true. Loads made redundant with pay offs. Nobody thought of a buffer for natural wastage and then a few months later when others are throwing the towel in and getting new jobs we now need to recruit.

We pay trainee accountants fresh out of uni about £28k regional rate but that comes with a training contract for chartered accountant and we literally don't see them for the first year and lots of study leave in years 2 and 3.

So yes that's a piss take of NQ solicitor. Unless criminal law.

I think I would refuse to do 5 rounds of interviews for a job where they refused to tell me what the salary range was. I don’t even like applying for roles that like but sometimes it’s unavoidable as it’s so widespread

Is it one of those roles where this is the base rate and you're expected to bring in work for bonus, e.g. personal injury, no win no fee type of work.

Admin workers at my workplace get paid slightly more than that, and so they should, everyone needs a fair living wage.

And five rounds of interviews is ridiculous. I only apply for jobs where the salary range is transparent. It's so much time and effort to apply and interview etc.

My NQ job was £32k and that was TWENTY YEARS AGO. So no, you are not being unreasonable.

Tbh sounds like a high street firm in SE, that's about the going rate for NQ.

That sounds about right to me, actually. If you’re saying that salary was about £80/81k, that sounds in line with other public sector salaries for that role.

Never go through 5 rounds of interviews without knowing the ballpark salary

starting salary for admin staff at my work is £30k

I’m pretty sure DH started on more than that as a trainee over 20 years ago. Was definitely on way more than that as a NQ.

Unless it's 2 days a week then YANBU

Salaries at the moment make me wonder what the point is of higher education and further postgrad training. You could earn the same with no qualifications at all, having saved yourself thousands of pounds!

But surely you can live on this in a flatshare right? Outside of London living with someone reng may be around £500 a month. And then bills and then you still have some money after

Is that what we as young professionals are aspiring to now? Not even a space of our own but a flat share, like we’re back at university?

Jesus Christ! I’m a library assistant, and whilst my job requires a lot of soft skills to do well, and I have specialised in a particular area, it does not require a degree or anything like the training of a solicitor, and I am on a better hourly rate than that! What a piss take.

My husband usually goes into a job hunt with a minimum salary and will tell headhunters/recruiters up front so no one’s time is wasted.

You can earn more than that answering the phones in a call centre! Don’t need a degree for that! And 5 interviews is ridiculous.

Is it some sort of apprenticeship scheme where they take you on at a low starting salary and give you additional training and then guarantee you a job paying much higher at the end.

It just makes me wonder what the point of working at all is, at the moment. It feels like I’m going nowhere.

That is gob smacking. DD (20) earns more than that working retail.

It is awful practice to keep the salary a secret through so many rounds.

Mind you, I've always worked on the assumption: if it was that good, they'd say! I turned a teaching job down once because they wouldn't say the salary.

It's often a sign other things about the job will be unpleasant.

In most cities - sadly, yes.