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?

My son is a trainee solicitor in his first year. His salary is £28k rising to 32k next year! The corporate firm he's training with offer over £50k for NQ. He did a 4 yr LLB & 1 yr Diploma in Professional Practice, training is a further 2 yrs on the job so 7 in total. Surely that commands more than £28k?

The good news is a lot of other employers like the qualification...loads of us that studied law have ended up doing something different...I did a hybrid degree and worked for 2 horrid law firms in my summers so started free representation elsewhere when I graduated...I hadn't kept up with the salaries offered now...it does explain the appalling quality of service I just experienced recently. Good Luck ...I hope this means you'll find something happier and more fulfilling personally and financially 💐💐💐🍀

Bus drivers in Bristol are being advertised - starting salary of £30,000

I guess the difference is what progression is there? A solicitor would hopefully have significant pay rises?

They were trainee solicitors or pupillage

It’s ridiculous OP. Not a solicitor but another professional career that is not valued. I’m going somewhere that they cater for the majority and they respect an Education.

Well, if you can do both, you can just about cobble together a viable salary

Where’s that then?

Our newly qualified nurses start on £35k (£31k base pay plus £4k guaranteed antisocial hours) so that’s absolutely ridiculous…

One of my early on exes, his father lived in the equivalent of Knightsbridge in Melbourne and put three children through private school with a very unremarkable career in Law
And he was home every night at 5 pm on the dot

£60k, that’s very low for the amount of studying and qualifications needed. I'm
really shocked.

I know assistants/admins who earn more than that (in London).

Yes. It was the way even when the cost of living and rent wasn't so ridiculous. My first salary in 2003 was 20k and I lived in a shared flat.

Sorry, @Jackiepumpkinhead - I got that wrong. £60k is probably what a mid-level lawyer would get at a smaller or non-corporate law firm in London, but I’ve now learned a mid-level lawyer at a top firm would probably get around £200k++. Sorry!

I take your point, but it rather depends on how much OP wants to work as a solicitor, doesn’t it?
For every OP who declines the role there will be a dozen who will take it. Sadly, this is the real world, OP may not get another chance and law firms do talk each other and at any stage she needs to avoid any question on her reputation but especially as an unknown commodity.
Sorry, it’s bleak and I can’t change that

Well we only worked for 4 years before buying in 2010, with no help from parents and no inheritance. Our lovely 2 bed flat in a big vibrant city cost £116k, which we were pretty pleased with. So I can't personally complaint about my lot too much. We're now in a 4 bed detached house in a desirable market town, with a small mortgage. But the younger generation have been royally fucked over.

Middle East, Australia, USA, Canada. Most places where can work while speaking English have better working conditions and less moral injury than the UK. For my profession anyway. And recruiters are keen to attract.

I was recently looking for a job, the amount of experience some companies want (this wasn’t a legal role) for very little money really surprised me.
one company listed the duties, then went on to say ‘you would also be expected to help with”… and listed a whole range of additional duties. And the salary was £23k
There was more than one I saw like this too

Ah ok, that sounds better ha! No need to apologise ☺️

@Fandango52 "I don’t know OP’s circumstances, and I apologise for being so blunt, which I don’t mean to be, but I think there is a very slim chance that OP would be able to successfully apply for a commercial law role at a top London firm if the roles they’re currently applying for advertise a £27.5k salary."
OP clearly states in her opening post that the job was advertised as a "competitive salary" and she only found out at offer stage, after five rounds of interviews, that it was only £27.5k. Had they been transparent about the salary OP wouldn't have applied for the job.

I get that, but there’s an absolutely huge difference between a ‘competitive salary’ (let’s say £50k, for the sake of argument) and £150k!!

. Someone who’d worked to become a professional would have expected a semi or detached to begin their working lives.

Nonsense. Unless they saved a deposit while at university or had mom and dad gift them one.

On the bright side, you won't be paying back your student loan for a while on that salary, with a 5 perc raise a year.

I’m a police staff detective with 10 years investigative experience currently working in the major crime unit. I’m on £35 before weekend/anti social hours allowance.
It’s a brilliant role, but my department has just failed to recruit 5 more civilian investigators because no one is interested and they need at least basic investigation qualifications.

That sounds like a fab role!

This is my dream job, seriously. I have done a lot of nhs investigations so think I have transferable skills but no qualification. Don’t you need to be doing the job in the police to get the qualification? So how can people get a job?