Curiosity

[lnr]

A friend of mine recently wondered why they weren't earning 30K in programming, when it seemed like most of their friends were. So I'm curious as to what various people on my friends-list do. If you're not currently working but have done in the past feel free to fill this in with your most recent job in mind. If you don't want to reveal who you are, or if you don't have a livejournal, I'd still be interested in answers as comments instead.

NB Salary in UK pounds please, sorry for not making that clear in the question.

[Poll #256200]

Comments

[jbmurray.livejournal.com]

Same here regarding 4+ years "experience" as a PhD student before starting to earn anything like real money.

The question of being paid "too little" or "too much" is difficult, too. Compared to equivalent UK academics with my experience, I'm paid just about right. Compared to the UK average wage, I'm doing fine, and have money to go travelling etc. Compared to equivalent "professionals," we're doing crap, of course (all the more so because we start earning later). So I ticked "too little," as I think you want comparisons across sectors.

[lnr]

I guess if the PhD is relevant to the work you're doing now then the experience counts, if not and then you might well not count it as working experience. I don't think I could make that judgement for either of you.

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

I didn't count my PhD in my 5-6 years' experience, as I wasn't being paid to do something, but being given a grant to support me while I did something. If people are counting work-relevant PhDs in years of experience, I have 7-8 years' experience.

I put that my pay (10-15k) was "about right" on the grounds of it being perfectly adequate to feed, shelter and amuse me (to each according to their needs etc.). If you actually wanted a cross-sector comparison, as someone else suggested, then I suppose it's not really very much for someone with my qualifications and experience. But I could have opted for a high-flying city job some while ago if I'd wanted the money - I'd rather have some spare time and a quiet conscience, though!