Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Birmingham salaries

Hellsbells

Hellsbells

World's best procrastinator
Just discovered I started an identical thread in 2008 :eek:

Anyway, been looking at jobs in B'ham, mostly university admin & the starting salaries seem to be around 18.5K. Having lived in London for so long, this salary seems REALLY low to me. Is it low for B'ham or reasonable?

I live a fairly frugal lifestyle but I want to be earning enough to apply for a mortgage at some point (combined with my boyfriend's salary and a pretty good deposit)

:hmm:
 
Hellsbells said:
Just discovered I started an identical thread in 2008 :eek:

Anyway, been looking at jobs in B'ham, mostly university admin & the starting salaries seem to be around 18.5K. Having lived in London for so long, this salary seems REALLY low to me. Is it low for B'ham or reasonable?

I live a fairly frugal lifestyle but I want to be earning enough to apply for a mortgage at some point (combined with my boyfriend's salary and a pretty good deposit)

:hmm:
Click to expand...

Don't know about Brum specificaly but it doesn't seem awful. Have you looked at rents?
 
22k was the median salary here maybe 2 or 3 years ago. Assuming an 8 hour day, I think that £18.5k is around £8.90/hr, living wage is £8.25/hr so I think that wage will be fine.
 
I'm based in Wolves and work for a large buisiness and they pay welders and assembly workers 23-26k p/a, so I don't think 18.5k for an admin role is that bad... in fact i'd say its good based upon my wifes salary.
 
Addy said:
I'm based in Wolves and work for a large buisiness and they pay welders and assembly workers 23-26k p/a, so I don't think 18.5k for an admin role is that bad... in fact i'd say its good based upon my wifes salary.
Click to expand...
any jobs going?
 
UnderAnOpenSky said:
Don't know about Brum specificaly but it doesn't seem awful. Have you looked at rents?
Click to expand...
Compared to London, rent & house prices seem amazingly cheap. Will apply for those jobs. Although they're advertised as being for 'internal and external candidates' which makes me think its just the usual crap of getting people to re- apply for their own jobs so an external candidate stands no chance
 
Sounds rubbish to me compared with what I know some friends earn there, but they have been with the same company for a whole and got raises.
 
Sounds about right. Cambridge University here pay £18,734 as a starting salary for admin assistants. This would be requiring GCSEs and some IT knowledge (e.g. MS Office). A junior receptionist role (no experience/quals necessary) would start at £16,357.
 
Obviously if the admin role requires more experience then the salary would be higher. For example I am looking at an advert here in paying £21,605-£25,023 for a Research Grants Administrator that states "Previous experience of clerical work and administration is essential; report-writing skills and a familiarity with grant administration would be very welcome"

If someone has worked in a similar job previously they'd typically start you off on a salary within the range that is equal or one increment higher than the salary you had previously.
 
bi0boy said:
If someone has worked in a similar job previously they'd typically start you off on a salary within the range that is equal or one increment higher than the salary you had previously.
Click to expand...

This isn't what I've been told at interviews. They've all said everyone starts at the bottom of the salary scale regardless then move up on increment each year they're in employment with that company.
 
Hellsbells said:
This isn't what I've been told at interviews. They've all said everyone starts at the bottom of the salary scale regardless then move up on increment each year they're in employment with that company.
Click to expand...

Have you previously worked in a uni admin job? If you're "moving sideways" they shouldn't drop you down the pay spine.
 
bi0boy said:
Have you previously worked in a uni admin job? If you're "moving sideways" they shouldn't drop you down the pay spine.
Click to expand...
Kind of. I worked in basic uni admin about 9 years ago, then FE college admin for 6 years. I've not worked in admin for the last 2. Although that could be argued .... teaching involves huge amounts of admin!
All my admin was work has been in London though. I'm not expecting to get the same salary elsewhere.
 
Been doing my application today. The starting salary is actually £18,500 to £19,900. Then it increases annually up to 23K
Doubt I'll even get that far in the process, but if it did happen, I'd assume I'd be put on the higher starting salary and don't think almost 20K is atall bad.
Worked out that I spend double on housing costs in London than I would if I lived in B'ham. Therefore £20K is the equivalent of me earning 40K in London. Which is LOADS and nowhere near what I earn at the moment!
 
There are suddenly loads of jobs at Birmingham university. Does this mean most of them don't actually exist? I feel like I'm wasting my time here :(
And what's really annoying is it's one of those endless online applications and despite the fact the jobs are all really similar, I still have to type in all the same bloody info again.
 
I know it's tedious Hellsbells and an appalling waste of a nice sunny day, but honestly, the effort you put into getting a job in the Midlands and relocating here will be rewarded 50 fold by the lifestyle you have.

Birmingham isn't my cup of tea, no city larger that Bath or Edinburgh is, but it's a decent enough place, and its grace - for me - is that almost wherever you are in Birmingham you aren't far from the countryside. Working at Brum Uni for example would mean you could choose to live in the achingly fashionable city, or in the commuter towns like Redditch, Bromsgrove, droitwich, Kidderminster, or in the beautiful, bucolic countryside that runs between them all.

You can still buy a 3 bed Victorian/Edwardian terrace in Kidderminster for £99k...
 
Hellsbells said:
There are suddenly loads of jobs at Birmingham university. Does this mean most of them don't actually exist? I feel like I'm wasting my time here :(
And what's really annoying is it's one of those endless online applications and despite the fact the jobs are all really similar, I still have to type in all the same bloody info again.
Click to expand...
Don't forget there's two other unis in Birmingham so you can look for jobs with them too. On the salary note I've found that Birmingham uni doesn't pay all that well in the kinds of jobs I'd like to do, so it's no surprise you're finding the same thing in admin posts tbh.
 
moomoo said:
Really?!

I don't hate Kiddy tbf...
Click to expand...

Yup.

Ok, not in the best streets in the town, but it's not south central LA by any stretch of the imagination. Kiddy is the butt of Worcestershires jokes, but as you say, there's no reason to hate the place - good transport links, excellent schools, good and plentiful housing stock, surrounded on all sides by amazing countryside. The town centre is a bit of a disappointment, but that's true of many town centres...
 
kebabking said:
Yup.

Ok, not in the best streets in the town, but it's not south central LA by any stretch of the imagination. Kiddy is the butt of Worcestershires jokes, but as you say, there's no reason to hate the place - good transport links, excellent schools, good and plentiful housing stock, surrounded on all sides by amazing countryside. The town centre is a bit of a disappointment, but that's true of many town centres...
Click to expand...

I live in Redditch...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

RiderOnTheStorm
Birmingham & Tolkien
Replies
16
Views
488
kebabking
kebabking
M
Sunday lunch recommenation - Birmingham or west of
Replies
19
Views
909
MBV
M
cybershot
A Birmingham and Black Country thread for all things Brummie and Yam-Yam
34 35 36 37 38
Replies
1K
Views
60K
Lorca
L
beesonthewhatnow
New "Coyote Ugly" themed bar opening in Birmingham
Replies
20
Views
2K
1927
1927
editor
Birmingham has nearly twice as many empty homes as homeless people
Replies
2
Views
570
moomoo
M
Back
Top Bottom