Jobs with the most perks/decent salary/bonuses etc

[Effendi]

Add ‘minimum responsibility’ to the title, and you’ve described a post with the European Commission.
(Is that a ‘Close the thread’ moment?)

About 3 months before I was due to leave and start at university the boss called me into the main office and gave me a job description. It was the job I was doing to a T, and I had the required qualifications and requisite years experience - I was even given the nod that I would get an interview if I applied. But, no, I was going to uni, why would I want to apply for a job paying almost double what I was on (T trade pay), loads of leave, living in Brussels working for the EU, only paying something like 6%, or 8% income tax.

One of those moments you look back on in later life and think - "why the f**k didn't I do that".

 

[Lardbeast]

15 years ago it was a great crack, several days off down route, often even a week. Lots of shenanigans and very much a “what goes on down route, stays down route” attitude.

Then the accountants and HR got involved and everything now revolves around spending as little money on crew as possible whilst sapping their will to live through a pathological fear that someone, somewhere might have a bit of fun.

I do a typical 2.5 on, 3.5 off so cumulative fatigue can be an issue. Weekends and bank holidays are just another day but the upside is plenty of time off at home which was great when the kids were young as you do the zoo on a weekday when it’s quiet.

Hotels are usually pretty good but the downside is they are expensive without the allowances to match. The good news is many are now all inclusive. We do a fair bit of positioning around but crew worldwide can spot crew in civvies and look out for each other so upgrades and freebies are not uncommon. It’s still work though and travelling as pax is a ball ache whoever you are.

I’m nudging 45% tax with a good pension and private health on top, a good travel benefits scheme but with kids, getting leave (35 days a year + 7x3 day blocks) in school holidays is difficult and the travel perks are limited during peak times also. With all the rostered days off I don’t think I’ve ever used my full allocation of leave.

Married 25 years, in the job 24. The girlies that go for pilots are coin operated and I don’t and didn’t want the hassle, seen far too many come unstuck financially, emotionally and career wise. Why bother? Have a few beers and as Capt, keep a lid on it which most respect is part of my responsibility and if push comes to shove, go to bed and invoke the “I wasn’t there clause” when HR smell blood.

If I had my time again, yes, if it was literally a repeat then I would but I’m not sure I’d start now facing 40 years to retirement. 9 years to push to nominal retirement but I’ll go early, probably going part time along the way. No point in going on forever as the bastard taxman takes most of it, especially with pension and mortgage almost done. I really don’t get these guys that retire on maxed out pensions and then freelance as sim instructors etc. The only big aeroplane I’ll want to be near post retirement will be attached to my arse via a Business Class seat and viewed through the bottom of a glass. I’m kind of interested in maybe UN flying or MSF, maybe Antarctic Survey for a year or two just for the hell of it, maybe a bit of light aircraft instructing for beer money?

Overall, it’s nothing like it was and nothing like people imagine. That said, I’m happy, on good dough and doing an interesting job that I still enjoy. It’ll do for me.

Catastrophe tourist NGOs will awaken deep hatred within you that you didn't know existed.

Better you contact BAS and go spend a few months of the year down south molesting penguins and living the dream. Perhaps one of the oil and gas mobs as an aviation consultant/coordinator. It's a desk job but if you can swing a five on, five off roster it's pretty good and you may be able to bank your salary offshore and use it for holidays or buy a boat/condo to rent out.

 

[gaijin]

I work in Financial Services.



Downsides? Surrounded by snowflakes with no sense of humour and no common sense. The type that came straight out of uni into the firm and have zero experience doing something else. Rampant American identity politics that has no place in a British workplace. Managers that aren't very good at managing and certainly cannot lead. Endemic brown nosing.

That is one of the great tragedies of the City, the Americanisation of the work place. I was a trader in the late 1990s and into the 2000s and the floor was an absolute joy to work on and you get away with pretty much anything if you were making money, even with American banks which I always was. Go onto a trading floor now and it is utterly soulless. A combination of automation, compliance / regulation and political correctness.

 

[crow_bag]

Software engineering can have huge perks and pay, if you get in at the right company.

Landing a job at Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, or Google could, depending on performance etc see you a millionaire in a few years.

One example is a guy who got a job at Google as a junior engineer in New York started on $115k pa + stock + a annual Bonus of around 20% of his salary (based on his personal performance and performance of the company etc) along with additional stock each year as well.

Offices generally include free meals, onsite gyms, coffee bars and any other hip trendy thing you can think of.

You don’t necessarily need a degree to get a job, but you have to be very good. I think at google only 2% of applicants are successful.

I on the other hand just work as a developer, albeit not at a proper software company, I get paid no where near the market rate for my role and responsibilities I have.

 

[Toastie]

Catastrophe tourist NGOs will awaken deep hatred within you that you didn't know existed.

Better you contact BAS and go spend a few months of the year down south molesting penguins and living the dream. Perhaps one of the oil and gas mobs as an aviation consultant/coordinator. It's a desk job but if you can swing a five on, five off roster it's pretty good and you may be able to bank your salary offshore and use it for holidays or buy a boat/condo to rent out.

Sounds good advice. I just had visions of clipping equatorial thunderstorms with a Twotter full of politicians / Bob Geldorf types and when they were vomiting at max capacity, dumping them in a sweaty, fly blown village to be pawed at by locals.

 

[Lardbeast]

You're making my tummy banana all tingly talking like that.

 

[TamH70]

Sounds good advice. I just had visions of clipping equatorial thunderstorms with a Twotter full of politicians / Bob Geldorf types and when they were vomiting at max capacity, dumping them in a sweaty, fly blown village to be pawed at by locals.

You missed out a vital last sentence there, old bean.

"Who are in the wrong country."

 

[SmilingKnight]

That is one of the great tragedies of the City, the Americanisation of the work place. I was a trader in the late 1990s and into the 2000s and the floor was an absolute joy to work on and you get away with pretty much anything if you were making money, even with American banks which I always was. Go onto a trading floor now and it is utterly soulless. A combination of automation, compliance / regulation and political correctness.

It was a heartbreaking. I came out the Army thinking I was walking into Wolf of Wall Street and in reality it must be like working at a council office.

 

[chuggafugga]

Software engineering can have huge perks and pay, if you get in at the right company.

Landing a job at Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, or Google could, depending on performance etc see you a millionaire in a few years.

One example is a guy who got a job at Google as a junior engineer in New York started on $115k pa + stock + a annual Bonus of around 20% of his salary (based on his personal performance and performance of the company etc) along with additional stock each year as well.

Offices generally include free meals, onsite gyms, coffee bars and any other hip trendy thing you can think of.

You don’t necessarily need a degree to get a job, but you have to be very good. I think at google only 2% of applicants are successful.

I on the other hand just work as a developer, albeit not at a proper software company, I get paid no where near the market rate for my role and responsibilities I have.

Anyone can be a software developer, you learn a language, write the code, execute it, debug and that's all there is to it.

A Software engineer is literally a one man army who can do a whole program whilst developers make up pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, attention to detail.

Obviously they will command the salary of a whole bunch of devs,

 

[Banker]

That is one of the great tragedies of the City, the Americanisation of the work place. I was a trader in the late 1990s and into the 2000s and the floor was an absolute joy to work on and you get away with pretty much anything if you were making money, even with American banks which I always was. Go onto a trading floor now and it is utterly soulless. A combination of automation, compliance / regulation and political correctness.

There are a few last bastions of the old school.........although fewer by the year.

 

[Ayatollah]

Well I'm quoting travel, not commercial

Bollocks.

 

[gaijin]

There are a few last bastions of the old school.........although fewer by the year.

IDBs mostly it seems

 

[Toastie]

Military Padre: only one pamphlet and no amendments.

There’s a big rewrite due any day. God is actually black and non binary and Gerry Rafferty actually parted the waters across the Mersey as the ferries were on strike / been nicked.

 

[Toastie]

And the tabs Moses dropped weren’t quite what they appeared to be either which kind of explains the chemically enhanced state required to write the aforementioned pamphlet.

 

[crow_bag]

Anyone can be a software developer, you learn a language, write the code, execute it, debug and that's all there is to it.

A Software engineer is literally a one man army who can do a whole program whilst developers make up pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, attention to detail.

Obviously they will command the salary of a whole bunch of devs,

You have no idea what you are talking about.

ETA:

The terms software developer, programmer, and engineer are interchangeable and depends on the company you work for and what job titles they want to use.

There’s also a little more to it than simply learning a language, you also need to know things like data structures, algorithms, design principles etc.

You may be getting confused with “full stack engineers” who will do front end and back end and other developers who might concentrate on front end or back end.

 

[chuggafugga]

You have no idea what you are talking about.

ETA:

The terms software developer, programmer, and engineer are interchangeable and depends on the company you work for and what job titles they want to use.

There’s also a little more to it than simply learning a language, you also need to know things like data structures, algorithms, design principles etc.

You may be getting confused with “full stack engineers” who will do front end and back end and other developers who might concentrate on front end or back end.

Yes sorry, thanks for the clarification

 

[FourZeroCharlie]

There’s a big rewrite due any day. God is actually black and non binary and Gerry Rafferty actually parted the waters across the Mersey as the ferries were on strike / been nicked.

And the tabs Moses dropped weren’t quite what they appeared to be either which kind of explains the chemically enhanced state required to write the aforementioned pamphlet.

You have the whiff of Episcopalian about you.

 

[supermatelot]

@Toastie @Lardbeast any chance of a ''day in the life of'' post on a normal (pre covid bollocks) working day for you?

 

[KnightsofRowallan]

I left with my Immediate Pension and after missing a cracking opportunity thanks to MCM Div took a 20k pay cut. That lasted 12mths, the next role brought me back to parity and within 4 years of that I was discovering that for every £2 you earn over £100k, HMRC take £1 off your tax allowance.

The self discipline, confidence, work ethic, resilience etc that the military gives you makes you far more capable than you realise and often more capable than the majority of the population. Also get as many quals as you can whilst in, particularly Post Grad ones; that's often a key first filter.

I'm at the point I can choose so there are companies I won't work for (e.g. Amazon). For me its about the corporate culture and the people I am working with. I have worked for a couple of companies that I should have just walked away from. It is quite empowering during your probation period to turn round to a company and say "not for me thanks, good bye" Hence I take the Car allowance vs the company car. Gives me more choices.

I work in Operations (UK or more level), normally Logistic orientated as that's what I did in the military. Its not what I want to do, but I'm very good at it and I can get a well paying good job doing it. What makes the biggest difference is the industry. Many pay well and but also demand much, maybe too much.
I've worked in Retail, Food Manufacturing, Construction, Tech.

As for perks, business is very wary as HRMC, despite being the most incompetent govt dept ever created, are very good at sucking the fun out of life at every turn.
I had a cracking job at one point, 77k, 10% car allowance, 20% bonus, gym, family BUPA, 28days holidays, etc. great package.
Great CEO, really people focused. Whilst not strictly perks we were well looked after. Monthly Exec/c suite meetings, the night before we would go for dinner, maybe a show (if in London) then overnight in a nice hotel. Meetings all day next day then home. I had a fuel card (just don't kick the arse out of it), corporate credit card (10k limit). First class train travel. As long as we were making lots of money all was good.
But, it meant 2 or 3 nights a week out of bed, albeit I was staying in Hiltons, after a while it does get wearing and I'm not seeing a great deal of my family. We got bought by a competitor and asset stripped and that was the end of that.

I then went off and did a bit of consulting. Wanting to do something different I got into education which was a mistake. I NEVER want to work with teachers again. So back to corporate and a solid salary. Got to do a bit of a regain so I can make it to COO/CEO in the near term.
My current job? below my ability, so a bit boring, money is very average, promotion prospects nil/poor. But its been constant income (not furloughed), I WFH, login at 0900, normally done by 1800 and walk away., no weekend interruption. So its been a good place to weather the storm.

Money is important, but its not the be all and end all. That said, I'll never say no to more

 

[KnightsofRowallan]

Whilst I'm on a roll....

A lot of perks can just be "advantages". I worked for a luxury retailer, I had a 33% discount on everything and access to staff/sample sales (e.g Hugo Boss virgin wool suit for £100, very nice thank you).
Staying in lots of Hiltons, etc you can build up points which you can use to take your family away. I bought a watch with the points from one far east trip, Emirates, business class. Lovely.
I have also stayed in a range of very nice hotels whilst on trips, certainly much better than the MoD would pay for, throw in a generous expense account. It gets even better when you get hosted.
Management conference, Company owner (also owns a premiership footy club, etc) rocked up and stuck his card behind the bar.... so, so tired the following day .
But for every cracking company, there is one as tight as the MoD.

ALSO, somebody earlier mentioned Staff Writing / JSP 101. Absolutely. It allows you to easily produce understandable, consistent, quality written products which express what you need to communicate properly - I have found civvy industry really likes this. It can make you really stand out in a good way.
Same goes for presentation skills.

And leadership. The best leaders aren't all in the Army, but the worst ones I have found have all been civilian.
Even at quite junior levels, the Army will have equipped you with some quality leadership skills. The Army offers some very good leadership training and excellent manuals/literature on it. If you are leaving, even as a Pte, try and use/read as much of that as you can and you could easily stand head and shoulders above your competition.