Professional job titles and wages in England

When looking for a job on the internet, we almost always use a professional title as a keyword to find the most suitable positions for us. In this article we will discover together the different English professional job titles and the corresponding wages.

What does a professional job title indicate?

Professional job titles can have different values. Titles as supervisor, manager and director indicate your level in the company: you will often find these job titles in management jobs. Other titles, such as receptionist, chef or bartender describe your work. The job titles can often be paired: in the case of a company with several accountants, titles as senior accountants are used to highlight the difference in rank. On the internet you can often find the list with all the positions for the most important companies, called the organization chart. For each position, you can later look for the salary range, an indication of how much you can expect to be paid for that specific position.

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A very useful site is Glassdoor: you can use it not only to look for job offers, but also the wages, the tasks and the knowledge required. Since the employees themselves share these details on the site, you will also be able to find personal experiences and questions asked during the interview.

It is therefore important to know the job titles related to your field of interest, so that you can easily find your ideal job. Here is a short list of the main positions in the different fields:

• Business: consultant, human resources (HR) administrator, public relations manager, communications executive;
• Media: Market analyst, social media strategist, media officer, campaign manager;
• Jobs in contact with the public: Customer service assistant, waiter, receptionist, travel consultant;
• Manual jobs: builder, electrician, plumber, delivery driver;
• Technical jobs: engineer (software, electrical, maintenance etc.), GP (General practitioner), IT consultant.

For the first work experiences, look for ads of entry level jobs: these are jobs dedicated to recent graduates and that do not require experience in the field. These positions are ideal for those who wish to gain experience in their field of work and then progress in the company.

All the positions mentioned above are subject to the minimum wage mandatory in the United Kingdom (read this article to learn more). Now let’s see what jobs are not subject to the minimum wage.

Apprenticeship

Apprenticeships are subject to a national minimum wage, but it is lower than for the above positions. The apprenticeship is an alternative for those who do not wish to attend university: it allows you to study and work alternately, so that you can acquire the skills necessary to enter the world of work. The work done during your apprenticeship is paid, but depending on your age and the year of apprenticeship that you undertake you will be paid less than your peer in a conventional job.

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The minimum wage changes every April, so it is advisable to check the official government website for the latest updates. At the moment the minimum wage is £ 4.15 per hour for apprentices up to 19 years old and for those over 19 attending the first year of the course. For example, a 16 year old apprentice and a 25 year old attending the first year of apprenticeship will be entitled to a minimum wage of £ 4.15. Starting from the second year of the course, all apprentices who have turned 19 will be entitled to the same minimum wage as their non-apprentice peers. Completed the first year, the 25-year-old apprentice will earn £ 8.20 from the second year.

To be able to attend an apprenticeship course in the UK you must be at least 16 years old, have a permanent address in the UK and not attend compulsory school or a full-time university course.

Volunteering

Although voluntary experiences are unpaid, they represent a unique experience not only to improve your English, but also to acquire essential knowledge and skills to insert you later in the world of work. Volunteering experiences are always well viewed by employers, and more and more people undertake this activity to enrich their curriculum. The possibilities are numerous and it will be impossible not to find an opportunity suitable for you.

As specified above, volunteering experiences are unpaid but the cost of travel and accommodation are almost always paid by the organization. A site to start your research is do-it.org, through which you can search for opportunities based on your location, your interests, or the causes you care about most. Volunteering will also offer you the opportunity to meet people with whom to share the passions and same interests, which are essential to enrich your professional contacts.

Freelance and self-employed

More and more people decide to work on their own for more flexibility and control over their career. The English bureaucracy is known to be simpler than other European countries: you just need to fill in a form on the HMRC website to declare your business.

To create a company you will have to go to this page instead. Waiting times vary between eight and ten days, and the cost of the application is currently £ 40. You may optionally request a fast registration of your company (on the day you submit your application), provided that Companies House receives your application no later than three in the afternoon, and with a fee of £ 100.

Nothing prevents you from being employed on behalf of a company and self-employed at the same time, as long as the times of the two jobs do not coincide.

There are many advantages to being freelance or freelancer, including:

• A less monotonous job and more flexibility with your schedule;
• The possibility of being paid much more than a similar job as an employee;
• Work from home and avoid hours spent in public transportation every day.

However, there are also negative sides that should not be underestimated, including:

• You will not have a guaranteed fixed salary, and there may be months in which you may earn less than usual;
• Depending on your industry, there may be high initial costs before you can start your business;
• Finding customers, especially at the beginning, can be difficult, and you won’t have a ‘superior’ to help you in case you have a problem.

Tax bands are the same as an employee: you will only start paying taxes when you earn a minimum of £ 12,501 per year.

Night job

Depending on your job you may be asked to work on night shifts. In the UK, a night shift must last a minimum of three hours between 11pm and 6am to be considered as such. Like all other jobs, the employee is entitled to be paid the National Minimum Wage the employer is not required to pay you more than the minimum due.

If you are expected to work most of the night, you will be paid for all hours of your shift, even if you are allowed to sleep between tasks (in the case of a carer, for example). Conversely, if you sleep most of the night and only work a few hours, you will be paid only for the actual hours of work.

The other rules of night shifts are:

• Night clerks cannot work for more than eight hours in a 24 hour period;
• Minors cannot work between 22:00 and 06:00, with the exception of some jobs (trade, catering, agriculture) in which they cannot work from midnight to 04:00.

Do you have experience in the world of work in England? Share them with us in the comments!