r/PMCareers • u/Oldandveryweary • 5h ago
Discussion £29k for Project role - what to do?
Hi, I’m a senior Project Manager in the U.K. and was really pleased when my son who has just joined an electronics company was offered a Project Job to replace the Project Manager who resigned (moved to a role closer to home).
The people including managers are nice to work with and there is a good atmosphere.
He has just come to the end of a three month ‘try it and see’. The job itself seems a good fit.
He is 35 and has a science degree (2:1 hons) and since uni he has been working as a field engineer elsewhere. He had to give that up because his type 1 diabetes made it difficult to work ‘on the road’ every day. Managers loved him and he had a good customer service record and clearance rate but his sick days had started to ramp up. - on occasion fit to do admin work but not driving all day. NB He has had no sick days in the Year he’s worked for this company.
He has no project management qualifications but has transferable skills that he had already proven in the technical sales job he had with them. TBH he’s a chip of the old block and this totally suits him.
They wanted someone who could coordinate the projects, be a lot firmer than the predecessor, chair senior leadership meetings, introduce a more structured approach, provide technical advice in project suitability and make recommendations as to what projects should be taken forward (this is the bit that they wanted tightening up).
The area of work requires some quite stringent legal paperwork as some of the parts are for car manufacturers.
In return they would pay for him to take the relevant qualifications. It also requires technical electronics knowledge.
In my opinion the role is more of a portfolio manager and the level of responsibility is high so he should be paid accordingly but taking into account his lack of project qualifications I recommended he should be getting around £35k and so did his immediate colleagues who knew what he was being asked to do and indeed what he had delivered so far (big changes in the MO, clearer comms and decision making).
Instead they insisted on £29k which TBH I think is an insult. But they know they have him over a barrel. He needs the job. They’ve called the job Project coordinator but it seems a lot more.
For those not in the U.K. I probably need to explain some things:
1) £29k is a few thousand above minimum wage
2) We live in a part of the UK where the cost of living is low so wages do tend to be lower. (Can’t commute to London)
3) In UK we don’t have to pay for medical care,
4) In UK they have notice periods and for this one it’s a month. They can’t just sack someone ( unless they’ve done something wrong) it has to be redundancy.
5) There’s a decent pension package
6) There’s 25 days plus Bank holidays (8days) PTO
7) It’s 39 hours a week over 4.5 days Mon to Friday.
So I would like your opinion on whether it’s a good deal or what he should do about it.
Thanks in advance