@Anonymus said:
Ok, I will answer this with a question. Are you gonna be honest and say, do you work for a salary of 5000 a month before taxes in Germany?
I cant speak for @HomeSen but I can add my take.
First off, the comment was about a beginner. A good security architect with a solid background in multiple platforms and lots of business experience can be earning about £100 - 120k a year in the UK. An entry-level pentester is earning about £35 - 45k.
For better or worse, pentesters are not the best-paid roles in infosec for most of their careers.
It is especially frustrating when you realise the pentest company is charging them out at £1500+ per day, but paying the tester about £150.
- I don’t think so. So why putting people down with implying that pentesters in Germany have like less then 2000e after taxes?
I might have misunderstood this, but I suspect most pentesters in the UK are taking home about £3k per month before tax, simply because the number of entry level pentesters is pretty high vs the number of experienced CTL types.
Why we should get more then doctors/nurses, etc…? Nobody said that we should.
Starting salary for a Doctor in the UK is £23k rising to £28 in the second year.
Starting salary for a pentester in the UK is £35k+.
Seems like pentesters are rich.
But if you look at the statistics in USA, it is a big difference.
You cant compare between countries. Like I said, a pentester in LA is going to need 4 - 5 times what a pentester in Nowhere, North Dakota earns.
If you live somewhere that costs US$2300 for a one-bed appt (LA), your salary is always going to be different than somewhere costing US$800 (Fargo, ND).
Likewise, paying US$588 a month in healthcare (average in California) vs US$410 (average in ND) changes the balance.
If you are paying US$400 a month for healthcare, you might want to reflect on how that alone is half the total tax paid by someone in the UK earning £50k who gets fully free healthcare (no deductibles) and doesn’t have to pay state taxes.
If you are young it is awesome but if you have a family its not a lot. You may go work any other job that does not require any knowledge what so ever.
What job are you using as an example that pays more than this without any knowledge whatsoever?
The junior pentesters who you believe are woefully underpaid earn more than junior doctors who have to have a degree first. The junior pentester might have done a one week CEH, or several weeks self-study to pass OSCP, but equally might be entirely self taught from CTFs.
By your words sys admin have more money then a pentester?!
You’ve compared apples with fish there. I would go out on a limb and say a SysAdmin on £55k a year has a larger income than a junior pentester on £35k a year. That seems fairly simple maths.
Is a senior pentester with specialised skill earning more than your typical SysAdmin, yes. But that is a meaningless comparison. A senior sysadmin with specialised knowledge (especially of critical OT systems or mainframes) can easily be earning more than a typical pentester.
I hope people will not believe in that… But thanks for sharing anyway
Well, I kind of hope people here are good enough at basic maths to not need to believe it but YMMV.