Looking to change jobs

Hi everyone, I'm a long time reader but first time poster.

I currently work for a company that manufactures cardboard packaging in Kent, I manage our BRC, ISO9001, ISO14001 and FSC certification, I am an internal auditor and am on the HACCP team among other things. I have thought for a long time that I am underpaid, but then so is pretty much everyone else working for the company so a pay rise is pretty much out of the question. There is a lot of bad feeling within the company now so its not a very good place to work anymore so I want to find something else. I have 2 questions that I hope you can help me with:

My job title is one made up by the company so searching for that is not going to be any use in finding something new. What kind of job title should I be searching for?

Also what kind of salary should I be aiming for? I got into this industry while looking for something else but was offered my current position as a trainee position before I found something better so I have no idea what kind of salary expectation I should have.

Apologies for the rambling :)

Morning,

I am replying based on the fact I can totally relate to you!!

I too was boxed in a company which gave you a title which no other company used, this is to confuse future employers on what your actual duties and role was. I was promised progression and never made it anyway but hey if you can carry a team why move you, thats the logic I was dealing with. 

I have a degree in food science and 3 years experience in a technical role with similar experience to what you have mentioned. I must say I had little to no bother getting interviews and employment and here in Ireland there is big compitition as not as many plants over here compared to the scale of production sites in England. This leads me to my next point.. The wage range in England is a lot greater than here so I would advise you to start googling and research jobs and compare the money they are offering. You will get a good idea of where you slot in and what to expect based on experience.

I left my position in my last company and i am now a quality assurance manager, I would say this is the sort of role you would also need to be stepping into even if it is only for a year or two to get your foot into food processing and to help your CV. With the experience you have you would slot into the role especially with BRC experience and during interviews and completing application forms I would be empathizing the transferable skills you have based on your experience.

Hope this helps a little

:ejut:

Sound like somewhere between a high level Quality Auditor, QA team leader or QA Manager but difficult without seeing the level you work at.  I'm not sure if these are terms used by packaging companies though.  It might be worth looking at your knowledge on packaging as packaging technologists working in food companies are hard to recruit and well paid (although once recruited, tend not to progress in my experience.)  Is there a way you can get more food focussed training or experience before you jump ship?  That way you'd either be more valuable to the packaging companies or even go for food itself.