[geeks] job hunt...

[Dan Sikorski]

On Sun, Apr 01, 2012 at 11:22:48AM -0700, Nadine Miller wrote:
> 72K/yr is insultingly low, IMO, Shannon.  I'm in Las Vegas, and making more
> than the offer you received from Dahlgren.  Las Vegas is not known for high
> salaries in tech since the majority of folks employed here are Windows
> admins.

Actual $ amounts are all relative.  Depending on area, cost of living, job demand, etc..  

I was in a strikingly similar position to OP just a few months ago.  Looking to relocate from South Bend, IN to the Chicago area, i got a job offer from a place that was a slight pay increase from what I was making in South Bend, but considering cost of living increases, it would have been a pay cut, further, I was not happy with the pay at my then-current job, so effectively getting a pay cut was out of the question.  I really wanted to get out of my then-current job since my fiancee was already working in the Chicago area, so I was breifly tempted to take it just to get moved and get out of the job I was in, which i had grown to dislike.

Now, in my case, the low offer came from an employer that gave me a bunch of red flags (very fast recruit/interview cycle, stated in interview that 50hr+ work weeks were expected, overall impression of interviewers not good, inconsistencies between what what discussed and what was offered, and more) and through an odd email exchange, they offered me the job, but when I asked to discuss the pay, they rescinded it.  In the end, I know I would not have been at all happy with that employer.

A few months later, I got a job offer from a much larger, well known and respected employer with a base salary that is 32% higher than the previous offer.  I have only been onboard for three weeks, but the experience so far has been everything that I was looking for.  On top of that, since accepting the offer, I was contacted by recruiters from my other two top choices for employers, so if my experience is any indicator, the IT job market is quite good right now.

Oh, and and Microsoft is in my job title, so we're not all bad people, I promise.

Finally, Mr. Bill, I suspect that you do not need to be told this, but if you're happy with your employer and your compensation package, do not let what anyone says affect your happiness there.  In my experience, most discussion of compensation packages resembles conversation of other packages, it it not considered polite conversation, people exaggerate, vaguely imply that theirs is larger, and if they provide numbers, they are usually inflated. :)  That said, folks on this list do seem to be more honest and forthcoming than the average person, so that may e misplaced here.

In a lot of the reading I did about job searching, there was discussion about how despite how frequently it is given as a reason for accepting a new job, pay is rarely what causes people to look for a new job.  People usually look for a new job because they are unhappy with other aspects, then when they find that a different job can pay more, that is icing on the cake and all the reason they need to jump ship.  I would say that was pretty accurate for me.  The only thing that ever caused me to question the compensation at my previous job was when raises stopped coming at appropriate times and pay "restructuring" that was in fact thinly veiled paycuts were going around.

	-Dan Sikorski