[rescue] What am I worth in America ?

[R. Lonstein]

On Sat, Dec 15, 2001 at 09:35:12PM +1300, Kenneth Dunn wrote:
> Hi I'm seriously considering moving overseas due to the
> fact I make bugger all. I am experienced with the usual

Here in NYC, there seems to be a job contraction in the finanical
industry. Many more temp-to-perm and short-term contract jobs than as
little as a year ago and some of the big names have sacked consultants,
instituted hiring freezes and proposed layoffs. A year ago, I was
receiving several calls a week from head hunters but that is down to
less than one a month.

> crap like DOS, Windows 3.11/95 and basic NT 4.0 and 2000
> administrator (no MCSE). Seven 7 experience with Linux as
> a home user, only 2 years actually being paid to use it.
> Tarantella 3.11 experience. What can I expect to get paid

Your experience is a little light. Don't count on much. Junior support
guys- part swappers and help desk staffers- make around $35-$45k. Take a
look at the following links with salary info:
    http://www.usenix.org/sage/jobs/salary_survey/salary_survey.html
    http://www.infoworld.com/supplements/00survey/000626caintro.html
Take these figures with a grain of salt. These were collected during
boom years.

> in $US and how does that relate to the cost of living.
> (I'm in New Zealand)

Cost of living can be high around here but there are pockets of
affordability. These have trade-offs. The most common ones are commuting
time and quality of life. A personal example: I used to commute about
three hours each way to keep a low-cost of living in an area with high
quality of life and hold a well-paid job with opportunities. I
eventually moved into the Metro area, trading some of the former, to
regain around four hours/day of personal time.

- Ross