[rescue] Career Rescue (was DEC Pro 350, or something)

[Ken Hansen]

I once interviewed at Merrill Lynch in NJ, for a COBOL
Maint. Programmer position (didn't really want it, but
the headhunter was cute, and they were just down the
street...).

Anyway, long story short, I had my technical interview
with a "Lead Programmer", which I passed, then sat
with the Manager to talk turkey (start date, pay,
etc...

He asked me what I was looking for salary-wise, and I
said $35K. He got mad. He got REAL mad. He yelled at
me that "(they) don't pay that much for maint.
programmers!" and was angry at me for wasting his
time.

Notes:

I was making $30K (in 1988-1989, the time of this
interview), so I thought my numbers were close.

He had a crap office.

The guy that worked under him didn't seem very happy.

I think I guessed his salary! ;^)

Also, another time I interviewed at a large insurance
company for a consulting position, but the job was on
the wrong side of Rt. 1 (a traffic blackhole around
here). I turned down the offer, and 60 days later the
whole department was shut down (all maint. programming
work was done by contractors), and the work sent to
India.

I knew something was wrong when the company had about
75 contractors doing Maint. programming work
full-time...

*BUT* Contracting also got me into Bellcore, before it
was bought-out by SAIC, and turned into Telcordia...
Bellcore was one of my favorite employers...

Ken
  
--- Bill Bradford <mrbill at mrbill.net> wrote:
> I did that to an ex-employer who tried to re-hire me
> 2.5 years after I 
> left in disgust - and it was SO nice to tell them
> that I was making 3x
> what they'd paid me before.  Dude's eyes got REAL
> big.  "I'm afraid we
> couldnt pay you that much."  "Didnt think so. 
> Thanks for lunch!"


=====
Ken
n2vip at yahoo.com

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