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High Salaries Haunt Some Job Hunters

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Re: High Salaries Haunt Some Job Hunters

#81

Post by greggarious »

Spooky23 wrote: post #43
pc86 wrote: post #23

> After more than 20 years as an electronics engineer, Pete Edwards reached the low six-figure pay level. Where is it that late-career engineers are barely pulling in six figures? Don't get me wrong, it's a lot of money (3x mean personal income in the US, and ~1.75x mean HHI, give or take), but I'd expect most senior folks in any engineering field to be in the mid 100k range if not pushing 185ish. > Time and again, h…

At 45 you become untouchable. Too old to be young, too young to be old. How many 50 year olds do you see in SV companies? I knew a guy who was about 50, brilliant, brilliant engineer working for one of the big IT players. Well respected and trusted advisor to many customers. He got vaporized in some big restructuring that hit his division. Because of non-compete and what he did, he was basically out of work for almos…

I don't understand - I thought non-competes were unenforceable in CA?

Re: High Salaries Haunt Some Job Hunters

#82

Post by pkaye »

lmm wrote: post #33

The tendency to talk about salary upfront is a good one for both sides - it avoids wasting everyone's time when the expectations simply don't align. It does need to be mutual though. I expect employers to include some salary guidance in a job ad. And if they claim to offer market rates, I expect them to live up to that.

At some of my recent employers, for a couple standard roles, we have a single job profile but the expectations and salary are scaled with their skill level. Generally we combined their years of experience, skill level (based on interview) and current salary to derive an offer. So we would take the years of experience to get the base range, use the skill level to adjust within the range, then compare to current salary to see if we were fair or not. From there, the candidate is free to negotiate.

The problem would occur when someone had lots of years working but their skill level is below par. Basically people who have done a narrow set of skills over the years and haven't broadened their knowledge. If we give them a low salary, it would be insulting and if it is too high for their skill then it would be unfair to some of the current employees (salary inversion.)

Re: High Salaries Haunt Some Job Hunters

#83

Post by [deleted] »

jasonkostempski wrote: post #74
joezydeco wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it goes the other way, too. I've been contacted by many many recruiters offering interesting jobs but won't discuss the salary range targeted for that position. So how much time are you willing to spend on resume polishing, phone screens, on-site interviews, getting to an offer ...just to find out that they can't even come close to your current salary? So now I just flat out say what my jump-number is. Any answer…

What's a jump-number? Googling it came up with your comment as the top result and then skydiving :)

[deleted]

Re: High Salaries Haunt Some Job Hunters

#84

Post by joncrocks »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #70

I expect there is more than one factor at work here. I've known folks who "grew up" in a single company; joined out of college, worked there 15+ years, got annual raises, then got laid off and then couldn't find work at their previous salary. And the expectation of an annual raise kept forcing up their salary but I don't think the company was actually evaluating whether or not the person was getting more valuable ove…

Regarding your first point, I think it's important to think about the fact that you may well be worth more to your current company than to another one, if you've been there a long time.

Your experience in exactly what your current company does, the way it does it, the relationships you have within the organisation etc may mean that part of your worth within the organisation is related to how long you've been there.

Re: High Salaries Haunt Some Job Hunters

#85

Post by draw_down »

cushychicken wrote: post #22

The moral of the story: never, never, NEVER answer questions about your salary to a recruiter. It firmly pigeonholes your next salary to your current one, instead of the value you bring to a company. Patrick MacKenzie's article on salary negotiations is excellent (I would maybe even say "required") reading on the subject.

Hmm, I would just say something in line with what I want out of the new company. They want a number, they can have a number. They might not like it, but that's life.

Re: High Salaries Haunt Some Job Hunters

#86

Post by lastofus »

maxsilver wrote: post #25
pc86 wrote: post #23

> After more than 20 years as an electronics engineer, Pete Edwards reached the low six-figure pay level. Where is it that late-career engineers are barely pulling in six figures? Don't get me wrong, it's a lot of money (3x mean personal income in the US, and ~1.75x mean HHI, give or take), but I'd expect most senior folks in any engineering field to be in the mid 100k range if not pushing 185ish. > Time and again, h…

> Where is it that late-career engineers are barely pulling in six figures? Almost everywhere in the Midwest, except Chicago perhaps. Unless your remote working, low cost of living doesn't come without a big catch.

6 figures is the exception, but it's far from impossible in Milwaukee and Madison writing code.

Re: High Salaries Haunt Some Job Hunters

#87

Post by mooreds »

OhHeyItsE wrote: post #9

Finding engineers is soooo hard! There are no good engineers!

Translation: "There are no good engineers who will work for the price I'm willing to pay, either in terms of initial dollars or time to retrain."

As the realtors I worked with used to say about houses, "there's no problem that price won't fix", and that works for labor as well as real estate.

Re: High Salaries Haunt Some Job Hunters

#88

Post by joezydeco »

joezydeco wrote: post #69
nicholasjarnold wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Untrue. I lived and worked as a software engineer in Chicago (downtown) for a number of years before moving westward. Most mid-career developers I knew there were comfortably in the 100's and only one worked at the CME ('finance stuff', in C++). It boils down to simple economic rules. If you're good at developing software, there aren't a lot of people like you looking for a job and the market has a high demand for yo…

Which area are you in? Your LinkedIn profile suggests financial/webdev work. I've been doing embedded/firmware engineering in this area my entire career and, right now, 100K is typical for a senior position with very few positions available over 125K. The only way to go higher is to consult. Perhaps it's the glut of ex-Moto/ATT/Lucent/Tellabs people floating around. I dunno.

{ If you're going to downvote me, at least provide some counterexamples! I'd love to send out some resumes... =) }

Re: High Salaries Haunt Some Job Hunters

#89

Post by arprocter »

lmm wrote: post #33

The tendency to talk about salary upfront is a good one for both sides - it avoids wasting everyone's time when the expectations simply don't align. It does need to be mutual though. I expect employers to include some salary guidance in a job ad. And if they claim to offer market rates, I expect them to live up to that.

It's strange to me that US job ads don't state the wage being offered.

In the UK a ballpark pay figure is normally expected information

Re: High Salaries Haunt Some Job Hunters

#90

Post by wcummings »

greggarious wrote: post #81
Spooky23 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At 45 you become untouchable. Too old to be young, too young to be old. How many 50 year olds do you see in SV companies? I knew a guy who was about 50, brilliant, brilliant engineer working for one of the big IT players. Well respected and trusted advisor to many customers. He got vaporized in some big restructuring that hit his division. Because of non-compete and what he did, he was basically out of work for almos…

I don't understand - I thought non-competes were unenforceable in CA?

Especially if they prevent you from making a living.
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