Hi - I started working for a company about a year ago immediately after I graduated from my university with a BSEE. I'm trying to evaluate if I am being paid a reasonable salary, and if I am getting reasonable benefits. Can anybody suggest a means of doing this? I googled and found salary.com, but I have no idea as to the accuracy of that website.
Thanks!
-Michael
On a sunny day (Thu, 17 Jan 2008 05:26:09 -0800 (PST)) it happened Michael wrote in :
It is simple, look what you designed, look what money that made for your company, and subtract what you get now. If the result is positive you can perhaps ask for more.
Where do you work, what do you do, and what are the salary and benefits?
John
You think you can *command* a salary because you have a BSEE and one year in?
Boston, design embedded electronics for a small R&D firm, and none of your damned business!
No seriously though - I'd rather not have that in public in case my company (or other employees of my company) caught wind of it. Salary.com says that the median "electrical engineer I" in my zip code should be getting ~$63K. I have no idea if that is accurate or not though. I'm assuming that I am an "electrical engineer I" as that seems to be the lowest EE according to salary.com.
Thanks,
-Michael
I work for an R&D firm, so it's rather hard to track that.
-Michael
That would be about right, it's about what a good waiter makes...lol.
When I was 23 I DID ;-)
...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave
So now we know what Fred does "for a living" ;-)
...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave
Not quite, I would prefer to work in the kitchen as a cook or something...you have a problem with that? LOL, you think you're better than a food service employee or something?
We can't evaluate a numerical value if we don't know that value. To an engineer, that concept should be obvious. You are making the answer to your own question none of your own business.
Well, are you making more or less than that? That would give us exactly 1 bit of information.
John
It's probably harder to be a good waiter than a mediocre EE.
Best regards, Spehro Pefhany
-- "it\'s the network..." "The Journey is the reward" speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com
There's an enormous influence of talent. Some actors get $20M per film, some are lucky to work for minimum wage. I hired one guy and pay him 5x what he made at his previous job. They didn't appreciate him.
John
I remember the unbelievable salaries my classmates were offered by the big Fortune 500 companies, something like 40k at the time. I took a job for $6/hr, I think that comes in at $13k, actually I was looking for a
*low* income. In retrospect this was not a good decision, my capabilities were not appreciated, the personnel department was astounded that someone like me would even consider the place, most of the hirees were there because no else would have them and minimum wage looked good to them, if that wasn't the God's truth I don't what is.
Why would anyone look for a low income? I can see not being too concerned with the amount (or existence) of pay, under some circumstances, but why seek out low pay?
Trying to avoid paying alimony? ;-)
Best regards, Spehro Pefhany
-- "it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward" speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com
There is a glamour factor, the fact that some companies consider their name-on-a-resume so impressive that they offer lower pay. Microsoft is known for doing that; ILM and Dolby too, I think, judging from people I've talked to.
But why did you want a low income?
John
Of course not. After all, I am an aficionado of fine food and wine.
It was you who made the association.
...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave
Significantly less than that. Ah - what the hell - $58K. When I accepted the job I knew that the salary was too low, but my hope was that when raises came around they would raise it up to something significantly higher than what I started at. I accepted the job because the company is a very interesting organization with lots of really cool projects. I'm told that raises normally happen in the next
2-3 weeks, so I'd like to be prepared with knowledge of what it should be getting raised up to. I'm hoping for, even expecting, a raise that would put me past that median salary - but I'm not sure if that is a reasonable hope/expectation. I'm told typical raises are 3-4%. However, they know that I'm very unhappy with my salary and they've made various suggestions that my current salary is too low for my skill set.-Michael
=A0 =A0 ...Jim Thompson
That's the explanation I've heard (from various employees at my company) for the low salaries that pretty much everybody suffers from. Essentially most people feel that the work they do here is cool and interesting enough that they are willing to work for less than they are worth. I'm not sure how I feel about that - but I'm hoping that they won't make me choose interesting work over a reasonable salary.
-Michael
One thing that's interesting is that there a lot of boomers who own small successful companies but are approaching retirement age, or are getting technologically obsolete/overwhelmed. If you are really good, or have the potential to get really good, you might try to hook up with such a situation. You might wind up owning it. Or at least having fun and learning a lot.
In a big company, a working engineer (ie, not a manager) is unlikely to have a big net influence, or at least is unlikely to be recognized for same.
John
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