[Xeo]

I recently got offered a job as a software engineer. It's an entry level position which is good 'cause I haven't worked in the field and I just graduated last May. They offered me $35K/yr. The expected workload is 45 hours/wk. Benefits include full health, 401k, and 2 wks paid vacation.

This seems about right for this type of job. What do you think?

What was your first "real" job and how much did it pay. You know what I mean by real job...

[Mastrap]

Junior art director, made about $28K/yr. That was 15 years ago. I was ecstatic.

[Doofy]

Lecturing, $66 K/y, part time (8 hours/week), 14 years ago.

[RAILhead]

$4.25 per hour at Service Merchandise around 16-17 years ago.

[storer]

$AU 6.25 per hour in a warehouse two years ago.

[Athens]

Originally Posted by Xeo

I recently got offered a job as a software engineer. It's an entry level position which is good 'cause I haven't worked in the field and I just graduated last May. They offered me $35K/yr. The expected workload is 45 hours/wk. Benefits include full health, 401k, and 2 wks paid vacation.

This seems about right for this type of job. What do you think?

What was your first "real" job and how much did it pay. You know what I mean by real job...

Prob good for the area, you can make more in markets that have lots of work and not enough workers.

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by Xeo

I recently got offered a job as a software engineer. It's an entry level position which is good 'cause I haven't worked in the field and I just graduated last May. They offered me $35K/yr. The expected workload is 45 hours/wk. Benefits include full health, 401k, and 2 wks paid vacation.

Man, I wish I could get a developer for $35K!

[Xeo]

Originally Posted by wallinbl

Man, I wish I could get a developer for $35K!

In your area is that a low wage? I think it may be OK for MN. I really don't know. My dad thinks I should ask for more. I haven't taken the job yet.

[Kevin]

$8 doing graphics for a local printshop in 94.

At the time that wasn't bad pay for the area. Twice that of minimum wage.

Of course I looked for a new job soon after It was known I would be expected to work weekends without pay. Of course I wasn't supposed to say anything about it to anyone...

It was for the experience you know, that alone would pay me. Or so I was told.



I worked there about a month. After not coming in and working for free in any of the weekends I was told I wasn't "working out"

The place later got sued for a bunch of money.

Got a better job right after non-the-less.

[storer]

I thought about it and my first real job was web design. I got paid some tiny amount like $AU 150.

And now I do print design for either $10 an hour or $50 a page in magazines.

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by Xeo

In your area is that a low wage? I think it may be OK for MN. I really don't know. My dad thinks I should ask for more. I haven't taken the job yet.

It would be very low for this area. My first job out of college (1998) was $45K. Housing prices have more than doubled in this area since then (my first house was $135K in 1999 and it recently sold for $330K). I have no clue how anyone gets into this housing market if they're just starting out.

[rickey939]

$33.5/k a few years ago as the lead Macintosh technician for the largest elementary school district in the Illinois (District 54).

[Spliffdaddy]

$3.35/hr cleaning tables at a steak house in Knoxville TN.

1984, I think.

[Y3a]

Night club DJ - 1977 - $50/Hr 50 hr week.

[ism]

After 5 years at uni, started on a graduate engineering programme, year 2000 on £15k ($26.4k) which rose to £20k ($35k) over about a year.

Unfortunately, the initial pay really wasn't enough to cover my living expenses straight out of uni so I quickly got into further debt, where I have remained. I can't see how anyone can justify going to uni nowadays (in the UK anyway) the return on investment just isn't there. Best off being a plumber.

[gumby5647]

I've got a job overview/interview with Union Pacific tomorrow. Train Service for Council Bluffs. Up to 30k a year.....75k in future years.

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by rickey939

$33.5/k a few years ago as the lead Macintosh technician for the largest elementary school district in the Illinois (District 54).

I thought baseball paid better than that!

[Kevin]

Only if they are good.

[macroy]

28K for a biotech start-up in 1996..... you could barely live off of that in the DC area. But it was probably the most fun job I had. We averaged 12 hour days.. but it went by fast. Folks were great to work with as we all felt we had a stake in the company (I guess in a way we did since we all had stock options).

Plenty of food, drinks and beer in the fridge. Got to bring in tons of vendors for new equipment (read: free clothes and food), and made the company culture what we wanted it to be.

[Paco500]

Originally Posted by Xeo

In your area is that a low wage? I think it may be OK for MN. I really don't know. My dad thinks I should ask for more. I haven't taken the job yet.

My first "real" job was with a mortgage lender (I was a loan processor) for ~$18k/year. This was '91. Seemed like a ton of money at the time.

As for asking for more, I would. Don't go crazy, but almost every job I've had since, I have countered their original offer and have gotten something more (more $, extra vacation time, etc) about 80% of the time. Not once have they ever said- "you are countering? well screw you, we rescind the offer!"

Ask for more, a reasonable amount but more. What do you have to lose?

But all else being equal, that sounds like a decent offer for your area and fresh out of school.

Congratulations.

[PB2K]

my first real job payed umm..

i think it payed about 10k a year. i installed y2k patches on NT clients

[andi*pandi]

if we're starting from fulltime jobs, my first design fulltime job was $9.50 an hour in 1993... quickly raised to 10.50 when the boss realized I was actually qualified and better than he deserved. He was a slob, but at least knew better than try to make anyone work weekends!

I was happy to be making over $20k compared to my old part-time job.

[DeathToWindows]

Lab Technician, 40hrs/wk, summer : $8.50/hr

[Athens]

Web Developers seem to average about 55k a year in Vancouver, even more in Seattle.

[JoshuaZ]

English Teacher in Japan. $36K USD a year (Paid in Yen), 40 hour weeks. Though I do get an apartment through my school district for only $45 a month.... Oooo and great Japanese health care.

[dav]

Originally Posted by Mastrap

Junior art director, made about $28K/yr. That was 15 years ago. I was ecstatic.

graphic designer, $22k/yr, and about 15 years ago as well.

[production_coordinator]

$8 an hour ~10 years ago as a designer... those were the days

[Mastrap]

Originally Posted by Doofy

Lecturing, $66 K/y, part time (8 hours/week), 14 years ago.

60K a year for 8 hours work a week?

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Mastrap

60K a year for 8 hours work a week?

Yep. At the time I was one of only about four people in the country who had the required knowledge. Supply/demand kicked in.

[Mastrap]

Cool. I hope you refused to actually teach anybody, so as to protect your knowledge investment, and thus your salary?

What did you teach, out of interest?

[scaught]

McDonalds. $4.00 an hour. 1988 (i was 15)

[Railroader]

Draftsman/designer back in 1990.

$22/hr. but it was in Chicago and wasn't really enough pay for the area.

Found out I hate drafting and decided to go back to school.

Best decision of my life other than becoming a Christian.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Mastrap

Cool. I hope you refused to actually teach anybody, so as to protect your knowledge investment, and thus your salary?

Heh.
Luckily, it was only a side-job to add interest* to my otherwise dull life (main gig - music production - has always been freelance so I don't class it as a "proper job"). But yep, I ended up getting some competition - a few of my students went on to lecture.

(* the ballet/dance girls in the building were permanently in a state of "thin leotard". )

Originally Posted by Mastrap

What did you teach, out of interest?

Music tech and production. Pretty much at the extreme cutting edge of things back then.

[wdlove]

I had decided to become a Funeral Director and Embalmer. Got a job at a local funeral home the summer after I graduated from high school. Think that I made about $65/week.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Xeo

I recently got offered a job as a software engineer. It's an entry level position which is good 'cause I haven't worked in the field and I just graduated last May. They offered me $35K/yr. The expected workload is 45 hours/wk. Benefits include full health, 401k, and 2 wks paid vacation.

This seems about right for this type of job. What do you think?

Wow, I thought you'd get more, but that probably depends on the area and businesses...

-t

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by wdlove

I had decided to become a Funeral Director and Embalmer. Got a job at a local funeral home the summer after I graduated from high school. Think that I made about $65/week.

You never cease to surprise me!

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by wdlove

I had decided to become a Funeral Director and Embalmer. Got a job at a local funeral home the summer after I graduated from high school. Think that I made about $65/week.

Then figured that it was a dead end job, so went into health care?

[Shaddim]

Originally Posted by Spliffdaddy

$3.35/hr cleaning tables at a steak house in Knoxville TN.

1984, I think.

Ye Olde Steakhouse?

Damn, I love that place.

[msuper69]

$1.15/hr. at Burger King in 1969.

And I had to walk 5 miles to school!

Now where did I put my cane?

[Oisín]

McDonald's, when I was 17, I think. Paid 95 DKK/hour, I think. Plus extras for night and weekend shifts (11 DKK extra per hour), and paid double on holidays.

So, hourly wages (by today's conversion rates, 'cause I don't know what they were back in 1999/2000):
Regular shift = 95 DKK = $15.3
Night shift or weekend shift = 106 DKK = $17.1
Holiday shift = 190 DKK = $30.6 = cha-ching!

I am yet to hold a ‘real’ job (meaning an actual full-time job for more than a summer, or as more than a temp), but if we take the only full-time job I've had (working as a temp in a bank for about six months over the spring and summer of 2002) and pretend I worked there a whole year, my yearly salary would have been something in the area of 126,000 DKK ($20,300). Would, obviously, have made a lot more if I hadn't been just a random kid out of high school taking a brain-numbing type-numbers-in-all-day kind of job, but actually qualified for something, and had the job as a ‘real’ job.

[Eug Wanker]

Riding an ice cream cart around the city at age 12 - made about $20 a day, for a 12 hour day. Man that sucked. The only perk was getting ice cream at wholesale prices.

[OreoCookie]

My first `real' job is the one I'm starting this January (I've signed my contract today, yipee!).

I'll be making, ahem, very little. In the end, I'll get 1450 € a month, not much, but I'll have other perks. One of them is doing exactly what I want

[zanyterp]

OreoCookie: care to share what you will be doing that is exactly what you want?

35k a year is good for the area i live in (UT), even though the cost of living is more than that. which part of MN are you in and how does the 35k compare to either what others in the field are making (out of college) and/or to what the avg price of living is? if it will allow you to make all your payments and, hopefully, a little extra for the fun stuff in life and savings, sounds like a good deal.

my first job was a little over $10k for 9 months of work spread out over 12 months of pay (i was an educational interpreter for an elementary school).

[placebo1969]

My first "real" job out of college was working in a juvenile prison. I started at $1909 a month. That was in October 1994.

[Magicite]

First paying job . . . $10 / hour at 40-60 hours a week (and anything over 40 got me time and a half) for an entire summer.

College jobs don't count.

In previous summers, I've been doing undergraduate research. $4k for 10 weeks, all expenses sans food paid for (ie, free dorm).

[goMac]

Computer technician for $17 an hour.

I'm considering taking a job with the same employer for $28 an hour right now.

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by zanyterp

OreoCookie: care to share what you will be doing that is exactly what you want?

35k a year is good for the area i live in (UT), even though the cost of living is more than that. which part of MN are you in and how does the 35k compare to either what others in the field are making (out of college) and/or to what the avg price of living is? if it will allow you to make all your payments and, hopefully, a little extra for the fun stuff in life and savings, sounds like a good deal.

my first job was a little over $10k for 9 months of work spread out over 12 months of pay (i was an educational interpreter for an elementary school).

Thing is, if you are far away from application, you are also farther away from money. Physicists and most mathematicians (financial math and optimization is a bit different) won't get as much funds from companies so all you get is `half a position' even though you work full-time if you want to stay in science, basically.

Engineers get quite a few, first of all some of them get their phd position in a company already which means that start with 3.5-4k a month (2-2.5k if they stay at university), then their departments get more money from companies as they get the benefits much quicker than what we do. What I'm working on is maybe 5 generations away from application. What they do is at most two layers away from application.

I have teaching duties, which means I have to take care of exercises for a lecture. This gives me 1k per month. I get another 0.4k from correcting homework assignments, but this is technically not contained in my salary. (In Munich, I need 800-900 € per month to cover my living expenses, so making that `much' will be a change for the better )

On the other hand, I am at one of the best universities in Europe and my professor is pretty famous within the community. Scientifically, this place is gooood. Also, I get to see the world. Next year, I want to go abroad to work with some other people, maybe it'll be the States, maybe Japan again, I haven't decided. These are things you can't do when you work 9/5 5 days a week. Right now, I'd like to pursue a career at university so this place is really a good opportunity.

[Xeo]

Well $35k/yr in Minneapolis/St. Paul area is enough to cover expenses when you don't have a family. I can pay rent, food, car, loan, and credit card payments with roughly $400 left over at the end of the month. So I can survive on it but it's not like I'm going to be getting that Ferrari any time soon. It's a small company with reasonable room for advancement.

They asked what I wanted to be making a year during the interview. The number I gave was under $35k/yr 'cause I didn't know what to say and didn't want to sound greedy. I should have said $40k. So now I don't know how to come over the top with another figure, heh.

[SpaceMonkey]

Residence Hall Director for a pre-college summer program for high school students taking classes at a major research university in the Northeast. I got ~$2,000 spread over 6 weeks.

[LeftWingLock]

My first teaching job was 6-8 grade science at a private school in 1992. $11,000/year with no insurance, retirement, or union protection. Luckily, I was able to leave after 2 years and more than double my salary at a public school.