Career Thoughts and Compensation Thread - 2011 Edition

Been member of FW for 11 years and have never really contributed. I completely agree with that fellow who said longtime FW members are to the right of that bar graph. I think this site just helps us make better decisions, whether financially or with our lives in general. Thanks to all for deals, insight, ideas, etc. Here's my first "real" contribution:

Gender: Male

Age: 30

Location: CA, near San Francisco

Occupation: Dentist

Education: B.S. in a science subject doesn't apply to dentistry (4 years), D.D.S. from dental school (4 years)

2011 Compensation: ~$150,000

Future Salary Projection: Slim chance but 2.5% increase max

Benefits: None. I am a contractor so my employers don't pay for health/vision/dental, don't offer 401k or other perks.

What is the job like?

Great! I work with a lot of kids and meet different people everyday. The kids make the job fun and enjoyable (unless they are screaming or barfing in my face).

Would you recommend the career to others?

Definitely. If you like meeting new people, if you like talking and are a hands-on type of person, this is the job for you. The salary is good too of course...well compared to the US median income I guess, not FWF. However, dental offices are run differently depending on whether you are a General Dentist or if you specialize (e.g. oral surgery, pediatrics, etc). The cons of the job are usually neck/back/shoulder pain. If you want to make >$200k in this field, you'll probably have to open your own office or specialize in something. Otherwise, the salary is pretty stagnant as a contractor. Networking is very important as well, especially if you plan to work in SF or LA.

tolamapS said:   hotfusion said:   Gender: Male

Age: 31

Location: NY

Occupation: Consulting

Education: 2 MS Degrees

2011 Compensation: $165000, salaried

Future Salary Projection: $50k increase each year, level off at $500k

Benefits: Full medical with $30 co pays. 100% 401k match of 4%. 5 weeks vacation. unlimited $ for education/personal development

What's the job like? I guess varies day to day so I cannot really generalize. I work with some of the brightest minds and that is always rewarding.

Would you recommend the career to others?
YES - become an expert in your field and join a consulting firm.

What type of consulting are you in?

My job before grad school was in consulting.

In Management Consulting.

I never realized there were so many paid consultants in the world.

jodomiester said:   Created new account to remain anonymity.

Gender: Male
Age: 26
Location: Boston, MA (but travel along most of East Coast)
Occupation: Channel Manager

Education: BA in Intl' Relations/Economics Focus from public university

2011 Compensation: $110k base + commissions (total ~$200k)

Future Salary Projection: I've been steady at $200k last 2 years, hoping to stay in that area. Higher earners in this position/industry will make $300k+ typically and much more..

Benefits: Pretty good medical benefits/dental/vision, 401k match up to 8% I think, you get 3.5 weeks PTO first year and gradually get more, I've been with company for 5 years now so get 4.5 weeks I think.

What's the job like?
Pretty fun if you have a good amount of sales skill, and are willing to learn about datacenter server/storage/virtualization technologies. I work for an OEM and the space is very hot right now with lots of competition. Once you get in the industry you realize it's all the same people but they just change Polo Shirts every few years so relationships are everything. I travel a great deal, which has it's perks but over time can be tiring. It's no fun eating expensive dinners if you have to stay up very late in hotel rooms at night by yourself doing quotes / emails.

Like any sales job, it can be unstable if you don't hit your numbers, however with a good amount of work/persistence/luck, I've seen some people make a great deal of money along with excellent work/life flexibility since everyone always works remote.

Would you recommend the career to others?
Yes, if you're interested in IT Sales, travel, and money. This isn't something I want to do for the next 25+ years but strike while the "iron is hot" and save $$. It can be extremely stressful at times, and a common saying I've heard is 'heart-attacks' are common in this business due to stress, so it's always good to keep things in perspective. I started with the company in Inside Sales and managed to move up each year. No interest in getting MBA down the road, but maybe a move to product marketing if I want to travel less...or potentially a more local position

This is EMC right?

I'm a regular FWF member but use this account once in a while to preserve my anonymity. These numbers are not made up (mods, please PM me if you need any verification).

Gender: Male

Age: 29

Location: San Francisco Bay Area

Occupation: Technical sales & account management at a Silicon Valley startup

Education: B.S. Engineering, B.S. Math, lots of course work in physics, engineering, economics, religion. I was a few classes shy of graduating with 4 degrees but it would have cost me extra so instead I finished a semester early with 2 instead.

2011 Compensation: ~$2,200,000: $100,000 salary, $10,000 bonus, and $2.1m in stock **

Future Salary Projection: Total compensation drops dramatically. My salary will stay around $100,000 but my remaining stock options come out to around $300,000 a year, so total comp will be around $400,000 / year for the next few years.

** Additional Notes: My total compensation and net worth swings wildly entirely depending on the value of our stock price. I joined the startup pre-IPO and left a fairly prestigious SV company to be a relatively early engineer at this startup. I gave up a $150k package for about $85k with a generous stock option package which was worth about $150k when I accepted and has gone up over 50x since then. After a few raises and promotions, I'm at around $100k now, which is still really low for an experienced engineer in the Bay Area. My total stock option package since joining has been worth around $8.5m based on today's share price. It was a crapshoot and I got really, really, really lucky. I count my lucky stars everyday. This is pre-tax so that's a wild card as well.

The nice part about Silicon Valley is that once you've established a reputation for being someone that can deliver, you will have every headhunter calling you. I get approached by other top companies every week. If you can think of a tech company, they've probably called me in the last 6-12 months.

Benefits: Free breakfast/lunch/dinner, transportation to work fully paid, full health care, flexible hours, 20 vacation days, tons of maternity and paternity benefits, a host of other extremely generous top-tier perks that I can't even remember.

What is the job like?

It's fun but it's intense. Our products are used by millions of people which is fun and horrifying at the same time. On a normal day, I work with a variety of companies to help bring our new features to our customers and partners. I don't work really long hours per se, but I'm "always on". I check email on the computer or on my phone constantly and I get upwards of 500 emails per day. We basically do whatever we can to help the company but I'm burning out and will probably take a few years off soon. It's really fun to help build a company up but your ego is also on the line, so when something goes wrong, or our share price goes down, it's hard not to take it really personally. Not counting the 1 hour commute each way, I only work about 40 hours a week but those hours are extremely intense and tiring. Most of the other people stay at the office late and some of the younger kids don't really leave.

Would you recommend the career to others?

Absolutely. I would do this even if I didn't make a lot of money at it. I love computers and I love software and I love my field. The people are some of the best in the world and it's fun to see your peers in the press or on the news. At the same time, there are lots of routes down which you can do. A startup can be really intense and the risks are enormous. I could have gone to a different startup that went belly-up like some of my friends. It's a total crapshoot. My advice is to do what your passion is, and become the best in the world at it, and if you're lucky the money will come -- if not, you still are doing what you love.

LOL Jkim. Dosplayas, have the shares vested and are they freely tradeable (secondary or public markets)? I would be hedging or selling like a madman if it's anything other than Facebook.

Age: 31

Sex: Female

Status: Unemployed and luvin' it! Woot!

Education: Ph.D. from Ivy league school.

After 99 weeks will find another job and find a way to get laid off again!

so you work in the trading pit or on a trading floor trading on an electronic platform?

also, how can they expect you to produce so quick if you come in with no options background like most people?

growingdollars said:   so you work in the trading pit or on a trading floor trading on an electronic platform?

also, how can they expect you to produce so quick if you come in with no options background like most people?

Both. I rotate between the two with a few other people who started at the same time as me to get experience in both areas, although it appears that long-term I will likely be in the pit and they will remain upstairs.

I should explain that getting the boot "fairly quickly" is somewhat relative. As a new hire, you're given a little more time to get up to speed (about a year) before they expect you to start producing, but if you're not keeping up with your peers in the learning process you could be cut at any point. By the end of your second year, it's usually fairly obvious if you possess the characteristics of a good trader, so if you've made it that far you've earned a bit of "tenure".

You should post your details.

Gender: Male

Age: 26

Location: IN (Small city with rural cost of living)

Occupation: Electrical/Computer Design Engineer

Education: BS Computer Engineering, nearby private university with close ties to current employer

2011 Compensation: ~54K + 7k Bonus

Future Salary Projection: 2012 - Just shy of $60k, plus expected bonus of 4-6k. Bonuses have been annually between 5-10%. In the next few years, my job title may change, allowing me to bill clients at a higher rate and allowing my employer to pay me more. I would expect a 10-15% raise that year from what other employees have mentioned.

Benefits: 3% match dollar-for-dollar SIMPLE IRA. 50% employee health, vision premiums paid + 15% of deductible in cash to my HSA, which means my net health insurance costs are roughly $0 annually. Decent dental insurance offered, employee pays. $20,000 Life. Free drinks, food sometimes, some mostly-for-fun travel included. Extremely flexible scheduling, will discuss time off below.

What's the job like?
Pretty great in my view. Very much not like a real job in a lot of ways. My work is mostly interesting, engaging, and mentally challenging. We strive to have a bare minimum of menial tasks, worthless meetings, and encumbrances. Guidance provided as needed, but the boss isn't over my shoulder all the time. In fact, my boss is an engineer, which helps things go much better as compared to some others I know in the same field. Very low stress, we answer to our clients, so if I miss a deadline, it's my fault for not estimating it appropriately.

Some other benefits that are somewhat still financial include: No dress code, shorts and flipflops are okay, others dress business casual. No scheduling: I work 6a-2p roughly, others work 2p-6p, then home, then 10p-2a, or whatever they want to do. If you need to take a day off, you put it on the Google calendar. As long as you coordinate long absences to ensure a project won't suffer, it's perfectly normal to take 3 or 4 weeks off at a time. We are asked to work 1900 hours annually, with about 10% of that assumed to be internal, and not billable. This is an honor system, there is no reward for more, no penalty for less. Over the past few years, I've billed several hundred hours more to clients. During reviews, I was thanked for the extra income, and asked to please stick to 1900 hours to avoid 'crispy engineers.' It is assumed that most people will distribute these hours roughly over the course of the year. There have been some people that have worked 12-hour days for a portion of the year so they could just travel most of the summer months.
No interaction with the public. We hold company credit cards, and there is absolutely no process by which purchases much be approved, either for internal purchases for the company, or for client purchases. We are recommended to buy any office product (desk, chair, lights, etc) that make us more efficient. I work with a great bunch of highly intelligent people, there is absolutely no room for drama in this workplace. I love that fact.
The company management is very interested in worker satisfaction. We are asked to provide meaningful input into company decisions (benefits, insurance, office relocation, etc.)

Would you recommend the career to others?
Of course. My pay might seem low, but given the local cost of living, and the tangible and intangible benefits I have, I'm not complaining much. Comparatively, I work in a much lower stress environment, with great benefits, as compared to some people I graduated with. A few relocated to the coasts, and are making some more money, but I tend to value the work-life balance more than the extra money. The work can be rewarding depending on what kinds of project you get to work on.

Do you mind if I ask what company? or can you PM me what company? if not, what kind of company is this?

Infinion said:   Gender: Male

Age: 26

Location: IN (Small city with rural cost of living)

Occupation: Electrical/Computer Design Engineer

Education: BS Computer Engineering, nearby private university with close ties to current employer

2011 Compensation: ~54K + 7k Bonus

Future Salary Projection: 2012 - Just shy of $60k, plus expected bonus of 4-6k. Bonuses have been annually between 5-10%. In the next few years, my job title may change, allowing me to bill clients at a higher rate and allowing my employer to pay me more. I would expect a 10-15% raise that year from what other employees have mentioned.

Benefits: 3% match dollar-for-dollar SIMPLE IRA. 50% employee health, vision premiums paid + 15% of deductible in cash to my HSA, which means my net health insurance costs are roughly $0 annually. Decent dental insurance offered, employee pays. $20,000 Life. Free drinks, food sometimes, some mostly-for-fun travel included. Extremely flexible scheduling, will discuss time off below.

What's the job like?
Pretty great in my view. Very much not like a real job in a lot of ways. My work is mostly interesting, engaging, and mentally challenging. We strive to have a bare minimum of menial tasks, worthless meetings, and encumbrances. Guidance provided as needed, but the boss isn't over my shoulder all the time. In fact, my boss is an engineer, which helps things go much better as compared to some others I know in the same field. Very low stress, we answer to our clients, so if I miss a deadline, it's my fault for not estimating it appropriately.

Some other benefits that are somewhat still financial include: No dress code, shorts and flipflops are okay, others dress business casual. No scheduling: I work 6a-2p roughly, others work 2p-6p, then home, then 10p-2a, or whatever they want to do. If you need to take a day off, you put it on the Google calendar. As long as you coordinate long absences to ensure a project won't suffer, it's perfectly normal to take 3 or 4 weeks off at a time. We are asked to work 1900 hours annually, with about 10% of that assumed to be internal, and not billable. This is an honor system, there is no reward for more, no penalty for less. Over the past few years, I've billed several hundred hours more to clients. During reviews, I was thanked for the extra income, and asked to please stick to 1900 hours to avoid 'crispy engineers.' It is assumed that most people will distribute these hours roughly over the course of the year. There have been some people that have worked 12-hour days for a portion of the year so they could just travel most of the summer months.
No interaction with the public. We hold company credit cards, and there is absolutely no process by which purchases much be approved, either for internal purchases for the company, or for client purchases. We are recommended to buy any office product (desk, chair, lights, etc) that make us more efficient. I work with a great bunch of highly intelligent people, there is absolutely no room for drama in this workplace. I love that fact.
The company management is very interested in worker satisfaction. We are asked to provide meaningful input into company decisions (benefits, insurance, office relocation, etc.)

Would you recommend the career to others?
Of course. My pay might seem low, but given the local cost of living, and the tangible and intangible benefits I have, I'm not complaining much. Comparatively, I work in a much lower stress environment, with great benefits, as compared to some people I graduated with. A few relocated to the coasts, and are making some more money, but I tend to value the work-life balance more than the extra money. The work can be rewarding depending on what kinds of project you get to work on.

Gender: Male

Age: 27

Location: Northern CA. Work from home. No travel.

Occupation: High level computer engineer

Education: Dropped out of college. I am recently going back to my community college and am working on a degree. I hope to have my BA in 2014.

2011 Compensation: $110,000/yr W2, $50,000 RSU bonus, ESPP, $14,000 Misc expenditure account for telecommute (2011 only).

Future Salary Projection: 2012 - 5%

Benefits: Full benefits 100% covered. Personal cell phone paid for monthly. I max out Roth and ESPP contributions. 5% 401k matching. Basically, 40% of every paycheck (net) goes towards investments and charities. There are no set hours. Vacation is unlimited. I can take as much (or as little) as I want - it is not recorded. The company is very much performance-oriented so as long as I deliver and my performance is solid, everybody is happy.

What's the job like?
I am truly blessed with this opportunity. I work for a strong Fortune 500 company at their highest tier engineering level. Being able to work from home is a privilege as well. They have a nearby office and I can always use it if needed but it's nice to have no pressure either way.

Would you recommend the career to others?
Yes. Your brain will get tired but it's rewarding. I am taking full advantage of my job by investing and giving back to my community as much as possible. Living in a town where I make double the median family income, I always strive to keep perspective. I'm still young and I hope to be at a place one day where I can make a big difference in many lives around this area.

Gender: Male

Age: mid-30s
Location: Arizona

Occupation: Finance Manager at Governmental Agency

Education: A.B.J. (Journalism) and Masters in Public Administration

2011 Compensation: ~$70,000

Future Salary Projection: $80,000 (just transfered)

Benefits: Full Medical/Dental (surprisingly higher premiums than most 200+ Employee Businesses), Deferred Comp, Accrue up to 320 hours of vacation a year, accrue approximately 12 sick days a year (non-lapsing), big one here....Defined Benefit Pension!

What is the job like?

I have always done this kind of work, as has my family. I'm not trying to sound pompous but you do it if you truly feel like serving the public is the right thing for you to do. I do as many others in management do, set priorities, supervise staff, solve problems, and go to too many darn meetings.

Would you recommend the career to others?

Honestly, probably not. I have young children, and although thrifty spending and saving has allowed me to support our entire family and for my wife to stay home, I'm not sure I would recommend this type of work to others who don't have a pretty insane (commendable?) desire to serve their community and fellow citizens. I would further recommend that if you are a staunchly political type, not what I would classify as somewhat apolitical or true moderate, that working in Government will be more frustrating than it's worth because there are so many political decisions you have to live within and make the best of that you won't agree with.

I've seen a lot of people who watched too much West Wing or fancied themselves a political operative get into this kind of work and simply quit because there wasn't enough "action."

The benefits and pay are strong relative to a lot of other industries, but even with the pension you can make much more total compensation doing other things. I'm not sure I would encourage my kids to do it.

One has to wonder if only the diamonds are posting because it makes me feel dumb.

livinn59801 said:   Every year this thread makes me feel poor (and depressed)Turn that energy around and use it as motivation to better yourself. Most of us are self-made. No silver spoon.

Gender: Male
Age: 26
Location: SoCal
Occupation: Software Developer
Education: BS in CS from top 50 program
Length of time in this field: 3 years.
2011 Compensation: 50K working 40hr weeks, dont get paid for OT but can accumulate Comp time
Future Salary Projection: I got a 8K raise 2 years ago despite there being an across the board normal raise freeze. No word on any future raises
Benefits: GARBAGE. I work for a city that outsources their IT department to an outside contractor to avoid paying us a very nice benefits and pension package given to real City Employees. No 401K matching, however they do offer an HSA health plan where their contributions to my HSA nearly offsets my health premium and dental is not so bad. I get 10days vacation along with all City Holidays including Columbus day.
What's the job like? Lots of up and down periods of workload. Very diverse amount of technical tasks that keeps things interesting. In a given week I typically deal with several different types of systems, databases, and programming languages. The biggest positive are the managers. They act more like technical leads than babysitters, micromanagers, or jerks that just like to throw their authority around. Its also very informal here, as long as you are productive with in completing your work you have a very loose leash... nobody makes a deal if you come in late or leave early, take a longer lunch, or are browsing the net. However most of us are very professional at our job and dont abuse our freedom. The bad side is working along side real city employees from other departments. Most are very disrespectful and treat us like we are some low level tech support. Its also a sour taste in my mouth to see many of these city employees doing a job much easier than my own yet get paid more than me with full benefits.
Would you recommend the career to others? There's alot of negatives. Post tech bubble and outsourcing has weakened job availability. And I feel software engineers are somewhat underpaid for their skill set and its a career that you cant just coast through. You must keep putting in time and effort (even outside of work) to better yourself or get left behind. But if computers, programming, engineering is truly your passion then its still a solid career choice.

nwill002 said:   Gender: Male
Age: 26
Location: SoCal
Occupation: Software Developer
Education: BS in CS from top 50 program
Length of time in this field: 3 years.
2011 Compensation: 50K working 40hr weeks, dont get paid for OT but can accumulate Comp time
Future Salary Projection: I got a 8K raise 2 years ago despite there being an across the board normal raise freeze. No word on any future raises
Benefits: GARBAGE. I work for a city that outsources their IT department to an outside contractor to avoid paying us a very nice benefits and pension package given to real City Employees. No 401K matching, however they do offer an HSA health plan where their contributions to my HSA nearly offsets my health premium and dental is not so bad. I get 10days vacation along with all City Holidays including Columbus day.
What's the job like? Lots of up and down periods of workload. Very diverse amount of technical tasks that keeps things interesting. In a given week I typically deal with several different types of systems, databases, and programming languages. The biggest positive are the managers. They act more like technical leads than babysitters, micromanagers, or jerks that just like to throw their authority around. Its also very informal here, as long as you are productive with in completing your work you have a very loose leash... nobody makes a deal if you come in late or leave early, take a longer lunch, or are browsing the net. However most of us are very professional at our job and dont abuse our freedom. The bad side is working along side real city employees from other departments. Most are very disrespectful and treat us like we are some low level tech support. Its also a sour taste in my mouth to see many of these city employees doing a job much easier than my own yet get paid more than me with full benefits.
Would you recommend the career to others? There's alot of negatives. Post tech bubble and outsourcing has weakened job availability. And I feel software engineers are somewhat underpaid for their skill set and its a career that you cant just coast through. You must keep putting in time and effort (even outside of work) to better yourself or get left behind. But if computers, programming, engineering is truly your passion then its still a solid career choice.

This seems really low. I don't see why you can't immediately bump that up to $100k or more if you're a decent developer. Google is starting at $100k for new grad engineers and Microsoft is starting at $92k.

nwill002 said:   I'm more of a BI developer. Work here is very diverse from doing simple SQL Reports to desktop and web applications I made from scratch. Also with the layoffs we are so understaffed we have no real project managers. I have done big projects where I was the only one involved in all aspects of it... project manager, requirements gatherer from client, implementation, testing, and maintenance. Most of the time when I peak around at other jobs in the area I see mostly ones that want 5+ years experience in about a dozen different technologies.You're still way under market.

Al3xK said:   jkimcpa said:   nwill002 said:   I'm more of a BI developer. Work here is very diverse from doing simple SQL Reports to desktop and web applications I made from scratch. Also with the layoffs we are so understaffed we have no real project managers. I have done big projects where I was the only one involved in all aspects of it... project manager, requirements gatherer from client, implementation, testing, and maintenance. Most of the time when I peak around at other jobs in the area I see mostly ones that want 5+ years experience in about a dozen different technologies.You're still way under market.

Disagree. He sounds like he makes SSRS reports all day. We'd hire one of those guys at around $40k if we needed one full time...they're a dime a dozen. It's just writing SQL queries that are often not complex...joining SalesTables and SalesLines, and then filtering specific criteria that users want to see. Even if he's building cubes, it's not terribly complex. The question is where is he going to go next that will define his future salary...it sounds like he's in a good position to go somewhere.We've hired BI analysts for $80k and the senior ones are at $120k. In LA. We wouldn't even hire someone who'll take $50k, which means he'll either be gone in a few months or he's useless.