October 15, 2007 at 12:33 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Pay Jump
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October 15, 2007 at 3:45 am
I've been considering whether to do a payjump as we are just lowly civil servants and an unqualified Post Office worker earns as much as us developers! I've been in the public sector as a software developer and DBA for a few years and recently found a payslip from six years ago which shows I'm now taking home £50 more than then! No wonder finances are getting tight. 🙁
The industry standard would seem to be at least half as much again or there's contracting at £300 to £900 a day!
The againsts are that I like my job and my colleagues and the other conditions - holiday, flexitime and very close to home but if I can't live on my salary with a fairly small mortgage, taxes, bills, petrol, food etc paid for, and have a little left for clothes and other luxuries then I need to payjump.
October 15, 2007 at 5:50 am
It fascinates me that managers can drive out their staff and actually get rewarded, when the most valuable asset managers work with is their people. A manager goes nuts and trashes a computer worth two thousand dollars and gets fired. That same manager drives an essential database developer out the door and gets rewarded. I wound contend that a proven developer with knowledge of the business is worth tens of thousands of dollars if not much more.
I was let go of one contract by mutual agreement because of incompetent management. Months later they were still trying to replace me at a time when they had urgent SQL Server development needs.
Russel Loski, MCSE Business Intelligence, Data Platform
October 15, 2007 at 7:05 am
Personally, I would have to agree with this. Depending on your financial situation, I think being happy in what you are doing at your job and who you are doing it with can make up for some shortfalls when it comes to cashing your check.
At my current job, the company has been more than fair with compensation, but the quality and quantity of work that I do here still leaves me wanting.
Every job posting that I look at, money is about 4th or so on the list of things that draws me to it. To be honest I'm actually more wary of the higher than average paying jobs since this means that there probably are some issues to deal with that they think paying more would keep that person around longer.
It's just like the old saying - "money can't buy happiness". I would be in heaven if I found a job that I loved to do even if the pay was average.
October 15, 2007 at 7:29 am
I stayed with my previous company for 5 years. Five miserable, stress-filled years. I was afraid to leave because, at the tender age of 24, I was making $80,000 with an Associate's degree. That's hard to walk away from, especially when you don't think you can make that kind of money elsewhere. I finally got up the nerve to quit, willing to take a substantial pay cut for less stress and more home time. To my surprise, I found a plethora of job openings that matched my skillset making comparable wages. I'm now with a company that truly believes its employees are assets, and I couldn't be happier.
Lesson learned: Never again will I be held captive by money; job satisfaction will always be number 1.
Regards,
Michelle Ufford
SQLFool.com - Adventures in SQL Tuning
October 15, 2007 at 8:12 am
Most of time I changed job was not because of money. It was mainly with people due to organizational changes or just worked with the wrong group of people. I meant there was no dynamic in the group. Sometimes I changed because I did not want to stuck with old technology or the job was bored.
Money was the last issue on my mind.
One time I did accepted a job because they paid a lot, it was the most miserable job I ever had. Later I found out all the positions in that company pay much higher than the other average companies because it was so notorious in the area. Everyone knew that company culture and people were awful, the attrition rate was more than 50% a year. They had a hard time to find people so they used money to attract people who may not know the company or people from out of town.
October 15, 2007 at 8:24 am
It's an interesting dynamic, because I've been in the scenario a few times. I've learned though that the majority of times - those who want to put you on the spot to burn your bridges, abandon everything and screw up your relationship with prior employers are the ones who will treat you incredibly badly. In other words - beware of the gift wrapped box that happens to be sitting on top of a bear trap. The employer who gets you to "jump" like that will work under the assumption that they own you, and you will likely find yourself trapped (and trying to figure out how to gnaw your foot off and move on elsewhere).
Few things hurt your employability more than the perception that you won't stick it out for the long haul, and a huge red flag pops up when you're willing to leave an employer high and dry. Just be sure to know what it is that you're stepping into, and at least try to try to work something out with your current employer to create an actual transition, versus just leaving them high and dry.
I think it's important that you end up somewhere that has an appreciation for the coomplexity and difficulty of our task. I don't expect HR to understand what I do, but I hope they can appreciate that what we do is something out of the reach of most employees. So - it's important that the pay be appropriate, both within the organization and within the surrounding marketplace. Of course - each organization shows their "appreciation" of your work in different ways, so judge the "whole package".
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Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
October 15, 2007 at 9:56 am
I went through a period of swapping jobs quite a lot. It was those damned dot coms. Funny thing was, I took a pay cut each time I jumped because I was always disatisfied with the work, or the boss, or both. Made my wife nuts the way I'd just give away 10 or 20k. But I've been in a single spot for six years now. Money isn't great, but the environment is fantastic, the people are good, the company itself is stable, commute is nice. All that goes a very long way on job satisfaction.
I've found that having some spotty stuff on your resume (I had four company's in 3.5 years), is not a big deal if you can explain the situation rationally. Of course, having 3 of the four companies fail within six months (timing, not cause) of my leaving made the job easier.
----------------------------------------------------The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood... Theodore RooseveltThe Scary DBAAuthor of: SQL Server 2017 Query Performance Tuning, 5th Edition and SQL Server Execution Plans, 3rd EditionProduct Evangelist for Red Gate Software
October 15, 2007 at 10:00 am
All of my job changes in IT (1998-present) have been for the following primary reasons:
I was bored.
I wanted the challenge of a different or larger environment.
My ability to be of service was greatly diminished by management removing my formerly-held responsibility and authority.
I needed experience in another area.
I disagreed with the way people were treated.
Just as Steve said, money was a secondary reason; but since I started in IT, my pay has increased with every change. I completely agree with Steve's article.
October 15, 2007 at 10:46 am
Some very interesting comments and thanks for the debate.
However I think Matt made a great observation. Be careful about moving to a new employer because the grass isn't always greener. The next job may not be any better, so changes should be carefully thought through. Do your best to be sure you're making a change for the better, whatever that means to you.
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October 15, 2007 at 11:53 am
Steve Jones - Editor (10/15/2007)
Some very interesting comments and thanks for the debate.However I think Matt made a great observation. Be careful about moving to a new employer because the grass isn't always greener. The next job may not be any better, so changes should be carefully thought through. Do your best to be sure you're making a change for the better, whatever that means to you.
Oh heck yes. I left one dot.com frying pan only to land in the dot.com fire.
----------------------------------------------------The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood... Theodore RooseveltThe Scary DBAAuthor of: SQL Server 2017 Query Performance Tuning, 5th Edition and SQL Server Execution Plans, 3rd EditionProduct Evangelist for Red Gate Software
October 15, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Looking back on my last 20 years of employment, there were some miserable times, but I was the most miserable when I was waiting for some arbitrary deadline to pass, such as a project completion milestone or an HR milestone like 401(k) vesting to kick in. Except for my jump to a dotcom I always hit the silk because of the people: coworkers, management, customers or all three. They ranged from silly to downright evil. When I landed at my next job/gig, it was always with the promise of a kinder, gentler environment. The money was in "the zone", but never at the top end of the zone.
The corollary to only moving when you've thought it out carefully is don't be afraid to bail out on a bad situation.
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