Salary Requirements

[johngiggs]

I am a recent college grad and have nearly three years of work experience in my field. I graduated with a BS in Computer Engineering in August 2002. I had the opportunity to work as in intern for nearly 2 and a half years for a large company in Boston as a computer operator. I gained a lot of knowledge and experience and by the time I left, I was a lot more knowledgable (with regards to my position) than a lot of the senior operators who had over 5-10 years experience. After getting laid off, I found another position that is similar to my previous one. Some of my duties include creating and removing UNIX accounts, creating batch jobs via TNG Workload, monitoring and scheduling backups, tape management/librarian, and things of that nature. As with my previous position, I often go above and beyond the minimum requirements and do things that an average employee would not do such as using my scripting knowledge to generate various reports and run system checks. Before getting laid off, I was going to be offered $45,000 by the company in Boston. At the time I was somewhat disappointed as I had hoped for a higher salary, but I was willing to accept it. Now, the market is pretty scarce, so I am fortunate to have the position I have now, but I don't want to sell myself short. I have been here for just over 3 months and have transitioned into my position very well. I spoke to one of my co-workers and he informed me that when he was hired, the salary range was between $38k and $50k. I would like at least $45k, but I'm not sure what I should request. Any help would be greatly appreciated. If anyone has a sample letter that they could post it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

John

 

[donttreadonme]

You are a computer operator, and this is not against you or anyone else doing the job, however, nothing you do requires hard to acquire skills or requires specialized knowledge.

I would say that $38-50k is high, except that because it is Boston and the cost of living is high it may be reasonable.

As for being an intern it may give you some in-roads into the corporate structure and give you an edge in interviewing with the company for a job versus an "outsider," but having been an intern is not going to add enough to your experience to impress another company.

Having worked at a Fortune 500 company that had an intern on my team, who graduated with a CS degree, and then hired after graduation, there was nothing learned, no skill enhancement or anything that would justfy paying them F/T much more than they made as an intern.

 

[DrJavaJoe]

I would go to salary.com and print out a report on what others in your zip code are making. Print one that you feel that you are over qualified for and one that fits your qualifications. Then Do a job search on dice.com and print out job offers in your area that have salaries attached that are well above what you will be asking for. Now go to to your boss with these items and explain that what you are asking for is not unreasonable based on what the market is paying. Try not to say that if I don't get it then I will leave but more so that you are committed to this company but would like them to be fair.

 

[johngiggs]

donttreadonme,

The computer operator position is not my ideal position, however I currently do not have all of the knowledge or experience to be a UNIX admin. As I said, my major is Computer Engineering, so this is not quite what I was looking for, but I was offered the position and started to learn more and enjoy it. I am using my current job and work experience as a stepping stone to advance my career and hopefully I will have the opportunity to become a sys admin within the next year or two. Other than getting certifications, do you have any other suggestions as to how I can gain more experience and become an admin? I also wouldn't mind moving into more of the engineering side of things, however I don't have any "real world" experience outside of the lab. It would have been nice if I had the opportunity to work in systems as well as engineering so that I could have experience in both and determine which I would like more, but unfortunately I did not get the opportunity to do so.

Thanks,

John