By compguy - 25/02/2010 15:39 - United States

Today, I applied and was accepted for a part-time network engineering position. Being contract work they asked me what I charge. I replied, "$12 an hour." After a look of surprise they accepted me for the position and said, "Our last guy charged $200 an hour, you're a bargain." FML
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Same thing different taste

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Top comments

intensitive 11

How do you be in a position like that and not know how much your competitors are charging?

242 1
kikiface 1

what the hell do you do that $200/hour is an acceptable pay rate? I need to get into that field

163 2

Comments

thinknow101 2

must be your first job; clearly a learning experience. take the temp position, get some experience and cash, and quickly move on. go for at least $50/hr next time.

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chuji 1

I feel for OP. I'm trying to look for a similar position and no one I find wants to pay me what I probably deserve. And, yes, I've looked up average salaries on tech positions and I've never got anything close to it. I hope you get your lucky break and, hopefully, someday I'll get mine.

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scythefwd 0

What you "probably deserve" is not what you feel you are worth but what the market is willing to pay you. Those job offers you are getting that aren't willing to pay you what you "probably deserve" may be low balling you a bit, but it is most likely in the right ballpark. People think a degree or a cert is an automatic big paycheck. Wrong, without experience, you are little better than what you learned in school. That is 4 years experience, and part time at that. You aren't doing your trade day in and day out. What the job offers you are getting are based off of are : 1. How well your resume presents your skills, knowledge, and accomplishments. 2. How well you performed on the interview 3. What the local market will bear (if you are overqualified, they will offer near the middle of their pay scale, you are almost never offered the top end... so you generally have room to negotiate up). If you resume doesn't account for your hobby work (hey.. some people do IT for fun... not just profit) then you need to show that in your resume or interview. Most people don't and it makes them look much less experienced than they are.

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revcanon 0

YDI for not knowing your own market value in your industry.

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blastvortex 3

You should really know these things before getting into the business. Even if you only get a fraction of what you could — if you don't know how to barter or can only get the average for your trouble — there's no reason you shouldn't have figured this out ahead of time.

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ashiiya 0

Yeah, you could've supposedly asked for more, but it's not like you knew. I'd be freakin happy if I could get the amount of pay I wanted at my job. That in itself is a bargain. And $12? That's lucky.

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DDang 2

Woow, like seriously? I'm still not out of high school yet but I see something completely wrong with that picture. Being an engineer is a high paying job for the most part, so you should know what you are being paid for if going into the position. YDI

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AnthonyD86 0

I have to say YDI. if your out looking for a job in a specific position shouldn't you do atleast a little research to find out what average pay for that position is?

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tboudre 0

you give contractors a bad name. I turned down a job this week that wanted to pay $12/hr, even after the agency told me they would go as high as $13.50/hr. $60/hr is my absolute bottom if I have to pay my own social security tax.

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