Need career advice

D

D1G1T4L

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 1, 2001
Messages
1,212
I have a degree in computer science and about 4 years experience doing php/mysql. I am looking for a new job right now in bay area. What's high in demand right now? What pays the most right now? What kind of salary do you think I should be looking for?

Feel free to post any comments.
 
A 20 minute skim through Monster.com or Dice.com would give you the salary range. You may even be able to figure out a bell-curve average if you find enough job offers listed in your area.

Edit: Might also consider looking at some IT contracting companies. Good head hunters are out there, you just need to be proactive in researching the contracting company and asking questions.
 
PTNL said:
A 20 minute skim through Monster.com or Dice.com would give you the salary range. You may even be able to figure out a bell-curve average if you find enough job offers listed in your area.
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The average job pays $MARKET on monster/dice. You can probably get better information somewhere like glassdoor.com. If you look at government/educational positions, they generally have very rigidly defined pay scales so they're about the only place that's really giving out honest information about salary but they're known to be at the lower end of things.

Edit: Might also consider looking at some IT contracting companies. Good head hunters are out there, you just need to be proactive in researching the contracting company and asking questions.
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The good ones are few & far between - most of them are just bottom feeders.
 
you'd have to be willing to accept entry level salary if you are able to land a job that doesn't involve php/mysql.
 
hofan41 said:
you'd have to be willing to accept entry level salary if you are able to land a job that doesn't involve php/mysql.
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Not entirely true - if you've actually done something interesting & can convince somebody that experience is relevant to what they need, you're fine.
 
hofan41 said:
you'd have to be willing to accept entry level salary if you are able to land a job that doesn't involve php/mysql.
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I'm not convinced of that. But then at the company I work, there's good odds that I'll eventually be shifted to a different program for which I know none of the languages they use.

Teaching someone who knows how to do good design a new language to work in is a lot easier than teaching someone who knows the right language how to design. Getting both is nice, but a lot easier said than done.
 
monkey_slap said:
Can you elaborate?
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Just something that I've noticed having been a s/w engineer for about 5 years. If you're lucky enough to convince a company to interview you for a position where they use a completely different language/technology, it generally also means you couldn't carry over your senior title if you only have like 4 years of experience like the OP does. At least thats what happened to me when I switched from a defense company to an ssd company.

Or put it this way, if you were going to pay someone to write an accounting program for you in C++, would you pay someone who only had experience in websites and Java to write this program? If so, would you pay them at the same rate as someone who had been writing C++ programs for 4 years?
 
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ameoba said:
Not entirely true - if you've actually done something interesting & can convince somebody that experience is relevant to what they need, you're fine.
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Bolded part is particularly difficult in this industry. Unless you know someone in the company who is willing to rec you, they usually hire the ones with relevant experience.
 
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