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heard of a probationary salary...?

S

Skiddex

Golden Member
So this small company outside Chicago called me a couple weeks ago about interviewing with them and went ahead with a phone interview the next day followed by an onsite a couple days later. About a week later they sent me an offer with a ?probationary salary? that is well below market value for a newly graduated hardware/software engineer.

I guess they want to see how I do for the first six months and then bump it up to what they consider a reasonable salary (which after emailing them, I found out is a lot lower than I thought for (a) a hardware engineer and (b) living in Chicago.

I guess my question is are probationary salaries used commonly?

Any recommendations welcomed! This is a job I think I would really enjoy
 
A lot of companies do this. It is a way to get cheap labor.

One job I interviewed for a few years ago gave me a probationary salary and said that they would review by 6months to a year and maybe bump me to a regular salary. The pay wasn't bad, but I talked to a few workers and some had been working 2.5 years and still were on probationary salary. Just be careful.
 
seems a waste to me.

you start at a sub-par pay for a few months. then they might raise your wages up to still sub-par pay but higher then you had?

yeah i would be jumping all over that job.

only way i would even think about it is if you are not getting any other offers.
 

First, I am also looking for a job, and will be fresh college graduate in a few months.

I never heard of a probationary salary, so I can't help you much there.

I will say this, which you might have already heard before:
If you think the job is interesting, then take it. If you don't like it, after X months,( or find something better) quit and use that job experience to get you a higher paying or better job ( or a more interesting job). Don't feel obligated to stay at the company if you don't like what you are doing or if you feel that you aren't get the most out of what they are offering you... let it be work, experience or benefits.

 
never heard of it, but as others said BEWARE as it may be a way for them to trap you into a much lower salary. Face it, a starting salary is just that: the salary for someone starting. If they feel they've overpaid, they can just freeze you or terminate you.
 
Originally posted by: Skiddex
right now i have 2 other offers doing IT work making 20-40% more than the probationary salary
Click to expand...

then screw that propationary crap. you never get a second chance at your starting salary. Make sure it is one you think is appropriate.
 
Originally posted by: Skiddex
right now i have 2 other offers doing IT work making 20-40% more than the probationary salary
Click to expand...
Then you need to tell the probationary losers this.....and see if they'll counter.
 
Originally posted by: spidey07
Originally posted by: Skiddex
right now i have 2 other offers doing IT work making 20-40% more than the probationary salary
Click to expand...

then screw that propationary crap. you never get a second chance at your starting salary. Make sure it is one you think is appropriate.
Click to expand...

im just torn because its a job i would really like...much better than doing the IT jobs i have now
 
Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
Originally posted by: Skiddex
right now i have 2 other offers doing IT work making 20-40% more than the probationary salary
Click to expand...
Then you need to tell the probationary losers this.....and see if they'll counter.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:

If you think the job has other benefits to offset the lower salary, then by all means, take it. Doing what you enjoy in a place you enjoy doing it is worth more than money.
 
I've heard of it. You should consider the job if it's your only chance to get some job experience in the field you want to go in (assuming that the IT jobs won't help you move forward in that career.) Why waste the time you spent getting your degree?
 
You can ask them to put the time of the salary review in writing, if they don't want to it's another reason not to trust them.

That's good advice from Bryophyte. If this is the best offer in the field you really want to work in, higher offers in other areas that won't help your resume don't mean too much. If you want to work as a hardware engineer you need experience there not in software support or other unrelated work.
 
Probationary salary is a big red flag for me. It says they're only after cheap labor. You don't want to work at a company where everyone is sub-par because of low salaries.

 
Have a contract that says if you're still employed in X number of months then your salary will be increased to whatever amount. If they won't negotiate on that issue I'd walk away, all they want is cheap labor.
 
My first job had a probationary salary. I entered the tech world with a CS degree in the 80s, and believe me, things werw a LOT different then. Jobs were much tougher to come by then, so I was happy just to find something. It worked out; I ended up working for that company for ~3 years, left for a bit, and came back for 2 or 3 more years.

I wouldn't do it now though, even as an entry-level person, unless I was sure that the job was perfect for me.
 
Probationary salaries are somewhat common. The key to something like this is to fully negotiate the terms so that there is no misunderstanding down the road. I'd get the term of the probationary period in writing (shooting for a 90 day term, but willing to go as much as 6 months), the probationary salary, and finally the amount of the full salary after the probationary period is over.

Without this fully negotiated and in writing going in, you're almost certainly going to have problems and/or disappointments when the probationary period has finished. If they're not willing to negotiate and commit this to writing now, then I'd suggest walking away from the offer.

I had one job experience early in my career that involved a probationary period and salary. We negotiated as I described above but they threw in on caveat: If I didn't live up to their expectations at the time of my review at the end of the period, I was to be fired. I had no problem accepting that and as things turned out, it was one of the best and most memorable jobs I've ever had.
 
Don't do it. Major BS, happened to me in the past with a computer services company. Took me a long time to get them to raise me up to normal.
 
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