How much should I be making? Am I underpaid?

Would you just tell us how much you were offered already.

Money != penis size.

 

[atom]

Well, as it pertains to this job, you probably have to accept the fact that your credentials don't really mean you deserve more money. You are going to get paid roughly what everyone else at that position is getting paid.

 

[Gunnar]

My masters degree is in Computer Engineering (cross section between CS and EE, or some stupid machination of my school). I initially wanted to be a chip designer at Intel, but I never got the call...

I am programming right now, straight C/C++ on Windows, but my masters project was on Linux. Ive done Java for a long time, and Im sure anyone coming out with a CS degree these days does Java. Id like to get more into the business side, but Ive been pigeon-holed as a programmer for now, but I am slowly gathering financial knowledge.

Problem is, I am totally unsure about what the industry standard is. I have friends that are making 75k at places like Moore Capital, and they didnt stay behind to complete a masters degree. I have friends who are working at Goldman Sachs with just a BS in CS and they are making 65k. The job I am at right now, I am not making those figures, and I would suppose someone extending an offer probably has a metric they go by on how much to up one's salary in order to get them to join the firm.

Or perhaps my friends just happened to join the company during the latter stages of the boomtime, they got signing bonuses, I got jack.

Sorry, I just dont want how much I (may) make posted somewhere. Call me squeamish or whatever, I think its too much information. Its less than 70k. CrazyDe1, thanks for the HP numbers.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

You're overqualified for the job right now, it appears. Look for a job that requires your technical expertise, rather than what seems to be a low-level programmer's job.

 

[Gunnar]

from what I have gathered so far, it seems the offer they gave me is pretty fair. im going to head over to salary.com to look.

Im not a stellar programmer. I cant make the computer jump through hoops like those linux kernel programmers can. But I have a good understanding of financial models, pricing et al. And im pretty good at working in a team, doing presentations and such. Im not trying to wrench every dollar that I can from these people, its just that I have gotten a lot of mixed information, and I dont know who to trust. A headhunter found me, and he doesnt want me to be judging how good this offer is, and he is pressuring me to sign it (though its good for my career), whether or not its fair. My coworkers think that I should attempt to get my current little firm to up the offer, and then I should bounce back and forth to try and maximize the pay.

I just want to know if the offer is fair, in which case, Id rather not try to wheel and deal.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: Gunnar
My masters degree is in Computer Engineering (cross section between CS and EE, or some stupid machination of my school). I initially wanted to be a chip designer at Intel, but I never got the call...

I am programming right now, straight C/C++ on Windows, but my masters project was on Linux. Ive done Java for a long time, and Im sure anyone coming out with a CS degree these days does Java. Id like to get more into the business side, but Ive been pigeon-holed as a programmer for now, but I am slowly gathering financial knowledge.

Problem is, I am totally unsure about what the industry standard is. I have friends that are making 75k at places like Moore Capital, and they didnt stay behind to complete a masters degree. I have friends who are working at Goldman Sachs with just a BS in CS and they are making 65k. The job I am at right now, I am not making those figures, and I would suppose someone extending an offer probably has a metric they go by on how much to up one's salary in order to get them to join the firm.

Or perhaps my friends just happened to join the company during the latter stages of the boomtime, they got signing bonuses, I got jack.

Sorry, I just dont want how much I (may) make posted somewhere. Call me squeamish or whatever, I think its too much information. Its less than 70k. CrazyDe1, thanks for the HP numbers.

Well CompE is a legitimate degree (not sure why you're saying it's a stupid machination). I was wondering what field of CompE you're in (hardware/architecture, communications/networks, software, etc.).

Anyways, why don't you apply to other places as a chip designer? There's a lot more than Intel.

You're way overqualified for this type of job... I guess unless you want to get on the financial business or something side then it's ok...

 

[Gunnar]

My specialization was in hardware architecture, more specifically, distributed architectures/high performance architectures. Initially, i wanted to go work for a company like Cray, SGI, Sun, or HP doing their enterprise distributed systems development, whether it be operating systems or hardware design.

I sent my resume everywhere, only AMD ever got back to me, and after a first round interview, I never heard back from them(you can imagine the competition was intense, and I did well in school, but not THAT well). HP wasnt hiring, IBM I had a phone interview and that was it, Sun didnt even recruit.

Nowadays, I find my interest in being a designer lacking. Id rather see what the technology is used for than design it. In fact, I want to become a user rather than programmer. I find it interesting trying to find value in the markets, and a fast moving highly volatile derivatives trading market is the kind of risky gamble that I'd enjoy.

I dont know if Id say Im overqualified for the job. Im a programmer who knows how a chip works, as well as distributed architectures. That knowledge mostly goes to waste, I dont know where I can apply my (waning) skills in Verilog, and I doubt that I know enough to make a better branch predictor, or am savvy enough to write a compiler. I gave up on the technology path a while ago.

The reason why I called the degree a stupid machination was because Cornell just underwent a restructuring of departments, and I was the first class to graduate from that. Perhaps they put together a legitimate curriculum and requirements for completing the degree, because when I went, I took some CS classes, and some EE classes (including a DSP class on imaging), and I got a CompE degree. what I took was irrelevant, I could have taken a course in RF and ended up with the same degree.

I am hoping that in a larger company, more interesting projects, and more interesting problems will come around. I just wanted to make sure that they werent taking advantage of me.

 

[ghostman]

Right now, a bachelors in CS and/or financial field will get you $50-60K starting at a financial firm in NYC. A masters will probably get you $60-70K.

The Cornell name is nice, but it doesn't add much. You're working with others who all came from nice colleges. One year of experience also doesn't add much, since you'll be headed to a new environment and could possibly end up doing something very different. I think that $75K isn't out of reach, but it's probably near the higher end of your possible salary range at this point.

 

[Gunnar]

I totally agree on the name bit, there are a lot of Harvard, Yale, Princeton grads that are out there now.

In fact, you could argue that a person who went to a state school and worked his ass off distributing resumes during the summer and working good internships could do much better than an grad from a good school. And hed come out ahead because he wouldnt borrow a billion dollars to finance his education.

In retrospect, Id have done it differently. In a good economy maybe it makes a difference. But we are all in the same boat when it sinks.

 

[Yossarian]

Originally posted by: Gunnar
fIm not a stellar programmer. I cant make the computer jump through hoops like those linux kernel programmers can. But I have a good understanding of financial models, pricing et al. And im pretty good at working in a team, doing presentations and such. Im not trying to wrench every dollar that I can from these people, its just that I have gotten a lot of mixed information, and I dont know who to trust. A headhunter found me, and he doesnt want me to be judging how good this offer is, and he is pressuring me to sign it (though its good for my career), whether or not its fair. My coworkers think that I should attempt to get my current little firm to up the offer, and then I should bounce back and forth to try and maximize the pay.

You should be, especially if you're dealing with an HR department. They aren't the ones you'll be reporting to for your daily job so you should no hesitation about beating them up for every penny you can. Fvck the headhunter, his only motivation at this point is to get you to sign so he gets paid. BTW using another job offer to get more money out of your current employer generally doesn't work too well. They might go for it, but don't be surprised if you get canned in a couple months when they replace you with someone cheaper.

 

[cchen]

Originally posted by: ghostman
Right now, a bachelors in CS and/or financial field will get you $50-60K starting at a financial firm in NYC. A masters will probably get you $60-70K.

The Cornell name is nice, but it doesn't add much. You're working with others who all came from nice colleges. One year of experience also doesn't add much, since you'll be headed to a new environment and could possibly end up doing something very different. I think that $75K isn't out of reach, but it's probably near the higher end of your possible salary range at this point.

Yeah, seriously, two of my friends who are seniors (one Engineering Management Systems, one Industrial Engineering) both accepted offers of 65k/yr + signing bonus + year end bonus doing private wealth management. And even more people seem to be getting job offers in this range.

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: adlep

dude give us mo info, what is ur position, what are u doing? I would say with a bachelors $50-60, with a masters $80-100k

Ha ha..
With a current market situation, divide you number by .75, IF you can get a job....
Edit: However, if you have some financial backround (options, stock market, etc, etc) I would go for at least $80,000/yr.

I assume you mean multiply by .75?

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: Gunnar
Problem is, I am totally unsure about what the industry standard is. I have friends that are making 75k at places like Moore Capital, and they didnt stay behind to complete a masters degree. I have friends who are working at Goldman Sachs with just a BS in CS and they are making 65k. The job I am at right now, I am not making those figures, and I would suppose someone extending an offer probably has a metric they go by on how much to up one's salary in order to get them to join the firm.

If you look at my post above, I already gave you some numbers for people in your position at "large investment banks in NYC".

Again, for first year programmers, they make: 62.5k - 65k their first year.
Second year: 80-83k.

These numbers are for people I know without masters degrees and includes bonuses. It should also be noted that "first year" for people on wall st. is usually just from june/july (when people typically start) to the end of the year. So it is really only a half year (the salar is prorated). The first full year will be the 80-83k number.