I have found that shooting for your contract salary is as
good a target as any, but expect to miss unless you didn't get a very good
contract rate. I have only seen one case where a company was willing to pay
contract level fees to a FTE and that was back when I first got back into the
industry (I burned out on it back when I was about 21 or so and left
it) and had been completely screwed over by the contract house for my rate
where they were making at least as much as I was. When I said I was leaving the
FTE offer I received would have been a 60% raise from my previous salary.
Unfortunately, the new contract position I was taking was a 100%+ increase and
with OT (which you don't get as a FTE) ended up being a 200% increase.
Anyway, you tend to take a considerable hit (I have seen
reductions of 20%-75% for FTE offers and all but one of which I turned down
cold) but you try to make it up in benefits such as vaca, retirement, insurance,
etc. As a contractor you tend to have a different mindset than as an FTE as
well. As a contractor it is jump for the money and your mind should always be
ready to make that jump. As FTE it seems people get in a rut and don't want
to move once they start to get a feeling of ownership. Personally I wouldn't be
an FTE but for a very small handful of companies where I really like and respect
the management. My manager I have now is probably one of the best managers in
the universe, he is certainly the best I have had to this point in my "career"
and I have had several good managers. He is the kind of guy that you love or
hate, if you aren't above the curve, you hate him. But then I have often been
described as the person you love or hate myself. I had one manager once say of
me, "joe is the Bill Lambeer of IT, if he is on your team you feel great and you
love him. If he isn't, you want to kill him.". Another said "joe is worth
his weight in gold and he ain't a small guy...". After I heard that one I
went and asked for a raise. Somehow I failed.
Every time I have negotiated with someone on any job I
always just ask up front, so what salary or rate are you thinking. If the range
is some ridiculous range like $50k-$300k which headhunters like to do because
they think they are bright or something I tell the person they need to give a
more realistic range of somewhere within $10k and it better not be pumped up
with possible bonuses (Bonuses are not salary). If they can't or won't, spend
your time elsewhere.
Keep in mind, whatever rate you ask for, make sure it
covers sending gifts of beer and chocolate and possibly money to the members of
this list for keeping your head above water. I don't think any single person has
generated such a volume in the number of questions asked since I have been
watching this list. It actually made me wonder at one point if Tony could
somehow arrange it so that people pay for every question asked and they get
credit for every answer given that people vote on and say is a good answer. If
no one can answer the question (note that isn't the same as the answer doesn't
work for someone for whatever localized reason) then full
refund.
joe
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tom Kern
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2005 9:37 PM
To: activedirectory
Subject: [ActiveDir] salary(OT)
well, i've been consulting for 2 months full time for a company and
now they want to make me an offer to work for them(yeah,i'm amazed too..)
At first it was a head/senior AD position but now they want to throw
in Exchange in the mix.
they used to outsource all their windows infrastructure and during my
tenure there, they took it back so they have no AD/Exchange people.
This is a 3000 user finanical corp in Manhattan.
my question is, what kind of salary would one expect for a such a position,
taking into account the bussiness and location and size.
thanks
