I went directly from college and walked into a job that starts me at $50k with a raise after six months and the promise of a promotion within 6-12months.
i went directly from a college drop out to tech school
. in 2000. finished tech school in mid summer 2002. after tech school, i got my first real job via my paid internship -> full time at $40k.
1.5-2 years later i got a raise to $45k and moved from networking to developing.
2 years after that, I put it in my two weeks, and they offered me 20k on the spot to stay. This was just after the sti got destroyed and i had pretty much had it with that place... no safe place to park. so, i turned it down and moved on to my new place, at 70k.
i'm due for my 2 year this month, and i'm pretty much going to demand a 7k raise or i'll be leaving again for something else. I never got a 6 month or 1 year or 18 month, nor even a cost of living. so yeah, 10% is much more than the std 3%. but that's 3% for 2 years, plus a 1% interest charge for back pay i should have gotten
A recruiter just contacted me today from linked in saying he's got a job for me in my niche.
so, by july, i'll be making 77k either at my current place or more somewhere else.
i'm in a good situation. we can't find anyone to hire worth a damn (been interviewing for nearly 6 months now). replacing me would be near impossible and we're already so over-worked. So i'm in a good spot to say pay me if you want to keep me
add in my sidework and freelancing stuff, and i made 96k last year.
i'm looking to break 100k for fiscal 2008 one way or another.
Brian has been in his line of work for quite awhile and has 6years on me - I would hope in that time he could be up in the six figure range, as I hope to be touching those numbers within 3years.
I also don't have a degree.... and i basically changed departments after a couple years. networking has next to nothing to do with programming. it's pretty much going to medical school to be a brain doctor, then one day switching to open heart surgery. So, i really only have 3 years on you if you want to get technical
this was 6 years ago now too.... 50k today is 6 years ago's 40k if you think about it.
You have spiders like that in Connecticut?
you should see the shit that lived on my deck at the condo.