One Louder

Maybe I made the wrong career choice? :-)

It would be interesting if they could append the number of years (experience) each person had in the 25th percentile, etc.

As a recent college graduate myself, it has become increasingly hard to determine ones worth as a 'newb'.  I constantly ask myself if I'm being paid enough, but I enjoy my job and that's what is most important.

Heather,

It's interesting you mention 'peanut butter'.  Guess what I do each day, I 'brown bag it' to work everyday ... inside the bag, PBJ!  Although I constantly ask myself, "if I was making $100K a year, what would I eat?" ... probably PBJ :-)

Thanks for the comments!  I enjoy what I do now (as everyone should enjoy their job), but I feel myself drifting towards the business side of tech.  It will be interesting to see myself transition in the next few years!

-Erich

Apparently the US ends at Atlanta for Aquent. While Miami is not the Advertising hub that New York us, we do have many national agencies down here such as TSP.

They did a pretty accurate job on the DC listings, - maybe a 2-3k variable, but that's not too shabby.  They could use some more criteria to search on, but that's a nice launching off point. Thanks Heather!

That's a great link! It's good to see how the other 99% lives.

Having just finished my MBA for good last week and accepting a new position (more on that another time) all within 24 hours, and being a regular reader/contributor to Heather's blog, I immediately went onto the Aquent site to see if the new salary was on target. Turns out it was and the position I took pays a little more. Nice to see I wasnt short changed for once.

Cool it Simone. Not everybody is as fortunate as yourself.

The more you make the more you manage.
Peanut butter & Jelly always my favorite too. There is something about it that you just do not get tire of it as fast as you do with other things.

When I feel the urge to splurge and go to a realxing dinner then Sushi hits the spot.

I looked at these some of these salary surveys and it seems to me like Microsoft really tries to be in the 75th percentile with the decent position.

I think it is all relative to doing the research and knowing your worth and confidently asking for it when it comes to your interview. It is very important to like what you do though. Like you said -- the money will come.

Tim's still on vacation... seems like he's been gone for ages. We've totally taken over his blog, I wonder if he'll approve. Aquent is nationwide, but I really don't know how the survey group selects people or regions to poll. But like any survey, you'll want to take into consideration the sample size. Some locations have a better response rate than others so the data will be more credible. I think it makes for one interesting resource, but it's by no means the only resource for salary info.

Heather, sorry it took so long to get back, you'd be surprised at the number of places you can visit that still have dial-up (my home, for instance).

Sorry to hear Lisa was bummed about Miami. Our Director of Marketing told me the sample there was too small (as my cohort Drea suspected). Now that doesn't mean Miami is a small market, no siree, just perhaps that they were all enjoying their mojitos instead of responding to the call from the AMA (we don't do the polling, to keep it fair and square).

And how nice of you to remember the blinking people from last year!