I definitely agree that people are looking for a huge set of skills for 1-3 years of experience. I sympathize with more experienced professionals that see less positions open that are willing to pay them. It's also frustrating that they won't pay much for someone that does have a lot experience given only those 1-3 years. At the college I've worked for 1.5 years, I use XHTML, CSS, XML, and XSL daily, lead front-end web development/template set up in our CMS, provide UX/IA guidance, run our CMS training program for 200 web editors, have completed graduate coursework in user experience research and information management, and am taking coursework in PHP/MySQL and Perl this semester. With all of this foundational experience (I'm not saying I'm an expert but for 1.5 years of working I think I have a lot on my resume) and a clear interest in a long-term career, companies I have talked to so far seem to be wanting to pay mid-50s at most in the DC area. Maybe I'm completely off in my expectations, but I feel like low/mid 60s is not unreasonable to ask for since I already make about 40k plus about 10k a year in tuition (w/o obligation to the college), get about 5 weeks paid time off, and the cost of living is much lower than in DC ($800-900 apt where I live now versus probably $1300 where I'm looking to move). Ultimately I want a new job to be closer to family and work with a larger team that has specific roles for UI/UX and IA and has more experience team members that can serve as a mentor to me, so salary is not everything, but it seems off.
For those of you that have been in the field awhile, what should these 1-3 years with a lot of skills positions be paying? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=49535 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
