Sorry to top post - but, I'm just replying to the thread in general.
One of my biggest frustrations with this thread is that it seems to
focus on technical staff.
The Wikimedia Foundation is a non profit. There is an entire department
of people who do programming in grants/education/and dare I say
"outreach" (or whatever). Then there are the HR people, etc.
While I am wrapping up the last month of my fellowship, and I am not a
Wikimedia staff member, I do have my master's in museum studies, with a
focus on the management of said organizations. The reason I state that?
Is because WMF is competitive in regards to what it offers employees in
my realm - as a non-profit person (I will most likely work in non
profits for the rest of my life unless I own my own business, and that
could even be nonprofit). So don't forget - I'm not the only person with
a degree that would take me into a world of nonprofitness - Google isn't
even on my radar as someone who is bidding for me, nor am I looking at
them for work.
Let's just say, when I went to school, I knew I'd be working "for a
mission," and which in the US, many folks go into computer science with
the understanding they'll be making a nice amount of money out of
school. From my understanding, most technical folks don't go into the
field to start using their talents for non profits, it's often a "second
life," after working in the for profit world.
Hell, what I made as a fellow is as competitive to what first year's
make working at museums. And I feel I've gotten more dare I say.."perks"
or "benefits," working as a fellow at WMF then I would working at pretty
much any museum in my area of work (curatorial). (minus benefits like
health insurance which contractors/fellows don't get)
So for me, and a number of us who work in the nonprofit arena (not the
"tech person who could be stolen by big tech company" arena) - WMF *is*
competitive.
-Sarah
On 1/4/13 10:17 AM, Quim Gil wrote:
On 01/03/2013 09:12 AM, Michael Snow wrote:
the Wikimedia Foundation
provides benefits that meet or exceed those of just about any employer
it might be "competing" with.
fwiw until recently I was working in the so-called Silicon Valley for
a Scandinavian big tech corp with Scandinavian standards for HR
practices and health care coverage. The coverage I get at the WMF for
my family and myself is no different (including my fully covered
"domestic partner" aka not-married mother of my children).
My salary has been significantly reduced with the change, indeed. But
it is definitely more than enough to have a regular middle class life
in the Bay Area. And then again we would be comparing the salary I had
in such company after 5 years of (hopefully good) work, not the one I
had at the beginning. I'm hoping to get some salary increase if/when I
can proof good results of my work but I'm not even aiming to reach the
same level I got in a for-profit tech corp in Silicon Valley. That
would feel wrong, being most of the WMF based on individual donations
and being the WMF active in so many countries where so much can be
done with the difference between such corporate salary and the one
I've got now.
PS: speaking entirely for myself although I wouldn't be surprised if
this sentiment is shared among other WMF employees.
--
*Sarah Stierch*
*/Museumist and open culture advocate/*
>>Visit sarahstierch.com <http://sarahstierch.com><<
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