[sf-lug] Fwd: [JOB] PHP/MySQL Developer, Santa Cruz, CA | 60k

[Adrien Lamothe]

Some IT people are vital to their company's success, doing work that few others are capable of performing. Some are mere drones, doing work that isn't critical and is easily performed by others. What they should be compensated is dependent on their importance to the company and how well the company is doing. The problem, these days, is that even people in the first category often don't get paid as well as a San Francisco Muni driver; people in the second category fare much worse. This is why universities have experienced a steep decline in computer science enrollments, and why the federal government is now worried the U.S. will lose its edge in computer technology. The kids are going back into law and medicine, where the money and status are (status being very closely related to money).

Most technology company owners/executives/managers/marketeers are scared as hell that their fortunes depend on people with knowledge and skills they will never have or begin to understand. So, they label the tech workers "geeks", "nerds", etc. and generally do their best to make the techies feel inferior in some way. Hey, don't want them to ever discover how important they really are, they may start demanding higher wages! This is the MAJOR reason companies have been outsourcing to India. There are plenty of qualified Americans to do the work, they just won't do it for slave wages. Indian software engineers with Masters degrees and PhDs, working in their home country, are working for $10-$15 per hour. The problem is that becoming a senior level software engineer is just as demanding as becoming a top performer in any of the other engineering disciplines (electrical, mechanical, I'll even say Civil).

LX Rudis has worked in the computer gaming industry for many years. Do we need to discuss the dismal conditions and salaries of the programmers, testers, etc. of people in that industry?

I think this is one reason why open source has become so popular, and why so many software developers have contributed to open source projects. You can take their money away, but you can't keep them from getting recognized for their talents.


jim stockford <jim at well.com> wrote: 
     i'll bite, too, hoping for adrien's and blake's
responses as well:
    what does $60K buy?
    what does "entry level" mean in terms of skills
(and what's the pay range)?
    is there a difference in paying IT psersonages
vs programmers?


On Dec 6, 2006, at 10:10 PM, Lx Rudis wrote:

> moen:
>> Offering $60k for the skillset described, in the 2006 Northern 
>> California
>> job market, is just absurd.
>
> ok rick, i'll bite:
> what _does_ $60k/yr buy in 2007?
>
> i'm one of the directors of atari inc's rebranding effort.
> i am sitting here in the NYC offices at 1am typing, and i'm all ears.
>
> we've got two intermediate slots open.
> like that earlier post, my tech director is looking for PHP and SQL 
> skills.
> difference here is that you're talking to staff, not a recruiter.
>
> x
>
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