What do you do?

Alavaz_sl said:

I have worked in government for about 7 years in various IT professions. I started with a WA state agency, went to the Feds, back to WA state with a different agency and hit a hard salary cap around 78k at the 5 year mark. I finally landed with a city (nix admin) about 19 months ago and love it. Just barely broke six figures (102 now and will top out at 110 in two more years). Strong union and the best part of it is that I am hourly and get plenty of OT. Not sure what level of gov you work in, but it seems cities tend to pay better in all my research, with counties not far behind.

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Fuck public unions.

Vinen_sl said:

Fuck public unions.

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I'm quite indifferent to unions, so fuck em, fight em, it's all the same. To live with louie dog's the only way to stay sane.

I just started at a start up in Portsmouth, NH calledGemr. Pretty interesting idea, if we can pull it off (as with most start ups) we'll probably do all right. Basically it's a social network to show off whatever it is that you collect and connect with other collectors. Series A funding of 4.5m, going for our second round in a few months. Our user acquisition rate is pretty damn solid, and if we keep on this pace we'll probably have over 100k users by the end of June.

My job is basically to find ways to get people to sign up. I'm in the Pop Culture vertical, so I organize and go to all the comic cons that I want to hit up, come up with different ways to engage folks potential users, and try to network like crazy.

Heading down to Fishman (of the guitar / pedal fame) to do a "What's On Your Desk" video where we check out the different collectibles on people's desks / around the office. I want to make this a full series at different gaming / collector heavy companies. Hopefully some of the connections I make at PAX this weekend work out to do just that.


Much better job than marketing for a indirect tax software company, that's for fucking sure.

Gemr

So, it's Pinterest for men? Site looks exactly like Pinterest

Pretty much Pinterest for nerds and / or collectors. That's how I explain it anyway.

Jx3_sl said:

I've realized I hate teaching 8th grade. 7th grade is ok, high school is better. 8th grade just seems to be filled with assholes. Plus the fact I'm teaching english which sucks. I can't be honest with my grades because parents bitch and principals fold like wet cardboard. So the amount of fucks I had is all gone. Fuck I hope June hurries up and gets here so I can throw my resume around and get to a different school.

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I teach 9th grade and 12th grade English. They're both filled with assholes. The whole school is filled with assholes. Kids are assholes.

I do really enjoy my 9th grade classes, but holy goddamn are those kids lazy. I basically have to threaten the wrath of god only a daily basis with some of them. I'm also not sure how long you've been teaching (probably longer than me), but I taught at a different school for a year before this one and it was the exact same, except I taught 10th and 12th there. In my experience, seniors are just fucking terrible no matter where you are.

A kid literally said to me, "If we fail, do you fail us?"

I haven't been teaching long at all, just graduated in December. I'm certified secondary school (middle-high school) Social Studies. I did my student teaching at the same school I'm now long term subbing at.
I know part of the problems I am having is the fact I'm the fourth English teacher these kids have had this year. The first one bounced after two weeks, then they had a sub for two weeks, then a long term sub until the beginning of the semester. I knew this going in, it still sounded better then constantly checking the sub hotline hoping for a random job in Elkview or something.
Principal comes in the other day for whatever reason. Looks around while the kids walk in and sit down, their talking of course but at least 60% are doing the bellringer so I call that a successful start. I later get an email stating that the principal felt like the kids treated the class as a party atmosphere. I mean holy shit what do they want, run my class like a fucking gulag? OF course it wouldn't matter if I did, kids can't fail anymore.

I don't want to say I'm disillusioned, just frustrated. I'm pretty sure when I get a class of my own and I'm able to set some ground rules and stability it will be slightly better. From what I gather principals are now just a mix of Walmart Manager/PR person so its just best to nod and say "yes massa."

Man just think about this. My best friend got a job teaching in a really bad city. One of those cities where they had the "extra" school where all the really bad kids went, like the violent ones. It was sort of like a prison, as he describes it. He said they send him to that school and on his first day they had an assembly in the gym. He said some black teacher was going on a rant about how society will try to hold these people down, people like "HIM!" as the teacher pointed at my friend - the only white man there.

You could teach there..

It's that whole god damn generation

Jx3_sl said:

I haven't been teaching long at all, just graduated in December. I'm certified secondary school (middle-high school) Social Studies. I did my student teaching at the same school I'm now long term subbing at.
I know part of the problems I am having is the fact I'm the fourth English teacher these kids have had this year. The first one bounced after two weeks, then they had a sub for two weeks, then a long term sub until the beginning of the semester. I knew this going in, it still sounded better then constantly checking the sub hotline hoping for a random job in Elkview or something.
Principal comes in the other day for whatever reason. Looks around while the kids walk in and sit down, their talking of course but at least 60% are doing the bellringer so I call that a successful start. I later get an email stating that the principal felt like the kids treated the class as a party atmosphere. I mean holy shit what do they want, run my class like a fucking gulag? OF course it wouldn't matter if I did, kids can't fail anymore.

I don't want to say I'm disillusioned, just frustrated. I'm pretty sure when I get a class of my own and I'm able to set some ground rules and stability it will be slightly better. From what I gather principals are now just a mix of Walmart Manager/PR person so its just best to nod and say "yes massa."

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Crazy how similar your situation is to mine: I started half way through a school year last year. Took over English classes in a place where their "full time" teacher started, left for two weeks, came back, left again, and then the kids went through 3 different sub teachers until I took over. It took me half of my time there to get to know the kids/get stuff going, but I left at the end of the year with increased test scores (which is all that fucking matters, obviously) in my 10th grade class.

I do enjoy this year more because I started off and set my own rules, but mostly it just means I always know what my plan of action is when something goes down.

Shit, I've even got an administrator that sounds like your party-atmosphere guy, except it's a lady and she will walk in for 2-5 minutes with her ipad in front of her face, leave without saying a word, and a day later you will get an email with an "evaluation" on it.

Question regarding salary negotiation.

I have two offers in hand following my PhD. The first is a post doc that pays approximately 40-50k + medical, and my wife and I would work in the same building (the professor is willing to hire both of us, similar salary). It's also out of state, but we are willing to move if necessary. This offer is from one of the most prestigious organizations in the world, and we'd both be working with a very famous scientist. Essentially, we would learn a lot, our resume would be loaded, and after this 2 year contract (with an optional 3rd), we would leverage that experience into jobs. The cost of living here is significantly lower (rent would be half as much).

The other offer is in San Diego, where we currently live and both of our families live. It pays 70k and has 401k, discount employee stock purchasing, and medical/dental. Besides the cost of living, my wife would also be commuting an hour to her post doc job here (40-50k). In all honesty, I was hoping for 90-100k if we stayed in San Diego, and 80k was my lower limit to accept. Ideally, I'd like to negotiate up to 90k, but a 20k increase over their original offer seems unrealistic.

My plan was to thank them for the offer, get more details on the 401k matching and ESPP, then to explain that the salary was lower than I expected, and ask if it is negotiable. What's a polite way of saying "I have another offer that, work a cost of living adjustment, is similar, and has additional advantages for the commute and my wife's employment"? The salary in asking for (80-100k) is pretty typical for a fresh PhD with some industry experience in this area.

For whatever reason, lately I've been thinking about making a change. I really wish I knew what brought this on. I enjoy my job, the office environment is stellar, pay is alright and the benefits are great. I'm virtually guaranteed a promotion in the next month or so, and I'm two years from vested in my pension. Despite all that, I'm getting restless.

Part of it is me tiring of the public sector. I spend as much (or more) time looking for funding as I do actually getting to any research. I'm debating whether to make a leap into the private sector and see if I can find myself on a track towards breaking six figures sometime in the next few years. After the title change coming down in early spring, I'll have to resign myself to a minimum of 4 years before another potential promotion along the research track, and very likely no major raises or COLAs during that time.

Research might be "easy" sometimes, but it's hardly secure. The state doesn't kick in a single cent for my salary or benefits. I'm providing all of that on my own. If I had known the expectation was that each of us would be little entrepreneurs I doubt I would have stuck with it this long. Once upon a time, there was a little thing called bridge funding that would let you continue working when you weren't on an active grant by contributing to other projects or campus efforts, but that's long gone.

Part of it, at least for me, is having transitioned into a position where I am both responsible for my own research and those dollars are supporting other people. I'm best on development projects where I can *work* and get something started, not when I'm stuck jumping through hoops to write grants that are roughly 1 in 3 chances of funding on the very best of days. My direct supervisor moved up into a state-level position and basically left the lab to me, but I much preferred being the "get things done" guy rather than the one in charge. I miss that.

Heylel_sl said:

For whatever reason, lately I've been thinking about making a change. I really wish I knew what brought this on. I enjoy my job, the office environment is stellar, pay is alright and the benefits are great. I'm virtually guaranteed a promotion in the next month or so, and I'm two years from vested in my pension. Despite all that, I'm getting restless.

Part of it is me tiring of the public sector. I spend as much (or more) time looking for funding as I do actually getting to any research. I'm debating whether to make a leap into the private sector and see if I can find myself on a track towards breaking six figures sometime in the next few years. After the title change coming down in early spring, I'll have to resign myself to a minimum of 4 years before another potential promotion along the research track, and very likely no major raises or COLAs during that time.

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LOL @ having year based promotions.

I'd rather make more money and deal with politics then work a job which sucks your soul from you.

AFK: rolling in cash

BrutulTM_sl said:

Government work sucks the life out of you. It's easy and secure, but at least for me I just got more apathetic every year and no one seemed to give a fuck if you work hard or sit on your ass so I spent more and more time sitting on my ass. Then I talk to my cousin who works in a Fortune 500 company where everyone is looking to work you into the ground or stab you in the back to get ahead and I'm not sure what's worse. I think everyone should start their own business. At least then when you bust your ass you get to benefit from it.

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This is so true, my feelings are similar. 10 years now government work; I stay because it is secure, the benefits are nice, and if something pops up - I need to call in sick, take time off for an emergency or something - I know I am not at risk of getting shit on or fired. But the tradeoff is that promotion is non-existent unless you are in the right place at the right time or suck the right dicks (little if anything to do with actual performance/experience), there is intense drudgery, and you live with the knowledge that even if you are the best performer in the country at your position, you are getting compensated the exact same as the lowest performing slug in that position.

Then I talk to my friends in my real world, and they are constantly shuffling around or worried about getting fired, or talking about how they got fucked over on this or that, and I think, yeah, that is fucking dumb. The happiest guy I know is a dude who runs his own insurance business; that man could sell flood insurance to a homeowner in the middle of the Sahara desert and make that homeowner feel like he just got the deal of his life. It is a rare and wonderful gift.

Vinen_sl said:

LOL @ having year based promotions.

I'd rather make more money and deal with politics then work a job which sucks your soul from you.

AFK: rolling in cash

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It's not soul sucking. I like my co-workers and I like what I do. The problem is that I've become sortof a one-man band lately and I'm liking where my position is headed less and less.

In a nutshell, I was always the assistant lab director. I am a *very* good XO, and make a great #2. I want to spend my day getting shit done. Give me a project to manage and I'll knock it out of the park, curveballs be damned. My supervisor took a state sponsored position at the system level, and while he's still technically director he's 0% time on all our projects and the state has taken 100% of his salary time. All of his projects basically passed to me, and I inherited all of the responsibilities that go with them without any change in title or salary. I am now basically doing all of the work he formerly did, plus all of the "get shit done" stuff I used to cover. Previously, we had a great split. He chased the funding, and once we locked it in I handled the projects. I focused on this year, and he looked two years down the road.

I have hire/fire over those projects, but the funding is finite and the way the largest project is structured, there's basically no money to hire a replacement for my former job. I get vastly less time to actually do research, and end up spending my days writing, or meeting about writing, or chasing this private grant or that campus initiative. Moreover, our actual center director has basically no idea what I actually do. He's practically allergic to steps for as often as he comes to my floor. He's got his own lab, and focuses almost all of his efforts on those projects. That's fine for a lab director, but he's supposed to be setting the agenda for the entire center.

I feel like a little entrepreneur chasing my own funding for which I am now wholly responsible, and there is no such thing as bridge funding. When my projects end, so does my job. There's a perverse incentive at work to prioritize new projects over the ones we already have locked down, and I don't like the feeling of having no support structure. I assume this is exactly the sort of thing that my old supervisor used to insulate me from, but without him here my job has dramatically changed.

If I'm going to be doing all of this anyway, I feel like I'd be better served in the private sector where working hard can actually get noticed and there's a potential of upward mobility without mandatory years in a position. The perks are amazing, and I'm very proud of many of the projects I work on and classes I teach. I just don't feel like I'm moving forward adequately.