Job offer...good salary?

[lonelyt]

I just got an offer from a big company to do software development. I'm going to have my bachelor's in CS in June 2006, and was wondering if 48k is a good deal. Salary.com says average in my area (Orange County, CA) is 56k for an entry level software engineer. Are those numbers inflated, or am I getting low-balled? Thanks!

 

[rmrf]

yes.

 

[radioouman]

numbers are inflated. That sounds like a good offer for entry level.

 

[bigrash]

better take the offer now, instead of having nothing comes graduation

 

[lonelyt]

Originally posted by: bigrash
better take the offer now, instead of having nothing comes graduation

Do you think its worth negotiating for a slightly higher?

 

[rmrf]

you aren't in a position to negotiate. you don't even have a degree yet.

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: lonelyt

Originally posted by: bigrash
better take the offer now, instead of having nothing comes graduation

Do you think its worth negotiating for a slightly higher?

yes, you should always negotiate, and yes its low in my opinion, college grads in my company get hired for almost 35% more then that minimum and usually higher but i guess it depends on what school you went to and your previous internships as well.

 

[dmw16]

You could try to negoitiate, but you may as well take the job. As long as you arent signing a contract you can always leave. Better to have something lined up for graduation than be scrambling around with applications and interviews when you are heading into your finals.

 

[Otaking]

Do you have anything to fall back on if negotiations go sour?

 

[Nightfall]

My first job offer was a little low for 1997. I was graduating with my 4 year degree in Computer Information Systems and they offered me $27,000 a year plus a $5,000 signing bonus to start out. I negotiated up to $35,000 and kept the signing bonus as well. I had leverage though. I not only had 2 internships under my belt working in the industry, but I also worked part time for 3 years in the computer labs as a supervisor and computer technician. I worked on everything from servers, networking, and basic PC support.

My first 3 weeks on the job showed I had the experience to fit in well. I already knew Novell like the back of my hand at the time.

In short, if you have the experience, then negotiate. If you don't have the internships or job working with the technology you are applying for, then take the job and work your way up.

Congrats on your offer though.

 

[Scarpozzi]

You can always ask if they can do any better on the salary.....but tell them that if they can't you'll take it. It never hurts to ask...remember, most of the time, it's the company's money and not theirs....

 

[lonelyt]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I negotiated it up 4k seemingly successfully, the manager and director both had approved it, but I got a call back later from them saying that the University Relations HR didn't approve it. Seems like a great company though, so I'll do my best and get that raise anyway!

 

[BChico]

Originally posted by: lonelyt
I just got an offer from a big company to do software development. I'm going to have my bachelor's in CS in June 2006, and was wondering if 48k is a good deal. Salary.com says average in my area (Orange County, CA) is 56k for an entry level software engineer. Are those numbers inflated, or am I getting low-balled? Thanks!

Offer at BIG4 came in at 57k, small consulting came in at 52k, UPS came in at 48k. I took the small consulting.

Your offer is in line for CS.

 

[habib89]

you're not even out of school yet.. take the offer for now.. when you graduate, you'll have more experience and about 6 months at this particular company.... tell them that you want a raise, because a) you've been there for 6 months, and b) because you now have your BSCS and deserve more... of course you have to make sure that the contract you sign now allows you to negotiate your salary in 6 months

 

[Stuxnet]

Originally posted by: Ameesh

Originally posted by: lonelyt

Originally posted by: bigrash
better take the offer now, instead of having nothing comes graduation

Do you think its worth negotiating for a slightly higher?

yes, you should always negotiate, and yes its low in my opinion, college grads in my company get hired for almost 35% more then that minimum and usually higher but i guess it depends on what school you went to and your previous internships as well.

Terrible advice. OP, you are NOT in a position to negotiate; you have ZERO leverage (kind of a key factor in negotiation, Ameesh).

Take the offer (it's decent). If something better comes along, then you can always change your mind.

 

[AgentEL]

Originally posted by: jbourne77

Originally posted by: Ameesh

Originally posted by: lonelyt

Originally posted by: bigrash
better take the offer now, instead of having nothing comes graduation

Do you think its worth negotiating for a slightly higher?

yes, you should always negotiate, and yes its low in my opinion, college grads in my company get hired for almost 35% more then that minimum and usually higher but i guess it depends on what school you went to and your previous internships as well.

Terrible advice. OP, you are NOT in a position to negotiate; you have ZERO leverage (kind of a key factor in negotiation, Ameesh).

Take the offer (it's decent). If something better comes along, then you can always change your mind.

I have never heard of a company rescinding their offer just because you started to negotiate. What's the harm?

 

[Argo]

You're getting extremely lowballed. My first SDE job out of college, with little or no experience in an area with slightly lower cost of living than SoCal was $60,000.

Of course, a lot depends on how good you are and what programming languages you know.

 

[Passions]

Depends on the company. Is it big or small?

 

[BChico]

Originally posted by: Argo
You're getting extremely lowballed. My first SDE job out of college, with little or no experience in an area with slightly lower cost of living than SoCal was $60,000.

Of course, a lot depends on how good you are and what programming languages you know.

60k is on the high end. Maybe with a Masters 60k would be average. Average starting salaries out of college are around 48-52 in the IT/consulting industry.

 

[Argo]

Originally posted by: BChico

Originally posted by: Argo
You're getting extremely lowballed. My first SDE job out of college, with little or no experience in an area with slightly lower cost of living than SoCal was $60,000.

Of course, a lot depends on how good you are and what programming languages you know.

60k is on the high end. Maybe with a Masters 60k would be average. Average starting salaries out of college are around 48-52 in the IT/consulting industry.

IT in general maybe, not software development though. Almost everybody I know with bachelors got 60k+. People with master usually got 70k plus (which is a pet peeve of mine, a person with masters isn't that much better SDE than one without, provided both have 0 experience). Again, a lot depends on what kind of work you'll be doing.

 

[DaShen]

Originally posted by: Ameesh

Originally posted by: lonelyt

Originally posted by: bigrash
better take the offer now, instead of having nothing comes graduation

Do you think its worth negotiating for a slightly higher?

yes, you should always negotiate, and yes its low in my opinion, college grads in my company get hired for almost 35% more then that minimum and usually higher but i guess it depends on what school you went to and your previous internships as well.

Always negotiate. Seriously. Unless it is Private Sector, you have to negotiate.

Fairly normal salary, but you could probably aim up a tiny bit since it is CA.

 

[thraashman]

No one can complain about being lowballed. It's so hard to find a programming/IT job in Atlanta that with a Bachelor's in CS I got a job as a programmer starting at $25k because it was about all I could find with 6 months of searching. Granted, I had the degree with no experience and I did no internships.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: Nightfall
My first job offer was a little low for 1997. I was graduating with my 4 year degree in Computer Information Systems and they offered me $27,000 a year plus a $5,000 signing bonus to start out. I negotiated up to $35,000 and kept the signing bonus as well. I had leverage though. I not only had 2 internships under my belt working in the industry, but I also worked part time for 3 years in the computer labs as a supervisor and computer technician. I worked on everything from servers, networking, and basic PC support.

My first 3 weeks on the job showed I had the experience to fit in well. I already knew Novell like the back of my hand at the time.

In short, if you have the experience, then negotiate. If you don't have the internships or job working with the technology you are applying for, then take the job and work your way up.

Congrats on your offer though.

Indeed you have quite a bit of experience so you could negociate well :thumbsup:

Take the job but try and negociate.

I took a low figure but it was for a year in industry pay . Now come 6 months time when my contract is up I will negociate a new salary based upon a years experience and a CS degree that I had already. I will be on a 'proper' salary and not a year in industry pay. Hopefully things will go well. I think my boss will appreciate that I negociated and had some cajones and have business sense. I would like to think my boss would appreciate this and not have a happy to stay the same employee but one that wants to improve and to have more responsibilities

A lot of how much you get £££ depends on how 'capable' you are. If your 'very good' you will get paid A LOT MORE for your talent. If your avg you get avg or you can try and blag more . I have known some guys that get 2x the avg out of Uni as they are SPECTACULAR people with almost brilliant minds AND inter-personal skills. A brilliant mind is almost worthless with a lack of personal skills on most jobs, unless he works alone.

Koing

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: thraashman
No one can complain about being lowballed. It's so hard to find a programming/IT job in Atlanta that with a Bachelor's in CS I got a job as a programmer starting at $25k because it was about all I could find with 6 months of searching. Granted, I had the degree with no experience and I did no internships.

Exactly.

Once you get some experience you can earn a lot more £££.

It isn't what you earn NOW but what you CAN earn in 3-5yrs+ that counts. Short term cut in wages for better learning experiences isn't much over your 30yrs+ career

Koing

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: radioouman
numbers are inflated. That sounds like a good offer for entry level.