Low Starting Offer Advice

Drethyl

Hey guys i'm very interested in getting a job as a Security Analyst once I finish school at the beginning of next year. One of the Banking companies I would like to work for has a starting salary of just above $40k per year. The average starting salary for the state that I reside in which is Rhode Island is around $54k a year. What do you do in that situation during an interview if you know you're being drastically underpaid without being disrespectful? Also this would be my first job out of college and although $40k a year before taxes is great I don't see how it could be so drastically low for a corporation to pay it's employees in such a growing industry.

Danielm7

I've never seen a security analyst position that doesn't require a fair bit of security specific experience, and I've been looking. If you can get into that field with 0 experience straight out of color and take $40K I'd say it's totally worth it. What is the worst thing that happens, you leave in 1-2 years with good experience and look for a much better job?

Drethyl

Yea I was thinking it would give me a great opportunity to learn as well as look great on the resume. I was curious as how many people think it would be worth wild to take a job lacking in pay but granted a lot of experience.

Danielm7

It's very worth it, I'm not sure who is paying 54K right out of school in IT without any experience.

TeKniques

One of the biggest misconceptions about college that enrollment counselors and advisers alike tell students is that once finished you can expect some big salary. This is almost never the case and while I think college is generally a good idea for most people it's really going to depend on your experience in the field and what you can bring to the company. Frankly, I'm surprised you are able to get a Security Analyst position without any prior experience as most of the time even a Security Analyst requires work in places other than security (e.g. system administrator, network administrator, help desk). However, you did not disclose your background in IT so you may already have some good experience that will help with the role. It would definitely be worth taking right out of school.

cyberguypr

Salaries never surprise me, no matter how low they may be. There's a lot of companies out there who are just cheap. Others don't put too much value in the IT functions. I know, I worked for one. As a newt grad your priority should be to get anything you can get and gain some experience. You may be able to land something paying more but the tradeoff may be spending months looking and convincing someone to hire you without experience.

I know a guy who runs a small security consulting shop. He takes new college grads and trains them for two reasons: 1)he wants to help his community by creating local jobs and 2)they are hungry to learn he can pay them peanuts. Works both ways I guess. I am sure there's some turnover when they mature as security analysts though.

Drethyl

TeKniques wrote: »

One of the biggest misconceptions about college that enrollment counselors and advisers alike tell students is that once finished you can expect some big salary. This is almost never the case and while I think college is generally a good idea for most people it's really going to depend on your experience in the field and what you can bring to the company. Frankly, I'm surprised you are able to get a Security Analyst position without any prior experience as most of the time even a Security Analyst requires work in places other than security (e.g. system administrator, network administrator, help desk). However, you did not disclose your background in IT so you may already have some good experience that will help with the role. It would definitely be worth taking right out of school.

Perhaps thats where my misconceptions comes from. I've been told that Info Sec is one of the most in demand degrees right now and to expect 50k or more for a starting salary. Just to clarify I wasn't offered the job I was talking to one of their representative at the job fair today and he was telling me what they were looking for and what they expect to see college grads have. The only thing I was lacking was a security certification which I will be going for next month once I finish my Linux + certification.

Raisin

For your first job you should take what you can get. Once you're sitting in a position you can afford to be aggressive with salary negotiations.

Drethyl

Thanks for all the great advice guys it's really helped me out.

Krones

Sounds like the experience in this case is really worth it's weight in gold or something like that. haha.