Here's how bad the job situation is in my area....

Go Bucks

Job Title: Database Administrator

Job Description: Develops, modifies and maintains database applications and software that is needed by college users. Incumbent must have a through knowledge of database management systems such as Oracle. Must have a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or a related field and 2 years of recent relevant experience as a programmer/analyst; or, any acceptable combination of training and experience may be considered. Position does offer benefits. Applicants will be reviewed begining August 3, 2006.

Pay: $9/hr !!!!!

I copy/pasted the job description. As you can see it has grammatical errors. I guess the database administrator will be responsible for proof reading future job postings as well.

frankj1247

Hey Go Bucks,

I assume you live in Milwaukee or somewhere in Wisconsin, ever consider moving to somewhere like Chicago, it's only 2 hours away from Milwaukee.

Just don't get caught up in the negativity, don't even give stupid job ads that post $9/hr a second thought.

It's not a hopeless situation, do something you don't want to do for the time being; go back to school; or move to an area with a better job market; or better yet start your own business.

Go Bucks

I live in Ohio and that job was just across the river in West Virginia. I live in a rural area, but I'm looking in Columbus and Cincinnati for work now. I've lived here all my life and hate to leave, but this is a typical posting for around here.

Olajuwon

WTF is that?

jpeezy55

Go Bucks wrote:

I live in Ohio and that job was just across the river in West Virginia. I live in a rural area, but I'm looking in Columbus and Cincinnati for work now. I've lived here all my life and hate to leave, but this is a typical posting for around here.

I actually looked a little in Ohio and West-by-God-Virginia for jobs, now I'm glad I stopped! I am about a 30-45 minute drive from both state lines and considered going into areas like Boardman, OH and such...nothing ever came of it and I'm glad now that I see your post.

I think this whole area is lousy, but with a wife firmly entrenched in a 12-year Teaching job and 2 kids, there is not much chance of me moving anywhere...I could go the other way 30 minutes to Pittsburgh (Go STEELERS!), but I haven't had any luck getting any interviews there yet either.

Oh well, I'll keep looking...

iloco808

I was eating at In-n-Out(fast food burger chain here in CA) the other day, and they had a sign up that said:

HELP WANTED
$9.25/hr

I never thought a burger flipper could make more than a Database Admin.

binarysoul

I never thought a burger flipper could make more than a Database Admin.

Excellent observation And yes IT has revolutionized everything, even itself, sometimes in a very self-destructive way.

JDMurray

iloco808 wrote:

I never thought a burger flipper could make more than a Database Admin.

Realize that pay rates are heavily influenced by geographical region. If you read the salary surveys in the free IT magazines (eWeek, InfoWorld, NetworkWorld, etc.), you will see that the same jobs pay more--and sometimes a lot more-- in primary cities like LA, SF, and NY than they do in secondary big cities, like Chicago, Miami, and Houston. Smaller regions almost always pay less, unless they need to attract technology specialists. It's largely based on the cost of living and competition for jobs in the geographical areas.

With this in mind, a burger flipper in Los Angeles making more than a IT/admin guy in Podunk, USA is perfectly plausible.

panik

jdmurray wrote:

With this in mind, a burger flipper in Los Angeles making more than a IT/admin guy in Podunk, USA is perfectly plausible.

The IT guy in Podunk will still be earning more than a burger flipper in the same area, and will, arguably have a higher standard of living than an IT guy in LA earning 10x more....

TeKniques

The real question is ... How much does a burger flipper make where Go Bucks lives?

Where I live a Network Admin will only make anywhere from 30k - 40k a year. In Portland, OR a Network Admin will make anywhere from 50k - 65k depending on experience.

Like JD said, location plays a big part in how much a person will make, but for this conversation I do agree that $9.00 /hr for a DB Admin job made me almost choke on my energy drink this morning.

strauchr

jdmurray wrote:

iloco808 wrote:

I never thought a burger flipper could make more than a Database Admin.

Realize that pay rates are heavily influenced by geographical region. If you read the salary surveys in the free IT magazines (eWeek, InfoWorld, NetworkWorld, etc.), you will see that the same jobs pay more--and sometimes a lot more-- in primary cities like LA, SF, and NY than they do in secondary big cities, like Chicago, Miami, and Houston. Smaller regions almost always pay less, unless they need to attract technology specialists. It's largely based on the cost of living and competition for jobs in the geographical areas.

With this in mind, a burger flipper in Los Angeles making more than a IT/admin guy in Podunk, USA is perfectly plausible.

I thought Chicago would be one of the top cities for IT, especially over LA and SF (San Fransisco?) But then I only know what I read about the US.

strauchr

jpeezy55 wrote:

Go Bucks wrote:

I live in Ohio and that job was just across the river in West Virginia. I live in a rural area, but I'm looking in Columbus and Cincinnati for work now. I've lived here all my life and hate to leave, but this is a typical posting for around here.

I actually looked a little in Ohio and West-by-God-Virginia for jobs, now I'm glad I stopped! I am about a 30-45 minute drive from both state lines and considered going into areas like Boardman, OH and such...nothing ever came of it and I'm glad now that I see your post.

I think this whole area is lousy, but with a wife firmly entrenched in a 12-year Teaching job and 2 kids, there is not much chance of me moving anywhere...I could go the other way 30 minutes to Pittsburgh (Go STEELERS!), but I haven't had any luck getting any interviews there yet either.

Oh well, I'll keep looking...

Wow, you guys have cities very close together. Where live in Australia you can live in the same city (in the suburbs) and drive up to an hour to get into the city. Also, our nearest state border would probably be a 24 hour drive away

garv221

jdmurray wrote:

Realize that pay rates are heavily influenced by geographical region. With this in mind, a burger flipper in Los Angeles making more than a IT/admin guy in Podunk, USA is perfectly plausible.

No way should a zit faced burger flipper who gets promoted only by being able to identify an apple pie should make more than anyone involved in any kind of profession that requires use of motor skills, let alone IT no matter their location. This kind of stuff makes wish I went to college for something else. On another note, college campuses pay well.

jpeezy55

strauchr wrote:

Wow, you guys have cities very close together. Where live in Australia you can live in the same city (in the suburbs) and drive up to an hour to get into the city. Also, our nearest state border would probably be a 24 hour drive away

My wife just drove East starting in Western Pennsylvania, all the way across the state and another hour or so into New Jersey and it took her about 7-7.5 hours -- now keep in mind, she did this with 2 small kids, who I'm sure had to stop every-so-often for bathroom breaks!

I am so spoiled to be able to drive no more than 2 hours and be able to get to so many major cities in PA, Ohio and W. VA...But, I guess that's just the luck of the draw as to where I live.

Main Event

jdmurray wrote:

iloco808 wrote:

I never thought a burger flipper could make more than a Database Admin.

more-- in primary cities like LA, SF, and NY than they do in secondary big cities, like Chicago, Miami, and Houston.
With this in mind, a burger flipper in Los Angeles making more than a IT/admin guy in Podunk, USA is perfectly plausible.

I always thought that places like Miami, Houston and Chicago paid less due to much higher levels of immigration.... since alot of people don't have a good grasp on the english lanuage companies usually low ball them due to them not being as up to par as others.....

Oh well, I learned something new today.

Go Bucks

Location does play a big part in wages and the cost of living here is less than the big cities, but we are paying $3.09 for regular unleaded gas. Is a gallon of gas 1/3 of your hourly wage where you live?

I have a friend who makes $9.85 at Wally World and he has only been there a couple of years. For what they are asking for in a DB Admin, that wage is way off base. $15-$18 would be a fair starting wage for what they are asking for in this area.

BubbaJ

Go Bucks wrote:

but we are paying $3.09 for regular unleaded gas.

Personally, I've never seen gasoline cost that much, but look at what people are paying for water. I regularly see people pay $0.99 per pint which is nearly $8.00 per gallon, and then they gripe about the price of gasoline! I think their priorities are a little twisted.

strauchr

jpeezy55 wrote:

strauchr wrote:

Wow, you guys have cities very close together. Where live in Australia you can live in the same city (in the suburbs) and drive up to an hour to get into the city. Also, our nearest state border would probably be a 24 hour drive away

My wife just drove East starting in Western Pennsylvania, all the way across the state and another hour or so into New Jersey and it took her about 7-7.5 hours -- now keep in mind, she did this with 2 small kids, who I'm sure had to stop every-so-often for bathroom breaks!

I am so spoiled to be able to drive no more than 2 hours and be able to get to so many major cities in PA, Ohio and W. VA...But, I guess that's just the luck of the draw as to where I live.

One of the advantages of having such a large and dispersed population.

jpeezy55

BubbaJ wrote:

Go Bucks wrote:

but we are paying $3.09 for regular unleaded gas.

Personally, I've never seen gasoline cost that much, but look at what people are paying for water. I regularly see people pay $0.99 per pint which is nearly $8.00 per gallon, and then they gripe about the price of gasoline! I think their priorities are a little twisted.

I've always loved when they calculate that stuff out...Water is $8.00/gallon, perfumes and colognes are something like $60 or more per gallon, but when you have to pay $3.00 for gas everyone freaks out! Now, I don't like the prices and don't know what makes them jump like they do (other than some people wanted to make even more money than they already have). I figure this, we need to drive to get to work. We, as a society are not going to start walking to work or biking to work (some are just too far anyway), so what can we do? Nothing. So, get used to it, gas will never be cheap again, I mean they raise it 20 Cents in 1-2 days, then a week later, they drop it by 5 cents and everyone is so happy that it came down, but they forget it is still 15 cents higher than it was 1 week ago...Oh well, my soapbox is starting to crack and I'm falling off of it...later!

BTW, gas in my area is about $2.95-$2.98 for the cheapest stuff...

ajs1976

Go Bucks wrote:

Job Title: Database Administrator

Job Description: Develops, modifies and maintains database applications and software that is needed by college users.

Which school was that add for? I have seen jobs at Pitt that had low wages too.

jpeezy55

ajs1976 wrote:

Which school was that add for? I have seen jobs at Pitt that had low wages too.

Where did you see jobs advertised for Pitt? I usually check the papers and on-line sites, but don't recall seeing any of those. I tried to get an interview at Carlow, but they didn't call me back and have since hired someone...I think it was a conspiracy!

BTW, I am from the Pittsburgh area if you didn't guess that yet...

ajs1976

There is an Employement link on the pitt.edu page.

I think you mentioned in a post that you were 30 minutes from the city, i'm about 20 minutes from downtown. There are a couple of others from this area that post here. When I saw the user name 'Go Bucks' I wondered if he was from Pittsburgh or Tampa Bay, never thought about Milwaukee.

blargoe

Oh. I didn't see the part about it being a university. I'm not so suprised about the low pay then.

Go Bucks

The posting was on America's Job Bank and all the information that I posted was all that was there.

The Go Bucks is for Buckeyes as in Ohio State. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Pirates and Buccaneers usually use the Bucs spelling. I can see the Milwaukee Bucks connection, but I doubt many people who live in Milwaukee actually root for them.

TeKniques

Regarding this topic I don't see how in the heck that pay rate can justify that job. Regardless of location or not, any person taking that job must either be new to IT or really desperate for a job.

jpeezy55 wrote:

I've always loved when they calculate that stuff out...Water is $8.00/gallon, perfumes and colognes are something like $60 or more per gallon, but when you have to pay $3.00 for gas everyone freaks out! Now, I don't like the prices and don't know what makes them jump like they do (other than some people wanted to make even more money than they already have). I figure this, we need to drive to get to work. We, as a society are not going to start walking to work or biking to work (some are just too far anyway), so what can we do? Nothing. So, get used to it, gas will never be cheap again, I mean they raise it 20 Cents in 1-2 days, then a week later, they drop it by 5 cents and everyone is so happy that it came down, but they forget it is still 15 cents higher than it was 1 week ago...Oh well, my soapbox is starting to crack and I'm falling off of it...later!

BTW, gas in my area is about $2.95-$2.98 for the cheapest stuff...

It's because gas is taxed through the roof. People blame the oil companies, but in reality they have very little control on the price. Now, do I think they could lower it a little? Absolutely, but what is the point of seeing all the idiots line up at a Gas station that's offering $2.90 /gal gas over the one that's offering $2.98 /gal gas? The water comparison is funny

Remember when all those quizlings in the US Senate were all head over heels about Exxon Mobil making $8.4 billion dollars in record profits? Well they forgot to tell everyone that the government made $25 billion dollars from all the taxes on the gasoline. It's a racket through and through. I blame our own government. They always talk big and bad about having to be energy independent from foreign nations like Saudi Arabia, but then they can't seem to figure it out that unless we refine our own oil on our own soil we never will be.

ewitkows

Go Bucks wrote:

The posting was on America's Job Bank and all the information that I posted was all that was there.

The Go Bucks is for Buckeyes as in Ohio State. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Pirates and Buccaneers usually use the Bucs spelling. I can see the Milwaukee Bucks connection, but I doubt many people who live in Milwaukee actually root for them.

Hey now we have a pretty good team this year.As far as IT jobs here in milwaukee there arent a ton of them but the are pretty good paying. I actually work for a copier company who does copy/print/scan and I get to install them on networks. Our company is expanding into doing IT for some of our smaller clients. right now we have 1 guy for the entire state, so I get to help him out alot. As a copier tech with 5 years exp I'm making alittle over 40k. our network guy makes around 55k I think.

petedude

Go Bucks wrote:

I have a friend who makes $9.85 at Wally World and he has only been there a couple of years. For what they are asking for in a DB Admin, that wage is way off base. $15-$18 would be a fair starting wage for what they are asking for in this area.

I would say, a LOT of companies are trying to lowball tech jobs right now.

It's still somewhat of an employer's market in many areas, and more savvy hiring folks realize IT wages have dropped in some areas/fields. Out here, desktop support jobs that used to pull $60K now pull $40K-- and you see HR types play on that all the time, not realizing that they'll get what they pay for.

That, and in some cases companies start out cheap with jobs, hoping to land some hungry college kid looking for experience. While it's good that people are providing entry level opportunities, I see too many outfits willing to risk important infrastructures for cheap help (i.e. $9 an hour for a database admin).

That all being said, I wonder if it was a typo. Maybe that admin job was supposed to read $19 per hour?

petedude

[/quote]
Remember when all those quizlings in the US Senate were all head over heels about Exxon Mobil making $8.4 billion dollars in record profits? Well they forgot to tell everyone that the government made $25 billion dollars from all the taxes on the gasoline. [/quote]

At risk of letting this thread get hijacked further, let me say this about gas:

Our counterparts in similarly advanced nations, e.g. those in Europe, have been paying these kinds of prices for many, many years. We here have been spoiled and lucky.

That, and the oil companies don't have to look over their shoulder the way they used to here, or the way they still have to in some countries overseas. In many other countries, they have to be worried about governmental instability or worse-- having their businesses taken over by the government.

Here in the US, they used to have to worry about getting smacked around by the government. Now, they don't-- they've gotten big enough to throw good lawyers at just about anything, and with a fragile economy, the government doesn't want to mess too much with profitable businesses anyway (yes, especially given the tax revenue).

I think it's a wait and see deal-- eventually, the consumers will vote with their dollars and start looking for better options.

Go Bucks

The DB Admin job is now up on CareerBuilder. They've cleaned up some of their grammatical errors, but still insist on using the word "incumbent" for some reason. I guess they also decided to leave out the $9/hr thing in hopes of getting more of a response.


Database AdministratorFT w/ benefits. Develops, modifies and maintiains database applications and software that is needed by college users. Incumbent must have a thorough knowledge of database management systems such as Oracle. Position requires a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science or related field and two years recent relevant experience as a programmer/analyst; or, any acceptable combination of training & experience may be considered. Application review begins August 10, 2006. Applications available at any campus location or call 304-792-7160 Ext. 124 or e-mail: [Click here for email]. Submit application, cover letter, resume, and transcript copies to: Human Resources-Southern WV Community & Technical College P.O. Box 2900 Mt. ****, WV 25637 AA/EO/ADA

Don't everyone up and move to West-By-God all at once now. These cherry jobs are few and far between. I do highly recommend to visit and go whitewater rafting on the Gauley River in the fall. It's a shame the economy sucks because it is the most scenic area East of the Rockies.

As far as fuel prices in Europe goes, you have to take into consideration of how far, how much, and what they drive too. France for instance is less than twice the size of Colorado. Everytime I see a European country on the nightly news, most everyone is driving tiny cars with lawn mower engines in them. A large portion of our automobile fleet consists of Trucks/SUV's that use a lot more fuel.

blargoe

There was a community college in NC a few years ago that was advertising for a Systems Administrator with all kinds of responsibility that only wanted to pay $24k/yr.