May have gypped my own pay rate

I applied for a job on Monday with a really cool company doing what is essentially Help Desk work with some SQL reporting. I got a phone call on Tuesday, and then three successive interviews on Wed, Thurs, and Friday. I did some preliminary research on payscale for the job title they were actually using (Data Analyst) and found the pay rate to max out around $18/hour in that area.

I thought to myself that it was a pretty huge step down from what I'm making as a freelance codemonkey but it'll get me in with a great company in the industry I'm going for and the COO mentioned I could grow into my dream job from within. "Let's do it!" I said to myself.

Interview progresses well and the HR director asks what kind of salary range I'm looking for. So I start what I thought was high for the position - $45k/year. She immediately agreed and I got sent a job offer. I accepted primarily due to all the benefits about the job. (It's in the right industry, I can work towards where i want to be in the future, It's back where most of my family/friends are, etc.)

To those more familiar with HR personnel - did I go too low? Every other "employee" based job I've had required some haggling.

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Comments

nhan.ng

that's a good pay IMO....where im at they ask for much more, while paying you much less

i say work for 3months and request a review+pay raise and see what they'll say

Everyone

$45k/yr sounds right on for that type of work. That's about $21.63/hr. That's about what the Help Desk got paid on a contract with an Air Force base out in the middle of nowhere Montana (very low cost of living). Very high pay for Help Desk in the area, but only because it requried a secret clearance.

EuclidJones

nhan.ng wrote: »

that's a good pay IMO....where im at they ask for much more, while paying you much less i say work for 3months and request a review+pay raise and see what they'll say

I might do that.

Everyone - If it sounds about right it's probably about right. I'm just not used to it

Still, all the perks involved outweigh any problems i have with the wage itself. I just want to be sure I'm being paid appropriately for the area/work.

Thanks guys.