what do you make now? Options

[Hartmann]

sounds like you and i are at opposite ends, in my new job i don't have to do as much coding, i want less coding

In the end I want to be CEO or CIO of something, but right now I'd at least like my hand in something innovative.

[impala454]

I'm at 55k. Not some grandiose amount, but i do live in Lubbock with a mortgage that's probably cheaper than most decent 2BR apartments in dallas or houston. I came out of Tech in spring 04 with a shitty GPA and no real work coding experience, so I'd like to think I'm doin aight. I have a house, a brand new truck, and can pay all the bills and school loans and still save money so I'm feelin purty good.

As for my job I started out learning and becoming the maintainer of a bunch of MFC C++ applications (was a pain at first but it's not too bad). Since late '04 I've been porting and developing tons of new apps in C# & .NET. I absolutely love writing code with it. I actually got lowballed by my company pretty bad when I first came out of school, but I got some pretty elaborate automated systems built for them and they bumped me up pretty quick. We also just got bought out by a larger company and I could have the possibility of moving to Ireland for a short time on the company's dime with a big raise (to teach their developers about all the systems I've developed so far that they've spent several years designing).

[Psykopath]

...and I could have the possibility of moving to Ireland for a short time on the company's dime with a big raise (to teach their developers about all the systems I've developed so far that they've spent several years designing).

freaking awesome!

[theIncredibleEdi...]

10 bucks an hour at UMC

[Hartmann]

I'm at 55k. Not some grandiose amount, but i do live in Lubbock with a mortgage that's probably cheaper than most decent 2BR apartments in dallas or houston. I came out of Tech in spring 04 with a shitty GPA and no real work coding experience, so I'd like to think I'm doin aight. I have a house, a brand new truck, and can pay all the bills and school loans and still save money so I'm feelin purty good.

As for my job I started out learning and becoming the maintainer of a bunch of MFC C++ applications (was a pain at first but it's not too bad). Since late '04 I've been porting and developing tons of new apps in C# & .NET. I absolutely love writing code with it. I actually got lowballed by my company pretty bad when I first came out of school, but I got some pretty elaborate automated systems built for them and they bumped me up pretty quick. We also just got bought out by a larger company and I could have the possibility of moving to Ireland for a short time on the company's dime with a big raise (to teach their developers about all the systems I've developed so far that they've spent several years designing).

55k is great in Lubbock, especially if you know how to spend it (sounds like you do)... Me, I would get a cheapo apartment, and pour the rest into IRAs, CDs, and money market accounts, give them about 5 years, then travel off the interest and dividends the earn.

I don't think the $ amount really matters anymore as long as you're able to live comfortably and you're happy doing what you do. Me, I make a good amount of money for a straight out of school worker, but I hate my job. What company are you with (if you don't mind me asking)?

[impala454]

Well heh... I know how to spend it alright. I'm the kinda guy who'd rather have 2 20" LCDs on his comp than $800 in the bank

Well when I first started we were called OSC (Operator Service Company). Most of the business is handling Directory Assistance and Operator Service calls, but there was a small amount of customer service calls too (our main customer was US Electronics). We had 3 call centers and about 12 mil in revenue a year at the time. We were owned by a company called Platinum until a guy bought 51% and brought in some good salesman, gave people who deserved it a raise, and got us a lot more business.

Then we bought out a company called Excell Agent Services based out of Tempe,AZ and got rid of most their staff and kept their name (as Excell Services). Since then we've taken on a lot of big CSR customers. We do over the phone food ordering for Pizza Hut, Dominos, and Quiznos. We take blue cross blue shield calls for several states, and have about 6 call centers. We also take about 75% of the total free DA calls (yall might have seen something about this "1800FREE411" and others like it. I wrote the applications for most of these, as well as developed the software we now use to record every call (as a video including the screen capture). Anyhow, 2 years after we bought Excell we went from 12 mil in revenue to about 60 mil, and we take about 20 million DA calls a month. This easily put us in second place in the country in DA and I think first (or close to it) in customer service calls.

Now here just a few weeks ago we were bought out by the leading DA provider, called InfoNXX. They also have a large european presence, and bought out a UK based provider called Conduit at the same time. So there's lots of shuffling around for positions and such but I'm pretty safe considering the recording w/screen cap video thing was apparently a huge thing in this industry that nobody else has been able to do yet. The new, large company is almost all VB6 developers (although a lot of them were let go heheh) so I'll prob get pissed if I have to start maintaing VB6 crap. Looks like the big company will give me a lot of opportunity though. The combined company is at about 800 mil a year and my boss is trying to start up a research team with him, myself and another guy that will work directly under the global CEO so if I can get myself wedged in there I'll be set.

[Seeker]

sounds like you guys are reinventing the wheel as there is already software out there to do that stuff (at least Nortel has it)... as long as the company is profitable though who cares

and 55k isn't bad at all

[Hartmann]

Sounds like an interesting technology position. Definitely a lot of research stuff.

VB6? Yeah, that'd suck a lot... I had to look at some VB6 at the last client I was at and realized that no business logic was in the VB whatsoever, it was all in stored procs. I just sat there scratching my head.

As far as spending money well, I didn't mean that sarcastically, what I meant was that you spend the money in the way you see fit and the fact that you bought a house (that you can later profit from) is a good long term decision. Me, I have a problem settling down, which is probably why I don't have a girlfriend, but anyway, that's why I don't want to buy a house or anything like that, even though renting is a waste of money.

[cupcake]

day job is 60g's after taxes. when I started straight out of school it was 40, so about a 5g a year raise. not bad, but unsatisfying.

however, time-to-time I take off and sign for average 15g's a month. 10 being low-risk, 19 for higher risk. save up vacation and line something up. I can't do those gigs 24/7/365 though (for various reasons), and it bothers me how much you actually spend out of your own pocket.

currently tossing this around ...
https://www.cia.gov/careers/jobs/operations_off_special.html

I wonder how much operational autonomy you have though? I know just enough about big govt to know that it can bog you down and suffocate. but the only spooks I've ever known were intel guys who briefed/debriefed, not anything remotely like this.

[cupcake]

Sounds like an interesting technology position. Definitely a lot of research stuff.

VB6? Yeah, that'd suck a lot... I had to look at some VB6 at the last client I was at and realized that no business logic was in the VB whatsoever, it was all in stored procs. I just sat there scratching my head.

As far as spending money well, I didn't mean that sarcastically, what I meant was that you spend the money in the way you see fit and the fact that you bought a house (that you can later profit from) is a good long term decision. Me, I have a problem settling down, which is probably why I don't have a girlfriend, but anyway, that's why I don't want to buy a house or anything like that, even though renting is a waste of money.

I always said there is no way in hell I would ever buy a house in dallas, because I don't want that kind of anchor.

now...I am rethinking my position on that. tallied up how much I spent on rent the past 4 years...SHIT!

[Seussninja]

6 dollars an hour fixing computers

3000 a week selling X to retards WAIT NO

[impala454]

sounds like you guys are reinventing the wheel as there is already software out there to do that stuff (at least Nortel has it)... as long as the company is profitable though who cares

and 55k isn't bad at all

well yeah there is call center software out there, elaborate recording setups, etc, they just cost an arm and a leg (some call center software that the large company currently uses that just bought us out costs them $3000 per seat). A recording solution they looked at is upwards of $1 mil. Basically in this industry, developing sw in house saves them a ton of money and adds lots of flexibility that contracted or pre-built sw doesn't allow.

[DaveFireDancer19]

<-- got the wrong degree

however, eric's income ups the combined household income to about 62-64K, so yay for only having to pay half the bills.

[Erik B.]

Well, in theory, I make about $6.50/hr, but when it comes down to it, it's closer to $4.85/hr.

But then you have to add in free apartment, meal plan, parking, utilities.

But actual paycheck = $388 every 2 weeks and is supposed to be for 30 hrs/wk, but I usually work way more than that.

Gotta love being a grad student.

Hopefully this'll all change by May.

[woody]

32K/yr

i hate my job
i don't do much work
i'm damn near getting paid to do nothing...it's not as fun as it sounds