Information Technology (IT)

[capital sb]

I found the thread, but I will have to post it from my computer. Here is the guys current job . I'll update this post and put the rest in a spoiler.

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[wrightone86]

I won't lie, it took me a while to get confident enough to actually call them on their bluffs in negotiating. I would always take what they gave me or worried about asking for too much. Then I would get there and you can pretty much figure out where people on after working with them for so long. We would always say the cocky/arrogant/********* guy will be the one getting paid the most, but we can't blame him for knowing his worth, not taking less and demanding that they accommodate him. 

I will say that last job definitely did help me in the "selling/talking" yourself up part of it. If you didn't there you were done for...

Before my last company lost that contract, I was promoted from a II to a III when they let the Sr. on my team go. I asked about the position and the Deputy (the new ********* GS15) told me to apply and he would see if I would be considered. He also asked me if I thought a raise was coming with this position as well 

. Told him going from a II to a III and becoming the Sr/Lead for our group deserved it and if they brought someone else in over me, they would be paying more for them anyways. Told him don't think he going to shaft me like that and then I am going to have to get someone else up to speed for them in my group.

Since I had a good relationship with the head PM, I went straight to her about the job and let her know that I was interested and this is what he told me. Also let her know that I had already spoken with another agency within the building that also had our same company on contract and they were willing to hire me and give me a raise. Guess who got who got the position and the raise to go along with it 

Then our old GS15 going to send the Deputy an email talking about they are glad they moved me up and they can tell that I am taking charge and cleaning up the mess that the guy before me left our team. Going to call me in the office and say thanks and talk about how THEY made a good move in giving me the spot 

.

Then when the new company came in with their whole song and dance, that was just the icing on the cake for me. 

Still haven't reached my final form yet though, word to DBZ 

 

[wrightone86]

I found the thread, but I will have to post it from my computer. Here is the guys current job . I'll update this post and put the rest in a spoiler.

Sheesh....

You going to make me call this recruiter back that I just told "not at this current time to"

Was a Cloud Engineer for AWS (Amazon Web Services). Said the pay sometimes is slightly less than your current, but it came with Amazon stock options, a "significant" bonus and other crazy benefits. It was in Herdon though 

. I would definitely have to sell our current house and make a move closer to do that commute and our plan wasn't to try and buy until next year. I guess I could suck it up for a year though for Amazon.

 

[capital sb]

 
Sheesh....

You going to make me call this recruiter back that I just told "not at this current time to"

Was a Cloud Engineer for AWS (Amazon Web Services). Said the pay sometimes is slightly less than your current, but it came with Amazon stock options, a "significant" bonus and other crazy benefits. It was in Herdon though 

. I would definitely have to sell our current house and make a move closer to do that commute and our plan wasn't to try and buy until next year. I guess I could suck it up for a year though for Amazon.

Yeah dude is eating something serious lol. That's crazy I worked right beside the AWS building when I interned with Northrop.

I have a friend that used to commute from Woodbridge to Herndon and she said some days it would take her 4 hours to get home.If you did take the job I would buy a house out in Aldi/Gainsville area then commute to Herndon.

Aldi is upcoming its just FAR lol.

My closest friend taught me early to know my worth I will always be thankful for that advice.

He got the max salary that the State Dept could give straight out of school ,78K.

Now hes been promoted after only 6 months on the job making 86K as a GS-10 at the age of 23.

I am trying to finesse a yearly raise and a promotion raise out of cycle next Feb.

I'll let you all know how that goes if I'm not overseas by then.

 

[luckyluchiano]

Sheesh....:x

You going to make me call this recruiter back that I just told "not at this current time to"

Was a Cloud Engineer for AWS (Amazon Web Services). Said the pay sometimes is slightly less than your current, but it came with Amazon stock options, a "significant" bonus and other crazy benefits. It was in Herdon though :x . I would definitely have to sell our current house and make a move closer to do that commute and our plan wasn't to try and buy until next year. I guess I could suck it up for a year though for Amazon.

I heard Amazon is a sweatshop, dont know how true it is but I hear they underpay and overwork, and have seen a few articles as its one of the worst of the big tech companies to work for. AWS is dominating the industry so they can kind of do what they want. Once again this is all hear say so idk.

 

[wrightone86]

Yea one of my friends used to work there and he said that he wouldn't work there again. He was Amazon side though. I was on the AWS Fed Contracting side so they said it was a little different but you got Amazon benefits on the back end. We shall see though.

Good luck to that promotion Beezy

 

[HankHill]

I knew from the get go about asking for the max money. I don't play with my pay lol.

Offers out of college generally started in the low 60s. Most college kids are just happy they got an offer an accept it. I told them I need this, this and that. Some try to hit me with the "we can't offer you that, but we want to express how great our benefits are". Your benefits are on par with every other company, pass.

Accepted the offer that was able to add on 3k more, a signing bonus, and relocation stipend (even though I lived 30 minutes away). I had other recent grads telling me they didn't even get a signing bonus.

I'm in mid-career now and very comfortable telling HR what I think I should be getting. And if they do get it, I'll ask for more anyway once I get the initial offer letter. Worst they'll do is say that they can't add to it.

 

[luckyluchiano]

Yea one of my friends used to work there and he said that he wouldn't work there again. He was Amazon side though. I was on the AWS Fed Contracting side so they said it was a little different but you got Amazon benefits on the back end. We shall see though.

Good luck to that promotion Beezy

yea I was doing research on the AWS Sol Architect cert and maybe trying to become one, but read a lot of mixed things which actually surprised me.

 

[HankHill]

Sheesh....:x

You going to make me call this recruiter back that I just told "not at this current time to"

Was a Cloud Engineer for AWS (Amazon Web Services). Said the pay sometimes is slightly less than your current, but it came with Amazon stock options, a "significant" bonus and other crazy benefits. It was in Herdon though :x . I would definitely have to sell our current house and make a move closer to do that commute and our plan wasn't to try and buy until next year. I guess I could suck it up for a year though for Amazon.

I heard Amazon is a sweatshop, dont know how true it is but I hear they underpay and overwork, and have seen a few articles as its one of the worst of the big tech companies to work for. AWS is dominating the industry so they can kind of do what they want. Once again this is all hear say so idk.

No bone in my body will ever allow me to move out to Herndon, Dulles, Reston, etc. I don't care what the pay is. Unless that's where I grew up there and was still living at my folks.

 

[luckyluchiano]

I knew from the get go about asking for the max money. I don't play with my pay lol.

Offers out of college generally started in the low 60s. Most college kids are just happy they got an offer an accept it. I told them I need this, this and that. Some try to hit me with the "we can't offer you that, but we want to express how great our benefits are". Your benefits are on par with every other company, pass.

Accepted the offer that was able to add on 3k more, a signing bonus, and relocation stipend (even though I lived 30 minutes away). I had other recent grads telling me they didn't even get a signing bonus.

I'm in mid-career now and very comfortable telling HR what I think I should be getting. And if they do get it, I'll ask for more anyway once I get the initial offer letter. Worst they'll do is say that they can't add to it.

what city you in? because most folks I know of was getting ganked for like 35-40k out of school, I`m in ATL though so 35-40 = 55-60 in a city like DC or Boston which is about what people I know from school were getting in those cities fresh out.

 

[capital sb]

Thanks Wright, the promotion is locked in its the 2 raises that I am unsure about.

My dad was telling me that companies will lump your yearly raise and promotion raise into 1 pay increase if you allow them to promote you at review time.

@silkboi I'm still salty about not asking for a signing bonus lol rookie mistake never again.

I lived in Sterling for 7 years, but would never move out there again I definitely agree with you.

The commute is brutal out that way, furthest I will go is Tysons and I better be able to get off the Metro

and walk less than 5mins to the building lol. I could drive to Tysons aswell using 95 Express.

 

[Mark Antony]

Reston is aight though, especially with the metro now and the new construction.

 

[luckyluchiano]

Thanks Wright, the promotion is locked in its the 2 raises that I am unsure about.
My dad was telling me that companies will lump your yearly raise and promotion raise into 1 pay increase if you allow them to promote you at review time.

@silkboi
I'm still salty about not asking for a signing bonus lol rookie mistake never again.

I lived in Sterling for 7 years, but would never move out there again I definitely agree with you.
The commute is brutal out that way, furthest I will go is Tysons and I better be able to get off the Metro
and walk less than 5mins to the building lol. I could drive to Tysons aswell using 95 Express.

yea that is true, luckily when I got my promotion at my last job I got the promotion in May and Merit Increases were in October.

 

[wrightone86]

Yea my wife is on a van pool to Tysons so she sleeps going and coming from work lol.

I work with people now that that wouldn't take 20-30k more to go to DC, Herdon, Reston, Dulles area. At some point your time and sanity is worth more to them and I can understand that. Not to mention the wear and tear on you and your car.

 

[wrightone86]

I lucked out with he raises here too like that. Gave me a bump in August when I came, got the promotion to team lead with another bump and still got my yearly merit lol

Jealous of that signing bonus out of school. I was one of those happy just to get an offer and not worry about what I would do once I graduated lol

 

[HankHill]

luckyluchiano This was DC area.

capital sb I thought Tyson's Corner was far when I started driving there. And that was off the beltway. I remember a job wanted me to interview with them out in Manassass. Would never do a commute from PG to there. Might as well look for jobs in Baltimore if I'm driving that far.

M Mark Antony Reston is aight if you from Reston and fly out of Dulles airport. Otherwise, its not aight lol.

 

[luckyluchiano]

luckyluchiano This was DC area.

capital sb I thought Tyson's Corner was far when I started driving there. And that was off the beltway. I remember a job wanted me to interview with them out in Manassass. Would never do a commute from PG to there. Might as well look for jobs in Baltimore if I'm driving that far.

M Mark Antony Reston is aight if you from Reston and fly out of Dulles airport. Otherwise, its not aight lol.

oh ok, yea 60 is about right in DC for a fresh grad, because that is like 38-40k in ATL

 

[luckyluchiano]

What are you guys thoughts on the whole DevOps phenomena

 

[juice man]

Just landed a large contract for a financial institution working as a Level 3 IT PM.

Only a 6 mo contract set to end around October but the payout.... SHEESH! Hopefully this sets up my requirements to sit for the PMP.

I'm leaving a non profit PM position to take on corporate again. This time as a W2 employee as opposed to 1099.

 

[degenerate423]

Man, that's a gift and a curse, it's great because the benefits are great so it's not a hit on u financially. However, the downside is no room for growth as everybody that works for local government tend to be underachievers and complacent. Only way to move up is to leave and then come back, but once you do, you take a huge pay cut. I'd rather pay more for benefits for a great salary than a sorry salary w/ great benefits though.

Honestly, the gift and the curse for working with the state is job security. This supervisor got escorted out of the building by police for trashing an employee's cubicle because the employee wouldn't have an affair with her and reported everything to HR. Supervisor got to keep her job, but was relocated to a different building .

 

[Biggsy]

I know its probably been asked before but I am about to graduate with a computer engineering degree.
is there anybody here who has taken the FE exam or PE exam? if so, what is your take on it?

 

[Teknoman]

For recent grads get your Linux skills up.

Linux+ cert would be a good foundational exam.

 

[capital sb]

I know its probably been asked before but I am about to graduate with a computer engineering degree.
is there anybody here who has taken the FE exam or PE exam? if so, what is your take on it?

I personally don't know any CE's that took the FE or PE, what route are you trying to go? Those exams wont help you at all in the IT/Software world

 

[ricerocket1]

For recent grads get your Linux skills up.

Linux+ cert would be a good foundational exam.

This man knows

Got my LFCSA CERTS. Debating if I should get the engineering CERTS from Linux foundation or red hat

 

[d nice]

Never knew there was a thread like this on NT. Good stuff.