Feeling like I'm underpaid and my career is stagnant, but I'm afraid to jump ship 1

[jmbelectrical]

I've been working for a small consulting firm for a little over 10 years. In 2008, I was earning $42,000 a year. As the economy worsened, many of our staff were laid off. For those of us fortunate enough to remain employed, our salaries were eventually cut and our benefits reduced - and understandably so, at the time. Our firm survived and, as the economy gradually improved, our salaries were partially increased with the hope that, one day, our workload would be high enough to justify bringing us back to what we were earning back in 2008.

As of the beginning of this year, I completed my BSEE and passed the FE exam. I received a small raise as a result, but I'm still not earning as much as I was 5 years ago. What really prompted me to start thinking about my career was when an acquaintance of mine and recent BSEE graduate was just offered a position with a starting salary of $50,000/year at a large consulting firm in a major city about 50 miles from where I live. While I have absolutely no regrets about completing my degree and taking the FE exam, it feels as though I've accomplished nothing. I just keep dwelling on the fact that a fresh-out-college BSEE graduate with no experience could be earning so much more than me. If I were to stay, where will I be after I'm licensed in three or four years? Will I still be earning what I earn now? Will I be earning even less?

I'm reaching the conclusion that it's time to move on. I do have some concerns and fears, though. For one, my office's environment is extremely comfortable and casual. I don't know how well I'll adjust to a corporate environment. Aside from my rant above, I'm actually quite happy. My boss and my coworkers are almost like family, and I don't like the idea of parting with them. They've been extremely flexible with me while I attended school, and especially when I had some health problems that required frequent visits to the doctor. I also have this (possibly irrational) fear that if/when I do find a new employer, I won't have any idea what I'm doing. What if everything I know is wrong? What if I turn out to be incompetent? I think this fear partly stems from the fact that larger consulting firms have a tendency to work on larger projects (Hospitals, universities, etc.), which I have little to no experience with. It's all unfamiliar territory to me.

To add a little bit more complexity to my dilemma, only one of the large consulting firms that I'm interested in is local. The others are located in the aforementioned major city about 50 miles from here. I feel that making the move to another small consulting firm (which there are plenty of in this area) will likely put me in the exact same rut that I'm in now. Does anyone here have any experience with this kind of a daily commute? Does it significantly affect quality of life? Is it worth it?

Thanks to all for taking the time to read this. I really appreciate it.

 

[GregLocock]

I have had to relocate for EVERY job I have ever taken.

Yes, wages for recent grads do seem to have overtaken those who have hung around waiting for the good times to return. I think the horrible truth is that the good times are about as back as they are ever going to be, and some companies are having a lend.

50k for a new grad is not out of line with my experience, 42k for someone who has been out of uni for 10 years is taking the mickey, roughly half of what i'd expect. I would work for that if it was a perfect job in every other respect I suppose, so you'll just have to figure out for yourself whether the camaraderie is worth the loss in pay and lack of internal promotion.


Cheers

Greg Locock


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[IRstuff]

Are you still living with your parents? Wasn't that comfortable, where everyone was like family?

Everything we do entails risk; just getting out of the house increases your risk of hitting into a car accident. Certainly, driving 50 mi is a big deal; you might want to think about moving closer, but 50-mi commutes are not that uncommon. Do you want to have this same feeling and post the same stuff in another 10 yrs?



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[jmbelectrical]

Greg,

Thank you for the reply. You may have misread my post. While I have 10 years of experience, I've actually only been out of university since December of 2012.

I'm earning roughly half of what you would expect? That's depressing and great to hear at the same time! Relocating is more or less out of the question. The wife has a great job here and lots of family in the area. The 50 mile commute is sounding more and more doable, though.

 

[jmbelectrical]

IRstuff,

Thank you for the reply. You bring up some really great points. I no longer live with my parents, but I think that sometimes my aversion to risk is unrealistically high. I certainly do not want to be posting this same message 10 years from now. Just the thought of that makes me shudder.

 

[bigTomHanks]

Sounds like you've got a decent gig where you are at with the exception of the pay. Seeing how your wife has a decent job I would go ahead and play a little game. Go to your boss and say you have another job opportunity and see what they say. I would tell them that you did not intend to apply but a friend from school got a job there and recommended that they bring you on as well. Also explain that you do not want to tell who the other employer is because you don't want to create bad feelings because your company may do business in the same market. Figure out what others you graduated with are getting as starting salaries and add 15-20% to that. Hopefully they will value your prior loyalty to them and make you an offer that is in line with what you would make if you were to take another job. It's a dog eat dog world and if you've got to get out of bed the same as everyone else you should expect to make similar money.

 

[fegenbush]

jmbelectrical,

Did your present employer pay for your school? If so, that may be something to consider when thinking of jumping ship.

 

[spongebob007]

"Did your present employer pay for your school? If so, that may be something to consider when thinking of jumping ship."

Unless you signed some sort of agreement saying you would work there for X number of years after graduation in return for having school paid for, I wouldn't even waste a fraction of a second considering it. Tuition reimbursment is a benefit of employment, you owe them nothing in return.

 

[jmbelectrical]

fegenbush,

I paid for all of my tuition out-of-pocket.

 

[fegenbush]

To follow up on my original comment/thought, if they had paid for your education, I can see why they might think that you are already appropriately compensated. However, that's not the case. I do believe that companies tend to see their employees the same as when they hire them forever. So, they will continue to see you as a non-degreed asset and compensate you according to that paradigm. This is something I have seen more often in small companies, but I suppose it could happen in larger ones as well. I do believe the only way you will obtain compensation commensurate with your experience and degree is to change companies. If you are able to pry a raise out of your current employer now, you will likely run into this situation again in the next couple years since their view of you is unlikely to change.

 

[IRstuff]

Usually in large companies, there are job descriptions and qualifications that you can point to and use as justification moving to a new job category.

It seems to me that you have sufficient grounds to talk to your management and HR about what you see as an underpayment. Only if there's no action or satisfaction should you move to the next step. Do not use a job change as a negotiation tactic. Once your decision is made to jump ship, do not renege; it's a bad precedent that neither party would want to see again.

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[oldestguy]

Hey, take a look at the posts for another thread here "Did I ruin my career?". That poor guy made a foolish mistake and now is paying for it.

At this time in the economy, I'd be very careful about any changes.

 

[moltenmetal]

Staying in a job where you're undercompensated relative to your peers is not doing you, or your peers, any favours. Sounds like you've already paid your dues with pay reductions in past, so I wouldn't worry so much about sticking around in gratitute of them letting you go to school or the doctor when you needed to. If they'd paid for your education either in cash or in paid time off, that'd be a very different matter, whether or not there's a contract involved.

If the company is viable and profitable, it can afford to pay you what you're worth, which at this point is AT LEAST the median that fresh grads in your region are paid. Any self-respecting employer is going to give you something more for your 10 years of experience with them before your degree as well, because it presumably makes you more useful and productive than a fresh grad woudl be. Any self-respecting employee is going to respectfully but firmly and openly communicate their need for fair compensation. In words at first, and then in writing if necessary.

If you hope that your "family" will notice that you're now more marketable and valuable to them, or remember the sacrifices you've made in the past, and offer you this extra money voluntarily, and are resentful that they don't- I suggest that you need to be more practical and modify your expectations of others. I always tell people that the best- in fact the only effective way - to communicate with me, is with words- whether that be in a professional or a personal context. It's best to assume, that everyone else in the world is Sheldon on the Big Bang Theory- don't assume I'm going to correctly understand your mood or your facial expression or the tone of a message on another matter- that's too likely to be misunderstood or ignored.

If the company is so marginal that it can't pay its people properly for a decade, it needs to fold, and you dno't want to wait around until that happens. It sounds like you already have.

These people who treat you like "family" may really be that way. They may be paying themselves even less than you. Or they may be using your low salary to subsidize their own, even if the firm itself doesn't really make profit beyond their salaries that they can share. I've known people with families like that.

All of this said: money itself is the least important thing in life, unless you don't have enough of it to meet your basic needs. The trouble with money is that it's inextricably tied up to dignity and self-worth. It might be better for your lifestyle or just easier to stay where you are. But you, and only you, have to answer the question: what's important to me? If you feel like you're being ripped off, I'd say that your dignity is important to you. Remember also that growth always involves risk and pain. Best of luck to you!

 

[CarolinaPE]

You situation reminds me of mine about 6-7 years ago. Working for a small firm, great experience but pay not near "market value". I decided to relocate to the bigger city and took a position at a larger firm, turned out a little too big when it was bought out by a very large firm. My hunch is if you make the move to a larger firm you will be stretched technically (I know I was) and something larger than your small firm might help you grow. I had similar fears that I would be "over my head" on some projects, probably was but battled through it and came out more knowledgeable in the end. My advice would be to look for a mid-size firm, one where you can still talk to ownership but has more than 5-6 people. The small firm experience taught me that they may be doing pretty well but the fruits of the labor will stay with the one or two individuals at the top. They may be doing that for "their retirement", you have to think about your retirement too. Regarding the commute, I would not do a 50 mile one way unless I could really help it. I had about a 45 minuter at the small firm, not only does it eat up time but dollars in gas and you destroy your vehicle. These are costs you certainly need to consider along with your wife's job, relocating with you getting a raise and her a paycut lands you financially in the same spot. Do I regret leaving the small firm with a "family feel", small paycheck and long commute? Nope!

 

[jmbelectrical]

Well, it's official! I was offered a position at one of the larger firms and I accepted it! I start in two weeks! Thanks to all of you for your words of advice and support! Wish me luck!

 

[MadMango]

Continued success!

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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[CarolinaPE]

PS- I would suggest you take a look at data from sources such as NACE (national association of colleges and employers) that often give starting salary information for new grads. I think a BSEE in electrical was in the low to mid 60s last time I checked. Good luck with your new position!