Job Offer in San Francisco...Need some thoughts please

[Pushing60]

It is also my understanding - though I don't recall where I heard it - that salary.com is rather out of date and that their information is in fact from aroudn 2007. Salaries have gone down in almost every industry so if in looking at salary.com and you are $2 per hour under the median I would think that you would be right in there. There will always be jobs in the same industry that will pay more but there will also always be those that pay less.

But as others have said $29,000 is not very much to live on in SF. Will you have other income such as a spouse or ?? Can you find some roommates to share the expenses. You might consider not living directly in SF though you then get into commute expenses.

As far as asking for more - well I think that is a bit tricky these days. There are so many applicants for a job that if you start negotiating they may decide to move on to someone else. Mind you I am not say that is what they would do but may do.

[ambient]

Originally Posted by bayarea2010

I was given a job offer in San Fran (Pacific H. neighborhood...does that make a diference )? lol!

I go and look on Salary.com to see if what they offered me was fair and come to find out, I am being offered almost $2 dollars less than what the median salary should be.

With that said, should I just be thankful, shut up and accept the offer?

Or should I try to get closer to the amount that I am "supposed" to get paid?

What do you think? I know right now with this economy, I should not even be thinking about such, but I jsut don't want to be taken advantage of either....get what I mean. I mean, I still have bills to pay and such.

There is no "this is the number it should be"; this is a negotiation, which means that the outcome depends on their next best alternative and yours. If you have other opportunities, you create leverage and have much better chances to increase the salary. You essentially have to be able to credibly say, "If you don't give me what I want, then I will..." In this case, what will you do - not take the job? Pointing to the median salary on salary.com may not be a particularly compelling argument if they have five other people still calling them to see if the job is still open in this economy.

So all that said, it's up to you...but you may want to get your foot in the door first and then create the case for salary increase for yourself through merit. Just my $.02.

[bayarea2010]

Thank you all for your response...sorry for the late reply ☺.

To answer some questions....

I won't be living in SF. I will be living in an apartment in Millbrae. After living expenses, I am left with about 1k to save and such. I have had to cut back A LOT....no credita cards what-so-ever anymore and no more eating out at all, no more buying things that I want etc....

What I plan to do is take the job (even though the pay is not the best, but is better than no pay at all) and keep applying till I land a better paying job in a hospital which tend to pay more.

Until then, it is all about just trying to survive this bad economy. I sometimes read about some that have been looking for work for a very long time and are willing to take "any" job. And I also think about those that are not able to work at all (physically) and wish they would be ableto work. So all in all, I know that my pay is not the best, but like I said before, I need to focus on what I do have and not on what I do not have.....easier said than done huh? lol!

I came across some job ad and they were asking for a master degree and with a certain amount of experience and the pay rate was about $20 something and hour! I was like, what the heck, that is insane! The job was for some health company, here in the bay area. And to top it off, the companies that do pay more, they are harder to get in (if you do not have the "connections"). And then to top it off, there is a lot of compation out there. There are tons of people that are way over qualified applying too. I will never forget when a lady who was applying for the sheriffs dept. as a secretary/clerk or something like that told me that there was about 200+ people in line for just that one position!

I hope that everything gets better soon. But I read somewhere that it will get worse (than what it already is) before it gets better....scary thought.

☺

[BohemianSpiritMN]

Originally Posted by bayarea2010

Thank you all for your response...sorry for the late reply ☺.

To answer some questions....

I won't be living in SF. I will be living in an apartment in Millbrae. After living expenses, I am left with about 1k to save and such. I have had to cut back A LOT....no credita cards what-so-ever anymore and no more eating out at all, no more buying things that I want etc....

What I plan to do is take the job (even though the pay is not the best, but is better than no pay at all) and keep applying till I land a better paying job in a hospital which tend to pay more.

Until then, it is all about just trying to survive this bad economy. I sometimes read about some that have been looking for work for a very long time and are willing to take "any" job. And I also think about those that are not able to work at all (physically) and wish they would be ableto work. So all in all, I know that my pay is not the best, but like I said before, I need to focus on what I do have and not on what I do not have.....easier said than done huh? lol!

I came across some job ad and they were asking for a master degree and with a certain amount of experience and the pay rate was about $20 something and hour! I was like, what the heck, that is insane! The job was for some health company, here in the bay area. And to top it off, the companies that do pay more, they are harder to get in (if you do not have the "connections"). And then to top it off, there is a lot of compation out there. There are tons of people that are way over qualified applying too. I will never forget when a lady who was applying for the sheriffs dept. as a secretary/clerk or something like that told me that there was about 200+ people in line for just that one position!

I hope that everything gets better soon. But I read somewhere that it will get worse (than what it already is) before it gets better....scary thought.

☺

I hear ya, and I think you are being very wise. If you can at least survive on the pay, and the job is something you can at least enjoy--even if it's not your "ideal" job--that's better than nothing at all. I'm living in Minneapolis on about $20K (according to one site, I'd have to make about $36K in SF for a comparable standard of living, not sure how accurate that is) and believe me, it IS possible to learn how to live on a budget in the ways you've outlined.

Plus, you have got so many things you can do for free in SF, starting with just going out and enjoying that mild year-round climate! I visited my son in SF a couple of years ago and one of my best memories is hiking in Lincoln Park/Mile Rock Beach on Christmas Day in 60 degree (above zero) weather. Visit Minneapolis in late December sometime, and you'll see what I mean. Beyond meeting your basic material needs, I think prosperity is a matter of attitude and perspective. Enjoy what you do have and don't dwell on all the extra cr@p you don't have, and you'll get by just fine!