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If he were my employer,
I'd have laughed in his face and left.
Same here. As far as Georgia being a Right to Work State, as an out gay man that has lived here for many years I have never been treated with anything but dignity and respect across multiple positions, and my work has always been valued. I remain friends with my former bosses as well.
There is a totally inaccurate picture being painted here by several of the usual suspects that continually paint Atlanta in a negative light, in multiple ways. Me thinks it's pretty obvious the problem isn't with Atlanta.
One thing about Georgia that makes it different from many other states is that it is a Right to Work/Fire at Will state. It's like you are supposed to go into work thanking your boss for having that job, and any day can be your last day. Otherwise, I don't think the work culture is different anywhere else. You can have toxic coworkers, bosses, environment, etc. anywhere. I'm not particularly happy at my current job, but I'm the type of person who sticks to what I know, which is probably why I moved back to and still living in Atlanta in the first place.
I think you may be confusing two similar sounding issues, "right to work" and "employment at will."
Right to work has to do with unions, and ones freedom to opt out of a union in an otherwise unioned workplace.
Employment at will refers to an employer/employees right to end employment on the spot for any reason deemed legal. All 50 states are employment at will, GA is not unique in this.
My two cents: I have worked and lived in several states, including NYC, and I have never had such a hard time finding and getting a new job as I have in Atlanta. I’m not happy where I’m at now, and I constantly network, have applied to over 100 jobs and have even been ghosted by local recruiters, as of two days ago. I have no good insight as to why, but for sone industries/careers, it is definitely not easy to get a job here, even with a masters and 15 years experience. I never had any problems getting multiple offers in NYC/NY.
Yes, I was trying to get on Friday and it wasn't working...Thought it was my phone acting funny. LOL
LOL had I used my cheap *** mobile, I'd have thought the same. My old computer is usually more reliable though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Need4Camaro
California is also taxing corporations which is another reason some of them are looking outside their borders.
&
city-data.com has been migrating to new servers over the weekend. That is what caused the outage. Not sure if they're done yet though.
This explains a lot.
Quote:
Originally Posted by samiwas1
Yeah. That is very prevalent in states like this. I remember having a debate with someone from here who was in management of a medium-sized business, and this was exactly his position: you are there for your boss, and you do whatever they say and give them 100% no matter what. Even if you're being paid half of what you were previously, you do the same amount of work, and you thank your boss for allowing you to be there. I asked "So, when one company offers me $500/day and the other offers me $300/day, you think I should give the $300/day company the same amount of skills?" He was very adamant about it: yes.
I hate this kind of mentality.
Quote:
Originally Posted by budgetwise5
My two cents: I have worked and lived in several states, including NYC, and I have never had such a hard time finding and getting a new job as I have in Atlanta. I’m not happy where I’m at now, and I constantly network, have applied to over 100 jobs and have even been ghosted by local recruiters, as of two days ago. I have no good insight as to why, but for sone industries/careers, it is definitely not easy to get a job here, even with a masters and 15 years experience. I never had any problems getting multiple offers in NYC/NY.
Wow...this sounds difficult. Do you mind sharing what industry this is?
Just out of curiosity, I've been looking at different certs and came across paralegal and IT certs (for entry stuff like networking). I hear good/bad about both and curious if anyone knows paralegals in the Atlanta metro area and what to expect in terms of ease/difficulty in finding work for entry-level and the pay. I am doing research but I find what's on the internet often doesn't match real life. I underlined Atlanta because I will have to stay here unfortunately for the time being.
Most people are telling me to consider IT even if it's a help desk position because you learn a lot at the help desk and companies will help you to advance in your career. It's so **** confusing because I also read on here people working 60-70 hour work weeks and getting paid far less than what they should. What's the pay at a help desk like and can someone even live on their own with that kind of pay?
Just out of curiosity, I've been looking at different certs and came across paralegal and IT certs (for entry stuff like networking). I hear good/bad about both and curious if anyone knows paralegals in the Atlanta metro area and what to expect in terms of ease/difficulty in finding work for entry-level and the pay. I am doing research but I find what's on the internet often doesn't match real life. I underlined Atlanta because I will have to stay here unfortunately for the time being.
Most people are telling me to consider IT even if it's a help desk position because you learn a lot at the help desk and companies will help you to advance in your career. It's so **** confusing because I also read on here people working 60-70 hour work weeks and getting paid far less than what they should. What's the pay at a help desk like and can someone even live on their own with that kind of pay?
I'm not the best one to answer for Paralegal.
Starting off in IT isn't a get rich quick scheme. Its takes alot of work and time before you start making alot of money. IT tends to have a higher salary cap than many careers but you WILL take ALOT of bullcrap in lower tier positions regardless of where you start off at. There's no way around that. Goal is to stay focused on advancement, not specifically in just one company but on your personal skillset until you find someone who's willing to pay more for your new skill. Stay out of those corporate group wawa's that gossip about their bosses or coworkers or how unfair their boss treats certain employees or how he's always late and gets ticked when you're 2 minutes late, ect.. leads nowhere, goal isn't to change the corporate scheme...you'll lose - just focus on yourself.
Entry level helpdesk can start anywhere between $12 hourly up to about $25 hourly depending on role and company.
Don't get discouraged when you're being asked to work 60 - 70 hours while you're a salaried employee. I personally have done that plenty of times. Look for opportunities within that time to push your studies. CCNA, CCNP, CCIE, JNCIA, learn Ubuntu Server, learn Python, learn Ansible, learn ESXI / VMWare, learn Fortinet. The more you know the more reputable you become and the higher your salary potential becomes. Also note that I do know of people with high level certs that are still bound to $50 - $60k salaries because they have limited working experience in the field... so it takes both experience and certs...also avoid a college degree in this field, its a huge waste of money - the certs hold far more weight than a degree in IT.
Last edited by Need4Camaro; 11-03-2019 at 08:56 PM..
Don't get discouraged when you're being asked to work 60 - 70 hours while you're a salaried employee. I personally have done that plenty of times.
I really hate that companies pull that on their employees. "You're salary, so you'll work as much as we tell you to with no additional compensation". That is, unless the salary is commensurate with the extra hours based on normal pay. Thank god I work in a field where I am paid hourly with overtime after 8 hours and double time after 14 hours in a day, plus other fees tacked on if things go too long. If I work 70+ hours in a week (fairly normal), I'm typically racking up about 25 hours of overtime and a few hours of double time. This is, of course, more than double my 40-hour check. And that's the way it should be for everyone.
I really hate that companies pull that on their employees. "You're salary, so you'll work as much as we tell you to with no additional compensation". That is, unless the salary is commensurate with the extra hours based on normal pay. Thank god I work in a field where I am paid hourly with overtime after 8 hours and double time after 14 hours in a day, plus other fees tacked on if things go too long. If I work 70+ hours in a week (fairly normal), I'm typically racking up about 25 hours of overtime and a few hours of double time. This is, of course, more than double my 40-hour check. And that's the way it should be for everyone.
Thing is, it doesn't go away with high end companies either and thats why I get skeptical when companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Expedia, want to move into a major metro and everyone gets giddy and starts raving about "More Tech More Tech Bring More Tech" as if magically everything is just going to be that much better. Cost of living suddenly explodes through the roof, salaries stay the same. Austin is an example of this, almost $400k to own a house here but average salaries are still between $50 - $60k where as studies were done showing you need about $98k to live here comfortably. Its much worse in San Francisco and Seattle as well.
I had a role with a company that starts with a G and ends with an E and everyone uses it every day.
I had NO personal time. After my shift, I was oncall and did not get paid for those hours. Although I was not customer facing they demanded rapid response. We had a Tier 1 team that was supposed to absorb that but to keep their mediocre performance from reaching certain superiors, our bosses tagged on their underload on us doubling our workload (because they hired them to begin with so rapidly firing everyone doing a mediocre job puts themselves under the bus) meaning we were getting paged at odd hours of the night between 8pm and 6am often because Tier 1 was completely incompetent in handling their role. Then you're also expected to come right back into work the next morning, no time off, no compensation, and sick leave were accruing days rather than giving it all to you up front. So that means you are literally not allowed to get sick if you're still accruing days for sick leave! It got worse too! Some of the tools we used required paid subscriptions, and guess who got tagged for those subscriptions...US...We paid for them and had to request to be reimbursed for them of which was a 30 day turn around time and sometimes our boss forgets to submit the request. Ontop of that, much like said company monitors everything on your phone and every website you browse, they also micromanage their employees just the same. If you take a trip to the restroom, they record the instance, every single detail on the ticket is recorded, no company phone provided for oncall instances, your phone will suffice, and of course once you set it up for their corp account, everything on your phone is pretty much at their disposal, they will wipe your entire phone if they saw it as a security threat of any type. That never happened to me but it 'could' happen.
I couldn't get out of that place fast enough. It was a good resume reference though. I literally can't get people to stop calling me about jobs after working there.
Fortunately the job that replaced it was much better and pretty much the exact opposite of the above nonsense - I can work from whereever I want, whenever I want, however I want and still get paid like an 40 hour employee. Thats largely due to my boss being extremely lenient and pretty darn cool. He just cares that the tasks get done, how and when (as long as their's no urgent issues) he's open to. This is how and why I've been able to come to and from ATL <=> AUS so often without interfering with my work schedule or risking not getting paid.
From my personal experience, this stuff has alot more to do with your role, and your boss, than it does your company and even location.
Corporate America plainly sucks, this is why there's so many entrepreneurs that are struggling to make it with their own business instead of going back to a 9x5. (not all entreps are struggling, many are doing quite well but just as an emphasis as to why they choose to keep going rather than go back to work.) I will miss this job if I ever have to leave it.
Last edited by Need4Camaro; 11-03-2019 at 10:01 PM..
Starting off in IT isn't a get rich quick scheme. Its takes alot of work and time before you start making alot of money. IT tends to have a higher salary cap than many careers but you WILL take ALOT of bullcrap in lower tier positions regardless of where you start off at. There's no way around that. Goal is to stay focused on advancement, not specifically in just one company but on your personal skillset until you find someone who's willing to pay more for your new skill. Stay out of those corporate group wawa's that gossip about their bosses or coworkers or how unfair their boss treats certain employees or how he's always late and gets ticked when you're 2 minutes late, ect.. leads nowhere, goal isn't to change the corporate scheme...you'll lose - just focus on yourself.
Entry level helpdesk can start anywhere between $12 hourly up to about $25 hourly depending on role and company.
Don't get discouraged when you're being asked to work 60 - 70 hours while you're a salaried employee. I personally have done that plenty of times. Look for opportunities within that time to push your studies. CCNA, CCNP, CCIE, JNCIA, learn Ubuntu Server, learn Python, learn Ansible, learn ESXI / VMWare, learn Fortinet. The more you know the more reputable you become and the higher your salary potential becomes. Also note that I do know of people with high level certs that are still bound to $50 - $60k salaries because they have limited working experience in the field... so it takes both experience and certs...also avoid a college degree in this field, its a huge waste of money - the certs hold far more weight than a degree in IT.
Pretty solid advice. Although I'm no longer in Atlanta, I spent a long time there working in IT, starting out making next to nothing and ending up making solid 6 figures and having new opportunities constantly thrown at me.
As far as the long hours, if a company regularly pulls that crap without overtime pay or comp time, jump ship ASAP! Occasional weekend or after hours work is normal, but if it regularly crosses 50 hours per week, that's a big red flag.
Once you get some experience under your belt, you will have no problem finding a good paying IT job in Atlanta or just about anywhere for that matter. I've been gone for ~3 years and still get calls/emails for current openings in the Atlanta area.
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