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Purely anecdotal, but shows another angle I haven't seen yet in this
discussion:
Before joining my recruiter, I had been doing tech writing, data analysis
and occasional desktop development, plus miscellanous other stuff as an
admin. position (read: no longer anywhere near my job description by that
point, but there's no way they'd raise my salary or position while they
could still get more for less). When a programmer friend of mine heard
what I did vs. what I made, he forwarded my resume to his recruiter. She
called me, and we discussed what I could do, what I wanted to do
careerwise, and what the market was like for tech writing locally. When she
asked what I wanted to make, pay-wise, I had no earthly clue what the norm
was in Florida (usually less than elsewhere, for anything tech-oriented).
She asked what I had been making (making it clear I didn't have to tell her
if I didn't want to), and after I told her, there was what sounded like a
shocked pause. Her response was "I'm afraid I can't ask for less than
<insert annual figure just short of double what I was making>..."
Now, I know they lowballed the bid on my first contract, but for someone
coming right out of the gate, it was still a lot more than I was used to,
and it allowed me to step into a good contract as "a bargain", without
having to face the issues discussed in another thread about experience vs.
skill. If I'd pitched harder for the "industry standard" locally, I'd
probably still be waiting to land any contract.
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