NYCPHP Meetup

[Tom Melendez]

Hi Kristina,

On Wed, Apr 16, 2008 at 4:59 PM, Kristina Anderson
<ka at kacomputerconsulting.com> wrote:
> Tom --
>
>  The average corporate attorney makes $200K.  The average attorney in
>  business for themselves makes about the same.  The average CPA, about
>  150K.  The average doctor, electrician, etc. etc. etc...way more than
>  we do.

I have what I consider to be more than average experience with
electricians and they are nice folks, but hardly what I'd call on the
top of the "social status" scale and I would question what the average
salary was, but I doubt your numbers.

Really, I doubt your "average".  But it doesn't matter.  You make what
you do because that is what you are willing to work for.  Suppose the
floor fell out of IT tomorrow (literally), and the going rate for PHP
was $10 per hour.  Would you still do it?  Maybe for fun, but not as a
job.  Why?  Because you won't work for that little.  You couldn't
survive.  But you can survive on $80K (or whatever), so you do it.
When you decide that $80K isn't enough, you'll stop working for that
much.

>
>  The AVERAGE programmer makes, what, 80K if on salary?  (I'm self
>  employed and the hourly rate I can get from the clients is pretty
>  constricted by the market, and I'm trying to bust open that 100K
>  barrier but it won't be busted...I'm still on the losing end.)

Look at your market.  The "big" consulting firms charge much more and
pay their people much more.  How come they are getting it and you are
not?  That's the question you need to ask.  You shouldn't be looking
for protection from the marketplace, you should be looking for ways to
excel in it.

>
>  Come on, work with us.
>
I am, really!  I'm telling you to not look to others to solve your
problem - it won't help.  Look at things Social Security and pension
plans.  These systems put the burden on others - and they both have
severe flaws which are hurting us now.

Look at what you can do to excel.  How are your sales efforts
(speaking for myself in my experience as a consultant - I always
dreaded sales, but recently realized that it needs to be embraced, not
feared)?  Professional networking?  Who is your customer?  Are their
pockets deep enough?  Are you really taking advantage of your
expertise (are you doing graphics when you are really a DBA at heart)?
 How can you get the work done faster?  Can you invest in tools (store
bought or that you create) to help?  Invest in services?  People?  Can
you reuse code?  Are you tracking problems so that you don't make the
same mistake again?

There are answers, but no one just pays more for your services "just because".

Tom