I responded to an ad for a temp Mechanical engineer. They wanted 2-3 years of experience, with solid CAD background and thermal/mechanical analysis skills. I fit the bill, they called me and mentioned they thought they wanted to schedule an interview. They then asked my salary requirement–I told them what my last salary was and that I would be willing to take a small paycut. Recruiter said she’d talk with the hiring manager and call me back.
3 days pass, and I don’t hear from them so I call, and they tell me that I’ve priced myself out of an interview. So I’m wondering, in TX what’s a reasonable salary for a 6 month temp engineer with those kind of qualifications? I don’t want to work for beans, but I’d also rather not price myself out of interviews in the future. What says slowtwitch?
I’m not sure I’ve heard of a “temp” engineer doing CAD and such. You either hire someone if you need the full time help, or you contract it out of it’s a part time thing. The problem is that both of those are more expensive. Without knowing anything more, it strikes me as a little shady to be honest.
That’s the range I was talking. The ad was posted on craigslist. They took 4 weeks to call me, and wouldn’t respond to voice mail left with the hiring manager during that time.
I suspect it’s better just to drop it, I probably don’t want to work for these guys even on a temp basis.
What they wanted was an experienced engineer at an intern’s price. probably around 40K or so. Especially if it was related to construction, architecture, or HVAC.
You should consider going contract in Aerospace. If you’re in the DFW area, send me a resume and I’ll get it to my hiring manager. Fair warning: it should be polished, or I’ll send it back.
And thanks for the offer, but I’m Austin, and am tied down here (girlfriend’s in a PhD program at UT). If you know of anything in this area I’d be interested though!
In the Northeast (on a contract basis - not sure how that differs from temp) it would be ~$50-60/hour. I had colleagues in MIL-AERO that left and stayed in industry, with ~5yrs that are getting $65/hr on a contract (6mo) basis. One stayed on and settled on a salary of ~$85K+ (so the contract premium was ~50%.)
It all depends. Sometimes that advertise for an “engineer” and what they really want is a machinist or a CAD technician. If they actually need an engineer, they’ll pay you 65K. If they need the other, they’ll pay 40K.
If they are actually looking for an engineer at that price, they I wouldn’t work for them…not just for salary, but because they won’t pay for software, printers, tools, training, or anything else a good engineer needs to stay current. I’ve even seen companies require engineers to get pencils from a admin assistant who wrote their name down. Needless to say it was a horrible place to work. I spent 2 days there and left. ugh.
Looking back on it, I feel bad that they spent the money to hire me, but they should have considered the work environment they were fostering.
Part of it, too, is the way they name their positions. “Engineer” as been so bastardized in the last decade or two.
Everyone in my office is an “engineer.” Out of about 75 people, 4 of us have engineering degrees. Most of the rest either have med tech degrees, something non-technical, or no degree at all. Not one of us does any engineering. I do mainly statistical analysis and the other 3 handle problems on our instruments.
The UK has a nice law. It says you cannot call yourself an engineer unless you are a degreed engineer. That puts a stop to all of the AC service people calling themselves “mechanical engineers”. The word “Technician” gets a lot of use.
I’m a licensed massage therapist, but you don’t hear me calling myself a “Doctor”. If someone doesn’t have the requisite education, then I feel that they’re committing some level of fraud.
But there are Cheats in all parts of life, not just triathlon.
For some reason software developers and technical architecture people and network guys have been tagged as engineers. I’m a software guy, and can do a lot of the tech arch and networking stuff, but I’m not an engineer.
Anyhow, to answer your question on where you should be based on the competition. Take a look at job sites like dice.com, computerjobs.com, monster etc… filter by your skillset and location and you should find jobs that have some salary information posted. Some will give you access to salary surveys some wont unless you pay. That would give you a decent range to work within.
Oh, and don’t tell recruiters (aka pimps) that you’ll take a paycut. Find out what their client is willing to pay and if you can what the pimps margin is and negotiate from there. My feeling is that your hourly was more than the pimp could present to the client and still make money, or more than the client was willing to pay for the position. The client may not be realistic in their expectations, or the pimp may have a really high margin. In either case as a contractor you shouldn’t be taking a pay cut because you’re on the hook to find benefits like medical etc.
Also be careful of language like all inclusive contract. Means the client doesn’t pay expenses for travel.