6 ms·

$50 an hour is pretty good for 22. At that age I was making $30 an hour and ecstatic to be getting that much. Even that seemed astronomical compared to the $12

$50 an hour is pretty good for 22. At that age I was making $30 an hour and ecstatic to be getting that much. Even that seemed astronomical compared to the $12 I was making two years before. Now, of course, all of those seem like piddly sums compared to the $75-100 an hour I bring in now as a full-time consultant at the age of 26. While age and experience has a lot to do with why my rate has climbed so high and so fast, mostly it is due to confidence. You have to ignore your inner critic that says you are not worth $12/30/50/75 an hour, and honestly consider what your time is worth. Would you trade an extra hour of sleep or an extra hour with your girlfriend for the price of a meal at Chili's? A tank of gas? A shitty coffee table at Ikea? There's a spectrum there, and you have to place yourself as high in the spectrum as possible. Don't stop going higher- even if people laugh at you. Two days before I landed my first gig at $75 an hour I had a recruiter laugh at me and that rate. Ignore them. Trust yourself. Trust your abilities. Charge a good price for your time. Because after all, time is all we have. Make them pay for it.

olegk 17y ago
Recruiters are the worst. You'd think it's their job to get you the highest paying job out there, but it's quite the opposite. Their goal is to sell you as fast as possible, regardless of the rate. That's why you should never listen to recruiters telling you that you want too much. It's bullshit.
- jayliew 17y ago
  Actually, more often than not recruiter's best interest is against yours. Recruiters in companies have one job: to get as high of a talent as possible - for as low cost as possible. Right? Everybody is shopping for the best bargain.
  - camccann 17y ago
    I think he was talking about recruiting firms, who (I think) typically get a commission for successful placement, proportional to the wages of the employee in question. So while theoretically they have an incentive to get you the best salary possible, in practice they do better if they place more people at decent wages.
    - commonsense 17y ago
      There are multiple business models. Witness: 1. They take % of base first year salary on W2 - their incentives are aligned with yours. A good deal. 2. They take % of base hourly rate - their incentives are also aligned with yours. A good deal. However: 3. They receive a flat hourly cap - their incentives are opposite yours. They're trying to fuck you. 4. Flat retainer - their incentives are technically neutral, but the lower they get you onboard, the better they look because their client is spending less. They're trying to fuck you.
      - olegk 17y ago
        You don't understand how recruiters work. Imagine a candidate, you. Let's say you want a $100/hr job. Let's say there are no such jobs that recruiter knows of at the moment, and they know (statistically) that such a job shows up once a month, on average. However, they have a bunch of contacts that offer $80/hr jobs. Do you think they will wait for a month looking for your $100/hr requirement? Hell no. They will try to convince you to take a lower paying job, and then switch to the next candidate. In the end, they make more money by selling more recruits rather than just a few recruits with higher salaries.
      - sshumaker 17y ago
        Unfortunately, your interests are never really aligned. Ask yourself this question? Who is actually the recruiter's customer? As in, who pays the bills? That's right, it's the employer. You're not their customer. The employer is. A recruiter's goal is to fill the open positions out there with their candidates. There's a lot of competition for most positions, both from other recruiters and employees who apply independently. So they'd much rather short you as an employee on salary then risk having someone else hired for the position entirely. As a hiring manager, I was on the other end of this practice. I can't tell you the number of times a recruiter emailed me something like "He says he wants 90, but he'll actually take 80". If you know the companies you want to work for, don't use a recruiter.
        commonsense 17y ago
dnsworks 17y ago
I disagree. I was 22 when I quit my last job as a wage-slave, and that year I billed out 1100 hours at $125/hour. That might have been the best year of my life. A 6-figure salary for working essentially half-time.
- ramchip 17y ago
  You did consultancy? Can you post a few details? I'm 21 and making about $10/hour developing C++ software in a physics lab...
  - commonsense 17y ago
    The first step to asking for more money is to save enough to be able to do so.
    - mistermann 17y ago
      Words of wisdom. If you aren't really able to walk away from a job, you're not in the drivers seat. In your case, I'd recommend trying to work 6 month contracts and always try to have a new one in the queue for more money, if possible, so you can ask for an increase at the end, or take the other job. But be classy about it.
      - commonsense 17y ago
        > always try to have a new one in the queue I would take it one step further. Always have at least two active contracts at any given time. Real leverage.
        dnsworks 17y ago
        The real fun part is when you're so over-flowing that you're hiring full-time engineers and you've turned into a consulting company. That's what happened with my last company.. I don't recommend it though, consulting isn't very scaleable, and there are no big exits.
quickpost 17y ago
What kind of consulting do you do? Software?

olegk 17y ago

Recruiters are the worst. You'd think it's their job to get you the highest paying job out there, but it's quite the opposite. Their goal is to sell you as fast as possible, regardless of the rate. That's why you should never listen to recruiters telling you that you want too much. It's bullshit.

jayliew 17y ago
Actually, more often than not recruiter's best interest is against yours. Recruiters in companies have one job: to get as high of a talent as possible - for as low cost as possible. Right? Everybody is shopping for the best bargain.
- camccann 17y ago
  I think he was talking about recruiting firms, who (I think) typically get a commission for successful placement, proportional to the wages of the employee in question. So while theoretically they have an incentive to get you the best salary possible, in practice they do better if they place more people at decent wages.
  - commonsense 17y ago
    There are multiple business models. Witness: 1. They take % of base first year salary on W2 - their incentives are aligned with yours. A good deal. 2. They take % of base hourly rate - their incentives are also aligned with yours. A good deal. However: 3. They receive a flat hourly cap - their incentives are opposite yours. They're trying to fuck you. 4. Flat retainer - their incentives are technically neutral, but the lower they get you onboard, the better they look because their client is spending less. They're trying to fuck you.
    - olegk 17y ago
      You don't understand how recruiters work. Imagine a candidate, you. Let's say you want a $100/hr job. Let's say there are no such jobs that recruiter knows of at the moment, and they know (statistically) that such a job shows up once a month, on average. However, they have a bunch of contacts that offer $80/hr jobs. Do you think they will wait for a month looking for your $100/hr requirement? Hell no. They will try to convince you to take a lower paying job, and then switch to the next candidate. In the end, they make more money by selling more recruits rather than just a few recruits with higher salaries.
    - sshumaker 17y ago
      Unfortunately, your interests are never really aligned. Ask yourself this question? Who is actually the recruiter's customer? As in, who pays the bills? That's right, it's the employer. You're not their customer. The employer is. A recruiter's goal is to fill the open positions out there with their candidates. There's a lot of competition for most positions, both from other recruiters and employees who apply independently. So they'd much rather short you as an employee on salary then risk having someone else hired for the position entirely. As a hiring manager, I was on the other end of this practice. I can't tell you the number of times a recruiter emailed me something like "He says he wants 90, but he'll actually take 80". If you know the companies you want to work for, don't use a recruiter.
      - commonsense 17y ago

dnsworks 17y ago

I disagree. I was 22 when I quit my last job as a wage-slave, and that year I billed out 1100 hours at $125/hour. That might have been the best year of my life. A 6-figure salary for working essentially half-time.

ramchip 17y ago
You did consultancy? Can you post a few details? I'm 21 and making about $10/hour developing C++ software in a physics lab...
- commonsense 17y ago
  The first step to asking for more money is to save enough to be able to do so.
  - mistermann 17y ago
    Words of wisdom. If you aren't really able to walk away from a job, you're not in the drivers seat. In your case, I'd recommend trying to work 6 month contracts and always try to have a new one in the queue for more money, if possible, so you can ask for an increase at the end, or take the other job. But be classy about it.
    - commonsense 17y ago
      > always try to have a new one in the queue I would take it one step further. Always have at least two active contracts at any given time. Real leverage.
      - dnsworks 17y ago
        The real fun part is when you're so over-flowing that you're hiring full-time engineers and you've turned into a consulting company. That's what happened with my last company.. I don't recommend it though, consulting isn't very scaleable, and there are no big exits.

quickpost 17y ago

What kind of consulting do you do? Software?