Need advice on new job, not sure what kind of salary to ask for.. HELP!

Hey guys... I have a bit of a dilemma here and I'm hoping somebody can offer a bit of advice.

I just had an interview for a new job and they basically hired me on the spot. However, my wages have not been specified yet. Because of all the areas my position will cover, there is really no average salary to go by. The job was basically created out of thin air because their need for this position didn't really exist before now. The company is going to come up with a number, and they want me to figure out how much I want as well so we can negociate a deal... but I have no idea how much to ask for.

My job would include being the webmaster of the company's web site (which includes doing graphical design and coding in ASP when needed). They also want me to handle all of the emails which come in from the web site (this is a Lexus car dealship/service center btw), and distribute any sales leads to the appropriate people. On top of all of that, they need me to handle most of the data entry for their customer database AND manage/fix/upgrade their 25+ computer workstations.

As you can see, I'm basically going to be the "company computer guy"... I don't know anyone with a job that is remotely similar to this, and because of all the different tasks I'll have to do (web design, coding, data entry, sales, tech support)... I have NO CLUE what kind of salary I should ask for.

Does anyone have an idea of how much I should be asking for? I know this job is going to keep me very busy, and I would think it would be worth a lot to have one person that can handle all of those different tasks. I don't want to ask for too much in case it scares them off, and I don't want to ask for too little and get screwed. I would appreciate any suggestions you guys could offer. Thanks in advance!

-Tom

Hey, sounds like my job.

Where are you located? What country you are living in ifluences your wage a bit.

To add to what K just said - your local market will be the single most defining factor, then age/experience run a very close second - all other factors (if any) come after those two.

Now, I noticed you mentioned ASP (and guessing they have it bolted to MSSQL / IIS) in there and we are trusting that you would go in there and push a real, better, more superior workhorse combination like Apache / PERL / PHP / PostgreSQL so they can have something that is actually usefull and offer you better job security for the near future...

I've seen an ad for something like that - mostly web dev, but has some support, client leisure, networking a bit of administrating etc etc. This is in au, $aud60k. Given situation in IT in this country, it's pretty good money I reckon.

Thanks for the responses so far.. please keep them coming

a.koepk - I'm located in the U.S.

jpenn - You're right about the ASP and SQL... If I could convince them to switch to Apache/PHP/etc. it would be great, but I'm not sure if they'll want to make that kind of a change. I'm best when working with PHP and MySQL in a Unix based system... so I would definately be trying to get them to ditch their current setup, especially if I'm going to be redeveloping it all anyway.

As for the local market... I'm not too sure what the status of that would be. I have this job pretty much sealed, so I don't know that competition would be any kind of factor in this. I'm fresh out of college and have about 5-6 years of experience with programming, web development, etc. I don't really have any computer-related job experience other than the freelance programming and web design work that I have done, but they aren't really interested in that anyway (I know people at the company and have some connections there, so they didn't even ask for a resume).

I don't really expect these guys to pay me what an actual computer company would pay, but I don't want to be doing all of this technical work for peanuts either. Like I said in my original post, they basically created this job out of thin air, so in their eyes, what they pay me is probably going to look like a lot of extra money every month no matter what.

Does say $20-25/hr. (or $41k to $52k per year) sound reasonable for something like this? too high? too low? Maybe I should aim a bit lower and try to get some sales commision as a bonus to make my salary seem more appealing to them? I really have no idea what a position like this should fetch.

-Tom

How very fortunate for them. They are hoping to get an IT manager, developer, and systems administrator all rolled up into one, and of course, with the market being what it is, they will expect not to pay what even ONE of these would have cost 2 years ago .


Well, I am in kind of a similar situation, although my official title is IT manager. They claim that soon they will be hiring a couple of people to work under me, but for now, I am it (or should I say IT ?).

Yes, the market is seriously depressed at the moment, and it seems to me-- from a completely informal estimate-- that many smaller companies are benefitting by this market to get computer people at 60-70% of what was considered normal a couple years ago. I suppose in some twisted way this might be good for the small business economy, but we shall see.

I would advise you to explain to the company that you are effectively functioning as the IT Director and IT department, and explain that for now, with the economy what it is, you are willing to work for (i dunno... figure 60-80% of what the standard wage for your position was 2 years ago), but that you hope the company will eventually reward this sacrifice with some extensive salary considerations in the future. (And now you only have to research what the average salary was for IT directors at medium-small companies in your area. Also, you are fresh out of college, so they might expect you to take off another 10-15% just for that.)

Be glad... there are many computer people who have been looking for a job for months, and would love to be in your position.