Reply To: Top Salary for Entry Levels (and the like)

[Eric Gilbey]

Having been in the industry for about 15 years, I would suggest recent graduates should take into consideration the other benefits offered by employers to “sweeten” the deal. When we thought my wife was going to be able to work from home to watch our first (and soon afterward our second) child, we couldn’t afford daycare, but my employer allowed me to bring my daughter to work with me until we had arrangements for my wife to be able to stay home (almost a year). If you consider the amount of money this saved…it could have been at least 5K a year…if I had asked him for that same 5K on top of my salary, it wouldn’t have happened. Sometimes, you can find value in flexibility and other perks, when the rest of the deal doesn’t sound so great. This doesn’t help you swiftly eradicate your college loans, but it helps you in ways you would never expect…when interviewing, find out their total benefits package and see how that translates into money you would have earned, but would then have to pay for out of pocket.
Regarding the desire to stay in design as opposed to project management…don’t sell yourself short and know that being able to design responsibly and efficiently comes more from the nuts and bolts (and contracts and budgets). The knowledge of this side helps get you past the exam, too.