Salary misunderstanding
I had an interview that went pretty well. It's an admin postion to assist and account executive. I will help this person follow up on certain accounts as well as clerical and other things that go with the job title. BUT, for the first 90 days this job will pay only $9/hour, then I will get the full salary and benefits and the position with ultimately grown into an account exec. How do I find out what the "full salary" is? How do I know that it will be worth for me to stick around? I have been looking more in the $19 to 25 an hour range and this is quite a pay cut.
HELP!
Benefits almost never kick in until after three months, so that isn't a big surprise.
But, the salary being only $9 to start and then raised to the full amount after 90 days leads me to believe that you won't be getting even your minimum request of $19 per hour. Possibly $12 per hour and then the $19 after you become an actual account exec as a promotion from assistant.
If this subject was introduced in the interview, then you could had asked what the full salary after 90 days would be. For example:
Interviewer: The salary is $9 per hour to start and then after 90 days, when you complete probation, we will raise it to the full amount allotted to this position."
nan_si: What would the full amount per hour be after the three months?"
At that point, the interviewer could either have given you a figure or could have told you that it would be discussed at the time of offer.
But, at this point, it was only an interview, so don't stress out over it. Wait until the offer comes in and then ask. If it is going to be too low and you can wait for a better offer to come in, don't take it. In the meantime, do a quick accounting of what your expenses versus income will be if the actual amount after probation is less than what you would prefer.
It very well may matter. I don't know anything about accounting and will never try to impress anyone with it, so I honestly can only say that the growth of a company should, realistically, reflect how the employees get paid. But it also depends on if the CEO, COO, CFO or whatever he wants to be called, is a greedy two bit creep who wants everybody to do all the hard grunt work so he can line his pockets with the proceeds.
Ask on Monday, if the subject is brought up. Or, maybe, on second thought, since this is an accounting job, you can approach the subject by saying something like:
nan_si: During our previous interview, you mentioned that the salary will be $9 per hour until the completion of the 90 day probation and then will be raised to the full salary amount? For my personal accounting purposes, and curiosity, what is the full salary range available?"
Since this is an accounting position, I would think that employers would want someone who knew how to keep their own finances as well as the company's. So, I wouldn't think that this would be an unreasonable question to ask.
OK, Kelly, I have to take you to task here. While I certainly agree that there are greedy two bit creeps who want everybody to do all the hard grunt work so they can line their pockets with the proceeds, you can't get to that conclusion based on company profits or assets. For example, I work for a really big company with hundreds of billions of dollars in assets and big numbers in revenue. On the flip side of that, we also have 160,000 employees. Our CEO makes a heck of a lot more than my hundred closest friends put together, but he doesn't even come close to ranking among the highest paid CEO's on those lists you see every year.
The short answer is that the company puts a value on positions and they pay accordingly. This is an entry-level sort of job. It doesn't matter how much money the company makes, an Admin Assistant who assists an Account Executive is not going to be worth $60K a year, or $100K a year or probably even $40K a year if they're starting at $9 per hour (less than $20K per year). You either want the opportunity to get your foot in the door and hopefully move up over time or you don't. If you don't, you'll need to look elsewhere and see if someone else is willing to give you that chance at the rate that you do want.
Tess
When asking what the next pay w/b, U may want to ask it along this line, "When my pay increases in 90 days, what salary range can I expect my salary 2 fall in?" This gives the employer the opportunity to duck the issue with a lame response like, "Well, that depends on your progress during the next 90 days." Hmmmmm...... I would find this answer not to appealing. But, most likely, U will receive an answer with a stated range, like, "Depending on how well U progress during the next 3 mo.s you can expect it 2 B between $xx.00 & $yy.00. If U R happy with the answer, and otherwise settled on the job, take it. If not, U can always respond with a response that U were expecting $x1.00 - $y1.00, and feel your education, skills, talents should definitely merit a higher range. If U keep the discussion in ranges and not on specific $$, U have a better chance of negotiating into a winning position. Also, remember, U want to ask about the total compensation pkg. that begins to kick-in at the 91st day. Is it (full, partial, ??) med., dent., vision? 401k? Vaca/holiday/sick/personal time off? Help the employer lay out the whole pkg 4 U, even it was discussed B4, just to confirm U did not miss anything.
And, don't forget 2 take notes. This gives the employer a clear signal that U R using that information to make a decision about providing your valuable services 2 them. It is also good 4 future use, should the later results not match the discussion.
Review the points as bullets B4 concluding the interview. Something like, "Let's see if I am clear on our discussion. Just to review, we agreed that......"
This is more about interviewing than a job search, but it is what happens while we R looking. A great place to get assistance w/interview techniques in on the Interview Tips board here on Monster.
HTH!
-- Dave
Tess,
I was being a smart-touchie because I don't know a thing about accounting or what any of the gross profits being raised by a quarterly dividend of 975% over 3 years means.
My real message was that since the subject was already brought up, it might be a good idea to ensure the interviewer that the original poster knows the ins and outs of her own finances and would, therefore, be a good candidate for the company's financial department.
Kelly,
I re read her posts and your replies and for the life of me I can't figure out what makes you think her job has anything to do with accounting. It sounds like an entry level administrative job involving handling the phones, filing, follow up calls to customers for a sales/marketing person (called an account executive).
I would like to know what type of work she is expecting to do that pays $19 - $25 per hour. Either this job is much more entry level than she thinks ( and a waste or her talents) or she is way off base on how much people pay to answer phones and file paperwork.
Maybe I missed something - but, I think she is going to find she is way overqualified for this job and she has really misunderstood the scope of the job.
Mary
My error. I meant to state since the job was accounts and put accounting by mistake.
But still, I meant what I wrote. Because the companys fiancial status is based on the accounts and how they are treated, etc, showing a company that you can handle your own finances can be beneficial when going after a job that deals with the finances of the company.
As for my statement about not knowing the bottom line of a quarterly profit by 974 percent. That was me being a #### and admitting that I don't know about a company financial department. And I don't want to know.
Honestly, I just got the booklet that I get every 4 months from a company I worked at umpteen years ago showing how well the company did last year as opposed to this year and how much the check is going to be for the stock I received as a parting present when I left. I took one look at it, gave it to my hubby. He knows better than to try to explain whymy dividend check is only $7 even though my original 2 stocks (Class A and B) split three times in the last 10 years, giving me 4 additional stocks (Class C & D) and are worth .10 each. And the booklet says that the profit for this year over last year is a whole bunch and the stocks are supposed to be worth .20 except for the Class A & D which are only worth .05 each compunded interest bi weekly for the past 17 years and divided by the length of the COO's left foot.
Now see Kelly, if you were an expert on this stuff you'd know that they don't divide by the length of the CEO's left foot. The mind boggles at the possibilities!
Tess