It is beginning to feel like 1996

[surveyor]

flash

My wife (who is an electrical engineer and makes about $150k with bonuses because she is in management) brought up a good point.

Engineers are not really into flash and are more concerned with utility and substance. They are more likely to purchase places close to their employment or good school districts (which can explain to a certain degree why places like Poway, Rancho Bernardo, 4S Ranch, Carmel Valley can hold up their prices better than other places). The idea that engineers would want to move into places like La Jolla or the coast is kind of antithetical to their thought process.

Engineers are about function. Those who buy in La Jolla rarely purchase for that reason.

[bob007]

engineers making 150k – most of them don’t

high income professionals married to other high income professionals – not true always

technology sector pays more for engineers than automobile sector or aerospace. lot of the engineers in tech industry work in software

[bob007]

engineers making 150k – most of them don’t

high income professionals married to other high income professionals – not true always

technology sector pays more for engineers than automobile sector or aerospace. lot of the engineers in tech industry work in software

[bob007]

engineers making 150k – most of them don’t

high income professionals married to other high income professionals – not true always

technology sector pays more for engineers than automobile sector or aerospace. lot of the engineers in tech industry work in software

[bob007]

engineers making 150k – most of them don’t

high income professionals married to other high income professionals – not true always

technology sector pays more for engineers than automobile sector or aerospace. lot of the engineers in tech industry work in software

[bob007]

engineers making 150k – most of them don’t

high income professionals married to other high income professionals – not true always

technology sector pays more for engineers than automobile sector or aerospace. lot of the engineers in tech industry work in software

[Coronita]

[quote]Oh really.

I guess I should ask for a big raise, then. And I should tell most of my colleagues that we’re seriously underpaid. I work in a software company and I don’t think anybody in our engineering department (with the exception of VP) makes 150K.[/quote]

Can’t comment on any other “engineering profession”…But wrto “software”… Find another company, polish your skillset, move up, or move out, or eventually get outsourced. One of the following is bound to happen. If you let yourself stagnant, you’ll be out the door and perpetually be undercompensated, as this industry changes so much and so frequently.

Companies are figuring out these days (the smarter ones) when outsourcing works and when it does. Again, my experience has been (especially) with a fallen dollar, cultural differences, turnover rates in India, and “fuzzy” requirements outsourcing engineering work purely based on cost to India isn’t what it’s cracked up to be..Of course opening up an entire sub-dept in India or the likes is a completely different thing, as it isn’t really outsourcing. But then again, you sort of then need to compete with the top projects. Anyway, if you feel like your company ain’t paying you top dollar or they keep waiving the “outsourcing” flag at you as an excuse for why they can’t pay you dollar and your skills are current and in demand, start looking elsewhere. Frankly some companies are really short changing folks, while others are really overpaying folks (neither are really sustainable).

For example, company X was looking for a Senior Software Engineer 7-8 years. Hasn’t found one in 12 months. Why? Company was will to pay like 90-100k full time employee, yet was looking for a specific skill/knowledge for a technology. They’ve gone through many candidates, and made several offers. Not one candidate accepted. Why? Because when they were able to find a person with that specific skillset, the billout for someone as a consultant with that skillset is like $150/hr, and people figured it’s more advantegeous to be a consultant working on short $150/hr+ 6-month contracts than to be a FTE on some company. Company Y on the other hand was paying ridiculous comps for top Java/J2EE developers. However, was quickly learned, they reason they were doing this, is they need to “quickly rampup”. Translation: I don’t know what exactly we need to do, but I got money for a project, and I’m told to hire like crazy (with the caveat that I can fire equally quickly).

As far as LJ…From an engineer’s perspective. I’d love to live in LJ if I had an insane amount of money…But from a functional perspective, I don’t think it’s really practical. Most of the homes are older, and i like the convenience of getting on the freeways and to sorrento valley/56 quickly. The first thing I’d probably would end up doing would be a teardown in LJ, but again that would require an insane amount of money, which i don’t have.

[Coronita]

[quote]Oh really.

I guess I should ask for a big raise, then. And I should tell most of my colleagues that we’re seriously underpaid. I work in a software company and I don’t think anybody in our engineering department (with the exception of VP) makes 150K.[/quote]

Can’t comment on any other “engineering profession”…But wrto “software”… Find another company, polish your skillset, move up, or move out, or eventually get outsourced. One of the following is bound to happen. If you let yourself stagnant, you’ll be out the door and perpetually be undercompensated, as this industry changes so much and so frequently.

Companies are figuring out these days (the smarter ones) when outsourcing works and when it does. Again, my experience has been (especially) with a fallen dollar, cultural differences, turnover rates in India, and “fuzzy” requirements outsourcing engineering work purely based on cost to India isn’t what it’s cracked up to be..Of course opening up an entire sub-dept in India or the likes is a completely different thing, as it isn’t really outsourcing. But then again, you sort of then need to compete with the top projects. Anyway, if you feel like your company ain’t paying you top dollar or they keep waiving the “outsourcing” flag at you as an excuse for why they can’t pay you dollar and your skills are current and in demand, start looking elsewhere. Frankly some companies are really short changing folks, while others are really overpaying folks (neither are really sustainable).

For example, company X was looking for a Senior Software Engineer 7-8 years. Hasn’t found one in 12 months. Why? Company was will to pay like 90-100k full time employee, yet was looking for a specific skill/knowledge for a technology. They’ve gone through many candidates, and made several offers. Not one candidate accepted. Why? Because when they were able to find a person with that specific skillset, the billout for someone as a consultant with that skillset is like $150/hr, and people figured it’s more advantegeous to be a consultant working on short $150/hr+ 6-month contracts than to be a FTE on some company. Company Y on the other hand was paying ridiculous comps for top Java/J2EE developers. However, was quickly learned, they reason they were doing this, is they need to “quickly rampup”. Translation: I don’t know what exactly we need to do, but I got money for a project, and I’m told to hire like crazy (with the caveat that I can fire equally quickly).

As far as LJ…From an engineer’s perspective. I’d love to live in LJ if I had an insane amount of money…But from a functional perspective, I don’t think it’s really practical. Most of the homes are older, and i like the convenience of getting on the freeways and to sorrento valley/56 quickly. The first thing I’d probably would end up doing would be a teardown in LJ, but again that would require an insane amount of money, which i don’t have.

[Coronita]

[quote]Oh really.

I guess I should ask for a big raise, then. And I should tell most of my colleagues that we’re seriously underpaid. I work in a software company and I don’t think anybody in our engineering department (with the exception of VP) makes 150K.[/quote]

Can’t comment on any other “engineering profession”…But wrto “software”… Find another company, polish your skillset, move up, or move out, or eventually get outsourced. One of the following is bound to happen. If you let yourself stagnant, you’ll be out the door and perpetually be undercompensated, as this industry changes so much and so frequently.

Companies are figuring out these days (the smarter ones) when outsourcing works and when it does. Again, my experience has been (especially) with a fallen dollar, cultural differences, turnover rates in India, and “fuzzy” requirements outsourcing engineering work purely based on cost to India isn’t what it’s cracked up to be..Of course opening up an entire sub-dept in India or the likes is a completely different thing, as it isn’t really outsourcing. But then again, you sort of then need to compete with the top projects. Anyway, if you feel like your company ain’t paying you top dollar or they keep waiving the “outsourcing” flag at you as an excuse for why they can’t pay you dollar and your skills are current and in demand, start looking elsewhere. Frankly some companies are really short changing folks, while others are really overpaying folks (neither are really sustainable).

For example, company X was looking for a Senior Software Engineer 7-8 years. Hasn’t found one in 12 months. Why? Company was will to pay like 90-100k full time employee, yet was looking for a specific skill/knowledge for a technology. They’ve gone through many candidates, and made several offers. Not one candidate accepted. Why? Because when they were able to find a person with that specific skillset, the billout for someone as a consultant with that skillset is like $150/hr, and people figured it’s more advantegeous to be a consultant working on short $150/hr+ 6-month contracts than to be a FTE on some company. Company Y on the other hand was paying ridiculous comps for top Java/J2EE developers. However, was quickly learned, they reason they were doing this, is they need to “quickly rampup”. Translation: I don’t know what exactly we need to do, but I got money for a project, and I’m told to hire like crazy (with the caveat that I can fire equally quickly).

As far as LJ…From an engineer’s perspective. I’d love to live in LJ if I had an insane amount of money…But from a functional perspective, I don’t think it’s really practical. Most of the homes are older, and i like the convenience of getting on the freeways and to sorrento valley/56 quickly. The first thing I’d probably would end up doing would be a teardown in LJ, but again that would require an insane amount of money, which i don’t have.

[Coronita]

[quote]Oh really.

I guess I should ask for a big raise, then. And I should tell most of my colleagues that we’re seriously underpaid. I work in a software company and I don’t think anybody in our engineering department (with the exception of VP) makes 150K.[/quote]

Can’t comment on any other “engineering profession”…But wrto “software”… Find another company, polish your skillset, move up, or move out, or eventually get outsourced. One of the following is bound to happen. If you let yourself stagnant, you’ll be out the door and perpetually be undercompensated, as this industry changes so much and so frequently.

Companies are figuring out these days (the smarter ones) when outsourcing works and when it does. Again, my experience has been (especially) with a fallen dollar, cultural differences, turnover rates in India, and “fuzzy” requirements outsourcing engineering work purely based on cost to India isn’t what it’s cracked up to be..Of course opening up an entire sub-dept in India or the likes is a completely different thing, as it isn’t really outsourcing. But then again, you sort of then need to compete with the top projects. Anyway, if you feel like your company ain’t paying you top dollar or they keep waiving the “outsourcing” flag at you as an excuse for why they can’t pay you dollar and your skills are current and in demand, start looking elsewhere. Frankly some companies are really short changing folks, while others are really overpaying folks (neither are really sustainable).

For example, company X was looking for a Senior Software Engineer 7-8 years. Hasn’t found one in 12 months. Why? Company was will to pay like 90-100k full time employee, yet was looking for a specific skill/knowledge for a technology. They’ve gone through many candidates, and made several offers. Not one candidate accepted. Why? Because when they were able to find a person with that specific skillset, the billout for someone as a consultant with that skillset is like $150/hr, and people figured it’s more advantegeous to be a consultant working on short $150/hr+ 6-month contracts than to be a FTE on some company. Company Y on the other hand was paying ridiculous comps for top Java/J2EE developers. However, was quickly learned, they reason they were doing this, is they need to “quickly rampup”. Translation: I don’t know what exactly we need to do, but I got money for a project, and I’m told to hire like crazy (with the caveat that I can fire equally quickly).

As far as LJ…From an engineer’s perspective. I’d love to live in LJ if I had an insane amount of money…But from a functional perspective, I don’t think it’s really practical. Most of the homes are older, and i like the convenience of getting on the freeways and to sorrento valley/56 quickly. The first thing I’d probably would end up doing would be a teardown in LJ, but again that would require an insane amount of money, which i don’t have.

[Coronita]

[quote]Oh really.

I guess I should ask for a big raise, then. And I should tell most of my colleagues that we’re seriously underpaid. I work in a software company and I don’t think anybody in our engineering department (with the exception of VP) makes 150K.[/quote]

Can’t comment on any other “engineering profession”…But wrto “software”… Find another company, polish your skillset, move up, or move out, or eventually get outsourced. One of the following is bound to happen. If you let yourself stagnant, you’ll be out the door and perpetually be undercompensated, as this industry changes so much and so frequently.

Companies are figuring out these days (the smarter ones) when outsourcing works and when it does. Again, my experience has been (especially) with a fallen dollar, cultural differences, turnover rates in India, and “fuzzy” requirements outsourcing engineering work purely based on cost to India isn’t what it’s cracked up to be..Of course opening up an entire sub-dept in India or the likes is a completely different thing, as it isn’t really outsourcing. But then again, you sort of then need to compete with the top projects. Anyway, if you feel like your company ain’t paying you top dollar or they keep waiving the “outsourcing” flag at you as an excuse for why they can’t pay you dollar and your skills are current and in demand, start looking elsewhere. Frankly some companies are really short changing folks, while others are really overpaying folks (neither are really sustainable).

For example, company X was looking for a Senior Software Engineer 7-8 years. Hasn’t found one in 12 months. Why? Company was will to pay like 90-100k full time employee, yet was looking for a specific skill/knowledge for a technology. They’ve gone through many candidates, and made several offers. Not one candidate accepted. Why? Because when they were able to find a person with that specific skillset, the billout for someone as a consultant with that skillset is like $150/hr, and people figured it’s more advantegeous to be a consultant working on short $150/hr+ 6-month contracts than to be a FTE on some company. Company Y on the other hand was paying ridiculous comps for top Java/J2EE developers. However, was quickly learned, they reason they were doing this, is they need to “quickly rampup”. Translation: I don’t know what exactly we need to do, but I got money for a project, and I’m told to hire like crazy (with the caveat that I can fire equally quickly).

As far as LJ…From an engineer’s perspective. I’d love to live in LJ if I had an insane amount of money…But from a functional perspective, I don’t think it’s really practical. Most of the homes are older, and i like the convenience of getting on the freeways and to sorrento valley/56 quickly. The first thing I’d probably would end up doing would be a teardown in LJ, but again that would require an insane amount of money, which i don’t have.

[PD]

We just went through the season with the most demand. Wait until fall before proclaiming that things have stabilized. I have been watching properties in Coronado like a hawk. There were a rash of price reductions in late July. I’m watching one property in particular which has recently been reduced to a price which is about 25% off peak (and off more than that from the original list price). I saw a house yesterday that is listed at a price below what the identical house next door sold for in 2004.

I posted in another thread a snipet from a conversation I had with a local realtor. He told me that 75% of his sales recently have been all or mostly cash because people are having a hard time getting financing. Guess what, that means the legs have been cut out from under the entry level buyers in Coronado. Navy familes who have bought here in the past just don’t have the cash to buy now. Plus, there are plenty of other people who have a significant amount of cash but still need financing for the property they want. With easy credit, they would have been able to stretch but now they are either being forced to reduce their expectations or find a “bargain.”

That said, I am still seeing sales which are totally stupid. There is still a segment out there overpaying for brand new homes here.

[PD]

We just went through the season with the most demand. Wait until fall before proclaiming that things have stabilized. I have been watching properties in Coronado like a hawk. There were a rash of price reductions in late July. I’m watching one property in particular which has recently been reduced to a price which is about 25% off peak (and off more than that from the original list price). I saw a house yesterday that is listed at a price below what the identical house next door sold for in 2004.

I posted in another thread a snipet from a conversation I had with a local realtor. He told me that 75% of his sales recently have been all or mostly cash because people are having a hard time getting financing. Guess what, that means the legs have been cut out from under the entry level buyers in Coronado. Navy familes who have bought here in the past just don’t have the cash to buy now. Plus, there are plenty of other people who have a significant amount of cash but still need financing for the property they want. With easy credit, they would have been able to stretch but now they are either being forced to reduce their expectations or find a “bargain.”

That said, I am still seeing sales which are totally stupid. There is still a segment out there overpaying for brand new homes here.

[PD]

We just went through the season with the most demand. Wait until fall before proclaiming that things have stabilized. I have been watching properties in Coronado like a hawk. There were a rash of price reductions in late July. I’m watching one property in particular which has recently been reduced to a price which is about 25% off peak (and off more than that from the original list price). I saw a house yesterday that is listed at a price below what the identical house next door sold for in 2004.

I posted in another thread a snipet from a conversation I had with a local realtor. He told me that 75% of his sales recently have been all or mostly cash because people are having a hard time getting financing. Guess what, that means the legs have been cut out from under the entry level buyers in Coronado. Navy familes who have bought here in the past just don’t have the cash to buy now. Plus, there are plenty of other people who have a significant amount of cash but still need financing for the property they want. With easy credit, they would have been able to stretch but now they are either being forced to reduce their expectations or find a “bargain.”

That said, I am still seeing sales which are totally stupid. There is still a segment out there overpaying for brand new homes here.

[PD]

We just went through the season with the most demand. Wait until fall before proclaiming that things have stabilized. I have been watching properties in Coronado like a hawk. There were a rash of price reductions in late July. I’m watching one property in particular which has recently been reduced to a price which is about 25% off peak (and off more than that from the original list price). I saw a house yesterday that is listed at a price below what the identical house next door sold for in 2004.

I posted in another thread a snipet from a conversation I had with a local realtor. He told me that 75% of his sales recently have been all or mostly cash because people are having a hard time getting financing. Guess what, that means the legs have been cut out from under the entry level buyers in Coronado. Navy familes who have bought here in the past just don’t have the cash to buy now. Plus, there are plenty of other people who have a significant amount of cash but still need financing for the property they want. With easy credit, they would have been able to stretch but now they are either being forced to reduce their expectations or find a “bargain.”

That said, I am still seeing sales which are totally stupid. There is still a segment out there overpaying for brand new homes here.

[Author]

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