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exsdgal
Participantdeadzone,
[quote]
…
to consistently command higher pay one needs a broad experience in multiple disciplines – server app, client app, responsive design, database, aws/cloud management, high availability server maintenance, trouble shooting, data analysis to list the basics.…
For example the ruby/node.js, ios/android guys (and gals) making high figures today typically started when the sdk’s and platforms were in version 0.x.
[/quote]Other potential industries
– experienced in tera, preferably peta bytes of data
– sequencing, biometrics (these probably difficult to migrate to unless there is excellent chemistry and associated knowledge)Obviously this is based on my narrow industry specific knowledge and is no guarantee it will continue to be the case. And some of the positions do require specializations, and all the above examples are for pure software development in SD.
For the sake of completeness, here is a screenshot from my tax prep documents for last year. Haven’t updated the doc for the new year… but still….
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yLaiTsIJ1rVhvmpXzZ9xSqKkfj6_wdzrQwVCnbZjOIs/edit?usp=sharingAnd please don’t say this is not an acceptable documentation… for I don’t have the time to fudge the details 🙂
I don’t know why I still get offended by statements like this, and get pulled into a quagmire *sigh*
[quote]
And at my last company…there was an INTERN, she barely knew WTF she was doing and she was paid $95k and did I mention she was an Intern??[/quote]ParticipantOkay I see I should have read the entire thread before my previous response 🙂
Just for completeness, my hypothetical pay stub will look similar minus some of the benefits and healthcare deductions.
deadzone, if you don’t mind would like to learn about your industry and pay structure.
svelte, I agree about the pay being dictated by the industry.
Participant[quote=flu]
Lol How the are you even doing that? [/quote]flu, you caught me! The correct response should have been 6-8K a month. Towards the end of the year the take home is about 4K/pay, and next month it will be roughly 3K. For the first time this year the 401k was not fully maxed out, to increase take home for other activities. What is ESPP? 🙂 No such luxuries here.
Like I mentioned earlier it is good on paper, but for day to day expenses it is not much. I will be happy to have a 1K monthly expenses, and most months if I don’t watch out the cc bills land almost double. In my situation the deductions are roughly 50% of the salary. One could argue this 50% deduction includes the 401k contributions, which is theoretically mine. However I don’t get to use it when I need it, and also will pay tax on the distributions. (Yeah I can hear some say why not Roth401k – again not everyone gets these options)
The first job after graduation in the 90’s was at 37K in SD, writing about it makes me pause how much things have changed. The pay today may not necessarily be far fetched when adjusted for inflation. (I am sure there is an app for that!) Besides the inflation adjusted pay, I also attribute some of the career success to timing. Being some place at the right time, and jumping at opportunities with eyes closed. I guess youth offered some such luxuries. I don’t believe I was ever at the highest pay scale in any company, but over time definitely moved to the middle of the pack.
Things are a bit different now being a single W2 family. But even with a dual W2 in the past I did not feel rich enough to afford some of the things in San Diego especially housing. I remember when the Bel Etage/Savannah developments were released, I could not compute how it was possible for anyone to maintain the monthly expenses. Thinking back those homes were a steal at 500-800. Eventually moved to a <1500 sqft house inland and happy with the decisions made so far.
IMO moving forward the job market will be different with lot of non-W2 earners, folks starting businesses, young graduates creating their own businesses and not following the traditional 9-5 jobs. I think the current generation values their mobility and sense of presence higher than conforming to tradition. Over the years they will create their own ecosystem to thrive, and define their destiny. Combined with burgeoning global economy I except many from this next generation to blur the borders and start/build global small scale eco-friendly companies. It may not be far fetched when other countries begin to 'complain' about the Americans taking up prized RE in their home country 🙂
ParticipantMost times two people with similar background and position in the same company will not have the exact salary. The reason is the perceived value of the individual. Surest way to improve the base pay is to have a personal ‘campaigner’ within the organization, and individually making oneself indispensable within the company. ie. creating value for the company’s bottom line, learning the pain points of the company and providing solutions ‘even when it is not part of the job description’. At least these are the take aways IMO for anyone making huge salary jumps within a company.
Kev, I don’t know what your objectives are. If you do find a higher paying job what’s next when the peer salary bracket increases? For there is always a bigger fish in the pond. Yes node.js, express etal is not necessarily difficult to learn, but to consistently command higher pay one needs a broad experience in multiple disciplines – server app, client app, responsive design, database, aws/cloud management, high availability server maintenance, trouble shooting, data analysis to list the basics.
The only way to get out of the salary doldrums is to figure out the objectives, pick a path and jump right at it 🙂 However imo to foolproof future salary bracket, is to pick an up and coming area (not yet trendy) to build the experience. For example the ruby/node.js, ios/android guys (and gals) making high figures today typically started when the sdk’s and platforms were in version 0.x.
In my 20 odd years of work experience the W2 high salaried folks fall into two camps – 1) riding the trend wave 2) working on mind-numbing monotonous projects. Nothing wrong with either camps, and to be successful in either camp comes down to one’s personality.
Someone asked about 175 base salary. Yes it is possible in non managerial engineer positions in some SR companies. The number sounds great on paper, but in reality the monthly take home is roughly 8-ishK after deductions. Comfortable but not extraordinary for a single income family.
Kev, not sure if this helps at all. If the intention is to just make more money why not consider supplementing income? e.g. few days ago I received a udemy top courses list where a guy talks about making 100K a year drop shipping eBay goods, and emulating Tim Ferriss lifestyle.
October 18, 2015 at 2:41 PM in reply to: Completely off topic! Good multivitamin/mineral for mid-age men #790391ParticipantAs for brushing/flossing I agree with the electric brush suggestions. Between Oral-B and Soniccare I prefer Oral-B, and since using them don’t have as much bleeding gums. By far the best find for me was the water floss! It has made flossing a lot less of a chore. Perio is my stand by toothbrush. A combination of this trio has definitely had a positive effect in my dental regime. As for toothpaste I switched to a less chemical based version by Peelu. Hope this helps.
Participantmight sound against the norm – with a free and clear primary take out a max loc, to purchase one or more rental properties. Use the expenses as an above the line deduction, and pay off loc principal with any extra income. Just my two cents.
October 18, 2015 at 1:41 PM in reply to: OT: How to build a cost effective outdoor data network #790381Participantmeadandale and barnaby33, Thanks for the RF suggestion. Is my understanding correct that RF is used to collect data from the sensors to transmit to the base station? I presume the base station has a data display or logger. Is the sensor data accessible in an online portal transmitted via RF?
The moisture data does not need much security for transmission. I just like to cross off potential use cases by starting with a secure network requirement.
Hatfield, Thanks for the Ubiquity link. Their products have opened up a whole new world for me! Air Fiber looks promising. I am still reading up on the potential use cases. One aspect I haven’t found is do products like air fiber support data uploads to say a server hosted on ec2? I suppose there also needs to be some ISP for the input data feed. The few articles I read discussed configuring a pair of air fiber units to share bandwidth and transmit data across a collection of buildings w/o touching the public internet.
moneymaker, Thanks for the Brillo suggestion. Will explore the option.
Hobie and FlyerInHi, Thanks for the encouragement! I think there is potential. For my home project I started with a general concept and fumbled my way through arduino and few different sensors to get to the initial version. It was a fun project, and got me exploring domains I had no prior experience in.
For the next version I have few different ideas, but I find I need to pace my ideas and focus one requirement at a time. This project needs a lot of learning and research on topics I am not familiar with and that seems to be the challenging aspect. My background is working magic on data from 80 or 443 for web and mobile UX. For now I am just picking one visible end of the woolen ball with the hope once unravelled I will have a working proof of concept.
For now I don’t see making any money off this project, and the PoC will be self funded. If I can manage to build a useful product, I might have couple of prospective customers and/or beta users.
Thanks again for all your suggestions, and sorry about the delay with my response. I started writing something earlier in the week and got distracted.
Not sure if this is appropriate… I think there is a lot of collective knowledge in this group, and if you don’t mind me asking silly questions along the way I could use your help! Like I mentioned there is not much money to be made atm, and if it does turn into something interesting, I am more than happy to share the outcome (or at least a case of your favorite beverage!). In case this were to happen Rich gets a percentage for providing an excellent forum :-). If this is of interest PM me.
October 12, 2015 at 8:34 AM in reply to: OT: How to build a cost effective outdoor data network #790152ParticipantInitial acreage scope x=0.84 with a potential for x ~ 2.5 🙂
ParticipantI have drake and ultramax models. In about 10.5 years I haven’t had to repair , except for one flapper change in the ultramax. I bought them from Dixieline, but now the prices are lot cheaper in amazon. The last Drake model I bought was about 260 for an ada/elongated version w/ sanagloss coating. IMO toto has an upfront cost, but in the long run they function and maintain well. There might be water rebates that can bring the cost lower, or atleast cover for the addons like ada/softcover seat etc.
Participant[quote=flu]
That might explain why I am sore all over. Oops.[/quote]
You have just activated a long forgotten muscle? :-P. The soreness is the end result from sudden exertion and lack of sufficient oxygen during your activity. To avoid injury your body initiates a chemical reaction resulting in lactic acid. The quicker this lactic acid is dissipated your soreness reduces. The funny part is after a few repeated work outs your forgotten muscle gets a memory that it is a necessary activity and does not create as much soreness over time (until you push it to the next level).
Here are a couple of things I try when I find that ‘special’ muscle at the end of a hike – pop an extra fish oil pill (to reduce the body inflammation), breathe slowly in a relaxed manner so as to be aware of the air flow through the body (get the oxygen to the cells), and finally a baton to roll on the found muscle to break down the sore muscles (works easier on the lower body).
Inspiring to read about your weight loss, and keep it up.
Participant[quote=flu]…So…For lunch and dinner, I’ve been drinking a lot of water right before the meal….I guess it sort of helps me eat smaller portions because by the time I’m done with the water, I feel sort of bloated (kinda like when I was on chemo)…ha ha….Surprisingly, I think I was one of the few people that was able to gain weight while on chemo.[/quote]
Why did you choose to drink water just before a meal? I know the bloated feeling, and when that happens I have found it difficult to complete my meal. Growing up it was a no-no to drink water after meals. Of course it was not explained why! and my adult theory is drinking water after a meal ‘washes’ the saliva enzymes from effectively helping with digestion.
As for drinking water just before meals, though I can’t speak medically I would assume with a bloated tummy the body is probably in a hyperdrive with hydration to adequately absorb the nutrients from the meal. Just my two cents w/ no scientific backing. please take it fwiw.
Participant[quote=flu][quote=FlyerInHi]Drink coconut water. I buy them fresh by the cases at Zion’s.[/quote]
We have those in the office. While it’s probably much better than sports drink and soda, it’s not exactly “healthy”. It’s not exactly a low calorie/low sugar drink. Each 11 ounce is like 45-65 calories (depending on brand) and 10g-17g of sugar.[/quote]
flu, I think FIH might be referring to the fresh young coconuts sold by the cases at Zion. Box of 9 is regularly ~ $15 and sometimes about $7. I agree the canned version of the coconut water such as zico though better than the soda does not compare to the fresh coconut water.
AFAIK the fresh water besides being an excellent hydrator w/ neutral pH has natural electrolytes and enzymes readily accessible by the human body. And the kernel is a yummy as well. It is a bit of a work de-shelling – a sturdy knife, hammer and straw comes in handy.
If you are considering to purchase look for fresh coconut w/ minimal brown-ness and check the bottom of the coconut is not cracked too much. In my experience the whiter the coconut husk sweeter/fresher is the water/kernel.
(no, I don’t work at zion 🙂 )
Participantflu, congratulations on your milestone this is awesome.
green tea + 4 to 6 balanced nutritional meals per day + at least 10K walking steps per day + plenty of water in between + good night sleep.
This combination seems to work for me. Being a vegetarian feel there are lot less tempting treats. Over the years my food habits have changed and have settled on a few concepts – low glycemic foods, avoid night shade vegetables (with some exceptions – sweet potato, japanese eggplant and poblano pepper), no soda/processed food, no salt, minimal bread/pasta/grains, no health/meal replacement bars 🙂
One of the changes that has made the most impact is adapting to multiple smaller meals every 2-3 hours. The first meal within 20 minutes of waking up; and the last meal 2-3 hours before bedtime. This required some getting used to, and over time found I had less cravings to grab the 100 calorie snacks. Something I read a while back that has stuck in my mind is often times we mistake cravings for hunger, when in fact our body is just thirsty for water.
Few years ago I stumbled across Zion market at Mercury, and this changed my world. The variety of produce is exceptional and now I regularly seek out ethnic markets. Often times I barely know what the produce is, and usually a fellow shopper is helpful with a recipe. One recent find was tofu + okra leaves + coriander + garlic = an absolute surprise.
As for exercise brisk paced 60-90 minute walks a day on varying terrain works best for me. Have tried running, and gym but always come back to my walks. Have a few different routes to switch scenery/difficulty and anything that requires less tracking/logging suits my personality.
All this said I have some guilty pleasure food, and luckily Costco does not carry a lot of appealing vegetarian food on their shelves!
Best wishes for finding the right routine that works, and one you enjoy.
ParticipantFunny someone asked for the weigh scale in a Grangettos today.
Just curious – why would someone weigh a car?
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