Posted on 10/06/2007 11:25:28 AM PDT by Maelstorm
It is the last generation of class 5 end office telephone company switches. ESS means Electronic Switching System. It was AT&T's last product. Northern Telecom makes a competing product with a similar feature set. What passes for a "technician" is someone familiar with the diagnostic menus for the switch. Run the diagnostic, identify the part that has failed, grab a replacement from the cabinet...along with an anti-static wrist strap. Set the modules out of service, swap the boards, re-test to ensure the replace solved the problem. Place the modules back in service.
It's so easy a trained monkey can do it. I know because I played the "trained monkey" while doing strike security in the Southern California desert in 1989. The pay is good because it's a protected CWA union job.
I'm competent on both accounts. That's good for about $76/hour gross. A very comfortable living in Pocatello, ID.
The self-employed person has to match his own social security contributions -- i.e., a company-employed worker has half as much social security witheld as the self-employed. In essence, whatever hourly wage the company is paying that person is that dollar figure plus the amount of SS contributed.
Then there's sick time and vacation. Depending on the job, that $22 per hour figure may very well include paid sick days and paid holidays. The self-employed person doesn't get paid when he doesn't work.
THEN there's health insurance. The self-employed person has to pay an outrageous amount of money per month and, if I'm correct, in some states cannot pay for it with pre-tax dollars. He's still paying the same co-pay, but has to shell out considerably more for the privelege, where someone employed at a company gets a much better "deal" on insurance.
Maybe this stuff is factored into figuring the "real" wage being paid ... but I doubt it.
That was funny. You just wrap tobacco leaves around your feet and drink whiskey if you get cold, right?
Masters degree = $125,000
First year's pay = $50,000
Dodging the Vietnam draft? Priceless.....
That's why there is such an over emphasis on higher education: we have a huge overabundance of older phd and MS degree types who just stayed in to dodge the draft.
The market for higher ed is simply returning to normal.
A EE that knows various launguages is invaluable. We need 2 right now that can progam a specific Test Exec, and I know they will start at 65,000 to 70. (And that’s in TN, a very inexpensive place to live)
What I’m trying to say (and badly) is NOT that the poor self-employed person has it bad — but that the person who works for a big company at $22 an hour is getting paid probably $35 an hour in “real” dollars. Or look at it this way: if it was just you cut loose to earn your own hourly wage, you’d have to charge $35 an hour to come out on the same plateu (matched social security, paid time off, insurance and retirement benefits) as a company guy whose salary breaks down to $22 an hour.
$76/HR in ID is HUGH. Series, even.
I work from my home. I can't leave work at work. I'm always there. My colleagues on the east coast are also workaholics. I get calls at 9:30 PM MDT from them. It's 11:30 EDT and they are working in the integration lab. There is no escape. The zero commute is nice. I can start my day without my blood pressure being raised by jackasses on the roads. The respite is limited...the phone will ring and jackasses will be on the other end. It's still better than spending an hour in traffic.
These are the salaries if you work FOR someone.
I worked for a company for 15 years. Then I quit & started to do work for myself...got a couple a clients, etc.
Now 12 years after quitting, I make 3 times more than I ever could have working for the other company.
Sure it’s alot of headaches, but worth it.
When you bill your time out you had better maintain a good level of productivity. 40 billable hours can be a very long week.
A good general rule when going independent. Take you annual salary in k$ make, it your hourly rate in $. Firing you former PHB is just a bonus.
That knowledge is the only thing that makes me answer the phone some days.
And go to the Microchip conference every year.
Gosh. I always forget that horrible part of being employed white-collar in a company. Meetings ... when empowered lops have a captured audience while they "soar on the updraft of their own rhetoric." Meanwhile, you're sitting there thinking of all the deadlines you've got to meet and all the little tasks you could have completed while this guy was prattling on about "corporate culture."
If I have a jacka$$ client, I pad the project invoice.
I figure it as a “grief” line item.
At least travel to the town the Microchip conference is in and staying at a nearby hotel.
IIRC actually attending the conference is optional and should in no case interfere with running up the expense account carousing with your coworkers. Good times...
When I was a kid, I got ONE pair that was a couple of sizes too large so "I would grow into them". After a while the feet would start to cramp (shoes were resoled time and again) and I'd get the next pair. When I graduated grade school, all the other kids got new shoes, mom shined mine and said "That will have to do - they LOOK new".
My parents sacrificed a lot. My kids can't believe it (that was in the 50s). You can bet I have more than one non-oversized pair now, but my mind still boggles at kids and their $100 Nikes.
I design hardware from scratch and write firmware/drivers as necessary. Assembly, C, C++ at that level. Larger applications allow other languages. Java, C# and Python are favorites. PERL as necessary. Ruby when permitted. I use mySQL for most database work. It hooks up nicely with C, C++ and Python. Apache is my web server of choice on Linux. IIS on Windows platforms. Altova's XMLSPY is a great tool for dealing with XML and ferreting out issues with XSLT substitutions. Embedded PHP is also a satisfactory approach if you aren't shuffling XML between platforms.
My boss just sent me a little e-mail exchange from a company developing a new display. It uses 1W LEDs to achieve a daylight readable display. The software developer for the project is "crapping out" in the words of the concerned manufacturer. They need a someone competent in PIC microcontroller programming to solve their problems. Fancy that. I have everything necessary on my desk. Compilers, manuals and FLASH programmer. Send me the schematics, interface protocols and a due date.
I have 2 pair of shoes. My Winter pair and my Summer pair. (ahh! I digress, my Sunday “go to meeting” pair). :^)
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