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Web designer salary, and answering the question "How much do you want to make?"
RainyjayD3
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, I landed a job as a web designer that would additionally help out on some software development stuff.
When discussing salary, I was asked how much I'd like to make- I'll be meeting again next week to discuss this, and since I've never had a job that didn't have this set already, I'm more than a little baffled about the whole process.
Relevant information:
1. I have a fair bit of experience, as well as a BA, but this would be my first official/titled job in the field.
2. The company is small, less than 25 people.
3. The area is a Midwest suburb/college town
4. The job would have no benefits plan.
I've looked around on Salary.com and a few other places, which lists the median (which I know is probably bumped up due to those at the end of the spectrum) salary of a web designer in the nearest major city as $60,500, with the low end being somewhere around $45,000.
I guess what I'm wondering, what is the process of negotiation like? Is there any harm that could come from aiming high? Since there aren't any benefits, should I overshoot a little to be able to pay for a plan out of pocket?
Mainly, are there any resources that could help, and does anyone have any experience in the field know what would be a good starting salary?
When discussing salary, I was asked how much I'd like to make- I'll be meeting again next week to discuss this, and since I've never had a job that didn't have this set already, I'm more than a little baffled about the whole process.
Relevant information:
1. I have a fair bit of experience, as well as a BA, but this would be my first official/titled job in the field.
2. The company is small, less than 25 people.
3. The area is a Midwest suburb/college town
4. The job would have no benefits plan.
I've looked around on Salary.com and a few other places, which lists the median (which I know is probably bumped up due to those at the end of the spectrum) salary of a web designer in the nearest major city as $60,500, with the low end being somewhere around $45,000.
I guess what I'm wondering, what is the process of negotiation like? Is there any harm that could come from aiming high? Since there aren't any benefits, should I overshoot a little to be able to pay for a plan out of pocket?
Mainly, are there any resources that could help, and does anyone have any experience in the field know what would be a good starting salary?
:whistle:
RainyjayD3 on
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Posts
The harm from aiming high in a negotiation is that they decide you're too expensive or experienced for the role they're looking for, or you could be considered a 'flight-risk'.
The other harm in ANY salary negotiation is that their opinion of you goes down. When you negotiate with a car salesman, it doesn't matter if at the end of the negotiation you hate the guy -- you're getting the car, not the guy. At the end of a salary negotiation, if they decide they hate you because of the negotiation, they will rescind the offer. Alternatively, they may decide you're worth LESS due to the negotiation process. Tread carefully.
If you're fairly inexperienced/junior, there is absolutely NO harm in saying 'I'm not very experienced in this, could you please let me know what you were expecting to pay for this role?' If you're NOT inexperienced/junior, do not say this as it highlights your inexperience! Although, to be blunt, if you're asking this question it already tells me you're inexperienced
Ask for 10-20% more than you expect to get.
It doesn't hurt to ask for something higher than what they want to pay, but if you ask for something ridiculous, then you'll look like an idiot.
If there are no benefits, then yea, you should be thinking about your expenses. Use that as a bargaining point if you have to, and explain that you need extra money to cover insurance and dental and what not.
Are you actually a competent developer on your own? Can you build/hack with Wordpress/Drupal/Joomla site? Do you know Javascript/PHP/Ruby/SASS/other fresh acronyms? Because if you can do that stuff you are worth a lot. You could probably freelance for big city designers at $100+ an hour if you can make the right connections, especially if you have a portfolio of work and recommendations. But if you are just a guy who can mock up a web site and send it to someone else to develop you are worth much, much less.
You and a couple hundred thousand other twentysomethings. A BA is not a valuable degree in the design field. A BFA is, as is a BS in something related to UI or programming.
Size is irrelevant. Funding and client budgets are what matters.
That means they have a large pool of prospective young employees and little competition from other employers.
That is a big red flag. If they can’t afford or are too cheap to give benefits, they will be just as bad with the salary, and they don’t have to try hard to find desperate job seekers. Make sure you understand them correctly, because some small companies just give employees a stipend to buy their own insurance, and those businesses are very different from the ones who do not provide at all.
The key to that is in the nearest major city. Leaving the cities is like driving the car off the lot—DING! Your worth just dropped significantly.
Based on what you’ve said, I would expect something on the low end. But if you already have everything lined up but the salary it can’t hurt to aim high and let them laugh and offer a lot less. What you absolutely need to do is get quotes on the cost of health insurance before you do anything else. You don’t want to get this job and then realize that after you pay rent, student loans, and insurance you have no money left for food.
To clear up a couple things,
The BS (not BA, sorry, typed that earlier part out on my phone) is in comp sci, and PHP/JQuery/JS/etc are all on the table.
The experience I have comes from doing freelance (Drupal/Joomla/custom CMS) work for a few years or so, and doing these kind of things as personal projects for a lot longer.
I'd be doing design immediately, then fielding programming questions/projects as they come in.
@supabeast
Yeah, the health insurance part is definitely a big red flag. During the interview, and when I talked to some employees, they mentioned that they give out quarterly bonuses to the employees, all of which use that to purchase health insurance. Which immediately made me think that when bonuses are small, I need to be able to compensate to pay for the healthcare.
I was leaning toward asking for $50,000, if only because the lack of provided medical insurance, and because I'd essentially be doing 2 positions at once (design + implementation). I mean, the worst they can say is "nope, not even close" right?
But if it’s all you can find, and you can’t move, it’s better than nothing.
but you live in a non-major city and are primarily a designer, not a developer
I'd say 45k but it wouldn't shock me if they are thinking lower
Would be stunned if you got 50k
Companies who skimp on benefits are not companies who will pay top range salaries, despite what simple logic would suggest
so if you are bumping your number because "oh, they aren't giving me health insurance, so they must know I am going to account for that", then you are already speaking a different language from them
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
I have a BA in computer science and work as a web developer/software engineer. The title of the degree doesn't indicate much except where you got it.
However, he said he has a BS so it's irrelevant.
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
Yeah I'm assuming it's something like $10-15 an hour max. No benefits ? Haha fuck that noise.