Need a salary estimate (Los Angeles/Irvine)

Jasconius

I am applying for a job in the Irvine, California area as a web developer for a major media corporation.

I need to provide a salary requirement.

I have an Bachelors degree directly related to the field and two years of solid industry experience.

I was told that in San Francisco a CS graduate with zero experience can expect no less than 53k. Factoring in my experience, the higher demand for my skills (in the web field), and the increased cost of living in the Irvine area, I came up with roughly $75k.

Too low? Too high? Any help is appreciated.

DrFrylock

You can try it, but the cost of living in SF proper is higher than in Orange County and so you won't have that going for you. Living in Irvine itself can be expensive but many surrounding communities are not so bad. 75K for a Bachelors and 2 years experience seems a little high to me, but salaries vary and you might get lucky.

Jasconius

Thanks, I wasn't sure about the surrounding area around Irvine. It did sound a little high to me, but I wasn't sure. I made a point to note that I was not familiar with the area and would be open to their insights.

kaliyama

uh...how do you get a higher cost of living for irvine than SF? things don't scale linearly - do you mind sharing the equations you used to arrive at your 75k figure?

Jasconius

I guess that was my silly assumption.

75k was based off of a few factors, I mentioned the big one above which I was obviously partially wrong about (assuming Irvine was more expensive being closer to LA, etc).

I also adjusted it based on

1) My current income relative to the median income of where I currently live, adjusted down slightly based on what I assume is an overall more talented professional work force in SoCal. (Tampa isn't exactly a capital of high tech industry )

2) The cost of moving 4k+ miles across the country where I have no family or acquaintances, and not being certain if the company offers relocation assistance (which they very well may).

3) The median salary of an Actionscript developer with 2-3 years experience on the west coast based on research through job sites. Which came to be around 65k-70k in Seattle. And that is *just* Actionscript, where this job has several more skill requirements.

Daenris

Jasconius wrote: »

2) The cost of moving 4k+ miles across the country where I have no family or acquaintances, and not being certain if the company offers relocation assistance (which they very well may).

I actually don't know about the rest, your estimate seems high but I don't live anywhere near there, so I don't know. But something like this should not at all factor into your salary requirements. If you want to negotiate for a signing/moving bonus, then feel free to try, but you shouldn't be asking for a higher annual salary because you have to move a long distance once to start the job.

buzzard0627

I live and work in Orange County. I manage everything IT for an ecommerce company. Your salary is too high.

They are more likely to give you a relocation reimbursement than overpay you.

bowen

Seems high for Irvine, not so high for SanFran. Shoot for $65,000-70,000 plus benefits I'd say. Even that might be really freaking high for Irvine.