The offers pending...
Well, the RealTech offer arrived in my inbox yesterday with a base salary of 4 million pesetas. Yes I know, pesetas don't exist anymore, buy most Spanish people haven't gotten over the idea and still talk in a dead currency. Anyways, this is roughly $22,000 a year. Yes, I know. They've got to be kidding me. Even with the ability to earn 10% of my billable hours every year, that only comes out to about $5,000 or maybe (if I'm lucky) $10,000 a year more. Or maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think so. Oh, and the company car? Only after 3 years. Doh! I'm not sure why I got an offer this low... As always here in Spain, I have to struggle from feeling insulted. It's too bad because RealTech seemed like a cool company with a bunch of different offices all over the world, etc.
The other offer is pending until tomorrow morning, so we'll see how bad that is. I was so excited to get offers, that I forgot that the Spanish market is insanely low. This is the reason I haven't gotten offers until now, actually, because in the interviews I would always ask for at least $33,000 a year (6 million ptas) and they wouldn't even call me back.
I was earning more than that my first year of work back in 1993 (my number not theirs). But I need a job, so it's always a matter of balancing the needs of my family with my pride at working for dirt when I could be in the U.S. earning 6 digits, or if not, at least high 5 digits. I don't care what you tell me, the difference in economies is not 10 times less...
Anyways, back to work on my pet projects: Simpleface, EventEngine, the weblogger and messing with Struts.
-Russ