Re: local geek pricing and gathering certifications


Subject: Re: local geek pricing and gathering certifications
From: PJ Hunt (pjhunt@safrica.com)
Date: Fri Mar 08 2002 - 11:18:18 AKST


Same here. I have no certs but tons of real life experience. When I was
doing tech work I my rate was $100.00 and hour if I went to their office and
$40 - $60 an hour (depending on what the needs were) if I worked on it on my
bench. That was about 1996 - 2000. Now I fly for a living and only do
computer stuff for friends and fun so I don't know current rates but it
seems to me that if you have the experience then you should be charging $100
an hour at a minimum.

Just another note about certs. I have literally traveled all over doing
freelance computer jobs. From Alaska, to California, Arizona, New Mexico,
Colorado etc, doing trouble shooting and systems integrations on everything
from Win/95/98/2000/NTx, Linux, Unix Open Server, hardware, software and
networking etc... The Certs look great on paper, but in real life, my
personal experience has been that the vast majority of people I have met,
worked with and argued with who had various certs and computer science
degrees, actually knew less about computers than I did. I remember being
constantly amazed at some of the high paying jobs some of these people had
and they really didn't know that much. But by gosh they had a cert or
degree. Just my personal observation.

I think certs will definitely help you to get a job, because they look good,
but what really is going to get you the job is YOUR selling ability and your
past experience and success rate. Offer references. Let the call and talk to
some of the people you've done work for.

Good luck and just stand up for what you're worth.
PJ

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----- Original Message -----
From: "Anthony Valentine" <amv@akvalentine.com>
To: "AKLUG" <aklug@aklug.org>
Sent: Friday, March 08, 2002 00:11
Subject: Re: local geek pricing and gathering certifications

>
>
> Same here. When I was consulting in my spare time I was charging
> $125/hour and I don't have any certifications either.
>
> Anthony
>
>
>
> On Thu, 2002-03-07 at 22:50, Craig Callender wrote:
> >
> > The real fact is, if you charge less than $90.00/hour, no one will hire
> > you because they will think you are a joke. And if you already have
good
> > customers in the area, you're probably looking closer to 150-250/hour.
> >
> > I worked for a company called MosquitoNet up in fairbanks, they
contracted
> > me (at the time I was 17) to trouble shoot a perl script for a customer
at
> > $250.00/hour. Guess how many certs I had. Zero. I didn't even have a
> > high school diploma. That particular job took me about 12 hours (I
didn't
> > know perl at the time). So, your price is what you want to make it. I
> > would suggest starting for small businesses, and charging between 70 -
> > 100/hour. That should get you started, I think certs are a joke.
> >
> > -- Craig C.
> >
> > P.s. The real knowledge comes from experience, you can eat your piece
of
> > paper.
> >
> > On Thu, 7 Mar 2002, Buddha wrote:
> >
> > Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 22:01:38 -0800
> > From: Buddha <buddha@gci.net>
> > To: aklug@aklug.org
> > Subject: local geek pricing and gathering certifications
> >
> >
> > I've been tapped to be the "geek on call" for a local real estate
agency,
> > but have zero experience in the private sector. I have countless years
with
> > "hands on" experience and have spent the last 3.5 yrs as a sys admin on
> > Elmendorf.
> >
> > Two questions:
> >
> > 1) Can someone point me in the right direction on the web on how to do
time
> > estimating, how to do business proposals, the order to do things, etc.
I'm
> > a Gooogle master, but have no idea what the keywords to look for are.
(And
> > I really suck at this "customer relations" thing...I'm used to being
"the
> > geek behind the scenes".)
> >
> > 2) What are the going rates for computer/networking jobs around town per
> > hour? I'd heard $90/hr somewhere before. In investigating the network
at
> > this agency, I talked to the tech at Alaska Computer Brokers eho desined
it
> > and I asked him a few questions about pricing, etc. His response was,
> > "Well, how many certifications do you have". My response: "None. I too
> > busy fixing/installing hardware/software that I don't have time to study
to
> > cert on anything". I mentioned the $90 number to him and he said this
was
> > the upper range for me as I had no certifications. We chatted some more
and
> > I come out it feeling like I need to gather as many certs as possible to
> > "get paid". Can y'all enlighten me on pricing and this certification
> > quandry I seem to be in?
> >
> >
> > Thanx in adavance,
> > -Jim "Buddha" McMorris
> > Jack of alot of trades...Master of none
> >
> > PS: Please re-broadcast the particulars on this friday's meeting.
Thanx.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > In the beginning there was data. The data was without form and
> > null, and darkness was upon the face of the console; and the Spirit of
> > IBM was moving over the face of the market. And DEC said, "Let there
> > be registers"; and there were registers. And DEC saw that they
> > carried; and DEC separated the data from the instructions. DEC called
> > the data Stack, and the instructions they called Code. And there was
> > evening and there was morning, one interrupt.
> > -- Rico Tudor, "The Story of Creation or, The Myth of
Urk"
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>



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