Advice on a job offer

It seems like the overwhelming majority on here believe that I made the right decision. I appreciate everyone's advice and the encouraging words. I felt like I had to at least try to get more. Bottom line is, they should realize that you can't make it living in that area on that salary. It's odd, the old ASE was there for like two and a half years. But it looked like he was fresh out of college, so maybe he just took it as a way to break in. Or maybe they actually offered him more, considering that was before the recession
I'm pretty disappointed with the whole situation, but hopefully it's a blessing in disguise. Yeah, it would be awesome to live near Madison, but since I would have to work like three jobs just to make it, I wouldn't have much time for a social life anyway. As someone had stated in an earlier post, I don't believe this is a reflection on the company as a whole because I've heard good things about WCI, so that's why this situation is kind of puzzling.
It's hard right now, but I know something better will come along. It's happened before, it will happen again. Just got to keep working hard and searching.

 

Correct in my area as well. And in Maryland, if your period making more than your weekly benefit amount ends, you have to call in to re-open your unemployment claim.

For instance, if your weekly benefit is $350 and you get a temporary assignment for six weeks making $420 per week, that's six weeks where you don't draw unemployment and the state considers you no longer unemployed. However, once that six weeks ends, you call in (or go on the Web if you only worked in the state you're filing in for the past 18 months) and re-open your claim.

If you get a gig making $320 per week with that same $350 weekly unemployment benefit, you get $220 of that lopped off when you get your benefit money. The state does not penalize you for the first $100 you earn in a week. Anything between $101 and $349 takes away from what you would draw in unemployment, but it also extends the amount of time your allotted money remains in your account.

 

This thread is why you need to do research on any city you want to work in before they make you an offer, which it seems like you did a nice job of. You have to know when they make you an offer what you can live on if you move to that place, because money goes further in some places than it does in others. $9.75 an hour in Madison is apparently not a livable wage. The same thing in my area, southeast Idaho, is not only livable, but you're making a couple hundred dollars in profit each month. Until you do the research, you don't know.

So the lesson here is that you should never reject a job based on its yearly salary figure until you know if it's livable or not. Props to you for doing the research. A lot just look at a number and decide on the spot.

 

Your earnestness is commendable, but I seriously doubt that anyone just "looks at a number and decides on the spot."

Unless, you know, they've already previously made in the, oh, $35-$60K range in their careers, and are now suddenly looking at making $23-$26K...

I know that I've done much job-searching in the past couple of years. With several serious opportunities of various salaries, in different locations, there wasn't one instance in which I did not get an idea of the salaries, and then research costs of homes/living quarters and areas in the regions before going to any interview.

And I cannot imagine that anyone else wouldn't do the same.

If people do just decide on the spot, with no consideration, well, it's because they've already made up their minds about their own expected minimums and they've decided not to move on that. It won't be because of a lack of research.

Or else, perhaps, they already just know that they can't live on the number proffered.

We know what our own specific individual/family bills/debts and personal situations are, and we've figured out and understand that, really, outside of actual homes or apartments, the costs of living otherwise are not usually all that different from one place to another.

 

Not at all true. The difference between Virginia, my original home, and Idaho, my current home, is so great that some of my friends who make more money than I do are envious of me because everything costs so much less for me. My grocery bill is much cheaper, my electric bill is miles cheaper and my apartment is nicer and a third of the cost. Almost every time I talk finances with my friends, their response is, "I need to move to Idaho".

Could I live on 22K in Virginia? No, not a chance. Can I live on 22K in Idaho? Yes, and I do so quite comfortably.

 

Honestly, you're better off not working for these idiots.

Here's what would happen: You'd start out with a great attitude and do great work, because you're talented, intelligent and committed. But after a little while, you'd feel resentful that your efforts weren't more appreciated. Then some crisis comes up and you're in a financial bind, all the while busting your tail for someone who doesn't appreciate you. Is that how you want to live?

They'll get what they pay for and you'll find something better, in sports or out of sports.

 

I seemed to have missed this for a while....

I will echo what other posters have said, be glad you aren't working for an employer that will do this. If they are really going to turn around and move on after you taking professional steps to negotiate salary then they are good business people. Use this as experience one day when you have a better gig lined up, a real business will act like it.

Put it this way, if you ran a business and we're hiring someone, would you want to hire the person who just sat back and accepted the first offer? Or would you want someone who researched the position and used their savvy to negotiate a better, often times more appropriate salary?

Often times by negotiating salary you are showing your future employer that you have what it takes to be a good business person. It shows you can work with others to resolve difficult problems in an appropriate manner.

The editor at the paper you applied to is obviously a poor business person. If he/she were smart, they wouldn't have rescinded the offer, that is just juvenile. But this is likely why that editor is working for a paper that can't afford to pay its employees a living wage.

Good luck. Something will come up.

 

At the wage they were offering, it wouldn't be the kind of position where salary negotiations take place. There's a difference between entry-level spots and more valued ones.
While the response was cold, I suspect they were likely miffed that a negotiation was expected. They might have seen it as presumptuous.
I think at that level you have to taake the gig at their terms and prove your value once you are there.