Lowball offers

[mustangj17]

What's the worst low ball offer you've ever gotten from a job you were interviewing for?

I had to post this since I had one today.

So I guess I'll tell my story first. Interviewed for a job with a pro sports team to be a beat writing/web content manager. The sports team is located in the most expensive city in America.

The offer $11.00 per hour. And no moving expenses.

Are you kidding me? I'm not pulling down major wads of cash, and I've definitely had jobs that have paid less, but to move across the country and work for the same team paying players and coaches $8 million a year for 11 bucks an hour is absurd.

And no moving expenses? Even newspapers in their sad state offer moving expenses. What a joke. Okay, rant over. :-X

 

[crimsonace]

My first job, in 1997, I was paid $15K a year (I accepted it, because I was graduating in two weeks and my folks told me I was NOT moving home).

When I started looking around a year later because I couldn't afford to live on slave wages, I interviewed with a radio station in Illinois (the guilty shall remain nameless). Their offer was LOWER -- $14,400 a year + a few bucks (I think $35) for every game I called play-by-play for, which would probably add up to another $2-3K. I talked them into raising it to $16,800 base salary, and then turned it down.

 

[Barsuk]

I feel very fortunate that I don't have any stories that belong in the same league, let alone the same ballpark, with the first two posted here.

 

[forever_town]

Are you sure that team isn't run by Sam Zell or Lean Dean?

 

[Stitch]

What's the worst low ball offer you've ever gotten from a job you were interviewing for?

I had to post this since I had one today.

So I guess I'll tell my story first. Interviewed for a job with a pro sports team to be a beat writing/web content manager. The sports team is located in the most expensive city in America.

The offer $11.00 per hour. And no moving expenses.

Are you kidding me? I'm not pulling down major wads of cash, and I've definitely had jobs that have paid less, but to move across the country and work for the same team paying players and coaches $8 million a year for 11 bucks an hour is absurd.

And no moving expenses? Even newspapers in their sad state offer moving expenses. What a joke. Okay, rant over. :-X

From what you described without seeing the job posted anywhere, at least it's not an internship. Most sports organization try to sell people on the fact that you need to start at the bottom and just work your way up from towel boy to GM.

As for lowball offers, try the Escanaba opening that I posted or Silver City, N.M.

Escanaba is $9.62/hr by my calculations and Silver City was $10.50/hr.

 

[KG]

Not an offer, but I noticed that post about a gig in Cadiz, Ky (at 15K) would be $7.21 an hour if you actually only pulled 40 hours.

 

[mustangj17]

What's the worst low ball offer you've ever gotten from a job you were interviewing for?

I had to post this since I had one today.

So I guess I'll tell my story first. Interviewed for a job with a pro sports team to be a beat writing/web content manager. The sports team is located in the most expensive city in America.

The offer $11.00 per hour. And no moving expenses.

Are you kidding me? I'm not pulling down major wads of cash, and I've definitely had jobs that have paid less, but to move across the country and work for the same team paying players and coaches $8 million a year for 11 bucks an hour is absurd.

And no moving expenses? Even newspapers in their sad state offer moving expenses. What a joke. Okay, rant over. :-X

From what you described without seeing the job posted anywhere, at least it's not an internship. Most sports organization try to sell people on the fact that you need to start at the bottom and just work your way up from towel boy to GM.

As for lowball offers, try the Escanaba opening that I posted or Silver City, N.M.

Escanaba is $9.62/hr by my calculations and Silver City was $10.50/hr.

However, this definitely isn't an entry level position, and requires writing skills and heavy computer knowledge.

9.62 in escanaba goes a hell of a lot further than $11 in a major metro area known for smog.

 

[doubledown68]

Back after graduation, I was sending stuff out all over, while working part time at K-Mart waiting for my ship to come in.

Paper from somewhere in Nevada called me back. We go back and forth, until it comes time for the money portion of the interview. I finally ask, and the response is "Well, our health care is fantastic. You wouldn't have to pay for A THING out of pocket."

Uh-oh.

They tell me they can go "as high" as 15K. I say "Um, no offense, but I'm pulling down more than that at K-Mart. Good luck, and thanks for calling."

Bad times.

 

[slappy4428]

I had to go over the publisher's head to a regional VP for a $3 per week raise at my first job because they only allowed three percent (Ogden). I did it after they fired my boss and worked 53 straight days, between my regular one-man desk shifts and tabs.
The VP turned to the publisher to say something to the effect of "He's the only person you've got left full-time and you're coming to me for three extra bucks a week?"
The raise put me to $300 a week.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

I got an offer from an Odgen paper in 2001 for 15K/yr. Sad thing is, I actually took the job for about 48 hours. Then less stupid heads prevailed and I pulled out. It took me another five months to get a job after that, but it was the wiser move in the long run (good luck building a salary history with that clunker of a first step)

 

[pressboxer]

I got an offer from an Odgen paper in 2001 for 15K/yr. Sad thing is, I actually took the job for about 48 hours. Then less stupid heads prevailed and I pulled out. It took me another five months to get a job after that, but it was the wiser move in the long run (good luck building a salary history with that clunker of a first step)

Hell, I started at $16K at a small-town scrapbook in 1989. I don't feel so bad now.

 

[Birdscribe]

I was working PT at one of the larger SoCal dailies when I got my first job offer. It was cross country, for one of the better small papers with one of the better SE's around.

It was also for $290 a week. I was making more than that working 35 hours a week PT, albeit in much more expensive SoCal.

I probably should have pulled the trigger, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

 

[Cadet]

I started out making $13K/year in 2001. Full-time job.

But the most insulting job offer I got has been the only one I've turned down: Interviewed with an SE who loved me and said the job paid $X/hour, which wasn't a whole lot. We were all set to sign the papers when the ME said no, the job pays $X-3/hour. I was insulted and walked away.

I also got the last laugh: A week later I was offered a job that paid $X+5/hour.

 

[FishHack76]

Any time you hear "per hour," that's probably not a good thing. I mean this is an industry with college-educated professionals, not the Taco Bell.

 

[nmmetsfan]

I started out making $13K/year in 2001. Full-time job.

But the most insulting job offer I got has been the only one I've turned down: Interviewed with an SE who loved me and said the job paid $X/hour, which wasn't a whole lot. We were all set to sign the papers when the ME said no, the job pays $X-3/hour. I was insulted and walked away.

I also got the last laugh: A week later I was offered a job that paid $X+5/hour.

Who can work on alphabet wages??

 

[Stitch]

What's the worst low ball offer you've ever gotten from a job you were interviewing for?

I had to post this since I had one today.

So I guess I'll tell my story first. Interviewed for a job with a pro sports team to be a beat writing/web content manager. The sports team is located in the most expensive city in America.

The offer $11.00 per hour. And no moving expenses.

Are you kidding me? I'm not pulling down major wads of cash, and I've definitely had jobs that have paid less, but to move across the country and work for the same team paying players and coaches $8 million a year for 11 bucks an hour is absurd.

And no moving expenses? Even newspapers in their sad state offer moving expenses. What a joke. Okay, rant over. :-X

From what you described without seeing the job posted anywhere, at least it's not an internship. Most sports organization try to sell people on the fact that you need to start at the bottom and just work your way up from towel boy to GM.

As for lowball offers, try the Escanaba opening that I posted or Silver City, N.M.

Escanaba is $9.62/hr by my calculations and Silver City was $10.50/hr.

However, this definitely isn't an entry level position, and requires writing skills and heavy computer knowledge.

9.62 in escanaba goes a hell of a lot further than $11 in a major metro area known for smog.

You asked for numbers and I gave them to you. I don't really care about the cheaper cost of living line that all these shops who try to lowball you use.

At a certain point, you still need to be able to provide for yourself and family if you have one.

 

[SixToe]

The offer $11.00 per hour. And no moving expenses.

The problem is someone will take this job and that low, insulting wage-benefit standard will remain.

It's the same problem with freelancers who take $25 or $50 for a long profile or feature and photos, only because they want to think of themselves as "a writer." It lowers the standard. An editor can turn down someone who asks for more because they know Schleppy McDickweed will do it for peanuts.

 

[zeke12]

I interviewed for a gig laying out a regional magazine. They called and offered me the job, but I told them we'd have to talk salary and benefits. So I go back in and they lay out the pay, which was pretty bad, but not awful.

Then we got to the "benefits". The guy who ran the rag made his staff make a list of the "benefits" of working there. Things like, "we go out for drinks after work most Fridays".

I was mortified for the staff. And I walked out.

 

[Stitch]

I interviewed for a gig laying out a regional magazine. They called and offered me the job, but I told them we'd have to talk salary and benefits. So I go back in and they lay out the pay, which was pretty bad, but not awful.

Then we got to the "benefits". The guy who ran the rag made his staff make a list of the "benefits" of working there. Things like, "we go out for drinks after work most Fridays".

I was mortified for the staff. And I walked out.

Well, once a month we have wacky tie day. That's a hoot, you betcha.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Any time you hear "per hour," that's probably not a good thing. I mean this is an industry with college-educated professionals, not the Taco Bell.

Actually, it's a pretty good thing when you think about it. It implies that you are eligible for overtime pay after 40 hours, as opposed to a set salary that you get whether you work 20 or (more likely) 60 hours a week. Now, whether or not you receive that OT pay is another story.

My first newspaper job, I made $285 a week (bumped to $293 after 3 months) in the mid 1990s in a low-cost of living town. It was implied that I was to work 40 hours, but, after figuring it out, it averaged to about 48. There was no OT, and the publisher implied that he could easily find someone else if there were complaints. There were opportunities to make a few extra bucks when the company put out advertising supplements ($7 for briefs, $15 for stories in which someone was interviewed).

My second job, I was offered $7.50 per hour, and I took it. I was told the job was a 50-60 hour a week job, and I told the editor upon my hiring that I would either get paid OT or not work it. I figured, compared to the first gig, that I would either get a raise from the OT pay, or a reduction in hours. Plus, I had done a good job with the first job, so I figured that if the second job bombed (it didn't), I still could refer to my first job in future resumes.