Dear Dopers,
I am starting a job search and will be focusing primarily on the DC area. In their application information, some of these positions I am looking at ask for my salary requirements. Problem is, I have lived outside the US for 8 of the last 10 years, and am really out of touch with salaries for the two sectors I am most interested in: international NGOs and small consulting firms. I would love it if Dopers could give me some idea of what the going rates are.
I am 35 and have a Masters degree in economics and 11 years of work experience. I guess that puts me mid-career (wow, it seems like yesterday that I was graduating from high school…). Any advice would be appreciated!
Try this site for a good start to your research. They tend to be fairly good at ballparking salaries based on the metro area you choose to focus on. You might try similar metro centers around the country to compare salary ranges for your profession and experience level.
Once you establish the range, contact some head hunters to get their estimates.
Excluding any special skills (speak Arabic? Serbian? something like that?), I’d ballpark the center of gravity for an NGO salary at your level around $55,000. At some underfunded NGOs, it might be substantially less; the big names, a bit more.
Consulting firms can vary much more widely. I can’t help you much there.
Thanks Quicksilver. Interesting site, but I wasn’t able to find anything that was clearly for the NGO sector - the descriptions they gave were for private and government jobs. Hmm… nice salaries though, maybe I need to change sector!
(/Unsolicited advice)
If you have not already, what I would also advise, given your reaction to Government Salaries - which are (largely) set to be solidly Middle Class and not WOW!!! material - is to check out the Cost of Living Calculators for the D.C. area – even look online time at some of the neighborhoods you see yourself in and figure from that angle what your salary requirements may be – as well as continuing along the sensible approach you are taking. (/Unsolicited advice)
It’s true, housing prices are through the roof in the DV area.
And don’t forget to factor in the soul-crushing commute if you plan to live outside of the District proper. Do you want your soul to be crushed a little, or a lot? If you only want it to be crushed a little, try to live somewhere on the metro. If you’re willing to have it crushed a lot, cast your net widely. 2 hour commutes (each way!) are hardly unusual. I live 75 miles from DC. It can take up to 3 hours in bad traffic, and yes, people commute from here. In fact there is a certain 15 mile section along the route that can take 45min-1 hour. Fun fun!
Thanks. The last time I lived in DC (6 years ago), my wife and I were each earning in the low-30s. We lived in a nice one-bedroom in Van Ness and even managed to save a bit. I guess we have simple needs. I should add that we just beat the beginning of the rent bubble (people who came 6 months later were paying $500/mo more for the same flats), and we didn’t have a car.
So actually, 55K wouldn’t seem too bad to me…
For the consulting place, so far no one has been able to guess. Would asking for $100K be too much?
3003 Van Ness Street North West
Washington, DC 0-2 Bed, 1-2 Bath
630 - 1,450 sq.ft
Posted: 02/21/06
Monthly Rent
$1,505 - $3,090
$55K with no car might be do-able if you go with a with a 650 foot 1 bedroom. However:
For a married guy filing jointly in DC with no FICA, state or federal exemtions 55K takes home $2556 per month.
If you are spending $1505 per month on rent to live in Van Ness, I doubt you’ll find it “not too bad” and save unless your wife gets a supplemental job this time simple tastes or not.
$70Kish is a realistic number for most people who want to take vacations and provide for the future and enjoy all the City and Area has to offer to move in 2/2006 into a 1 bedroom on Van Ness. Unless you can find a good deal or get someone to sublet (or rent a room rather than a 1 bedroom apt – as you don’t seem worldly).
Obviously, $100K would do it as well. If you are asking does $100K seem an outrageous demand- it depends on the size, financial situation and salary structure of the NGO you target – it will vary and I doubt there is one answer
Thanks jimmmy, this is really helpful. Just to add, my wife would hopefully be working soonish (she will have her PhD in economics in a year or two), so we would soon be DINKs.
And the 100K would be for a private secotr consulting place. Although it would be great to get 6 figures from an NGO, I doubt I could draw that much
This is true if you choose to drive. Or if you live so far out of the way that you *have * to drive. But if your office is in DC proper and you live within 30-40 miles you can usually commute via Metro, VRE or MARC train. I live in Manassas to be able to afford a house on one salary. The VRE train is an hour commute each way. I can sleep, read the paper, whatever… little to no stress.
I don’t know how drivers do it. I’d go nuts driving every day.
You’ll notice in my post that you quoted I suggest the train as the least soul-crushing option. I should have elbaorated past Metro to MARC and VRE.
I won’t say the train is non-soul-crushing, because there are frequent outages and delays, and many of these systems are operating at near their maximum capacity. But it does beat driving. However, the fact that VRE doesn’t go into the city on weekends is WEAK.
