Rick -
With a skill set like that, most employers are going to immediately think you are expensive.
Loaded question, especially for your first post on this site.
As an employer of at least 2 companies, what is your opinion?
I took a peek at both your companies and I have interviewed at similar. Most said I was overqualified. One offered me 15 bucks an hour and it only cut a half hour from my old commute... I was getting almost twice that and I got to do cool work.
A few other shops offered me 25 an hour with 1+ hour drives. Only mom and pop shops said they thought I was too expensive and this is after I dumbed down my resume, but by that time I was getting desperate for work.
Now when I am not offered the job, I always ask why. I almost always get an answer. Most have been, "You will be bored working here" "First job that is better, you will fly the coup" "We just can't use those skills here, maybe one day" "I can't hire someone who knows more than me" "You have been doing this so long, you probably have developed bad habits" and my favorite "stuck up designers like you probably won't weed vinyl" the least has been "we think you might be too expensive"... but some of the previous statements might be their way of saying it. I have never been given these statements at a design firm of EGD firm.
Most of these statements are assumptions and generalizations... probably based on their experience. I try real hard never to generalize or assume, an employer will get my best effort, they always have, they always will.
A smart employer... and I believe most have been smart, have either given me an offer or told me what the starting pay was, or asked me what I was looking for... none of them thought I was asking too much, only a few said they would not (out of principle), or could not pay that amount.
Rick -
With a skill set like that, what are you expecting to earn?
I never look at it that way, I have a requirement of what I need to make. I'm a single father and have to make so much to make ends meet.
There is an average or an unwritten standard. If someone could use my skills, the average pay scale is from 60-80k a year, there are jobs out there in the 90-100k range. I know that, and the companies that deal with EGD know that. I would not assume a "sign shop" or "print shop" knows that.
High end EGD jobs can be found at
www.segd.org in the "job bank".
