Gawker: valleywag, workforcelogic

Guess how much tech's 10 worst jobs pay

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:00:00 EDT

To come up with the estimated pay for tech's 10 worst entry-level jobs we spoke to former and current employees, HR reps and friends of friends working these jobs. But still, some of our commenters expressed disbelief over the salary estimates. "80 grand for an entry level job? Time to apply and kick those whiney losers out! Let's see how they feel about their new job bagging groceries at the Safeway," wrote mwbeeler. Loakim said:

Boo fucking hoo. I clicked through about 4 of those and if they are representative, then getting paid 60-70K right out of college at an "entry" level job is nothing to complain about, regardless of the "tough" working conditions (ceiling too low? CSR work? no windows? cubicle? oh the torture!!). I spent half my life to get a Ph.D. and will barely be making that as an asst professor at a major research university.

We like our estimates, but we're willing to bow to the wisdom of the crowd, or the madness thereof. Save for IODA's unpaid internship — no point in guessing there — we've created a poll for each job. Take your best guess.

By the way, if you actually work one of these jobs, create an anonymous Gmail account — or Yahoo Mail, if it's the Google job — and tell us the real number.

Review the job's key responsibilities, first-hand accounts, and how much we estimated it pays.
Is this your job? Let us know how much it actually pays.

(Photo by eston)

Tech's 10 worst entry-level jobs

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:00:00 EDT

Soon America's most bright-eyed graduates will enter the workforce and make their workaday homes in cubes at Google, MySpace, or Amazon.com. And they will suffer not just the indignity of having to work for a living, but also the dispiriting realization that a job at a cool company isn't always that hot. These employers, and the others hiring for tech's 10 worst entry-level jobs, listed below, will look spiffy on a resume someday, but for now the only good these jobs promise the world is the pleasant feeling you and I can share knowing we're not the ones stuck in them.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I should note that I wouldn't have been able to get any of these jobs out of college. I didn't finish with a 3.8, do a year of service in Nicaragua or file any patents during my sophomore year. But the worst part of this list is the fact that the people taking these jobs did. To paraphrase Dan Lyons, there's something distinctly evil about the way Google and the other companies listed below hoard the world's best and brightest and put them to work on creating more efficient text ads or, worse, tasking them with taking phone calls from angry customers.

Follow the link for each job to see a picture of their locations, a list of key responsibilities, first hand accounts of why each job is so bad and how much they pay.

(Top photo by star5112)

Database administrator (temporary), Google

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:59:57 EDT

Database administrator (temporary), Google, contracted through WorkforceLogic
Key responsibilities:

General administration on database systems which includes maintaining data stores, schema objects, security and access privileges, software installation and configuration.

Why so bad?

A tipster tells us:

My officemates friend out of college got hired by Google, and first day there he got put in a tent-cube outside with random people. You face another person smaller than a conference room table across. Rows and rows, and he wasn't even in the right group. So you sit with people who have nothing to do with you.

Also, we hear:

Everybody is a "sysadmin" these days, so companies don't pay nearly as much. It's the new ghetto tech.

Also: Don't forget that working this position you won't be a "real" Googler. Real Googlers won't!

Estimated pay: $70,000. Apply!

Next: Support Professional, Product: Windows, Microsoft

(Photo by revdancatt)