Strange Tactics - because they don't wanna pay

[MSI1104]

You should know that Careerjunction is in bed, in a big way with the MyBroadband/Rudolph Muller empire

Explains everything....LOL

 

[Ravin']

What would you view as a normal salary for a self taught developer with 1 year of working experience at an agency? I work with PHP, Python, REST API's etc. If I didn't already have a place to stay my salary wouldn't even cover rent...

Anything between R10K and R13K in that situation would be decent, without a qualification it's difficult, but enough experience can get you somewhere great, it'll just take a while.

 

[Pansyfaust]

People here throwing around big salaries, and I'm here just thinking "how can someone earning 25K struggle when I earn half of that"

I am joking though, people should earn their worth. Just crazy to think how much money is required to have a relatively comfortable lower-middle class life nowadays. Mine and the Gfs salary would not even cover the bond and other expenses on a fairly standard 800K-1 million rand house/flat. 1 million rand and 13% interest later, and you're spending 13K JUST on the bond.

The ratio of salary to earning enough for even a simple home is getting fucking ridiculous.

 

[Toxxyc]

People here throwing around big salaries, and I'm here just thinking "how can someone earning 25K struggle when I earn half of that"

I am joking though, people should earn their worth. Just crazy to think how much money is required to have a relatively comfortable lower-middle class life nowadays. Mine and the Gfs salary would not even cover the bond and other expenses on a fairly standard 800K-1 million rand house/flat. 1 million rand and 13% interest later, and you're spending 13K JUST on the bond.

The ratio of salary to earning enough for even a simple home is getting fucking ridiculous.

I wanted to buy. "Sorry, you and your wife's salaries together qualify for a R720k place". Now tell you me, what the hell do you buy for R720k? A 1 bedroom unit (tiny) near work for us is R1mil and up. Seems like they're taking into consideration that everything's getting hellishly expensive, so they're calculating what you qualify for based on your salary, and then they take 20% of that as the max monthly repayment and work from there. It all sucks.

 

[Randall]

Let's be honest here. I have been underpaid for DECADES. I just don't give a fuck anymore because now I shamelessly have a side business at all times so when my family finds themselves in need of cash, I either go work somewhere, or I sell on Carbonite or I actually contract to companies, and yes, I have even done a spot of plumbing

I do not want to boast, but it has become clear to some of you that I do indeed have a very rare skillset. I am in a catch-22 because I could, potentially get in with a big company like Amazon or Google, but my disability comes into the swing with those, and I am also a bit of a free-thinker, a philosopher, and I say what I feel. I think differently and more often than not, within 3 months I end up irritating a higher-up (not because I am full of crap, but because I am often right) and then I get shown the door. It is one of those things with autism, we're a stubborn lot, we refuse to bend to the world- instead we expect the world to bend for us. Where I am at now, I held my tongue to demonstrate clearly to my family and those friends of mine with the big mouths that the problem is not me, its the company, and guess what, I am experiencing even bigger drama, because I keep quiet. They called me into a hearing for "not mixing with the other staff". What the actual fuck?

I have tried to run my own business in SA, but between fighting my own personal battles and the fraudsters it leaves me exasperated and depressed. In IT, at least I have felt some semblance of "hey we're going somewhere at least"

But yes, the R25k per month salary for a electronics engineer. I was unable to break through that barrier, I tried, for years. Its not me, its the way the industry is.

But, with art, and graphic design, I need to do two things, I need to get my life in order, and clear all this clutter, and I need to get to Cape Town.

 

[PJtheKILL3R]

Let's be honest here. I have been underpaid for DECADES. I just don't give a fuck anymore because now I shamelessly have a side business at all times so when my family finds themselves in need of cash, I either go work somewhere, or I sell on Carbonite or I actually contract to companies, and yes, I have even done a spot of plumbing

I do not want to boast, but it has become clear to some of you that I do indeed have a very rare skillset. I am in a catch-22 because I could, potentially get in with a big company like Amazon or Google, but my disability comes into the swing with those, and I am also a bit of a free-thinker, a philosopher, and I say what I feel. I think differently and more often than not, within 3 months I end up irritating a higher-up (not because I am full of crap, but because I am often right) and then I get shown the door. It is one of those things with autism, we're a stubborn lot, we refuse to bend to the world- instead we expect the world to bend for us. Where I am at now, I held my tongue to demonstrate clearly to my family and those friends of mine with the big mouths that the problem is not me, its the company, and guess what, I am experiencing even bigger drama, because I keep quiet. They called me into a hearing for "not mixing with the other staff". What the actual fuck?

I have tried to run my own business in SA, but between fighting my own personal battles and the fraudsters it leaves me exasperated and depressed. In IT, at least I have felt some semblance of "hey we're going somewhere at least"

But yes, the R25k per month salary for a electronics engineer. I was unable to break through that barrier, I tried, for years. Its not me, its the way the industry is.

But, with art, and graphic design, I need to do two things, I need to get my life in order, and clear all this clutter, and I need to get to Cape Town.

If you are willing to wait 1 year or so, we will probably need someone of your skillset at the company i work at, we are a small in house dev team for a farming business and do tons of fun projects.
but we just appointed someone with a almost similar skillset to yours so our budget for this year is exhausted :/ (Probably because we pay well XD)

 

[Randall]

Thanks, I have the patience of Job

 

[Randall]

Got this, this morning, literally 45 mins ago

This is why nobody wants to study electronic engineering anymore. I rest my case!

 

[Toy Machine]

It isn't any of the career paths that are more difficult than one or the other because all face heir own challenges that are equally as difficult as other challenges in different career paths, the problem and struggle that we are really facing is this position of power -- scratch that we are fighting against people because people are stingy,filthy,inhumane pieces of fucking shit that are focused on themselves entirely not allowing themselves to be accepting of others and not allowing their own energies to flow through them but instead they will numb themselves at every possible path materialistically, emotionally physically and mentally because theirs a mentality that "I've got my shit together" so now everybody must have their shit together in a way that suits the system, which then bring us right back to the beginning of the loop which is WE ALREADY HAVE OUR SHIT TOGETHER ACCORDING TO THE SYSTEM. People are stopping people from progressing because they are not allowing themselves to be themselves and let their energy flow freely through themselves because when somebody lets their own energy flow other people feel that calmness, it is contagious on so many unspeakable levels and let's the mind and soul progress in their own way.

ABSOLUTELY FUCK everyone when they tell me I cannot do what I want, I have been brought up in the belief that I can accomplish and do WHATEVER I WANT, therefore I shall do what I want and not conform to this cancerous shitty energy that people ooze out with so much confidence but are completely oblivious to themselves. Change the smallest parts of yourself and do it yourself to allow your own energies to flow and people will catch on because it is contagious, then we can seek to truly better yourself and other will do the same in their own way, how they know how.

Then finally we can stop having to worry about all this shit about when the fuck we are going to be able to put a fucing meal on the table because hat should never be a fucking problem in the first place, it does not matter if you are a hobo or the fucking president because society gauges and sees those two HUMAN beings completely differently, as if there was some sort of table they reference for them to gauge their attitude and feelings and energies towards a HUMAN FUCKING BEING. This shit that people are caught up in "bettering themselves"-you are not bettering yourself you are deteriorating the lives of another human being because of your ego and unnecessary pleasures.

Randall I understand you man.

Rant done.

 

[RexTrueform]

Got this, this morning, literally 45 mins ago

This is why nobody wants to study electronic engineering anymore. I rest my case!

I was going to suggest that you look into PLC programming but the CTC is poor, I didn't even realize.
No wonder so many electrical engineers feel like bloody glorified electricians sometimes.

 

[Pansyfaust]

I wanted to buy. "Sorry, you and your wife's salaries together qualify for a R720k place". Now tell you me, what the hell do you buy for R720k? A 1 bedroom unit (tiny) near work for us is R1mil and up. Seems like they're taking into consideration that everything's getting hellishly expensive, so they're calculating what you qualify for based on your salary, and then they take 20% of that as the max monthly repayment and work from there. It all sucks.

Attempting to buy anything with our combined salary would probably get the same response...The effect being that we can only afford to pay rent, which is already farking close to what you would have paid for a decent house's bond 5 years ago. I don't forsee how people earning anything under 30K a month are going to afford to get relatively okay housing. I'm not talking lavish 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom, pool etc. Just a regular 2/3 bedroom house, small garden etc.

This generation of people (millenials I guess) are going to be the first generation who will be less well off, less secure and buy homes much later than their parents' generation--and boy, am I feeling it.

Have a read of this fun concept which encapsulates this new generation of the Precariat

 

[Sp1dr]

working as bank tellers or secretaries.

Pretty much what I said.

Nope, I said begging on the streets, I mean with actual cardboard signs, begging for jobs at robots, cause their 4 years of study amounted to shit.

 

[Crouchinglee]

I was going to suggest that you look into PLC programming but the CTC is poor, I didn't even realize.
No wonder so many electrical engineers feel like bloody glorified electricians sometimes.

Sad thing is as an Ex-Electrician i payed way more than that (the offer above)

 

[RexTrueform]

Sad thing is as an Ex-Electrician i payed way more than that (the offer above)

Interesting, that's a major misalignment of skill/pay in my opinion.
Not saying electrician isn't a very skilled position but PLC programming is more of a niche market with a very defined set of skills & requirements.

 

[Dilli]

Got this, this morning, literally 45 mins ago

This is why nobody wants to study electronic engineering anymore. I rest my case!

Just to prove its not that bad: jobs--Junior-Litigation-Attorney-Cape-Town

Position is for a qualified attorney with 2 years post admission experience (3-4 years work experience in total), it would be a high stress position and the offer is CTC ~R 120 000 per annum.

 

[Gelmir]

Such is the sad state of our economy. What makes it worse, is that there is always someone else out there that is more desperate and that will be willing to do the same job as you for R5k a month less. And like Toy said earlier, people don't care about people, they care only about money, so they'll screw you over, and employ the desperate dude to save the company R60k a year.
In a company's life, R60k is nothing, for an individual it makes a massive difference, but alas, that's how the cookie crumbles.

Also bear in mind, the Western Cape doesn't pay as well as Gauteng in general. You're more likely to find a similar job paying a higher salary up here in Smoke City than in Slaapstad.

 

[Crouchinglee]

Interesting, that's a major misalignment of skill/pay in my opinion.
Not saying electrician isn't a very skilled position but PLC programming is more of a niche market with a very defined set of skills & requirements.

This is true - take my case (Underground Mobile Machines were my specialty) and these machines all run on some form of logic controller.
But we still needed to get the PLC specialists in to update/change settings (back then our PLC specialist's rates were 350p/hr)

 

[megustav]

Aren't they (BCOM grads) the ones begging for jobs now on the streets? I'm sure I saw a few stories last year about this.

I did a BCOM in business management and marketing. It's probably one of the most useless degrees you can do (wish I knew this sooner), but the workload for studying part time is much less than engineering or law degrees.

I am very thankful to work in IT and operations management and that my degree is just a bonus at this stage. I am currently doing my honours in Business management in order to do a Masters in IT Management degree at Tuks and finally have something that's worth more than a piece of paper with your name on it.

Don't study BCOM unless you are doing something like informatics or accounting. A general Bcom degree without any experience doesn't mean shit.

 

[RexTrueform]

This is true - take my case (Underground Mobile Machines were my specialty) and these machines all run on some form of logic controller.
But we still needed to get the PLC specialists in to update/change settings (back then our PLC specialist's rates were 350p/hr)

We have PLC guys come program our CNC machines that charge R500/hr, the last time one of them came out it was due to an issue with an ftp session between the controlling pc and the cnc plc.
In the end however the guy spent 5 minutes at our premises and merely copied a file to the pc desktop.......... R1250 bill.
Minimum 2 hrs callout for 5 minutes of work that he could have explained to me over the phone.

 

[RexTrueform]

Just to prove its not that bad: jobs--Junior-Litigation-Attorney-Cape-Town

Position is for a qualified attorney with 2 years post admission experience (3-4 years work experience in total), it would be a high stress position and the offer is CTC ~R 120 000 per annum.

WTF????
That's actually ludicrous.

 

[Crouchinglee]

We have PLC guys come program our CNC machines that charge R500/hr, the last time one of them came out it was due to an issue with an ftp session between the controlling pc and the cnc plc.
In the end however the guy spent 5 minutes at our premises and merely copied a file to the pc desktop.......... R1250 bill.
Minimum 2 hrs callout for 5 minutes of work that he could have explained to me over the phone.

Hehe our Specialists are in house - thats the rate the mine pays them (not external contractors) its R350p/hr + perks
(the contractor company gave us Boilermakers at R500 an hour)

 

[BLaaR]

WTF????
That's actually ludicrous.

Even crazier. A secretary in SAPS earn same or more than that Junior Litigation Attorney post advertised.

http://www.saps.gov.za/careers/careers.php

 

[Randall]

Considering that we're all in the same boat, you know what I am actually thinking of doing?

1. Creating a Freelancer account and do work for overseas clients in US dollah
2. Going the Patreon route for projects I want to develop and sell.

And of course, doing work for my fellow carbies, as well as referral business. Sticking together and all that, not really patriotism but yes I care about my fellow man, especially my fellow carbies.

 

[MSI1104]

Just to prove its not that bad: jobs--Junior-Litigation-Attorney-Cape-Town

Position is for a qualified attorney with 2 years post admission experience (3-4 years work experience in total), it would be a high stress position and the offer is CTC ~R 120 000 per annum.

THe Legal Aid Board pays more than that, they can stick it.

 

[noa]

Considering that we're all in the same boat, you know what I am actually thinking of doing?

1. Creating a Freelancer account and do work for overseas clients in US dollah
2. Going the Patreon route for projects I want to develop and sell.

And of course, doing work for my fellow carbies, as well as referral business. Sticking together and all that, not really patriotism but yes I care about my fellow man, especially my fellow carbies.

1. good luck competing with Indian code factories.
2. might be lucrative if you find a niche.


I help foreign CS(i've never been to uni :/) students with coding etc. Helped someone from canada with learning interfaces for $50.

 

[Randall]

1. good luck competing with Indian code factories.

That is precisely the reason why I am less than enthusiastic about doing that. Not just the Indians, the Chinese too, the latter especially will be happy to design a widget for a bowl of rice.

I've never been to uni either. School of Life graduate, cum laude, with honours.

 

[Sp1dr]

That is precisely the reason why I am less than enthusiastic about doing that. Not just the Indians, the Chinese too, the latter especially will be happy to design a widget for a bowl of rice.

I've never been to uni either. School of Life graduate, cum laude, with honours.

I have been trying this for a while now, I thought, damn some of those arduino jobs are easy and they pay around 2K for something that would take me about 2 or 3 hours. Also, seen some jobs for around 10-15k. So then I apply, and post my motivation, but some guy from India from some random tech company with a lame name and a silly logo will win it, because, A: they offer peanuts, B: they have a lot of references. Thousands sometimes. I don't think half of their references are even real.

There are guys that will bid on a job, and then re-post it, and give it to someone who will do the work even cheaper.

I even resorted to almost begging for a freelancer job, I just wanted that first rating. I actually considered "hiring myself" a few times, just to get a rating, but then I'm no better than the rest of them.

 

[Randall]

Thanks for that bit of info interesting

 

[Sp1dr]

Thanks for that bit of info interesting

Why not go the whole 9 yards and start your own engineering company? You seem to have a ton of electronic experience, and some software, and a bit of a reputation as well? Even if it's just on the side, I think you'll have a lot more success than spending endless nights bidding on every job on freelancer you can find.

 

[Randall]

Why not go the whole 9 yards and start your own engineering company? You seem to have a ton of electronic experience, and some software, and a bit of a reputation as well? Even if it's just on the side, I think you'll have a lot more success than spending endless nights bidding on every job on freelancer you can find.

I am contemplating that at the moment.. Let's get this whole move thing sorted. There's been developments and suchlike, I don't want to shift focus from all the stuff I am selling here just now mistakes happen.
The DIY audio aspect seems well received, maybe we can look at something like that, sans the snake oil and ego problem. Then there's IoT, and also other things where people seem to struggle with embedded C.

I have also seen a gap to start up something like MythBusters in SA, obviously not by that name, but, Mythbusters is all American, what about all the uniquely South African stuff people wonder about