Should you accept a job offer in California

Should you accept a job offer in California ...

Modified from "Wages all over the map", by Bob Bellinger, Electronic Engineering Times, May 6, 1996, Page 100.

According to CMR in http://www.homefair.com/homefair/cmr/ :

If you make $75,000

... in Phoenix , you need to make $111,741 in San Jose to achieve roughly the same standard of living.

... in Schaumburg, Ill., you need $80,800 in San Diego.

... in Boca Raton, Fla., you need about $61,000 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

If you make $65,000

... in Boston, you need $86,290 in San Mateo, Calif., but only $50,723 in Anaheim, Calif.

... in Minneapolis, you need $67,729 in Atlanta.

... in Portland, Ore., you need $85,721 in San Jose.

As you can see, you come out ahead by moving to southern California as opposed to the northern part of the state, while a Minnesota-to-Georgia move is pretty much a wash.

If you make $60,000

... in Houston, you require a staggering $121,953 in Redwood City, Calif. -- but "only" $93,587 a few miles south in San Jose.

My goodness, stay with Texas Instruments! The variance between San Jose and Redwood City shows that these comparisons aren't perfect. Every region has its tony districts and cities. Frankly, Redwood City is no plush 'burb. Perhaps CMR is using data that lumps in neighboring Woodside, a decidedly up scale town.

If you make $50,000

... in Portland, you need $57,130 in San Diego.

... in Cherry Hill, N.J., you require $50,934 in San Diego.

If you make $45,000

... in Melbourne, Fla., you need $50,000+ in Dallas.

... on Long Island, N.Y., you only need $41,000+ in Raleigh, N.C.

Again, CMR Internet address is http://www.homefair.com/homefair/cmr/ . Flames from Californians can be addressed to The Governor's Office, Sacramento, Calif. or can be dialed to www.ca.gov . Everyone else can e-mail Bob Bellinger at bbelling@eet.cmp.com .

The following may be the company you don't want to work for:
(by Bob Bellinger, Electronic Engineering Times, July 22, 1996, Page 98.)

It's privately run by the founder, who's proud of taking it to $20 million in 30 years. Inflation has been responsible for the last $5 million of that.
The big money-maker product line has the market to itself -- because everyone except the DOD has abandoned it as obsolete.
It doesn't have a Web site yet, and suggestions that it set one up are derided.
If the company does connect you to the Internet, it fire-walls you from scrolling other engineering Web sites.
You get a ham for Christmas bonus.
Your team got a raise last year because the top brass miscalculated and the team made its deadline, so they compress the next deadline by two months on the theory that they'll save money even if it does come in late.
There are stealth postings of"Dilbert" cartoons on the cafeteria bulletin board. A graffiti patrol of maintenance workers gets rid of them by noon.
The company strictly enforces when you come in but is amazingly lax about your leaving late.
The customer-service unit is named Edna, the founder's empathic secretary.
The biggest budget-buster of the last five years was qualifying for ISO-9000. To pay for it, the VP of operations buys cheaper components.
It made you work Friday, July 5.
Even worse, it made you work Thursday, July 4.
It requires you to work Saturdays on a project of little impact.
You ask for an afternoon off to visit your wife and new baby in the hospital and the company docks you despite your accumulating hours of unpaid overtime.
There are no women, let alone minorities, in the top offices.
The board of directors meets at golf resorts.
The VP of engineering, a PhD, barely speaks English.
"Employees of the Month" line the hallway.
There is a Human Resources VP of the Month due to the high turnover in that office.
There's also a Marketing VP of the Month, unless the founder's son has that job.
The company serves pot roast at a company function with no alternative for non-meat eaters, who must content themselves probing the green-Jello and shredded-carrot salad.
Your entries to EE Times' "Immortal Works" end with the caveat: "Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer."
No one stops the stars from leaving the company, no matter how valuable they are. Turnover keeps wage costs down.
Company training? Only for the annual cluster of newly hired engineering college grads. One will still be here next year.
Your cubicle is scrutinized for non-conforming ideas, objects and politics.
Long-distance calls to Austin or San Jose are questioned, as if the Motorola help line were a 900 number.
It reads your e-mail.

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