How do I figure out how much I'm worth?

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josh4
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How do I figure out how much I'm worth?

Post by josh4 »

I'm a recent college graduate with Information Tech degree. Right now I'm interning at a company in Washington D.C. I know they hired me because I have a plethora of skills but as an intern they could make my pay rather low. It doesn't bother me that much but it does make me wonder for the future.

I'm not being naive and think I'll be able to pick my job, but I don't think I'll have trouble getting one when I really enter the market.

My problem is I'm worried I won't know if I'm getting paid what I should. With my current internship I know I'm not getting paid enough with all the things I'm doing, but it is just an internship.

How do I figure out how much I'm worth? How do I judge what skills I have and be able to tell employers with confidence I'm interested in the position but their initial offering isn't going to cut it?

I'm worried I'll take a job somewhere and find out later that my salary is way below average and there won't be much I can do about it.

Another problem is I'm interested in freelancing (PHP, web development). I've already taken a couple web site projects here and there to 'test the waters'. I continually run into problems where the first thing people ask is, "how much is this going to cost me?" I have absolutly no idea what to tell them. I know what I can do but no idea what to charge for it. How do I find out what the going rate for something like that is?

P.S. I've already done the askjeeves.com "average salary" searches so please refrain from posting links to pages listing different salaries. It has to be more complicated than that, right?
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feyd
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Post by feyd »

before striking out on your own in freelancing, work for a temp agency.. figure out how they charge and the contracts they use.. once you build up enough contacts in the area, you can be free to move into your own controlled environment. AFAIK, the client isn't obligated to not talk about what they are paying to have you there, so you can directly ask them.. It doesn't hurt you to ask :)

When I was starting out, I searched through the online jobs listings a lot, looking at salaries.. they vary widely based on location, but the average level is around the same after adjusting cost of living in those areas. Cost of living indexes are readily available from a lot of financial places (as well as Yahoo and such)

FYI: On average, a temp agency will charge the client double what you are getting paid (minimum)..
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