Would a person leaving a good job tend to make more money at a new job?

February 13, 2006 9:10 AM

My wife and I may be relocating to the Orlando area so that I can start a new job. She currently has a great job (start of long career) as a system analyst at a top-notch company. She earns more money than I do, and probably always will. This year she gets 4 weeks of vacation. She is concerned that if we move to Orlando she will not find a job she likes for the same pay and with the same benefits (e.g. vacation). I had been told (once upon a time) that if you move to another company, you move up in pay, not down. What is the more likely scenario?

Bonus question: She does not want to be a programmer, nor does she want to do desktop support. She currently supports and maintains a fairly complicated software package (and a test server) for engineers. What are her chances of finding a job like this in Orlando?

posted by achmorrison to Work & Money (14 answers total)

I had been told (once upon a time) that if you move to another company, you move up in pay, not down.

Well, it's probably true that people don't usually move to another job unless it pays better, but that's where that story ends; those people aren't moving to a whole new geographic area, so they just turn down the jobs that are worse than staying where they are.

You're not staying where you are, so you're at the mercy of the job market where you're moving. Getting a job that pays better (relative to the cost of living -- comparing absolute figures doesn't say very much) is the best outcome, but it's definitely not a certainty. It's not much different than getting laid off.
posted by mendel at 1:10 PM on February 13, 2006

I just moved from Orlando the New Jersey. Be aware the pay rates and generally much lower in Orlando than elsewhere and the cost of living is not as cheap as it used to be. A new townhouse now can run you almost $300K whereas even a few years ago you might have been able to get a place for $150K.

That being said I know there is a growing high tech computer market in the area. I don't think she will have a problem finding a job just not sure if the pay grade will be what she wants.
posted by UMDirector at 1:13 PM on February 13, 2006

I gotta say, if she makes more money and always will, likes her job and gets that much vacation... why would the two of you move for YOUR job?

There's some IT work in Orlando; they have a strong modeling and simulation community there. As Florida goes it's not bad, but it's not terribly strong compared to the nation. That in mind, she may very well have trouble finding that good a deal there.

She might have more luck working out a telecommuting deal with her company. A friend of mine had good luck recently working out that kind of deal with her California employer when she had to move to Cali. The penalty was having to work later in the day than most Floridians because of the time zone difference, but they were willing to accommodate her because they wanted to keep her.
posted by phearlez at 1:22 PM on February 13, 2006

Orlando's economy is entirely structured around tourism and Disney. There are a few high tech firms in the area, but they're few and far between and the pay scale is going to be lower than what she's used to (most likely).

If she's able to find a job with Disney or one of the theme parks then she'll do ok, but otherwise she'll probably have trouble finding a position.
posted by bshort at 1:28 PM on February 13, 2006

YMMV, but it's uncommon for a new employee to get four weeks vacation; two weeks is the norm, and less isn't uncommon. Moreover, this tends not to be negotiable (except at the executive level); for any job offer, your wife is going to have to consider the pay, the actual work, vacation, and other benefits, and probably isn't going to get everything that she has now.

Also, the skill of "maintaining a fairly complicated software package" can be quite valuable if that software package is used in other places (for example, a commercial programmer development environment); not so valuable if it's an in-house proprietary system. That's why a job ad will ask for "PeopleSoft financials experience" rather than
"enterprise resource planning system experience", for example.
posted by WestCoaster at 1:31 PM on February 13, 2006

Response by poster: I gotta say, if she makes more money and always will, likes her job and gets that much vacation... why would the two of you move for YOUR job?

Valid question. The short answer is that I have an incredible opportunity to do some research (I'm in academics) in an environment that I'm not sure I'll find anywhere else. The likeliness of me finding a job that I want near her current job is low. It's not zero or impossible, but it's low.
posted by achmorrison at 2:16 PM on February 13, 2006

My understanding was that Disney was going through cutbacks and layoffs, but I could be wrong. I thought times were a little tight down there, and/or have been for 2 years or so.
posted by onlyconnect at 3:13 PM on February 13, 2006

Try searching for jobs with her skill set or job title in the Orlando area using Indeed.com. Subscribe to the RSS feeds for your searches and notice how many jobs that she'd like are posted over the course of two weeks or so. This should give you a good idea of how active her job market is in that area.
posted by MsMolly at 4:44 PM on February 13, 2006

Can your wife work for the same company remotely? My fiance followed me here and is doing exactly that.
posted by j at 4:45 PM on February 13, 2006

As they say, if it ain't broke don't break it. Or at least consider if the new job for you is really going to be 'the' job, or is there a chance you'll be out of it in a few months. Where do you live now, is there any chance of commuting? I liked the telecommuting idea. Maybe they'll at least let her do it for a year and if things don't work out in Orlando she can go back. And if she's really good at what she does and can find a similar job in Orlando she can always negotiate the vacation as part of her compensation pack. I knew a guy who negotiated 4 weeks of vacation when he moved to a bank here, but he was 'an executive.'
posted by JamesMessick at 4:47 PM on February 13, 2006

I just want to interject: DON'T MOVE TO ORLANDO!!!! I've lived here in Orlando, FL since 1995 and the real estate here is insane. My mother's house: purchased in 1995 for $262,900 (about 2k sq. ft, 4 br, 3.5ba, Metrowest upscale area) now worth $565k. Our house (3br, 2ba, 1500sf) my b/f bought in '99 for $85k and is now worth over $200k. I've heard stories of people selling their long-time homes here (for whopping profits) and moving to other states and buying TWO houses! You're gonna be paying through the nose just to get a *decent* house here. Our house is older, kinda falling apart, in kind of a crappy deteriorated area and yet it could sell for the same price that you could get a really nice, newer house in a more sane part of the country.

Or if you rent - Another trend here is everything is going condo - almost all apartment complexes are being sold as condos. Average, nothing-special 4 bedroom apartments are selling for almost $500k, so of course only investors buy them and then rent out the condos.

Seriously, let me discourage you from moving! Unless you make a lot of money and can live within this range or want to invest in real estate (although I don't know how much higher it can really go, I mean c'mon...).
posted by mojabunni at 7:40 PM on February 13, 2006

As phearlez pointed out, there is a strong modelling and simulation industry here, as well as chip design and fabrication, laser applications, and a few other tech sectors. Oracle has a location here, and the UCF Research Park area is a virtual laundry list of high-tech. For someone supporting an engineering facility, this might be right up her alley.

Things were a little rough down here from about 2001 until 2003 or 4, as I'm sure they were elsewhere. I think Central Florida survived a lot better than most places due to the huge amount of Department of Defense contracts in the area. If anything, the aftereffects of 9/11 helped to lower the importance of the tourist industry in Orlando's economy.

I work as a systems administrator for a company that is almost entirely based around a huge Oracle CRM/ERP application that is supported by a whole team of systems analysts, developers, database admins, etc. One of the previous companies for which I worked in the publishing industry had several large internal applications including mainframe applications - so yes, there are what I call "big IT" operations down here.

An observation: I've found that the IT hiring practices tend to be more focused on experience and less on education than elsewhere.

That being said, the payscales in Orlando are somewhat lower than in other major cities. One thing that helps is to find a company that is headquartered elsewhere. One of the best "job jump" payraises I ever had was when I started working for a company that was headquartered in Chicago (HR and administrative) and had an office in Orlando (purely IT). Everyone was on a Chicago payscale.

Housing, as mentioned, is extremely expensive here and increasing by the day. My house has doubled in value in the 7 years I've lived in it, and the rates are still climbing. Not that things are as bad as in the Bay Area or NYC... As long as you're prepared for this, however, the other cost of living expenses are quite a bit lower than in other parts of the country.
posted by tkolstee at 8:08 PM on February 13, 2006

Response by poster: I doubt that her employer will allow her to telecommute, but we'll look into that.

These are good things to consider. Thanks!
posted by achmorrison at 5:24 AM on February 14, 2006

We said the same thing -- we didn't think my fiance's employer would let him telecommute either. But he is a valued member of the team and they didn't really want to replace him, so they allowed him to work remotely. It seems like it's working out well.
She should go into her boss and say something along the lines of :
"My SO has a great opportunity, but I really love this job and want to continue working here. We're still undecided -- is there any way we can work something out?"
You never know.
posted by j at 8:05 AM on February 14, 2006