Salary question - new position for PhD with a consulting firm

March 20, 2016 1:32 AM

My part-time research job with a boutique consulting firm has the opportunity to become a full-time job this summer. It will be a new position with the firm, and I've been out of industry for kind of while. What in the world should I ask for in terms of salary?

I am finishing (good lord willing) a PhD in a social sciences field in May. I am an older student (40+) with two children and had about a decade of post-master's work experience before I entered the doctoral program. My work experience wasn't exactly the same as this gig - but similar.

Since last June I have been working part-time at a boutique business development firm doing some fairly specialized research for them. They are small (around 15 FTE with some freelance consultants they pull in as needed). I am the third "research person" they have on staff. One has a master's degree (in my field) and has been with the firm for about 15 years and does ALL THE THINGS really well. There is also a 20-something research person with a BA who has been there for a few years - she is also outstanding. I am fortunately (and unexpectedly) really well-liked by our president and CEO. She calls me in on special projects when she's having trouble and I'm her "concierge researcher" for a lot of things. She's pretty high-maintenance, in typical CEO fashion, but we work together well and I like her.

But now they are looking to develop a line of "research only" services and have offered me a full-time position to help them do that. I'd be working the other two research people fairly closely - I expect it would be a position on par with the existing senior researcher, offloading some of his duties and getting me to develop some new things. I would probably wind up supervising some part-time student interns and possibly the junior researcher.

My heart is in the academic/non-profit sector - but jobs are scarce there and my doctoral program (and adviser) are not really opening any doors for me in a super-competitive academic job market. (Our program is kind of on the skids and shedding any faculty who have better options.) Spending a year this job, while adjunct-ing at my current institution and getting a couple articles out the door *might* make me a stronger academic candidate in a year. But I understand being "in industry" might make it hard to for me to find a real academic TT job later - it's a risk, I know.

My boss knows about my desire to ultimately be in higher ed but said she'd "be glad to have me as long as I can be there."

But my actual question (I DO have one) is about salary. I expect they will ask me to name a figure when we sit down and discuss this job in a couple weeks. Relevant financial details are:

*I am making $25/hour in the part-time gig. Which is low, but the schedule flexibility was worth it to me as I finish my dissertation (as a single parent).
*We are in a metro area in Texas with a fairly low cost of living, but my housing costs are around $1900/month.
*Our clients (we have around 15-20) are large corporations who typically pay around $5k - $10k /month retainer for consulting services. Research-only is cheaper, but I'm not sure by how much.
*Business is pretty good, but some new legislation in Texas has made some elements of the consulting we do more tightly regulated - hence the increased attention to developing the research end of the business.
*I'm pretty sure there are standard benefits - health/dental.
*I am willing to go lower on salary in exchange for more paid time off (or unpaid, even) if that is an option - kids, again. They are 9 and 12.
*I was thinking of asking $80k...?

TL;DR - what would a PhD with about 10 years of experience expect to make in a new research position in a small consulting firm?

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (3 answers total)

In my area, unless it's primarily a statistician position, it would be between $60-$80,000. That would include good insurance (in a state with expensive health insurance), some form of retirement, and generous paid time off.
posted by metasarah at 4:33 AM on March 20, 2016

What is their billing rate for the senior researcher? That's about what they will be able to charge for your time, and you should be able to back off from that to get an idea of what kind of salary is possible. (The billing rate has to include compensation, company profit, overhead and marketing, and so on, so there is more room for compensation in a billing rate of $150/hr than in one of $60/hr.)

It's also often possible to find approximate salary numbers for comparable positions at larger firms, either from job ads or from sites like glassdoor, which can help give a range.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:51 AM on March 20, 2016

I used to be a principal in a medium sized consulting firm (> 500 people). Couple of things I'll point out here for you. One, in a consulting firm your primary expense is people and you'll be pretty tuned in to how a salary is going to impact your profit/loss. As Dip Flash said, the bill rate determines revenue. Utilization is never 100%, so I would amend Dip Flash's math to say the top line revenue is more like bill rate * 2000 hours * 80% utilization. They'll know all of those numbers when they sit down with you. Second, for a small firm working out of one location, the salaries could skew high or low from industry averages. They probably won't be doing any elaborate salary benchmarking, because they'll be too busy just running the business. What will be more important - assuming P & L is squared away - is that they don't create drama in the firm by paying someone significantly more than comparable positions. That knife cuts the other way too - it isn't in their long term interest to low ball you, either.

While they might ask you to "name a figure", that is kind of a jerk move. For all of the reasons enumerated above, they already have a range in mind, and it is going to be tricky for you to pick a number in that range. If you guess high, it is going to be an awkward negotiation. There is no telling what they'll do, but the best strategy for them is to go first and give you a number at the low end of a range that is consistent with what others are making who have similar responsibilities. When I say range, I'm thinking about something like $10K to $15K. That gives them a little cushion for getting the new "research only" offering off the ground and room to give you a raise or two down the road. If you believe them to be reasonable and pragmatic people, I would deflect if they ask you to go first. When they do name a number, I would suggest something about $10K higher and see if you can meet in the middle. You can also choose to negotiate for things besides direct compensation (variable compensation - if it exists, vacation time, date of first salary review), but that is probably another question. Good luck!
posted by kovacs at 6:33 AM on March 20, 2016 [3 favorites]