New to FM, A Few Job Questions...

[tjwett]

hi all, this my first post here, hope it's in the right spot. i am currently working in the NYC area as an independent Macintosh tech/consultant/tutor/whatever-work-i-can-get guy. as many know the job situation here is pretty awful. so i've decided to add to my skills and hopefully make myself more useful and attract some new clients. i think the ability to provide solutions as well as support is a step in the right direction so i'm buckling down and teaching myself AppleScript and FileMaker Pro, for starters. my questions are:

-what can i look forward to as a new FileMaker engineer looking for work, even an entry-level position with a company?

-is there any area of the country where there happens to be an abundance of FM jobs, for whatever reason?

-how does being a beginner FM engineer pay?

-ever hear of any internships at a FM-based company, paid or not?

-any other tips or info?

i know these are pretty vague and relative to where/who you are but i'd appreciate and general info at all.

thanks. and i'll see you around the forum.

[stanley]

Hi there:

Writing from Brooklyn, I can confirm that the situation here in NYC is pretty dire. I have managed to land only one new account in the last ten months, and that's at way below my normal rate, just to try to pay the rent. If you look on Monster.com or dice.com, you'll see some FileMaker jobs out west, in Seattle, Portland, SF, etc., and some in Chicago, but not much in the east. I know some companies try to save a few bucks by getting interns to do FM work - my only new client is an example, and the intern botched the job - but I don't know of anything specific.

The most important thing is to read some books, try some things out, and see if you can solve some of the problems posted here, as they are the same things you'll run into when you're out there creating solutions yourself.

Once you've got your chops down on FileMaker, you could always post on craigslist or something like that, to see if anyone is looking for an FM intern.

Just for reference, back around 18 months ago, I could demand $90-$100 per hour for FM work here in the city. Now I'm lucky if I can get $45 per hour.

Good luck.

-Stanley

[tjwett]

hey stanley,

things are rough here indeed. i actually had to leave brooklyn (park slope, williamsburg before that) and come back to long island to get on my feet again. man, i remember when i moved out to seattle during the hay day when you could get 50k a year for HTML coding. and now i look at craigslist and see ads like "UNIX guru proficient in Python, SQL, Photoshop, Flash, and DOS prompt needed to rebuild Amazon.com in one week. must speak fluent Manganese. Pay $7.50/Hour." it's getting rough out there. best of luck, to us all!

[stanley]

No sooner did I read your post than I get an email out of the blue from a company in NYC asking me to come in and quote them on what sounds like a pretty substantial job, so maybe there's more out there than my not-too optimistic last post might have indicated.

Maybe the luck will spread.

-Stanley

[tjwett]

Awesome! I hope it all goes well. And I may try to find you this board again in the future. I might have some questions about pricing jobs later down (way down the road) the road and it'd be good to get some info from someone working locally. Again, best of luck!

cheers,

-tj

[stanley]

TJ:

Any time.

-Stanley