If you are an employer on the Central Coast who is currently looking to hire an employee, I have some tips for you regarding your expectations.
1. A salary of $35,000 a year for a project manager position -- regardless of the industry -- was acceptable back in 1992. It is not acceptable anymore. If you plan on hiring a college-educated, experienced project manager to run your affairs, you will not find one for that amount of money.
2. If you are putting the expression "master's degree preferred" in your want ad, you had best not be offering $12.00 an hour for the position.
3. Don't offer $10.00 an hour to a college-educated person for any position. Ever. Just don't.
What employers in this area need to understand is that they are driving away qualified employees with these insulting job postings. No one with education and experience is going to accept a position for the amount of pay that employers are offering here. What is going to happen, is that the folks who are talented and smart are going to leave the Central Coast and move to places where they will be paid properly for their skills, because nice weather simply does not make up for a lack of professional opportunity.
There's a reason there are so few people living on the Central Coast, while places like Chicago (where the weather is pretty nasty most the time) boast enormous populations. The Central Coast needs to get over itself in a big way. Yes, it's pretty. So what? Sunshine does not pay bills.
So here's the lesson to learn here Central Coast employers: Pay people what they are worth, or you won't have any worthy people left to pay.
