Apparently Barbara calls Bill "son".

Seriously? That's...I have no words.

So, like, what kind of raises are folks in the IT industry getting?

I'm not industry, really (I am, but I'm subcontracted to academia on the east coast, so who the hell knows).... With the exception of one really bad year for everyone (I think the best raise for super-duper-saving-the-world type work was a merit raise of 3% that go around), it is usually 4-5%. I don't know about this year, but considering the budget cuts, it might be another 1.5% year. If I get one at all.

I still sometimes call art history terms by their Spanish equivalents, because I never learned the English (actually, Italian) words for them.

what I think of when I'm thinking princess waist

That woman looks way too orgasmic to wear white to her wedding.

I would be more willing to agree that's a princess waist if that image weren't a strapless dress, but in the main I don't disagree. (Although you can wear a strapless dress that doesn't have that kind of seams, I don't think I recommend it.) The point, in my mind, was that a princess waist and an empire waist both cinch directly below the bust (horizontally or vertically). After which they generally do go on to do different things.

(I think that actual Empire empire waists are the ones that are shapeless sacks from the bustline down, or anyway so I'm led to believe from Jan Austen movies. I have a very nice modern empire-waisted dress that also shows hips, although moreso since I took a sewing machine to it.)

And if I ever had clothes tailored (aside from my own half-assed attempts), I would probably (a) look way hotter than I do and (b) be a lot less muddled in the conversation.

Maybe that's because the terminology was being defined by the teacher?

No, because if there had been terminology, I wouldn't be asking all these dumb questions. I just don't think it came up.

Raises? I've been in this job three years, and have had about a 15-20% cumulative raise, but that includes a promotion.

So, like, what kind of raises are folks in the IT industry getting?

Raise? So far, every job I've had has been:

• Get hired at a certain salary.
• After a year or two, get a sizeable raise when they realize I'm not an idiot.
• From there on out, tiny COLA adjustments.
• Get a new job at a much higher salary.

Apparently Barbara calls Bill "son".

That sound you heard? My jaw crashing into the floor.

boggles

4 Get a new job at a much higher salary.

Apparantly I've been forgetting this step.

Hmm... I wonder if I qualify to be a DBA, considering all my Access, SQL Server, MySQL and Oracle experience....

At this point, I think my work experience compensated for my lack of an CS/IS degree.

DH hasn't gotten his raise for this year, yet (7 years at the same company as of Wednesday, it's pretty amazing), but he's rarely in line with the rest of the industry, anyway. It'll be interesting to see how being in the middle of audits and investigations will affect employee compensation, though. If they're smart, they'll pay him a bunch of money so he doesn't bail and let them clean up their mess without him.

At this point, I think my work experience compensated for my lack of an CS/IS degree.

Do you have industry certifications?

Do you have industry certifications?

Fuck, no.

Yes, I realize those would help. For some reason I tend to be lazy when it comes to planning my career path.

Maybe I can talk my bosses into sending me to SQL Server class, and then I can get certified afterwards.