The Utah State Fair is coming up. I love fairs, but going without Hubby is painful. I'm debating whether I'm up to going by myself this year, or I'll need to wait another year. I should drop comments among the people I do like around here to see their opinions about state fairs. I'm sure someone would be willing to go if I asked, but I don't want to drag someone around who's primarily doing it to be nice to the widow. I want someone who can stand in the animal barns and make lewd jokes about livestock.

On the plus side, I got a really nice charred flavor on my steak by searing it in a cast iron pan. Unfortunately, I forgot to put any oil and vinegar on my lettuce so my lunch is less than perfect.

So sorry Gud, it is a bad place to be, but you will get to the other side

I'm with Brenda entirely on the salary issue - at least when it comes to specific info on specific people. However if I am making moves to another company (or industry) the info available on glassdoor.com and other similar sites is crucial.

Yeah glassdoor.com can be helpful in figuring salary ranges for a company but only if people are willing to disclose. I always go to enter info and then chicken out because my job is so niche it would be easy to tell exactly what my salary is

My job isn't niche but I also didn't feel comfortable putting salary info in glassdoor. I think just because salary disclosure is such a weird thing here (in this country, I mean). I should go in there now and post it, though, since I've left the company!

Now that I've been looking for a job it's interesting what kind of salary information different places reveal in their listings. Mostly it's just a generic "commensurate with qualifications" but some places give very specific salary range info, Hopkins, for example, which is a huge employer here.

If I ever get to the salary negotiation point (it could happen!), it's going to be weird for me because, for the most part, I'm looking at jobs that will likely pay way less than I was making at my job before I left. I'm looking at moving to the non-profit sector and there is just no way the salary will be comparable. Which I'm totally fine with; I wouldn't be looking at those jobs if that wasn't the case.

I just did a 5 minute phone screen with a guy who is making way more than we can offer for the job he applied for, and that's nonprofit to nonprofit. BUT if I got the real promotion, there might be a job he'd be more interested in. I guess I can't mention that, just have to confirm that we can't do better than what I said on the phone.

If I ever get to the salary negotiation point (it could happen!), it's going to be weird for me because, for the most part, I'm looking at jobs that will likely pay way less than I was making at my job before I left. I'm looking at moving to the non-profit sector and there is just no way the salary will be comparable. Which I'm totally fine with; I wouldn't be looking at those jobs if that wasn't the case.

If you're filling out online applications that require past salaries, I'd just be sure to say in your cover letter that you know salary ranges differ between sectors. Or something else that doesn't either (a) undersell yourself up front or (b) make them think you need to match your past salary.

If you're filling out online applications that require past salaries, I'd just be sure to say in your cover letter that you know salary ranges differ between sectors. Or something else that doesn't either (a) undersell yourself up front or (b) make them think you need to match your past salary.

Thanks, Jesse! That totally makes sense. I've been meaning to ask you for job search advice!

When one of the guys in our group moved to a different group he told us he got a 20% bump in salary. And, you know, glad for him, but kinda resentful that this other group apparently just makes more than us as a matter of course. It's not obvious as to why that should be.

When I moved to a new role, I was told that there was never any circumstance where someone working here got more than a 10% raise, no matter how much of a promotion they recieved. Which I found interesting, because I had TWICE received a raise of more than 10%, both times when they thought I was going to leave.

My department treats salaries as closely-held secrets of state, but the company has a fairly transparent policy, or it seems so by comparison. Salary ranges for all the salary bands are posted on the internal website, and every year at review we're told our "compa ratio" which gives where our current salary falls within the range. (I think my boss is really proud of herself for knowing what the ratio means and how to compute it.) If our ratio goes much over 1.0 they promote us or make a title/position for us; they don't like having people paid outside their salary range. Two months after I was hired here I got a surprise raise of a couple K, and I suspect it was because they'd hired me at below the range.