ITSEC is possibly one of the worst times of the year and easily one of the worst events in my career.  It’s a time for business men to work their chop and stomp the yard for any year-end scraps of cash and possible leads on money for the next year.  It’s where all the used car salesmen of this industry get together and trade business cards in hopes of extracting slivers of funds from each other.  (more…)

So I got my evaluation today by my employer.  It was “fair”, but not even close to what I was expecting.  I took on a lot of responsibilities this year and there is even more waiting for me in the new year.  After dealing with mountains of government paperwork, and being responsible for multiple concurrent projects, and somehow still being expected to code, while traveling, and dealing with redundant status reports and meetings, I managed to do it all for what amounted to a “fair” annual adjustment but not a raise by any standard.  That was pretty disappointing…

Given the current state of the industry, it’s hard to say what anyone is worth anymore, but after a year like the one I had, I know I am worth more than this. =(  Oh well, I make enough to live on, but I am definitely starting to scratch at the glass ceiling resting comfortably at arms length with this employer.  It might be a good time to start thinking about my future.  I do like that work schedules are very flexible here and it gives me time to focus on Inland Studios, but I have to stop and really think if I’m okay with my current salary or if it’s time to move on to a company that can afford me.  Tough call; it’s going to be an interesting year I think.

Maybe I’ll do more research into job descriptions and propose a new salary that compliments my responsibilities, but I hate to haggle over salaries; it’s so petty and any employer should just put their best offer on the table and stop the used car salesman tactics.  Who knows.  With the drop in the recent markets, maybe it was a fair raise.