I am asking for some help from you people in an area I am about to enter.
I have been a white collar worker for the last 18 years. I made 83K when I got laid off.
I have always been working on metalworking items for my own use, making gates, fencing and other blacksmithing and welding projects.
I have been laid off due to company sell out for 5 months now and collecting unemployment of $318/week, take home of $1080 per month. And I HATE being unemployed but have not found another job after some very spirited searching.
I now have arranged an interview with a company. It is an entirely different kind of work. The work, for me, seems easy enough to adapt to. It will be a Foreman type job in a fencing company. It will consist of getting orders together and assuring the materials are loaded onto trailers for the field people to take to the site and install. There will be management responsibilities of hiring and firing the field workers. There will be determining the materials requirements and getting them loaded. There will be some travel (driving) to job sites. And I am sure there will be some other responsibilities that I am unaware of at this time. Not all that different from things I have done in the past. The "Work" is something I have no doubts about doing, the management of people and the ordering and arranging work is second nature to me.
My real question here is salary. It has been said by many people that to change careers you should expect a 50% pay cut. I can handle a 50% pay cut without any problems I can handle a 75% cut without too much stress. The problem comes in at looking at the business that has the opening. It is a single owner company, located outside of a small town with maybe 15-20 employees. They do seem busy all the time. A
50% paycut for me would be $40/hr. I am not sure what a company like this would pay a position like this. I do not want to tell them I want $40/hr and have them freak out since they expected to pay a lot less. But as usual, I want the highest pay I can get.Can anyone here tell me what I should expect as a salary for a position of this type? I would like to get a feel for the range so I can negotiate more effectively. I can the negotiate higher salery if insurance is not provided or less if it is, etc......
I would be happy to hear from anyone that can shed some light on this topic.
Thanks,
Bob