is genius / creative salary usable?

[moshpitwookie]

Hi all

Doing some research it seems that the Mac Genius and/or Creatives earn about $17/hour or roughly $3000/month.

What can this actually buy? I am looking to work in the US for a bit in the New England area (coming from South Africa). Would this salary enable me to rent a place, get groceries, buy a second hand vehicle etc?

Or would I be scraping through every month. I have no kids or anything like that right now.

Thanks a lot, cheers

 

[fireshot91]

Lets put it this way, teachers (Most) earn about $45,000 a year, starting.

They are still in the medium range, and most live in apartments.
All of my teachers drive used Hondas/Toyotas, or cars like that (Not saying that's bad), and most just make it month to month.

EDIT: Here, in VA/DC area, we rented our townhouse for $1500 a month. It was a 3 bed, 2 and a half bath, fully furnished basement.

 

[iGary]

In New England, you'd be scraping.

 

[Foxglove9]

Definitely scraping and tightening of the belt.

 

[moshpitwookie]

much appreciated - thanks.

i guess i'll need to maybe have a look at something else. here in SA our reseller store has callout technicians that go to companies and provide server maintenance etc. who does that in the US? that would most likely be a better place to start looking. here at our store we also provide a far superior training experience than the "official face of apple" , but i guess in terms of the iLife / iWork / Mac OS stuff there wouldn't really be much scope seeing as Apple seem to have that covered in retail stores? or is there?

 

[fireshot91]

If you're in Networking, you can maybe apply to a private company as their IT guy.

That'd get you a lot of money.

 

[moshpitwookie]

yeah that would be decent, except i fear the Windoze like a plague. even customers with parallels give me nightmares.

my ideal job would probably be working as IT in a school environment. Even down here there are quite a few schools where Macs are being used as part of the curriculum and it's really awesome to see!

 

[iowamensan]

yeah that would be decent, except i fear the Windoze like a plague. even customers with parallels give me nightmares.

my ideal job would probably be working as IT in a school environment. Even down here there are quite a few schools where Macs are being used as part of the curriculum and it's really awesome to see!

I guess I have your ideal job then... IT in an all-Mac public school

 

[question fear]

Depends heavily on where you are in New England too...

If you are out in Western MA, you will live far more comfortably on 3k a month than in Boston...any area of Boston or the suburbs are going to be tight.

Unless you have roommates to share the expense, etc.

 

[IntheNet]

Hi all

Doing some research it seems that the Mac Genius and/or Creatives earn about $17/hour or roughly $3000/month.

What can this actually buy? I am looking to work in the US for a bit in the New England area (coming from South Africa). Would this salary enable me to rent a place, get groceries, buy a second hand vehicle etc?

Or would I be scraping through every month. I have no kids or anything like that right now.

Thanks a lot, cheers

moshpitwookie: A bit of explanation... US 17$/hour is not a very high salary; what you cite - "roughly $3000/month" (assumed to be before taxes) - generally equates to around $36,000, which in most urban and suburban locales would mean barely scraping by and certainly hard to make it assuming you wanted to make a decent living doing it alone. Many of the "Mac Genius" folks you reference (those I have spoke to anyway) are working two jobs and although some are genuine and reputable resources for expert technical advise on Apple equipment, some, regrettably have been given the bare minimum training and very much show their inexperience at the Genius Bar. I've been unlucky here I guess. Though unfair to categorize all at Genius Bar professionals with this label, some, I have found, have no real training to be doing what they do... So I guess the "US $17/hour" is what you pay for. Private IT support from professionals will generally cost you 3-4 times this.

Very often skilled IT experts with demonstrated network and/or IT degrees are grabbed by private consulting firms and their starting salary is often in excess of US $35/hr (above $90K annual) and that would be a better avenue of pursuit, however because of demand these professionals focus on Unix and/or Microsoft OS as opposed to the relative low focus on Apple OS.

Good luck regardless...

 

[Zombie Acorn]

People survive on less than 3000 a month.

 

[timerollson]

That's not $3000. It's around $2700+. Less than that when you calculate taxes into your check.