Ok ladies and gentleman, this is a call to action of the most urgent kind. There is practically no data at all about any of the PMC or PSC salaries and benefit packages out there. We need to collect this information on one convenient and easy to access site, so everyone knows what everyone else is getting paid right now. The reason being, is that the companies and government will keep lowering salaries and expecting the little guys like us, to just accept it for the way it is. Pee shaw I say!
If everyone is armed with the knowledge of what everyone else is getting paid, then you have ammunition to negotiate salaries and benefit packages. As it stands now, there is no ‘push back’ to regulate these dropping salaries.
The question to ask is how much is your life worth in a war zone? How much is the life or property you are protecting worth in a war zone? If you are ok with mall cop salaries in war zones, then don’t do anything about it and just take it like a chump. Hell, work for free, because that will really make the companies happy!
But if you want to do something about it, then post your pay and benefits anonymously on Glassdoor.com, and get this knowledge passed around so everyone knows what is what.
There is a review section, and probably you should stay away from that. But if you feel it is appropriate, then review away. Just keep in mind, your non-disclosure agreements and OPSEC/PERSEC.
With company salaries and benefits, they post it on websites and job ads all the time. But what is not put up on these ads, is what you are really making and getting out there. So let’s give the companies and other contractors some ground truth and shared reality on this sucker.
The other reason I like Glassdoor, is that it is free to use, and way more organized than putting this information up on some forum. Over the years, there has been tons of information shared in casual conversation on the forums, but most of it is kind of lost or extremely difficult to find in the search features. And don’t even try going to wikipedia to learn anything about the companies, because that is vacant too. That’s too bad, because that kind of information could have helped a lot of folks who are just getting into this industry, or transferring from one company to another.
So pass this around, and get that information out there. It is anonymous, and posting salary info or benefit package info is not a violation of OPSEC or PERSEC. You are simply posting what the companies are currently offering as far as pay and benefits, and at that particular time. It is quick and easy to post that info, and let’s get it out there and keep it up to date!
Also, I am not affiliated at all with Glassdoor.com, and they are not paying me anything for this review and post. Glassdoor.com is a technology/website that makes sense, and if everyone gets on board with this, it will totally become a source of excellent information for the industry. That is my view on the whole deal.
By the way, I did notice a few DynCorp jobs and salaries posted. Let’s fill out the rest of the info on companies and make Glassdoor.com the place to rally at. –Matt
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What is Glassdoor.com?
Glassdoor.com is a career and workplace community where anyone can find and anonymously share salary details about specific jobs for specific employers or company and interview reviews describing life on the inside of an employer — all for free. What sets us apart is that all our information comes from the people who know these companies best — either the employees who work there or the candidates who have interviewed there. In the spirit of community, we ask our users to share with each other. That is, before you can access all of the information shared by others in the Glassdoor community, we first ask that you post an anonymous salary, company review or interview review of your own. By working together to offer an inside look at companies, we can open up access and bring greater transparency to information in one of the most important parts of our lives — our work.
How did we get here?
It was the summer of 2007, and Glassdoor.com co-founder Robert Hohman was busy taking time off after having left his position as president of Hotwire.com. His long-time friend Rich Barton called up with an interesting question:
“What would happen if someone left the unedited employee survey for the whole company on the printer and it got posted to the Web?”
The two had previously worked together at Microsoft and then Expedia, which Rich founded in 1994. Expedia ultimately transformed travel by opening up information once available only to travel agents and insiders. Rich then went on to transform real estate with the launch of Zillow.com, allowing anyone to find and research home values from their personal computer.
Robert and Rich contemplated why it’s so difficult to find helpful information about jobs and workplaces. Robert called on good friend Tim Besse and they expanded the survey concept to include salary details down to the job level and CEO approval ratings, just like politician approval ratings. And thus, Glassdoor was born to deliver new transparency to an incredibly important part of our lives — our work.
What Makes Us Different?
Glassdoor.com is the only site that provides a complete, real-time, inside look at what it’s really like to work and interview at a company — salaries, reviews, and ratings — for free. We’re still in the early stages, but Glassdoor is already providing what we think is very compelling information, including:
• Real-time salary/compensation details by title and company. We don’t roll-up our salary information by job category or by industry like many sites and sources. You can see details on salary, bonuses, commissions and more for titles within companies that you’ll immediately recognize. See exactly what a Software Engineer at Google or a QA Engineer at eBay makes. With information posted every day, users can be sure they’re seeing the latest.
• Detailed company reviews. See what employees on the inside really think with reviews and ratings that hit on the good, the bad, and a lot more in between. We encourage constructive feedback in our company reviews and ask respondents to provide “pros” and “cons”, along with “advice to senior management.” In addition, we also collect & calculate a real-time CEO approval percentage to provide a pulse of how employees think the CEO is doing at any given time.
• Insightful interview reviews. Allows anyone to get the inside scoop on a company’s interview and hiring process, including actual questions for any job or company. In addition, interview reviews provides a unique perspective into the overall experience and difficulty of an interview.
It’s all FREE. The only cost to see all this information on Glassdoor is to post an anonymous salary, company review, or interview review of your own. We’re using this “give to get” model to get started, and since it will only take a few minutes to complete and get access to what’s behind Glassdoor, we hope you’ll give it a try.
Why Glassdoor?
We were hoping the name was obvious, but just in case it needs some explanation — Glassdoor was selected because we’re helping people look inside a company, through the closed doors and office walls to get better insight into jobs and workplaces and the interview process to get there.
Learn More about Glassdoor
Whether you’re looking for a new job or you’re completely satisfied where you are – your work matters – and we want you to have all the information you need to make the most of your career. Anonymous salaries, company reviews, and interview questions and reviews for over 30,000 companies – all for free!
How do I see all salaries or reviews?
Glassdoor is completely free – there are no subscriptions or data fees. Instead we ask you to post a salary or review of your own to get access to all the salaries or reviews posted by the community.
So if you’re interested in seeing salaries, simply post an anonymous salary for your current or former job and you’ll get access to salaries for all companies. The same goes for reviews and interviews – simply post an anonymous review of your current or former employer or post an anonymous review of a recent interview experience, and you’ll get access to all reviews and interviews for any company.
How can this really be anonymous?
If you work at a small company or are the only one with your job title, you can post without giving us the information that may allow others to identify you. For example, when posting a salary you don’t even need to tell us your company (which means it will not appear on the site). And when you’re posting a review, we don’t require you to tell us your job title or location (i.e., your review can be from “anonymous”). That should allow you to post while still maintaining your anonymity.
How do you know the posts are really from employees?
Because all of our salaries and reviews are anonymous, we require all our users to verify their account via email before any of their posts are shared with the community. This verification allows us to put measures in place to identify any suspicious users or posts (even if those cases are the exception rather than the rule). These measures, combined with an active employee community and our commitment to review every post before it appears on the site, allow us to have the confidence that our information is really from employees. See for yourself, read a few reviews and you’ll see that those insights can only come from those on the inside.
Go here for to check it out.
Matt,
Good work raising this issue and looking out for the pay/salaries for the little guys who are doing all the heavy lifting.
Comment by Brett Bowen — Monday, March 12, 2012 @ 7:58 PM