Calculate how much the benefits are worth over the month and add that into the pay -- if they're going to pay full medical and dental (and depending on your situation -- you need some serious work done on your teeth or have a high prescription bill), it might be worth it.

It's pretty awful pay for most of the country, but what's the cost of living in Anchorage like?

Cost of living is high - average 1br apartment is about $800. My rent is $700. Car (Subaru) insurance is cheap - about $600 a year.

The benefits will cost me $164. a month - no dental. Ironic, since the only medical care I need is dental work.

Can you relocate? Maybe you could find something more lucrative somewhere else. Alternatively, you could take the job to tide you over until you find something better, either in Anchorage or elsewhere.

If a 1br averages to $800 the job market should probably support a little more than $14/hr for junior professional work, but not much. Take the job on the condition that you won't do any unpaid overtime so that you can freelance on the side to make ends meet, and then in a year or two go job hunting with a bigger portfolio and full-time professional experience on your side.

James has an excellent point that I wish I had made: the bennies sure don't make up much, unfortunately.

The standard of living is pretty high here in Calgary -- 1 br are going for around $1,000, and car insurance would be probably $3,000 (I'm assuming you're in your twenties) -- yet there are still a few places that are only willing to pay $11-14 for junior designers.

Needless to say, they're having a hard time filling those jobs. ;-)

Good advice, jpad. Does it change if I tell you it's an overnight shift? My hours would be 9pm to 5am. I'm a night person ... but that's extreme, even for me.

There is no way this job will produce portfolio work - I'll be laying out classified ads, for the most part.

Mostly, I hate the old software; I feel like it will hinder my progress as a designer, not help. Does anyone on the planet still use PageMaker?

AK

Lousy pay, boring mind-numbing repetitive work, no prospects, obsolete software.

Hmmm..... it doesn't have a lot going for it. Get the hell out of Dodge. Find a job where there at least the prospect of interesting work. You're probably too young to be stuck in a rut.

BTW, it's not the software that will hinder your progress, it's all of the above.

Nick Cooke

Thanks, Nick. I think you're right. I could work in retail for the same pay and benefits!

I'm not too young to be stuck in a rut - I'm too old. I'm 37. My first degree in 1992 was in Photography, second in 2004; Multimedia Graphic Design.

AK

This isn't a design job, it's a production composition job, which is why the pay stinks.

I'm with Dan—look at getting out of Anchorage and go somewhere there are more design jobs.

It depends on:

- where you live
- what your skill set is
- how bad you need/want the job

That said...night shift? No portfolio pieces? Pagemaker? Sounds like hell. ;o)

> The standard of living is pretty high here in Calgary

And if I hear correctly, you can get nearly $14 an hour sweeping floors.

I think $14 is junior money in Canada (remember, our dollar is only 80% of the US one). In Toronto it would be starvation wages, but in rural or small cities it would be a going rate.

It might be a good thing to do for a year or so as a stepping stone. Some places won't put much value on freelancing on a resume.

The pay seems very low for a night shift position... And no dental benefits!?

If freelancing pays better, stick to that for now...

I grew up in Anchorage. Besides wanting to get out of there (weather, darkness, ice, etc.) there aren't a whole lot of options for designers, at least when I left in '95. (There were a few agencies, and a few small design firms...)

The upside of being in a smaller market is if you can get enough clients, freelancing is way more lucrative, and there's not as much competition up there. If you want to do design work, this is not the job to take. If money is tight, get another part time job to supplement your freelance until it picks up. Good luck...

L: The standard of living is pretty high here in Calgary

D: And if I hear correctly, you can get nearly $14 an hour sweeping floors.

Well, not quite. Our local bottle shop pays $11 to start, and the Blockbuster vid kitty-corner from them pays $9.50.

That being said, I had an errand to run in one of our "with-it" neighbourhoods (Inglewood), and where one of the stylish furn shops was looking to hire part-time.

(I'd like something like that these days, to provide a little more steady an income and, more importantly, get me out of the house a bit, as it's one of the few things I do hate about freelancing.)

So I took a toodle through the shop, attired in a reasonably clean pair of jeans and fairly trendy jacket, discovering that they charge out their designers at $85/hour (with a "free" hour if you buy $500 or more in product), but only paying $15 to staff. Did I drop off my résumé? hahahahahahahahaha

(And they even had a dress code of tailored black pants, high heels, and white blouse!)

How terribly stylish....

You guys have convinced me it's not worth giving up my nights for. When I really thought about what my lifestyle would be like working until 5am ...... no more long dinners with great wine and funny friends, no late movies, no frolicking in the midnight sun this summer.

It's different to work nights and still be able to go out afterwards for a beer with co-workers - but this job will kill the only time of day I look forward to.

Oh, and BTW, I love the cold, the snow and ice fog, and yes, even the darkness. Anchorage is all stars, northern lights and five-hour long glowing pink sunsets in the winter. Gorgeous.

Thanks for the advice, gang.

AK