Re: Southern California position addendum

[LRGreger@aol.com]

In a message dated 97-08-01 20:05:26 EDT, you write:

<< I write personally because I am curious.
 
 How can your company expect to get a qualified HP with an MS for the
 30s,
 and in Southern California, no less?
 
 Louis Iselin
  >>
I appreciate your interest and question.  I'm by no means an expert on
salaries for HP's.  I did, however, find online an article entitled Labor
Market Trends for Health Physicists Through 2000 put together by the Oak
Ridge Institute for Science and Education in August 1995.  It indicates that
average starting salaries for entry level HP's at the end of 1994 were $34k
for BS graduates and $37.7k for MS graduates (with only a one hundred dollar
increase over 1992 salaries).

Based on that information, it seemed that mid 30's for a BS and high 30's for
an MS might be appropriate.  Granted, I might be wrong.

Concerning your second objection, I recently moved to S. Calif. from the
midwest (Chicago) and find that the cost of living here is no higher than it
was in Chicago.  The high cost of auto registration and insurance here is
offset by the low cost of heating, and due to the low humidity, I find that I
ran my air conditioner more in Chicago than I do here.  Housing costs are
comparable, as long as you don't live in Beverly Hills etc.

Besides, have you ever tried to hire someone who didn't grow up in the
northern snow and urban belt into that area?  I did for many years and found
it to be quite difficult.

I'm looking for someone who is smart, recently degreed (hopefully in HP), and
who wants to be immersed in all the aspects of an HP program to learn and
then choose to stay or possibly move on to an RSO job.  I truly believe that
the experience gained at IPL in a few years will be immense, greater than any
other position of which I'm aware.  Being a manufacturer of alpha, beta,
gamma, and neutron sources, we are involved in all aspects of an HP program,
and only have a professional staff of two.  So obviously, we're both
intimately involved in all aspects of the program.

Have I sold you yet?  Seriously, I do think that it's a great opportunity to
learn HP for someone getting started out, even if they have to put up with
living in S. California.

Robert Greger
LRGreger@aol.com