Intel’s palpable desperation on display with Rocket Lake

Re:Intel’s palpable desperation on display with Rocket Lake by UncleOxidant on Friday November 06, 2020 @04:55PM (#25011553)

Yes on both counts. I was contacted a couple years back about a machine learning contracting gig. When I asked what the hourly rate was the recruiter said $45/hour. I laughed and said that the going rate for that kind of skill set is like $120+/hour. That has not been an isolated incident.

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Re:Intel’s palpable desperation on display with Rocket Lake by icelancer on Friday November 06, 2020 @04:57PM (#25011565)

>> $120+/hour

Even this would be a substantial discount for most qualified people.

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Re:Intel’s palpable desperation on display with Rocket Lake by PragmaticPulp on Friday November 06, 2020 @06:20PM (#25012067)

Given the company, it's usually long-term contracts that more closely resemble full-time employment. The location is also usually outside of the biggest, most expensive cities.

$120/hr * 40 hrs/wk * 50 wks/yr = $240K before self-employment taxes and paying for insurance. Ends up being comparable to typical compensation in cities that aren't SF, Seattle, or other top-tier markets.

Now if someone was doing more typical ad-hoc freelance work on a project basis, $120/hr might be too low for typical work. However, $90-120/hr as a contractor with a long-term contract and stable pay over 12-18 months is not uncommon.

Unless someone has a lot of new, small contracts knocking at their door nonstop, it can make more financial sense to take a $120/hr long-term contract over sporadic $200+/hr work that changes month to month.

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Re:Intel’s palpable desperation on display with Rocket Lake by RandomBK on Friday November 06, 2020 @09:38PM (#25012865)

Very true, though it'll depend on the seniority of the position.

$240K/yr, minus self-employment taxes, insurance, and other overhead, not to mention the lack of other non-monetary benefits and comp, is not a lot for someone doing serious machine learning.

I'd imagine that the type of specialized talent that Intel needs to catch up to AMD have plenty of options open to them. A comp strategy based on median industry comp might work to maintain their position, but probably won't churn out new industry-leading tech needed to jump ahead.

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Re:Intel’s palpable desperation on display with Rocket Lake by edoceo on Friday November 06, 2020 @05:57PM (#25011929)

I'm not qualified and get that rate

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Re:Intel’s palpable desperation on display with Rocket Lake by bigmattystyles on Friday November 06, 2020 @09:11PM (#25012786)

You would be surprised what you can get just by asking.

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Re:Intel’s palpable desperation on display with Rocket Lake by Spooky23 on Friday November 06, 2020 @11:21PM (#25013199)

For a contractor? You can do better than that making dashboards.

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Re:Intel’s palpable desperation on display with Rocket Lake by amelius on Friday November 06, 2020 @08:55PM (#25012724)

$120 is about a third of what my accountant charges per hour.

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Re:Intel’s palpable desperation on display with Rocket Lake by webmaven on Saturday November 07, 2020 @10:19AM (#25015535)

> $120 is about a third of what my accountant charges per hour.

Some professions typically require both a related degree and one or more certifications or licenses. Accounting is one of those (CPA, CMA, CFA, CISA, CIA, EA) and this ends up being reflected in the hourly rate.

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