So, I am currently a scholarship student (but ok, it's kinda like work), and then I am curious whether I can expect it grow by 50% after I start looking as a PhD graduate (i.e., 10% salary growth per year over 4 years of study => inflation cover + expertise markup). I'd expect an answer "it's too much", but I'd still like to get to a position that would acknowledge the hard work and thus adjust accordingly.
**1. PERSONALIA**
* Age: **28**
* Education: **Two master's in MIS and SE with distinction**
* Work experience : **2 YEARS ON THE JOB**
* Civil status: **Married**
* Dependent people/children: **1**
**2. EMPLOYER PROFILE**
* Sector/Industry: **Academia, IT**
* Amount of employees: **Large Uni**
* Multinational? **YES**
**3. CONTRACT & CONDITIONS**
* Current job title: **Doctoral Student**
* Job description: **Doing academic research in IT**
* Seniority: **2 YEARS of PhD**
* Official hours/week : **9-5, I suppose...?**
* Average real hours/week incl. overtime: **I calculate my "real" time, and it's about 2-3 hours of "focused" work, where I actually write, think, watch lectures, etc.**
* Shiftwork or 9 to 5 (flexible?): **Flexible hours, usually I prefer evening work**
* On-call duty: **Idk what is this**
* Vacation days/year: **officially: about 1 month, but realistically I can have 3-4 months of vacation**
**4. SALARY**
* Gross salary/month: **NONE (Scohlarship)**
* Net salary/month: **2563 EURO**
* Netto compensation: **Idk what is this**
* Mobility budget/car/bike/...: **50e (mobility) + all travel expenses**
* 13th month (full? partial?): **Partial 13th month (like 80%) + summer salary of about 40%**
* Meal vouchers: **None (only during conference trips)**
* Ecocheques: **280 EURO/YEAR**
* Group insurance: **I think none (only partena)**
* Other insurances: **none**
* Other benefits (bonuses, stocks options, ... ): **Conference trips paid, about 2-4 times a year. Can take my spouse and save on hotels + have x2 meals compensated**
**5. MOBILITY**
* City/region of work: **Brussels**
* Distance home-work: **About 10 mins by metro**
* How do you commute? **Metro, but usually I prefer stay at home**
* How is the travel home-work compensated: **Extra bonus for home office, about 10-30e per month (included in scholarship)**
* Telework days/week: **About all of them, but some periods can include me coming to the uni**
**6. OTHER**
* How easily can you plan a day off: **Fully flexible, but some days can include me being involved in the meetings (which I also plan according to my schedule)**
* Is your job stressful? **It's stressful in a way that I want often to overwork, so I have to force myself to stop working. 2-3 hours on average I mentioned before is the absolute average, where I also travelled (urgently), etc. I aim to have 6 hour weeks, but given my Pomodoro-based full focus (no social media, no nothing), it can become quite strenous, and I feel the cognitive overload, so my "dopmaine levels" can get quite low.**
* Responsible for personnel (reports): **Only sometimes students to supervise**
So yeah, the expected salary after graduation -> ~3500 euros net (after tax). I feel like that's the salary of ~Sr. Developers or managers, yeah. Plus, it's not like they are allowed for a flexible schedule, a lot of free reign in the direction they take. I am kind of borderline on the # of working hours: based off what I know, there are only about 2-3 ultradian cycles of 1.5 hours, where you can *really* do the work (not pretend by sitting). However, the hard work hustle culture sometimes makes me doubt if I am just lazy. Doesn't seem so in terms of the output of the article, where I seem to be producing about twice/thrice the average amount (i.e., ~4-5 articles per year in first/second quartile journals, compared to an average of 1-2).
But I want to base off the current status, using ~10% growth per year. And frankly, given my spending, it's really too little for me (and my wife, who doesn't share in the apartment). Realistically, I am living sometimes (off savings) for 5k euros, and that's just me being not very "wise in my money", yeah, but to live comfortably, I'd need about 4-5k, net. That's like 10k gross in Belgium taxes ?
So at one hand I feel a bit too arrogant, but at another I don't feel like I am *really* like swimming in cash. So, I was thinking to get a little bit of a "freelance side" (given that prior to PhD and 2 master's, I had 3 years of experience), add some marketing/sales, get exposure, and then to set the prices for the expertise at that level. My wife was offered a Dubai position for around 4-5k of USD, and she's CMO, in startups, has been into "freelance marketing", made as a scene producer in an indie film. So, Asia, Dubai, Latin America, EE - countries that can potentially be "sold" the "Western Europe experience". But these are just the surface-level ideas.
P.S. I am a non-EU national (of a kind of 3rd world country, so visa/permit required). Does it affect salary proposals, realistically?