Oh, the Irony!

I want nothing more than to leave my current job and return to Phoenix. Unfortunately the job market in Phoenix seems not to be doing so well, at least as measured by the sad trickle of new jobs appearing in my various key-word searching RSS aggregators. I'm lucky if I send my resume out more than twice a week, lately. I recently put my father's Mesa address and phone number on my resume, which has at least significantly improved response percentages. Still, given the situation I am seriously considering taking any remotely relevant job, even one that pays significantly less than I'm making now.

Meanwhile my current employers recently offered me a promotion. I told them I'd think about it. Then I did some research as to what the local market rate is for the position and discovered that in spite of a recent $18K jump in salary they'd have to pay me an additional $15K/year to bring me up to "average" - and in fact my current salary is below the bottom of the ranges provided by Payscale.com and Salary.com! Since my employers hadn't actually specified a number in the informal offer I sent an email detailing my findings and suggesting that providing a formal offer and naming an actual amount might help me with my decision.

The funny thing is that if they do agree to compensate me at market rate then I think I'll be disappointed, because it will make it a lot harder to feel good about moving back to Phoenix and taking a lower-paying job.