Andy;

Experience is important and the needs of your organization must be taken into consideration. Does this individual bring knowledge that is important to you? Call it what you will, Client/Server, File/Server, Desktop, Multi User, Web or whatever. I have met many Visual Basic programmers who have no multi user experience – in fact some do not know how to handle data. They can easily make $70k a year. Very often in a corporate environment teams of individuals specialize in one aspect of programming. Outside of the specific corporate environment mentionen such individuals have little value. Also, they are not required or allowed to learn and contribute additional fields of development. When the job is over you are dead meat. I avoid such companies. With the Visual FoxPro teams I have worked with, there will be many knowledgeable individuals who can do an entire application by themselves.

Unless the individual you have described is unique to your organization I would suggest he might be better placed as a junior programmer/developer. Depending upon location (I am in Silicon Valley), such individuals receive about $45k a year. A senior programmer will receive about $80k annually. Senior does not go by age or how many years you did the same thing but by overall experience.

Now when it comes to .COM companies, they pay people with no experience $120k a year as DBA’s, as long as they have no experience. All is well until funding runs out and you have to show progress.

To me there are two sides to this story, the company and the individual. You should hire someone who has a degree of experience required for the job, is able to get along with others and learn new things. If you hire someone that has done it all such an individual will be burned out very quickly. At the same time the company has to be a place worth working at. Just because a company has a job opening does not mean anyone in his/her right mind would work there.

Tom