Hi BD,
"Most are extremely underpaid, expecting any overtime to be covered without pay and the projects are quite mundane and extremely cost driven."
Working in the US may not be for you
In all seriousness, it's tough starting out. Work is pretty much all-consuming no matter what you try to do about it, so I would concentrate more on the quality of the work and what you will learn and less about time and pay starting out. Pay will work itself out. I started in advertising at a major agency and our standard joke was we were getting paid about $5 per hour.
I gather the economy in Ireland is still stalled?
Good luck with the search.