What was your entry level salary like at your very first IT position.

I hope this isn't a double post, my first post seemed to vanish without a trace. Just trying to see what others IT paths have been like, since I plan to enter the field soon.

What was your entry level salary, at your very first IT position? And what position was it.

What type of schooling or certs did you have, and how long ago? How quickly were you able to move up?

Thanks.

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Comments

CIO

First IT Position: In-store Geeksquad Agent
Pay: $13.25
Education: High School Senior
Certifications: None
Experience: None

Cisco Inferno

First IT Position: IT Support Technician for a Wall St Brokerage Firm
Pay: $11 with a raise to $12 after two months
Education: One semester of College
Certifications: A+, N+
Experience: NONE

Elitis

This thread is making me depressed. I can't even get Staples to call me back, and some of you were making $15/hr at your first IT jobs with no certifications or degrees. Well, at least I know I'm headed in the right direction with Networking and Security.

Talonize

Tell me about it lol

devils_haircut

My first real gig was a 90-day contract, which allowed me to put "Desktop Support" on my resume, which led to the full-time position I have now.

Look into short-term contracts if you have very little experience. Don't worry if they ask for 2-3 years experience. If you have the A+, you're a shoo-in for most migration projects. In my area, they usually pay ~$15/hr. There are a lot of companies still stuck on Windows XP right now. I get bombarded with messages from recruiters just looking for warm bodies to fill roles on migration teams.

markulous

First actual job that I can call IT was $10.50 an hour. I was working on my Associate's degree, no certs, no experience. I was at an inbound call center providing tech support for a company's website and app.

kohr-ah

Elitis wrote: »

This thread is making me depressed. I can't even get Staples to call me back, and some of you were making $15/hr at your first IT jobs with no certifications or degrees. Well, at least I know I'm headed in the right direction with Networking and Security.

You also have to look at where people live. I live in the burbs of Chicago and rent where I am is high all around me and I lived farther out so rent would be cheaper

Kai123

Elitis wrote: »

This thread is making me depressed. I can't even get Staples to call me back, and some of you were making $15/hr at your first IT jobs with no certifications or degrees. Well, at least I know I'm headed in the right direction with Networking and Security.

I’m an intern, earning around €5.50 an hour, so don’t worry. Not everyone has it great (yet!).

MSP-IT

First Position: Field Technical Engineer (JOAT)
Salary: 32.5K
Experience: None
Certifications: CompTIA Trifecta, MCTS
Timeframe: Jan. 2013

Second Position: Information Security Specialist, Security Automation/DevOps (SQL/Database experience was a deciding factor)
Salary: 48k + 401k and bonus = low to mid 50's
Experience: 8 months
Certifications: CompTIA Trifecta, MCTS, CCNA, 90 credit hours at WGU.
Timeframe: Oct. 2013

no!all!

First IT job was help desk with the county government...$10/hr with no benefits. ugh.

jleydon82

First IT Gig: 2001 for a Private School as the IT Administrator
Salary: $29k + Benefits
Experience: 0 (first gig!)
Education: Chubb Institute graduate in their Network Engineering program
Certifications - 0

This was a great experience. All NT 5.5 that I upgraded to 2000 and had full reign of servers and network. Lots of projects I created and worked on and it is mostly a - there is no budget, do what you can to solve these issues. I found it very enjoyable and rewarding. When I went to Chubb at the time there was a focus not so much on the coursework but on labs that we created. So we handled a lot of - create servers that will merge with other domain environments as if your company was being acquired - and all OS were mixed environments. So it gave me some confidence going into a live production environment. However, mistakes were made but I learned from them.

VAHokie56

My first job was help desk for an ISP and I got 14 and some change...it was awful! but hey I payed my dues...moved on

Asif Dasl

I honestly don't remember, but I do remember thinking I was being taken advantage of, I knew quite a lot for my age when I started about 18 or so... should have done my NT4 MCSE at the time (edit - the MCSE was much easier at that time!) but didn't even know where to start with that - like VAHokie56 I payed my dues, got some experience.

An opportunity to be a sysadmin came up and I worked part-time while in college, college fell by the way-side and then I went full-time by myself (self-employed). Would I do it again, NO! I could have earned more if I got the MCSE but you live and learn.

I'll steal networker's line for a moment - "An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made." - That's me!

Confl1ct10n

1st official IT job: Currently an IT intern.
Salary: $7.25/hr (US)
IT Experience: 0 Professionally, but multiple years working and maintaining friends and family computers.
Cert: A+, taking my net+ tomorrow (NERVOUS!!!!!)
Education: 3 months away from finishing my AOS for network management.

VikingWarlord

My first was for no pay. I was an intern with an IS department, working with the network admin.

First paid tech job was $9 an hour in 2005, doing ISP support. Got promoted to Tier 3 and bumped all the way up to $10 an hour. Big money.

Pupil

This summer is my first doing an actual IT job.

First IT Position: IT Intern working the help desk
Pay: $15/h
Education: Completing BS degree in system/network administration
Certifications: only A+
Experience: Zilch

hellolin

So far I am onto my second IT internship this year, first internship was more like a class because I know the boss' best friend IRL and he gave me 3 month worth of part time manning the help desk, paid me $1000 for non-important work, so I wouldn't call it my first real job.
Now I am in my senior year and 4 month into my second internship, working part time for one of the biggest car shopping/researching website in the area, IT intern for the help desk/internal network team, $16/hr, no benefits but I have almost all the perks that full time employees enjoy, like riding my bike to work and gets paid for that, and also count as part of the company whereas help desk contractors do not. No certs and only high school, will get my CIS degree next summer though.

Preflux

First IT Position : Operations support analyst

Salary : £16k / $27k

Certs : None

Experience : 0

Second IT Positon : Product support engineer

Salary : £22k / $37k + health & dental + 23 days holiday + pension

Certs : Almost finished Linux+/LPI

Experience : 4 months

--chris--

Like most of the others, first PAYING IT job was $12/hour. I volunteered part time for two months for a pittance ($100/week in gas expense & got paid $120/week).

My second IT job could actually be (and was) many peoples first IT job (desktop support) which paid $15/hour.

GoodBishop

First real job - help desk, 37k a year, back over 10 years ago.

Tom Servo

First full-time, permanent IT gig was 8 years ago (2006) - Helpdesk, making 32k a year.

If you count part-time work, I started part-time somewhere else in help desk at 7$ an hour in 2003. when I left in 2006 I was temporarily full-time making 12.75$ an hour.

N2IT

32,000 was my first true IT position.

I did have some database experience working for the DoD back in the day. That helped with the transition but I took a major pay hit.

paperslug

$15/hour as a help desk tech while I was in college. This was in New York City in 2005.

Cisc0kidd

$10.58 an hour in 2000 to 2003.

Talonize

28k a year, 30k with benefits if i do my job properly each month

olaHalo

9$
Quit in less than 3 months for a 20$ per hour job. Had no certs but an AS

snunez889

did u get asked about leaving a job so soon in the interview?

DoogieHowsy

Wow! Your answer was the best so far... I'm a Newbie and reading about these low ball wages was crushing my confidence... I don't know how you got your job but this was much needed.

robert.riley

$16 hour/ network technician (Current Job)

HS Diploma, some college, and 7 years in the Army as an IT Specialist

No certs...now have my 70-680 (Just Passed)

Am pursing a Bachelors in Technical Management and hope to move up to a bigger and better position within a few years!

coreyb80

Just landed my 1st IT gig a year ago and started @ $22/hr as a contractor. Got hired in April and got bumped up a $1 more as a full time employee.