MCSA with CCNA Salary.

windsor888

Im migrating to LA, California from the Philippines this year. I have CCNA and MCSA certifications. I have 2 years job experience. I want to know how much salary to expect? Thank you guys in advance.

broli720

Why don't you tell us what technologies you have experience with. What did you actually do during your 2 years of job experience? I can't give any salary expectations just based on your certifications.

OfWolfAndMan

There is a couple of factors that come into play here:

1. What did you do in those two years? If the answer was "getting by" or "Doing enough", then it may depend.
2. How good are you at interviewing, resumes and salary negotiations? I don't care who you are: People always have tiny errors and improvements they can make on their resume, whether grammatical or the way they word it. Throw it up here and you'll get some good perspectives.
3. Depending on how you got your certs, it may help or not. Depending on how much of the information you retained.

nster

People have to remember certs are bonuses, something that gives you a little leg up, it doesn't define your career or your Resume, it certainly helps but there are so many other factors. Think of certs as keys to open the HR door

windsor888

I have two years experience working as application administrator. Mostly opensource software. we use linux, unix, freebsd. I configure networks. setup new servers, voip, wordpress, ansible, vmware. I also configure cisco switches and phones and also desktop support. basically i do everything. i didnt have any experience using my mcsa because were all open source.
prior to that i own a computer shop for 5 years, i did cabling , hardware and software troubleshooting. i also setup network , pbx intercom cctv for small business part time. I have 4 year degree BSBA- Business Managemnt and some IT courses after i graduated. im not good in interviews and i think my resumes a mess.

windsor888

I want to know how much salary I can get because i dont know if i can at least support myself when i migrate there. basically im starting from scratch. any tips is welcome thanks.

windsor888

I got my certs through hardwork. building actual servers and vm's at home and configuring actual cisco devices. I just self studied. I know very well my certs and i can back it up. im not what they call paper certs. im a fast learner and eager to learn new technology if given a chance in a company i know i can prove myself. The big challenge is how i can get in the IT field. any advice? thanks.

Deathmage

aim for a high salary is always key. Ask for 65k with a low minimum of 60k, always aim high. You can negotiate from a higher number down than you can from a lower number upward.

Like me I recently was just asked to support 2+ companies that split from the parent company as subsidiaries; I asked for 3 weeks in a year allotted for training (exams, classes, boot camps) plus a 7% increase in pay.

If any remember I just got a 15% pay increase 4 months ago. I know I'm not cheap, but I'm not working for free when my work load increases, lol! ... learned from that mistake at my last job. Plus my home-lab keeps growing and I need $$$ to pay for the Nuclear Reactor down the block...

Another reason why I'm devoting my life to certifications.

Basically the moral of the story, know your worth, do a search on google of salaries for what people have with a CCNA and MCSA + years of experience. If your paper heavy but green in the feet you can only ask for 5k less than what an experience person has with experience. As many have said experience is gained from working in a production world while getting your certifications. Those that get the certification without experience have a harder time proving they know how to decode technical from book learning.

Home-labbing is one thing in a controlled world of just you, but when you add in 50, 100, 300 users to the mix one change that made no impact on you in your home-lab doesn't follow suit across many different computers and unforeseen variables. This that can only happen in a large-production environment. Heck I'm learning something new everyday on stuff I learned 2 years ago... One thing I've always done is this... if you fail to plan, you plan to fail; same applies to working gained from experience, a book tells you one thing, a production network tells you different. In the start your going to f*ck up something, it's a given.

with this being said, ask for what your worth; but to give you an idea in this area of NY a VCP makes 70k a year, plus a CCNA makes 60k a year, and MCSA/SE's make also 70k a year. If you have two of them, you can factor in 25% of the base value of one to the other and that's what you should be making. My factor for experience is a 8% increase of that base number per year. If I don't get that in a two year factor, I'm moving onward someplace else.

A company will want you for free remember that or next ot dirt cheap, and sadly in this world of IT if you want to get paid your worth you need to be ruthless. If I don't make 80k+ in another year after being at my current job I'm bouncing.

v1ral

Deathmage wrote: »

aim for a high salary is always key. Ask for 65k with a low minimum of 60k, always aim high. You can negotiate from a higher number down than you can from a lower number upward.

Like me I recently was just asked to support 2+ companies that split from the parent company as subsidiaries; I asked for 3 weeks in a year allotted for training (exams, classes, boot camps) plus a 7% increase in pay.

If any remember I just got a 15% pay increase 4 months ago. I know I'm not cheap, but I'm not working for free when my work load increases, lol! ... learned from that mistake at my last job. Plus my home-lab keeps growing and I need $$$ to pay for the Nuclear Reactor down the block...

Another reason why I'm devoting my life to certifications.

Basically the moral of the story, know your worth, do a search on google of salaries for what people have with a CCNA and MCSA + years of experience. If your paper heavy but green in the feet you can only ask for 5k less than what an experience person has with experience. As many have said experience is gained from working in a production world while getting your certifications. Those that get the certification without experience have a harder time proving they know how to decode technical from book learning.

Home-labbing is one thing in a controlled world of just you, but when you add in 50, 100, 300 users to the mix one change that made no impact on you in your home-lab doesn't follow suit across many different computers and unforeseen variables. This that can only happen in a large-production environment. Heck I'm learning something new everyday on stuff I learned 2 years ago... One thing I've always done is this... if you fail to plan, you plan to fail; same applies to working gained from experience, a book tells you one thing, a production network tells you different. In the start your going to f*ck up something, it's a given.

with this being said, ask for what your worth; but to give you an idea in this area of NY a VCP makes 70k a year, plus a CCNA makes 60k a year, and MCSA/SE's make also 70k a year. If you have two of them, you can factor in 25% of the base value of one to the other and that's what you should be making. My factor for experience is a 8% increase of that base number per year. If I don't get that in a two year factor, I'm moving onward someplace else.

A company will want you for free remember that or next ot dirt cheap, and sadly in this world of IT if you want to get paid your worth you need to be ruthless. If I don't make 80k+ in another year after being at my current job I'm bouncing.

Solid advice, I'm also waiting a year to get a significant pay bump with my CCNA, but im fresh out of college and only have 1 year of NOC experience as an intern. Im also thinking of pursuing MSCA since I deal with alot of Windows Server stuff at my current job.

Too bad I didn't have any certs under my belt when I started applying for jobs otherwise I would be seeing alot more than what i'm making now.