100k in <3 years - goal accomplished

A couple years ago I set a goal of making $100k in 3 years. Yesterday I officially accomplished this and bypassed it. Here is the progression for anyone interested.

Title: Helpdesk
Duration: 8 months
Salary: $20/hr
Certs: A+ Net+

Title: System Administrator
Duration: 1 year 9 months
Total comp: $90,000-96,000
Certs: RHCSA

Title: DevOps Engineer
Duration: Just promoted
Total comp: $130,000-147,000 (bottom range is no on call pay, top is with what I believe on call pay is)

Needless to say I've benefited from being in the right place at the right time, as well as living near a tech hub in Boston. When I purchased my A+ book to start my career change in July 2013, I could never imagine that I would increase my salary 4-5 fold.

I hope this shows people new to the field that you can move up quickly if you're looking for the opportunities.

My takeaways for what has worked:
1. Take opportunities that make you uncomfortable
2. Learn on your own time - cert related or not - no surprise for this forum
3. Be ready to ask for opportunities
4. Being likable goes a long way.
5. Learning to script/program makes you stand out.
6. Don't be the first one out of the office everyday, but also maintain work/life balance.
7. If you find a company that gives you opportunities to grow, then try your best to stay and grow in the organization. You never know when the next job req might pop up.
8. Look for new responsibilities to take on, don't wait for them to be shoveled onto you.

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Comments

rj1790

Did you have any degrees?

markulous

Congrats. Always nice when a plan comes together.

TheFORCE

Congrats! That's a real good progression and good track! But like you said, it does help to be in the right place at the right time knowing the right thing and having the right skills.

aderon

Damn, this actually makes me insanely envious lol

powerfool

Impressive. You should provide some additional details. Did you already have a degree before you started working, or how far along when you started? What work experience did you have before the help desk gig? What certs have you done along the way? Etc...

EDIT: I see that you listed some certs, but are there any others?

jofas88

That's inspirational right there! On the same track, def not coming close to your timeline though. My job has a ton of room for growth and learning, the pay isn't that great though.

NetworkNewb

I'm more in impressed with 90k within 8 months with only a couple Comptia certs!

Winzer

Impressive.

I'd be interested to know how you went from helpdesk to 90k+ sysadmin job, that's a huge bump in position/salary.

sj4088

That's awesome srj. You must be a pretty smart fellow. Did you have your rhcsa BEFORE you got your system admin. job? The reason I asked is because I've known people that had been system admins for 5 years that struggled to pass the rhcsa. For you to pass it with no system admin experience is very impressive. Even if you passed it with less than two years system admin experience is impressive. How did you study for it?

srj

A little bit more background:

- The help desk job was my first IT job and the list above is my total list of my IT experience. This was a switch to a new career at 25 years old. I benefited from work 2-3 years at particularly crappy jobs that really motivated me. I also benefited by having a few years of work experience.
- All of these jobs are at the same company, so it helps to know a lot of people for a few years. At the very least, they'll know that you're a good person (goes back to being likable).
- I have a BS, but it's in an unrelated field (health). I'm pursuing a MS in IT at night.
- Those were my only certs and I completed the RHCSA about 3-4 months into the SysAdmin gig. I used Jang's book to study and did a lot of labbing.
- I grew up working with computers and took the equivalent on an A+ cert class in high school. The switch from the health field to IT wasn't a big deal for me. I had also been using a Linux laptop for years, building websites on and off since 12-13 years old, etc.
- I don't have a lot of certifications, but certs don't matter as much as gaining the knowledge. Some of the skills that pay the most (scripting/programming) don't really have strong certifications anyways. I do plan on getting the RHCE to bring my certification list up a bit.
- I've had awesome managers who have allowed me to move on to opportunities that will benefit my career.

How I went Help Desk --> System Administrator in 8 months:
- I was in the right place at the right time
- Our Sys Admin left and there were a number of duties that were unaccounted for. I took over the Windows imaging system without asking me to do it.
- I told my boss that I wanted to be a System Administrator
- Studied for MSCA for Server 2012 R2 and gained most of this knowledge (but never took the exam)
- Taught myself Python and wrote scripts to fix common problems
- Got involved in process improvements when I found that things were broken. One common pain point is new hire on-boarding.
- I showed up 30-60 mins early and left an hour late for the first 5-6 months.
- Identified a weakness on the team (Linux) and became the SME on the team in that area
- If I ran into a difficult issue, then I would sometimes spend hours at home after work figuring out the solution.

Overall, I think it comes down to the fact that I prepared myself really well and I lucked out with a number of opportunities. The key is being prepared. A number of my coworkers were overlooked for some of these promotions even though they have more experience than I do.

NotHackingYou

Congratulations!

Iristheangel

Congratulations. I'm not surprised at all. Devops is hot right now and given the right determination, opportunities, drive to learn, etc, you can definitely climb fast. Definitely not hating or jealous

Just means you found your passion and dove headfirst into it without some of the BS or sidetracks others (including myself) get stuck in.

Mad props and I hope you continue to go up from here

NOC-Ninja

Congrats!

rj1790

This is awesome! Congrats you deserve it!

luking

srj wrote: »

A little bit more background:

- The help desk job was my first IT job and the list above is my total list of my IT experience. This was a switch to a new career at 25 years old. I benefited from work 2-3 years at particularly crappy jobs that really motivated me. I also benefited by having a few years of work experience.
- All of these jobs are at the same company, so it helps to know a lot of people for a few years. At the very least, they'll know that you're a good person (goes back to being likable).
- I have a BS, but it's in an unrelated field (health). I'm pursuing a MS in IT at night.
- Those were my only certs and I completed the RHCSA about 3-4 months into the SysAdmin gig. I used Jang's book to study and did a lot of labbing.
- I grew up working with computers and took the equivalent on an A+ cert class in high school. The switch from the health field to IT wasn't a big deal for me. I had also been using a Linux laptop for years, building websites on and off since 12-13 years old, etc.
- I don't have a lot of certifications, but certs don't matter as much as gaining the knowledge. Some of the skills that pay the most (scripting/programming) don't really have strong certifications anyways. I do plan on getting the RHCE to bring my certification list up a bit.
- I've had awesome managers who have allowed me to move on to opportunities that will benefit my career.

How I went Help Desk --> System Administrator in 8 months:
- I was in the right place at the right time
- Our Sys Admin left and there were a number of duties that were unaccounted for. I took over the Windows imaging system without asking me to do it.
- I told my boss that I wanted to be a System Administrator
- Studied for MSCA for Server 2012 R2 and gained most of this knowledge (but never took the exam)
- Taught myself Python and wrote scripts to fix common problems
- Got involved in process improvements when I found that things were broken. One common pain point is new hire on-boarding.
- I showed up 30-60 mins early and left an hour late for the first 5-6 months.
- Identified a weakness on the team (Linux) and became the SME on the team in that area
- If I ran into a difficult issue, then I would sometimes spend hours at home after work figuring out the solution.

Overall, I think it comes down to the fact that I prepared myself really well and I lucked out with a number of opportunities. The key is being prepared. A number of my coworkers were overlooked for some of these promotions even though they have more experience than I do.

First of all thanks a lot for posting such a wonderful, inspirational and different post. Truly awesome.
To move from help desk to system admin is not so easy, I think you were pretty lucky. In many companies that I know of, the two departments are miles apart in terms of locations and it is practically impossible to even find out about a vacancy let alone be considered for it.
How did you present/position yourself from systems admin to devops?

Iristheangel

I'm sure the OP will chime in but taking all the knowledge of systems and Linux and learning to program and script probably helps a TON. He's probably still a bit away from being a senior Devops guy but I'm sure with his motivation, he'll push himself up there. Devops is hot right now. There might not be a place in every company for Devops but he can move to some of the big boys with that experience and title like Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, etc. Hell... even some of the companies you wouldn't expect have a rich Devops culture and will pay for it. I've heard Uber, Linkedin, etc are ripe for that kind of talent.

srj

Thank you all!

Thoughts on my move from System Administrator --> DevOps:

- As Iristheangel mentioned, I focused on programming/scripting. I was dabbling in Powershell/PowerCLI, Python, Ruby, Bash, and even some Java/C++. It is good to get really good with at least one language, however. In my case, I focused the most on Python.
- I was trying to automate everything. Some people are worried about automating themselves out of the job, but automation helped me to take on more interesting projects.
- Learning web technologies helped because they liked that I knew some Django for internal tools that are being built with that framework. Understanding REST APIs also helps when you have a lot of internal tools that need to talk to each other.
- I got moved to a different team temporarily for a project and I simply proved that I could do the work. I was far from the candidate that they were looking for, but it seems that they see potential in me. With how hot "DevOps" is right now, it seems that it can be easier to develop someone you know has the aptitude and a good attitude rather than spending many months trying to find someone. If I hadn't asked about the position, I don't think they would have ever outright offered it to me.

I am definitely not a Senior DevOps guy by any stretch of the imagination. That being said, this new role will allow me to spend more time working with the Software Development teams, developing tools, and automating everything that I can.

I do agree that I may not have been able to move up as quickly in another organization. That being said, a lot of people wouldn't have taken a contracting gig at $20/hr and worked hundreds of hours off the clock to get the job done. I also go out of my way to say hello to everyone and I am never an a**hole. I've seen others miss out on opportunities because they are simply difficult to work with.

I still believe that the experience is worth more than chasing the big pay in the long-term. If you're truly working on important projects, then the money will eventually come. The key is to only stay as long as you are learning. Once things get comfortable, then it is time to move on in my opinion.

gespenstern

Congratz, that's a serious achievement for someone in mid twenties, but head for more!

Dojiscalper

Awesome and very encouraging!

Deathmage

Congrats bro!

It's totally dueable, myself I've had a simialr goal to have by 35 and I got it at 31.

Never stop having purpose and setting goals regardless of what other may say.

pevangel

srj wrote: »

All of these jobs are at the same company

That is quite impressive. You don't hear a lot of stories of people more than tripling their salary by moving up within the same company.

Congrats!

YuckTheFankees

Awesome thread, I love hearing stories like this!

Iristheangel

Great story, srj. Keep doing what you're doing. Having a couple of years as a Devops engineer under your belt is definitely going to open even more doors for you.

Fayz

That's amazing I wish I could accomplish something like that. Congrats.

cyberguypr

I echo what others have said. Congrats on the achievement.

cvuong1984

srj wrote: »

A little bit more background:

- The help desk job was my first IT job and the list above is my total list of my IT experience. This was a switch to a new career at 25 years old. I benefited from work 2-3 years at particularly crappy jobs that really motivated me. I also benefited by having a few years of work experience.
- All of these jobs are at the same company, so it helps to know a lot of people for a few years. At the very least, they'll know that you're a good person (goes back to being likable).
- I have a BS, but it's in an unrelated field (health). I'm pursuing a MS in IT at night.
- Those were my only certs and I completed the RHCSA about 3-4 months into the SysAdmin gig. I used Jang's book to study and did a lot of labbing.
- I grew up working with computers and took the equivalent on an A+ cert class in high school. The switch from the health field to IT wasn't a big deal for me. I had also been using a Linux laptop for years, building websites on and off since 12-13 years old, etc.
- I don't have a lot of certifications, but certs don't matter as much as gaining the knowledge. Some of the skills that pay the most (scripting/programming) don't really have strong certifications anyways. I do plan on getting the RHCE to bring my certification list up a bit.
- I've had awesome managers who have allowed me to move on to opportunities that will benefit my career.

How I went Help Desk --> System Administrator in 8 months:
- I was in the right place at the right time
- Our Sys Admin left and there were a number of duties that were unaccounted for. I took over the Windows imaging system without asking me to do it.
- I told my boss that I wanted to be a System Administrator
- Studied for MSCA for Server 2012 R2 and gained most of this knowledge (but never took the exam)
- Taught myself Python and wrote scripts to fix common problems
- Got involved in process improvements when I found that things were broken. One common pain point is new hire on-boarding.
- I showed up 30-60 mins early and left an hour late for the first 5-6 months.
- Identified a weakness on the team (Linux) and became the SME on the team in that area
- If I ran into a difficult issue, then I would sometimes spend hours at home after work figuring out the solution.

Overall, I think it comes down to the fact that I prepared myself really well and I lucked out with a number of opportunities. The key is being prepared. A number of my coworkers were overlooked for some of these promotions even though they have more experience than I do.

This is not luck at all, hard work and dedication is what that is. Everything mentioned is something a manager and leadership to fight to retain. Good for you!!

kohr-ah

Fayz wrote: »

That's amazing I wish I could accomplish something like that. Congrats.

You can. The only thing that is stopping you is you.

ortizf3

Congrats on the promotion. Thanks for sharing your progression. I am also in the Boston area and doing a career change into I.T. This just motivates me that much more. Goodluck in your new position.

9emin1

well done and congrats! I hope one day I can be of value to my employer, and get recognition from it.

Danielh22185

Very impressive! Sounds like you are working for a great company that looks out for their folks and gives them great opportunities to learn and grow. Also you busted your butt to do the same.

Congrats!