how much should they pay me?

Hello everyone,

I’m the IT manager of a big food company. I’m stuck here they wont raise my paycheck any more and I certainly want more.
Here are my certs:
CCNA HCNE MCP MCSA currently working my CCNP.

Can someone tell me how much should I expect to make? I’ve heard that a CCNA makes 60, then MCSA makes 60, well I have them both and a lot of working experience since I’ve worked in an ISP before. Can you guys give me an honest answer? Maybe I’m getting even more that I’ve should be making and quitting would not be a good idea then.

Thank you for your time guys!

Find more posts tagged with

Save $250 on 2025 certification boot camps from Infosec!

Book now with code EOY2025

Button

Comments

sprkymrk

Where do you live/work?

What are your job responsibilities?

Do other employees answer to you as their manager? Or are you just the most senior person in IT but not really anyone's boss? In other words can you approve vacations, assign tasks to others, recommend or approve raises, perform annual performance reviews on others, etc.? If so, how many people answer to you?

How big of a network environment are you in - # of users, # of computers, # of servers, etc.?

The certs have very little to do with it unless they match the position. In other words, if you had an MCSE, CCNP and CISSP, but you worked for a machine shop in Podunk, Iowa where you took care of a server, a switch, a router and 10 computers you aren't going to be making 90 grand. Likewise if you had no certs, but worked for a fortune 500 company in New York City as a Team Lead with 10 people that answer to you and were directly responsible for a site with 1500 users/computers and a mix of Unix/Windows servers and an entire fleet of network devices and the fiber/CAT5 they ran on you would certainly make at least 90 grand.

JDMurray

There's really no pay standard for certifications. There are certification salary surveys that give the median salary for people with specific certs (specifically, those people that responded to the survey), but there is no industry norm for which cert gets you what pay. It's really up to each individual employer.

Pay is often partly based on geographical area. In most cases, people in the big cities can expect to make more than in the stix. Larger companies also tend to pay better than smaller companies, and education (other then certification) has a big influence too.

What's your HR department have to say about why you've hit the 'glass ceiling' in your company?

Aquabat [banned]

rocket arena wrote:

I've heard that a CCNA makes 60,

Darthn3ss

Aquabat wrote:

rocket arena wrote:

I've heard that a CCNA makes 60,

if thats the case, i'm going to get my CCNA, quit school and be fine. 60 is plenty for a single guy down here in Charleston.

ja5983

rocket arena wrote:

Hello everyone,

I’m the IT manager of a big food company. I’m stuck here they wont raise my paycheck any more and I certainly want more.
Here are my certs:
CCNA HCNE MCP MCSA currently working my CCNP.

Can someone tell me how much should I expect to make? I’ve heard that a CCNA makes 60, then MCSA makes 60, well I have them both and a lot of working experience since I’ve worked in an ISP before. Can you guys give me an honest answer? Maybe I’m getting even more that I’ve should be making and quitting would not be a good idea then.

Thank you for your time guys!

I dont know about your area, but I can give you my personal info that may be liek yours to give you an idea.

I am a technical manager with a staff of 22-30 (right now im on the short side of 22). I do only management, no technical work required in my position except knowing how to use excel.

I make 50k in FL (which is the equiv to about 93k in ny if you live up near there)

I have:
AS Network Engineering
Studying AA/BA Bus. Admin
MCSA: Security
MCSA: Messaging
A+, network+, server+, security+
TICSA
CCNA

As for tech experience, I have about 5 years of technical experience in roles such as exchange administration, cisco engineering, help desk, and security.

If you could give a better idea of what you do, maybe we can give you a better idea of pay.

royal

I have 1 year of experience and you can see my education to the left. I make $42,000/year. Good luck getting 60k with a CCNA or a MCSA. You really cannot command a decent salary till you have 3-5 years of experience. All I can say is, find a good job where you get good experience, stick with it for 4-5 years, do an excellent job (no complaining and volunteer when you can whether it is staying late or doing work on the weekends), and then you can start demanding the higher payraise as long as you add value to your organization. For me, I'm not worried about how much I make. I make due with what I have and bust my ass at my job and constantly read to learn more. That way when I hit the 3-5 year mark, I will be pulling in the cash. Good luck!

Jammywanks

I have a 2 year technical degree and no certs, got converted to full time and am getting 37k a year + benefits (although they come out of my pocket at a reduced discount rate). They will negotiate a raise for me in 6 months, which I hope to hit 40k+ AT LEAST. I have about 3-5 years experience. In a few months they will migrate away from Cisco's VPN software and remove the use of certificates all together with the grid card, or the Range VPN solution. I hope to gain a lot of experience here security wise as we rollout this new system to the users of our very large corporate network.

If I had a CCNA I'd expect nothing less than 45k starting.

I'm sure you'd hit 60k w/ a CCNA assuming you've been working well with the "big dogs" in the company, a smooth talker and slick personality traits. But you'd have to do really good, with a pinch of luck and good looks.

I just re-read the original post. My god... stay away from food corporations. They are stingy and won't pay you CRAP... don't take that from them. I'd quit w/out a 2 week notice. My first temp job was at a food corporation, everything there sucked, the computer equipment, the pay, even down to ugly employees, whatever its worth.

Remember, to be getting paid well in IT, you'd have to be working with Pharmacy, financial institutions, and other billion dollar corporations, possibly energy companies. Well, I could be wrong, but you can't go wrong w/ any of those 3 areas.

bas13

Heres my situation...

I'm in a tech support position for a small to medium sized company. I just started here but with loads of overtime I might hit 34k this year. Keep in mind I have no degree yet but I'm working on an Associates in IT and I live in Utah so the cost of living is cheap and salaries are typically 10% less then the national average. I am however due for a raise in the next two weeks and have since gotten my Linux+ & Security+ so that might just change. If I get what I think they will give me I'll be in the 40k range. I plan to stay here for another 2 years. My experience is about 1.5 in electronics, 2 in IT related, 1 in customer service, and 1 year in managing a small team of tech support reps at a local ISP. As of now I can't demand anything because of my short experience and I'm going to hopefully be job shadowing for my church & any local businesses that will trust me with their networks. Once I get my MCSE & CCNA I'll expect nothing less then 45k and will be looking to hit at least in the 50k+ range. My goal is to get to the 5+ years so I can see some of that 80-100k stuff